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Friday, December 06, 2024
Exiling myself
Today is early access release of Path of Exile 2. I would call it a Diablo-clone, if it wasn't so obvious that the clone has surpassed the original. The game is highly anticipated, because all we know indicates that PoE2 is a lot better game than Diablo 4. There is already a narrative out there asking why mid-sized studios these days make better games than the much bigger studios who are famous for a genre. But I won't be joining the party at this point in time.
I am no stranger to the idea that if you want to play a game at release, you often have to pay more than if you buy the same game a year later. But I feel that Path of Exile 2 pushes that concept over the top: If you want to play the early access version, which is missing half of the acts, you have to pay at least $30, and options to pay $60 or even up to $480 are also available. But if you wait for the finished game, the game is free to play. Do I want a half-finished game for $30, or do I prefer a finished game for $0? I think I'll just wait.
Of course the fans will tell me that all the supporter packs options come with various in-game currency and cosmetic goodies. I've certainly paid $30 and more for free to play games, so I understand that if you would be likely to do that anyway because this is your kind of game, you might as well get early access with that. But I am not the world's greatest fan for ARPGs. I only played Diablo IV as a free trial. I paid $5 for a battle pass in Diablo Immortal, but wasn't really convinced. I don't enjoy action combat as much as I enjoy turn-based combat, and not enjoying combat is a killer when the fundamentals of a game involve so much grinding. The developer studio is called Grinding Gear for a reason.
I don't think I would dislike Path of Exile 2. I can see me playing through the campaign once on full release, just for fun. But then I'd be playing acts 1 to 6, instead of playing acts 1 to 3 twice. And even then I don't see me participating in endgame activities. There is a reason I dropped the "MMORPG" from the title of my blog. I've been there, done that.
- posted by Tobold @ 8:14 AM Permanent Link
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Not to mention that the campaign in these games is basically a single-player game, so paying for stuff is quite plainly paying not to play. Any actual road-block that needs out-of-game powers to get past just appears as bad design.
Any Path of Exile veteran would tell you the real cost of this F2P game is $30-$40. While you can definitely play the entire campaign of POE1 for free if you do actually get into the end game you more or less need to spend at least $30 to buy more stash tabs. Playing endgame without more stash tabs would be very annoying as your storage space would very limited.
It's no mistake that POE2 access is $30 and also comes with $30 of currency.
It's no mistake that POE2 access is $30 and also comes with $30 of currency.
Tobold: "But I feel that Path of Exile 2 pushes that concept over the top: If you want to play the early access version, which is missing half of the acts, you have to pay at least $30, and options to pay $60 or even up to $480 are also available."
While there are the early access packages available (that give up to 5 keys), that's not the full story.
PoE usually runs these supporter packs for every patch and the difference is just that you also gain early access for the next "patch" this time.
Every patch came with a $480 whale package that had ingame as well as physical goodies attached to it for the die hard fans and all of them are cosmetic. Plus the money spend would and will also grant you the equivalency of ingame points to spend on the store.
So yes, if you want to be f2p you could have been for the entirety of PoE and will be as well for PoE2.
They can also set up an automatic subscription where you pay monthly and if I remember correctly, direct currency purchases can be converted to the active supporter packs at 80% value or something?
The big difference is that all your previous purchases count towards a lifetime spending of $480 which will make you directly eligible for beta.
Imagine if you had spend a certain amount on WoW and you would receive an automatic beta invite. I mean they do have beta access as part of their higher tier expansion packages, so not too different.
You do have some ingame additions that make life way easier like bank extensions and so on but for me PoE has the best f2p-premium model out there.
You can play it as f2p, spend money equivalent to an AAA game for an easier time or fully whale if your wallet allows for fancy FOMO cosmetics and loot boxes.
Yes, there are battle passes with exclusive stuff and loot boxes, but loot box content will be added to the store a patch later for a slightly higher price if you don't want to gamble and don't mind waiting. I think only the battle pass stuff is exclusive.
There are also league (=season patch) exclusive rewards for playing the game and beating it at higher levels/challenges that are equally FOMO and actually exclusive as they don't return. Same with the higher tier supporter packages.
Gerry: "Any actual road-block that needs out-of-game powers to get past just appears as bad design."
That's the thing. The game is the same whether you spend money or not (well, you have a harder time sorting your items and have less space).
While there are the early access packages available (that give up to 5 keys), that's not the full story.
PoE usually runs these supporter packs for every patch and the difference is just that you also gain early access for the next "patch" this time.
Every patch came with a $480 whale package that had ingame as well as physical goodies attached to it for the die hard fans and all of them are cosmetic. Plus the money spend would and will also grant you the equivalency of ingame points to spend on the store.
So yes, if you want to be f2p you could have been for the entirety of PoE and will be as well for PoE2.
They can also set up an automatic subscription where you pay monthly and if I remember correctly, direct currency purchases can be converted to the active supporter packs at 80% value or something?
The big difference is that all your previous purchases count towards a lifetime spending of $480 which will make you directly eligible for beta.
Imagine if you had spend a certain amount on WoW and you would receive an automatic beta invite. I mean they do have beta access as part of their higher tier expansion packages, so not too different.
You do have some ingame additions that make life way easier like bank extensions and so on but for me PoE has the best f2p-premium model out there.
You can play it as f2p, spend money equivalent to an AAA game for an easier time or fully whale if your wallet allows for fancy FOMO cosmetics and loot boxes.
Yes, there are battle passes with exclusive stuff and loot boxes, but loot box content will be added to the store a patch later for a slightly higher price if you don't want to gamble and don't mind waiting. I think only the battle pass stuff is exclusive.
There are also league (=season patch) exclusive rewards for playing the game and beating it at higher levels/challenges that are equally FOMO and actually exclusive as they don't return. Same with the higher tier supporter packages.
Gerry: "Any actual road-block that needs out-of-game powers to get past just appears as bad design."
That's the thing. The game is the same whether you spend money or not (well, you have a harder time sorting your items and have less space).
I have the impression that the free version functions largey as a trial, and that to actually get invested in the game you need to spend at least a little. As long as the minimum investment is a reasonable one-off purchase, I don't mind that design.
In PoE 1 the entire campaign is basically free and doable without anything extra. I think you would also be able to start mapping (aka endgame) but you will then get to the point where you receive more and varied loot that you probably want to keep.
So if you want to proceed you would then look into the stash expansions: https://www.pathofexile.com/shop/category/stash-tabs
The coins translate on a 10:1 basis into dollars, so yes the base price on the more or less recommended extensions are $15 for map, $7.50 for currency, $4 for a premium tab (so you can list items for trade). Other tabs a less useful to situational.
The big thing is that there are sales on these things and the prices come down by a few dollars when you are willing to wait a bit.
That means if you buy one of the smaller supporter packs for $30 you gain the contents for free and can buy the stash expansions with the points from the pack for around $20 after discounts and have some left over for more bank space or other stuff.
So if you want to proceed you would then look into the stash expansions: https://www.pathofexile.com/shop/category/stash-tabs
The coins translate on a 10:1 basis into dollars, so yes the base price on the more or less recommended extensions are $15 for map, $7.50 for currency, $4 for a premium tab (so you can list items for trade). Other tabs a less useful to situational.
The big thing is that there are sales on these things and the prices come down by a few dollars when you are willing to wait a bit.
That means if you buy one of the smaller supporter packs for $30 you gain the contents for free and can buy the stash expansions with the points from the pack for around $20 after discounts and have some left over for more bank space or other stuff.
Well, it's a matter of opinion whether a too small stash keeps it quite the same. But it's a game with a good reputation; maybe some players are okay with "single player game with full stash and early access for $30" and if so that's okay with me.
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