Note: I'm listen to Mektul the forgemaster's theme while writing this, pretty damn good song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv8gzm2bLpM x.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................
I considered doing like a video essay on this topic but I don't think I'm up to the task of summarizing it well; it's an extremely complicated backstory so something would fall in the gaps. D3 Inferno was this very strange, brief, interesting time in history and POE2 is sort of loosely attempting to do a similar thing (which is to say be impossibly hard for a few months and then get nerfed into oblivion); it's just that POE2 feels extremely sluggish getting to that point so while the concept of e.g. fighting Super Zana over and over and it taking 20 hours of attempts to beat would be cool in reality it would be farm the atlas for 400 hours for one 5 minute attempt (6 logouts) where you randomly get one shot then go again etc. assuming GGG doesn't nerf your build from orbit in the mean time. One attempt per boss just doesn't work for the general interest of beating Early Inferno D3..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................I suppose I should define how D3 Inferno worked and how villainous it was precisely; basically every white mob in the entire game would kill you in one hit if you didn't have the best gear imaginable and none of that would ever drop unless farmed 10,000 treasure goblins basically (what Kripp did); so it was entirely pay to win in a literal sense with the real money auction house. That said if you didn't engage with the P2W system it was really fun just figuring out how to progress in these unbelivably fucked zones. Silver Spire 2 in launch D3 Inferno is far and away probably the hardest thing in any RPG ever made; I don't think the zone was ever fully cleared out pre nerf, the only way through was just to run to the exit then go fight Diablo (Voiced by Jennifer Hale) who was relatively easy by comparison; there's monsters in that zone that don't even show up, they just appear from nothingness and instantly one shot you; there's angels that fly in from off screen, all of this shit hits for like 25,000 damage and you've got 15,000 health maybe (again unless you paid to win to trivialize it). Is POE2 that hard? No not even close, is that the target, eh hard to say; surely it's informed by it but most people don't remember that part of D3; they remember post Reaper of Souls and Greater Rifts etc. which is a fine game but nothing remarkable in the grand scheme of things (apparently now highly beloved in a nostalgia way as though it was as good as D2 which is laughable naturally)....................................................................................................................................................................................................................So what is POE2 targetting here precisely, is it the hardcores, is it the casuals; what's the goal. Well the main thing is to keep you playing the game forever so you spend money, Diablo 2 doesn't have this issue therefore Diablo 2 will always be a better game for all time; and Chris Wilson will keep playing D2/D2R and not POE. They want the combat to be slower paced and have a more methodical feeling to it but also for it to be abrasively impossible at the high end so only like 5-10 people can even kill the top pinnacle bosses and everyone else can wish they were that guy. There's a hundred different issues with this conceptually but I think the big one right now is that even those players don't like the game so if you lose e.g. Ben's interest then your whole concept is fucked. That said I would anticipate them dramatically changing how the entire endgame functions; I don't think the campaign is going to change much and seems to be in an okay state aside from a preposterous amount of bugs in Act 3. That's another thing with Diablo 3 is that it's a technical marvel, still feels overall the best and basically never had any technical issues aside from launch day server stuff; the endgame was always pretty whatever and the desire to play it forever absolutely not but just the way the game feels on a moment to moment basis is very good (at least with the classes that aren't boring as shit) If you could get D3's gameplay and then put POE1's mechanics and systems into it you could probably make a really fucking good game but no one is up to that task so instead we have some strange souls-like not particularly difficult combat combined with no loot and constant build nerfing.......................................................................................................................................................................................................... I will say the Necromancer play style from D2 is best revived in POE2 at this point; you still don't have enigma or something like that to tie the thing together for usability but at least you have to straight up going afk and everything dies while you listen to a podcast vibe; that's neat. They will nerf aspects of this build but probably not the overall feel; for some reason almost no game has accomplished D2 necro so minions always feel exceedingly tedious to optimize outside of D2 but that's not really an issue in POE2 so far; pick minion nodes and go afk, you win. Tough game. I'm not even playing my Necromancer I'm actively using a different character in couch co-op and the necro just functions as a series of meatshields, pretty fun if you don't mind using two controllers or a controller and a keyboard...........................................................................................................................................................................................................Tinfoil hat mode engage. Why the Jay Wilson comparison? Well before release Jonathan Rogers kept saying stuff like "we're making the best action RPG of all time" blah blah blah, setting expectations higher than Cyberpunk 2077; what they should have said was yo pay me and you get to be a free labor beta tester, isn't that fucking sweet? Thanks bro. In like 5 years the game'll be good, trust fam. So in a non honesty context that wasn't going to happen, if you don't know who Jay Wilson was he was the original game director for D3 which was at the time the largest PC game release of all time, fastest selling and all that jazz; probably made like 1/500th of Minecraft and Fortnite, incredible levels of success; naturally this made Jay Wilson really happy. Unfortunately the Battle.net forums, that hive of magnificent bastardry became an endless barrage of complaints mostly about D3 Inferno and the RMAH; eventually Jay Wilson released this weird Tseric like statement that ended with "Aren't you thankful?" and was forced to resign like a few weeks later; Aren't you thankful is one of the predecessors of you guys have phones right etc. just meme culture/youtube wasn't as prominent at the time so it's more of an old hat forum lore concept now than an enduring thing...................................................................................................................................................................................................................If you look at the POE2 reddits right now it's very similar to that just constant complaining from people that have played POE for 5000-25000 hours, basically the worst place on the planet including Gaza (meme); that sort of thing combined with very high sales will probably eventually lead to statements and youtube videos and apologies and suck my dicks and so on and most likely some sort of comedic iconic moment like Chris Wilson during Lake of Kalandra; how will it manifest exactly who can say but it could probably happen any time now; grab that popcorn............................................................................................................................................................................................................................What would I do as a profound intellectual mastermind who's good at predicting real life and doesn't really give a fuck about POE unless the league is good (shoutouts to Sanctum/Ultimatum in POE1)? Well I think they have the casual audience and they need to figure out a way to make the onboarding in maps better, they could make endgame like 10-20-50 times harder and who cares those autistic morons would keep playing regardless but you need to get the casuals to play maps so buff white maps/yellow maps and only nerf high end builds or exceedingly high popularity builds. Also maybe just delete deadeye and replace it with Warden or whatever; bring it back later in redesigned form; otherwise we're just back to POE1 31%+ Deadeye play rates and what not; I don't think nerfing it is going to work and would probably be received worse though either move will cause drama.
