Player retention reflects the state of the game.

So... why does the game have such poor retention?

It's simple, really. The game isn't worth playing for more then a few weeks.

Why? Because everything devolves really fast into 1 click screen clear everything and generally unengaging boring combat. How long can that really last? Not much obviously... it gets boring really quick.... even the people that advocate for this kind of thing get bored of it very quick as the numbers show without fail.

There are a lot of games out there that have way better retention yet have next to no content updates... there is no better proof then that. That shouldn't be possible.

I honestly don't think I'll even try the next update if there's no serious change in this direction. I am highly skeptical that will happen.

Druid is one of the things I wanted to play the most... but what need is there for me to play it if it ends up devolving into 1 shot everything again? What's the difference between this and any other then in terms of "gameplay"?

Honestly, I don't think it's a problem with the game. And I'm not even sure if retention is a problem at all. Let me explain:

When a league starts, everyone is hyped about it and all streamers try to benefit from the hype and the increased viewership and they play it 24/7 driving even more players into the game. Now that hype dies down quickly, which is normal for any game. And even more normal when you "burn out" of playing the same game 18 hours a day. And streamers and people stop playing. It's just people's attention span is pretty short and there are so many more games out there that get released and hyped that "steal" the player base.

But honestly, 15k peak players for the past 24 hours, 35k peak for the past 30 days, and probably about 25k average over that time, is not bad at all for a game on steam. This puts you somewhere in top 100 or at least close to it. Also, don't forget we have the standalone launcher, Epic and consoles. So those numbers are even higher.

Personally, I stopped playing the league a month ago, because "life" happened. And I am just waiting for the new league. I am part of the problem, but that doesn't mean that the game is bad or needs to change because of that. And I've never been lvl 100, and I haven't even completed all uber bosses. And I have 300hrs in the game. So yeah, there is plenty of content (at least for me) and with every league they add a bit more variety and content, but I don't think there is anything major wrong with such a retention.

Its simple from a players perspective.

Its not fun.

If its enjoyable and fun people will play it for a longer period of time.

The replayable content that GGG gaves us is A - Things that we have seen and been playing in POE1 for 13 years.
And B - Its not content that is fun enough to make u want to to play and much less replay.
The fact that they choose to port from POE1 some of the more boring mechanics did not help. I guess these were just easyer to port and reuse.

Instead of GGG making everything fun and engaging to players so people want to play it more.
They tried to go the easy route.
Make things a chore to do. Lower the ''chance'' of what drops to players item and curency wise. And we will make them play longer to obtain and make things.
The problem is players can feel these artificial ways of making things harder to obtain.
When the orb to rerol my item once costs 1000 exalted orbs and i need a couple of days to farm that and when i do my item can hit 50 diferent undesirable stats and be destroyed for me it becomes a badly made slot machine that they want me to pull the lever of, again and again and again so they can loose my time. That is not enjoyable to me its simply not fun.

p.s I have been playing POE1 since 2013 with some time on and off. I have skiped some league on theyr original release.
But in all these years i have NEVER droped a Mirror. Thats alot of hours and alot of years.

Personaly atm i feel there is no real rest on the PoE side of my gaming.

PoE 1 is going for a bit, or PoE 2 is soon here, im just about done with my character in PoE 1, play for a little bit and now PoE 2 will hit. Or other way around.

I not saying this is the main cause of players going down, but im sure there are some who feel like me, where you can def burn out faster with so much PoE aroudn now :)

Atleast for us who playes both. Selfmade problem i know, but damn its jsut so fun! even if i burn out faster.

I feel you. I wish i was also a ''slow gamer''
Becouse the longer it takes me to get to the end of the game and see the faults the longer i can play to game.
Unfortunatly for me it takes 8 hours to get to edngame farm and here we are again infront of the repetitive boring slot machine world of autistic spreadsheets.
Its not something i can enjoy doing anymore sadly.

Because it's becoming a Path of Exile 1 clone, if 0.4 continues that journey, I might be out.

I want a slightly slower game with meaningful combat, not a 1-click frenzy to kill everything on screen and bosses dying within a second; it's just dumb.

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IonSugeRau1#1069 schrieb:

So... why does the game have such poor retention?

You're used to games with more predatory retention mechanisms. PoE and PoE2 are intentionally designed for players to leave and come back. Those numbers look pretty good (above average) for the end of a league.

The teaser for the next league already has over 1 million views.

The game is janky and empty in a lot of ways, so I agree with that aspect of your post. But the doomerism is just wrong. Play something else, or spend time away from the computer. The new endgame will be here in a few weeks.

"

DistributedAutomaton#5739 schrieb:

"

IonSugeRau1#1069 schrieb:

So... why does the game have such poor retention?

You're used to games with more predatory retention mechanisms. PoE and PoE2 are intentionally designed for players to leave and come back. Those numbers look pretty good (above average) for the end of a league.

The teaser for the next league already has over 1 million views.

The game is janky and empty in a lot of ways, so I agree with that aspect of your post. But the doomerism is just wrong. Play something else, or spend time away from the computer. The new endgame will be here in a few weeks.

I love how you tell the guy how he feels and what he is used to.

''Those numbers look pretty good (above average) for the end of a league.''
This is what the damage controllers say every slop league.
By that logic bad retention should not be a thing by now in POE but alas :D

I also like how you tell him how to deal with his unsatisfaction.
You are like a copium inhaling, damage controlling POE psychiatrist.
I love that for you

"

intersept#1235 schrieb:

"

DistributedAutomaton#5739 schrieb:

"

IonSugeRau1#1069 schrieb:

So... why does the game have such poor retention?

You're used to games with more predatory retention mechanisms. PoE and PoE2 are intentionally designed for players to leave and come back. Those numbers look pretty good (above average) for the end of a league.

The teaser for the next league already has over 1 million views.

The game is janky and empty in a lot of ways, so I agree with that aspect of your post. But the doomerism is just wrong. Play something else, or spend time away from the computer. The new endgame will be here in a few weeks.

I love how you tell the guy how he feels and what he is used to.

''Those numbers look pretty good (above average) for the end of a league.''
This is what the damage controllers say every slop league.
By that logic bad retention should not be a thing by now in POE but alas :D

I also like how you tell him how to deal with his unsatisfaction.
You are like a copium inhaling, damage controlling POE psychiatrist.
I love that for you

Your posts to me seem very emotional and mean-spirited. If you set that aside, and look at numbers, you'll see that PoE2 is not in a doom scenario. Things are fine.

"

intersept#1235 schrieb:

Its simple from a players perspective.

Its not fun.

If its enjoyable and fun people will play it for a longer period of time.

The replayable content that GGG gaves us is A - Things that we have seen and been playing in POE1 for 13 years.
And B - Its not content that is fun enough to make u want to to play and much less replay.
The fact that they choose to port from POE1 some of the more boring mechanics did not help. I guess these were just easyer to port and reuse.

Instead of GGG making everything fun and engaging to players so people want to play it more.
They tried to go the easy route.
Make things a chore to do. Lower the ''chance'' of what drops to players item and curency wise. And we will make them play longer to obtain and make things.
The problem is players can feel these artificial ways of making things harder to obtain.
When the orb to rerol my item once costs 1000 exalted orbs and i need a couple of days to farm that and when i do my item can hit 50 diferent undesirable stats and be destroyed for me it becomes a badly made slot machine that they want me to pull the lever of, again and again and again so they can loose my time. That is not enjoyable to me its simply not fun.

p.s I have been playing POE1 since 2013 with some time on and off. I have skiped some league on theyr original release.
But in all these years i have NEVER droped a Mirror. Thats alot of hours and alot of years.

Show us a seasonal game with higher player retention over a longer period of time with the same content as poe2 (hint: half the game is not even playable).