devtrackers.gg
I am referring to the recent popular post : https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/kbu7vr/endless_delve_has_reiterated_again_to_ggg_that/
First of all I'd like to point out like others already did that endless delve might seem very fun after 1 day, but time will tell how many players feel the same way after a week. To me it seems like something that can get boring very fast.
OP then claims that " People don't want to have to engage in the Atlas in order to collect the resources that enable them to engage with league content ". To me this seems completely wrong. Personally this is what makes the game fun for me. Working to get a result makes the result feel better than having it handed to you. But what I really want to focus on is the next claim that makes utterly no sens at all :
" Just allowing players to engage in the league content, without restrictions, is a fun and engaging experience that adds variety to a game that can rapidly begin to feel same-y. "
How does playing a single content endlessly constitutes "variety" ??? This is the exact opposite of variety. And you might think "Well players don't NEED to endlessly do 1 piece of content, they are free to do what they want! Isn't that great?"
No, it's not great at all. It is well known in the gaming industry that players will naturally take the fun out of the game giving the opportunity in order to be more efficient. In this case that means that if 1 piece of content is more efficient, like delve for example, the player base will feel push to only do delve. Those who don't because they don't like it will feel bad about not doing the most efficient thing and "missing out" (remember Bisco's?). It is the game devs job to make sure the players don't dig their way out of the fun of the game by applying boundaries, limits and requirements to some pieces of content. You can see it as a "guided experience through the game".
This is exactly what GGG is doing with the current implementation. (delve example): You play maps for a while, collect sulphite and when you are full it tells you that it would be a good idea to go delve for a little while. Your sulphite empties out and now you need to go back to maps. This is what variety looks like and sadly it has to be gated behind the collection of ressources otherwise there would be no variety in your gameplay. I'm not saying the implementation is perfect or anything like that, but its foundation makes sens.
I understand that it can feel annoying not being able to keep on delving after you are out of sulphite, but if there wasn't any barrier, not only would it removes variety from your gameplay, delving would be worth doing less since you don't have an entry cost anymore.
Another interesting thing about this post is that op states he did not play heist for long assumingly because of the whole gated thing and then says : " Imagine a situation where you could engage in Heists, endlessly ". The thing is, you were 100% able to endlessly heist in heist league, a bunch of people did and the opportunity was there if you wanted to. Clearly this can't be the reason you dropped heist so fast (although tbf to me 3 weeks is decent amount of time).
Players tend to ask themselves "what do i want?", often in the short term, while game devs have to ask themselves "what's best for the game?". In games like Path of exile that are modeled to be played forever, "Barriers to fun" are a necessity to keep the game a rewarding experience and not a snooze-fest of repetition.
If the players feel negatively forced to do something, then it's GGG's job to adjust the implementation (scarabs and master missions are examples of adjustments GGG already made). But for the reasons listed above, a "free for all" is not a viable solution.
little note: of course "Players" and "player base" do not refer to 100% of people, but a significant amount.
Edit: Dammit, I should have titled the post "Unpopular opinion". With 73% upvotes, it's not even clickbait at this point
Edit2: I see a lot of people talking about leveling. I do not talk about leveling in this post at all. But I do think they should do something about it because it really does feel like a useless chore that brings nothing to the gaming experience after you've done it for the 100th time (and more). Problem is, it does bring something for new players.
edit3: "players optimizing the fun out of a game" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L8vAGGitr8 (for those who want to know more about it) - posted by u/modernkennnern
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