GGG has lost it's way... another realm closes...

First it was the Russian Realm that closed down. Now on the 14th of November Garena is closing down the Singapore Realm:

 GGG and all top PoE players can dismiss this and claim that PoE is healthy and doing well. But these closures are warning signs that PoE has peaked in popularity and is now in decline. There have been a number of popular PoE streamers that have thrown in the towel and quit playing PoE this year as well.

 No amount of hype train can convince me that PoE is in a good place right now. Why? Because after 3 years (almost 4 for me) GGG has not improved the endgame and in many ways such as xp nerfs has made it worse. In my own case I've gone from playing PoE on weekends from 5 to 6 hours each day down to 1 maybe 2 hours at best. This Saturday morning is a good example, I was super tired last night so I went to bed early and woke up at 5:20 am. Early morning is usually the best time to play PoE as lag is minimal to Dallas and it's before real life needs to be attended to. But this morning I watched a little tv and then went back to bed. I got up after 10:00 am to have coffee and cereal, update the wiki and spreadsheet Daily Deals, read other news stories, and then finally scan the PoE forums. PoE has gone from an "I'm exited to play arpg" to a "MEH" at best, all because the endgame grind has finally taken it's toll on me. After 4 years even this drop:
in Essence league was more of a "well I'll be damned" moment for me as I've come to expect nothing from grinding maps for the last year that finally when I do get a great drop I'm way past the point of wild enthusiasm about it and any theory crafting on how I might best use it to "I finally got a once in a blue moon drop... that's nice... next one is in January of 2018." I just sat there in more of a shocked disbelief that I actually got this drop at all than in any feeling of excitement.

 That's the way PoE plays for most. We love the basics of the wide open build sandbox that allows for millions of combinations of builds, gear is usable on any character class, the passive tree is great (most like it other than the life nerfs), and even the Ascendancy sub-classes are good even if what we have to do to get the points is bad (Lab runs). Beyond that the major problems of PoE, namely trading and endgame mapping have not changed. Trading is still bad and the veneer that the Atlas places on endgame mapping is just that, a surface gloss on top of the same endgame map grind for leveling xp. The function of the endgame, running maps to accrue xp to level up, is still the same only much worse this year because GGG has decided that the < 1% top elites that race a build to 100 in 2 weeks need to be stopped and thus have nerfed xp to increase the map grind.

 I wonder just what the devs do with all the feedback they get from the non-elite players? Do they just dismiss it and go on coding PoE for the top elites that are farming The Shaper?

 In the end we now see a 2nd Realm closure as more and more non-elite and elite players pull the plug on PoE and move on to find fun elsewhere and thus revenue is going down. Maybe GGG will see the handwriting on the wall (from the non-elite players) before it's too late and Act 5 will be more than just doubling down on Act 4 difficulty and more of the same endgame map grind for little xp or maybe not. Only time will tell.

Signed,

PoE non-elite loyalist

We really don't need another doomsayer.

Some might say that they've found their way. Why outsource it to Garena in the first place.

You know that the exp nerf added in this expansion only affects you if your character is level 95+, right?

99% of players don't even bother to take their characters that high. So that's not really valid as a reason for them to be closing that realm.
I think a lot of people are unhappy for a few reasons:
1. CoC builds (esp discharge) got nerfed pretty hard. A lot of players really enjoyed those builds, although imo the nerfs were justified.
2. A lot of the new endgame map bosses added in atlas are very overtuned, damage and health wise. One needs insane dps and/or leech to have a shot at killing the shaper, which made a lot of builds 'not viable' for the meta sheep. This is also why ES is so popular atm.
3. The blade vortex buff, and the absurdity that is pathfinder with infinite unique flasks. And warchief totems going untouched. Etc
4. No real changes to melee (esp namelock skills) despite a lot of good ideas and feedback from the community. And that bug where some of your armor isn't being used against projectiles that still hasn't been fixed as far as I know.

It's really hard to express my true opinions in many threads nowadays without getting serious probations...

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Sa_Re написал:

It's really hard to express my true opinions in many threads nowadays without getting serious probations...

Do it anyway?

It's really funny to read such posts from OP.
But nevertheless...

Are you aware that these are GARENA servers closing, not "GGG's Realm"?
"Outsorced", as people mentioned.

Garena is shutting down the business fast (this is weird, i'd say).
They closed their servers at CIS and stopped all the support.
Now (apparently) Garena would do the same at SEA.

What does it have to do with "GGG are stoopid! PoE is daed!"?
Garena thought that they would bite a big piece of pie (money; for those who are bad with idioms), which they didn't. That's all.

Not to mention that PoE "dies" at quarterly basis.
It deid when act 3.5 was announced. After it was added.
It deid when act 4 was announced. After it was added.
Each league.
Now it's Labyrinth' turn.
And then act 5, yeah...
I should start collecting these threads.

Garena was on life support years ago, I'm actually surprised they're still here. Apart from that, there are valid criticisms by zSavage and others in this thread, however... I just saw the thread and thought 'wait, is this the guy who had a "We need less negativity" thread recently?' :D

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Bars написал:

I just saw the thread and thought 'wait, is this the guy who had a "We need less negativity" thread recently?' :D

....yup....

People who's opinions and mind sets sway like the wind are best avoided.

Peace,

-Boem-

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lagwin1980 написал:

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Sa_Re написал:

It's really hard to express my true opinions in many threads nowadays without getting serious probations...

Do it anyway?

Nah, there are still a few intelligent people posting here, like the two above me.