Recently, the heads of Path of Exile 2 appeared in a livestream to explain their current direction. However, instead of soothing the fans, the players expressed disappointment over their attempts at explanation.
What kind of livestream was it? The influencer and “Path of Exile 2” pro Zizaran invited the heads Jonathan Rogers (left in the header image) and Mark Roberts (right in the header image) to an interview in his livestream on Twitch (via YouTube). During this, he spoke with the two heads about the current situation of the new season “Dawn of the Hunt” of Path of Exile 2.
Before this, there were many issues with the game:
- First, technical difficulties caused many players to not be able to play at all
- Then the nerfs were so severe that players were stuck on the campaign for ages, causing frustration
- Despite several patches that improved the ARPG, players remained dissatisfied with the game feeling and criticized the communication from the developers
To discuss all these points again, the heads of the ARPG took the time in the livestream. For over two hours, they talked with the pro about many different topics that are currently concerning players and tried to justify and explain their thoughts behind the decisions. But instead of soothing, they sparked the opposite reaction in the fans.
Here you can see the trailer for the new season of Path of Exile 2:
“PoE 2 is currently facing a major identity crisis”
How do fans react to the livestream? While the livestream was hoped for by many, it seems to have not reassured the players. In several posts on Reddit, various topics are being discussed. One topic is the central identity of the ARPG – Where should the journey go?
User ZeroSumTruths describes his insights after the livestream in detail on Reddit:
The developers’ vision is to make every single part of the campaign “engaging” and “meaningful”.
It’s crazy to hear this from an ARPG developer who has played PoE 1 for years. The whole point of an ARPG is not the campaign… People who REALLY enjoy hard and engaging campaigns will look for that in Souls or other RPG games. In ARPGs, it’s almost always about replayability and character creation.
Now it all makes sense; we have a bunch of Souls developers trying to build an ARPG game with 0 regard for players who are into power fantasy and experiments by rolling multiple characters.
It’s astounding that they had the perfect ARPG formula from PoE 1 and threw it all away to satisfy their desire to create their ideal RPG game. Wow.
That Path of Exile 2 was supposed to be harder and more challenging than its predecessor was communicated by the developers right from the start. The strong nerfs’ justification for needing to keep the game challenging is met with confusion from fans (via Twitch).
User GateIndependent5217 explains on Reddit what bothers him: “It’s the reward ratio that’s frustrating. A challenging loot game is not fun if there’s no loot. It doesn’t feel rewarding. I want my dopamine rush when I play a game, not feel like I’m putting in extra shifts.”
Also in other posts on Reddit, viewers of the livestream are bothered by the low loot in the game, which doesn’t sufficiently reward the hard experience.
What happens next? The developers probably did not ease the frustration with their livestream appearance but rather caused more stress in the community. It remains to be seen whether the announced changes and upcoming patches can placate the player base again. The new buffs might help: Developers of Path of Exile 2 say they are done with the nerfs, now buffing 4 classes
