I’m not the first to touch on this topic, but I definitely won’t be the last.
But I will tell you about it from the other side. Do you know what flow state is? Wikipedia says:
“Flow in positive psychology, also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.”
There is also a mention of games, in which the main thing, in my opinion, is this line:
“This is exhibited in well designed games, in particular, where players perform at the edge of their competency as they are guided by clear goals and feedback.”
If at the beginning of the game this state is almost unattainable, then closer to the late game it is achieved more and more often. The character is already equipped very well and thanks to flexible loot filters, the gear on the ground is displayed less and less often. And there is only one thing that constantly pulls me out of this pleasant, meditative state, and that is affix shards. I think everyone has had a situation where they were torn out of a pleasant state by some little thing. The feeling is not the best. This is exactly the case.
I understand that the developers have their own vision. I’m not asking for much, just one small checkbox in the settings “automatic collection of affix shards”, no more. You can make a large note in red text “by enabling this you will violate the way the developers see the game” But please give players a choice, how the developers of Diablo 2 Resurrected did it with gold.
Lastly, in PoE i can easily run delve, delirium and legion, they give me flow state. In Diablo 3, these are Greater Rifts. But Last Epoch is just at the beginning of its path and there aren’t many options yet. I hope this path will be long and the developers will not leave players unattended. Thank you.