But these guys REALLY burned some goodwill with this delay.
Season 1 was already overdue (5 months since 1.0) despite being said that each cycle/season would last 3-4 months. With that in mind, it was expected that the next one would take no more than 4 months. Then comes September and EHG says we now had to wait another 4-6 months for new content. 2 months later, and what should be 2-3 months is now another 4 months. And now, they’re saying we have to wait not 2 weeks, BUT ANOTHER MONTH!
Ultimately, EHG has made us wait 9 months for a new season. The game is past its first anniversary, and it’s not even past its first proper season (don’t forget that the game doesn’t even have all its story chapters, and the original season 2 was supposed to add one). By this point, we should be on either season 4, 5, or 6, but nope. We’re not even on 2.
Call me cynical, but I’m honestly surprised people haven’t been more critical of this fact. I feel as though the enjoyment of what season 2 will provide will surely be hampered for old players thanks to having to wait for almost a year for it. Don’t get me wrong, what’s in it still sounds like it’ll be fun, but it still doesn’t feel like it’ll be worth the wait no matter what. Once the content is done, it’s another 3-4 month long wait til more, and can’t even trust it’ll even be in that range again (hence the goodwill burning)
And for the record, I’m aware that the update’s original date was close to PoE2’s, hence the delay. Call me cynical again, but I don’t see why that was considered since:
PoE2 is still in early access. It’s just one of many updates it’ll get.
People can play and cover both games. It’s not like PoE2 discussion will stop after 2 weeks anyhow.
Last Epoch’s player count has already dropped a bunch, and a rival’s game wasn’t going to do any more damage than it already did to itself (seriously, Undertale has more players, and that’s a 10-year-old single-player game). Also don’t forget that unlike PoE, Last Epoch is a paid game.
So yeah, that’s what I think. Time to go back to waiting another month I guess.
this is one reason why i really hate the temp league enjoyer community.
ggg made it clear that the best way to retain players is by making temp leagues. players would come and go after they’ve had their fill.
if we take POE1 as a case study, GGG over promised and underdelivered forcing them to pull resources away from POE1 causing no new temp leagues for almost a year.
what happened next? temp league enjoyers are the ones heavily criticizing GGG/POE for being a dead game. the devs are criticized heavily for failure to come up with new league content. like what the fuck? go play some other games then.
POE1 is in the BEST STATE the game has ever been in it’s entire existence. if i still had passion for it i would be busy playing on standard. standard players (the very ones that ggg disrespects and have forgotten like a stepchild) are the only ones silently enjoying the game. while a huge loud number of temp league enjoyers keep shitting on the game constantly rather than just going off somewhere and coming back later.
i kind of find it disgusting. how did gaming communities get this way? its also a good reminder of how the “true” enjoyers of diablo clones are the “standard” players. we’re always here thru thick and thin because we enjoy the game proper, instead of relying on seasonal content. yet we’re treated the worst by game devs since we dont make them money and somehow punished by not getting access to new toys with how many diablo clones implement temp league content where standard leagues do not gain access.
i see this type of “no new league game/devs is bad/dead” posts on POE forums all the time. seeing it happen here too is just sad.
I waited months for a new cycle and I don’t give a rats ass about another few days. It was a good choice on EHG’s side because keeping the release date would be a loss of possible player retention and sales.
I can’t say anything comforting to players who deem themselfs the center of the universe who get petty over a few days so I don’t even try ^^.
Yeah, and I don’t think it’s really necessary to have yet another thread about it. Though i do agree with the OP’s basic premise that the delay has caused some ill will with a significant part or the community. But I know that EHG would have been well aware of this and made the decision anyway because they thought it was the best/least worst option.
I mean, it’s not like EHG wanted to postpone it 2 weeks. They didn’t say “Hey, things aren’t ready yet and we’ll need more time”. No, things were ready, everyone was excited for it.
They were bullied into this decision, so we can agree that it really is the least worst option.
Maybe this will give them time to add something extra to the game, though. Let’s hope
You seem to not have understood the reasoning why they did the delay.
The reason for the delay was presented and pushing the release back jsut a few days would make things even worse.
Postponing 2 weeks is already the finest line they could do, anything less would have been even worse than launching 2 days before PoE 2 0.2. Then they could have just roleld with it, but they tried finding a solution that is the least bad and they decided 2 weeks is the best here.
You don’t have to agree, but the reasoning is logical and grounded.
I did understand. I just think it’s ridiculous since, once again, we’re waiting 9 months for new content. And once again, the game has lost a bunch of players already so PoE2 wasn’t going to do anymore damage.
I don’t think this is true. I think some people with a messed up sense of selfimportence are crying a river because they can. I miss all the people with the interactive torches and pitchforks and only see a small bubble of people who have some kind of “who is able to complain louder about something completely useless.”.
Then again if people made plans and took days of and the date changed it’s a a sad thing sure. But that’s the only reason that comes to my mind why someone has the slightest reason to complain about a smart move.
And half a month are a few days… so what? You are not up to date because the regular timeing of the cycles has been set out for a long time now and nothing was promised. The next cycle release date was announced and revoked… so what?
They weren’t “bullied” into delaying. GGG didn’t make their release date with LE in mind (I doubt they even give two shits about it). EHG made the decision to delay despite making us wait 6 more months already.
Maybe not, but they did know about LE’s date and both studios communicate. So it’s not like they were oblivious to it.
From EHG’s perspective, they were bullied. It’s like if you’re walking down the street and Jason Mamoa steps in front of you. He didn’t do it with you in mind (nor does he give two shits about you), but you were still bullied into swerving.
I much prefer to wait 2 more weeks and have very healthy player numbers on release than having it release and immediately losing all their playerbase 2 days later, because that would likely cause the game way more harm. Harm it might not even recover from.
And How many players have they lost?
Like every ARPG that has ever been since the start of ARPG’s (and I remember them all), players start falling off starting at week #2 into a season and keep falling off until they hit a base.
Then by some “miracle” (if the game is good) they all come back for the next season.
Hopefully, as each season goes by the playerbase graph continues to climb.
LE is a good game. I have every confidence it will be fine.
Obviously you think it is a good game too, or you wouldn’t be this hysterical.
The other thing that is consistent with ARPG’s, since the beginning, is that every single season people post the same type of post that you did.
Relax. All will be well.
And yet again you are showing that you are not understanding the reason.
Whether you like PoE 2 or LE or dislike one of them. They overlap in playerbaase and communities is apparent. Having them overlap is a loss for both games/devs.
But EHG is currently in the weaker position and they tried to make the already bad situation a little bit less bad for everybody.
For people who would only have played LE anyway, this change was making it “worse”, but those people are in the minority.
It lost some player, but also gained some players with the decision. There are undoubtedly people who would have only played one of the games when they are launching so close together. With this change both sides, from both communities have an advantage to have soem time playing both of them.
Nobody can really measure it, but the amount of people that at least give LE a chance now will be higher, then with their initial 2nd of April launch. Evne if it means making some people even more outraged.
People that don’t seem to see the whole picture and this is not a short-minded decision but a decision for the better future of the game are people that very likely wouldn’t stayed with the game long term anyway.
I myself would have played only LE for an extended period of time, so I don’t really cared about the decision. Am I disappointed for personal reasons? Yes
Do I understand the decision? Yes
Now I will even play PoE 2 0.2 for a bit before LE launches, so again both GGG and EHG will benefits at the end.
I can even see a portion of the PoE playerbase slowing dripping over to LE evne after mroe than 2 weeks, ocne they are done with PoE, so with this pacing LE might have a better constant playercount over a logner period of time, we have to see.
An important thing to factor in as well is content creator engagement. With a launch on the 2nd, most content creators would cover LE for 2 days and then move on to PoE2.
Whereas this way, content creators will stay longer with LE and, if LE’s update is as good as we’re expecting, they might even stay for a longer time and attract a bunch more players.
It’s obvious that overall this is the least worst option. It’s not ideal (ideal would have been PoE2 launching at some other date), but it’s the 2nd best possible outcome.
GGG put them in a tough spot. It’s not about the quality of LE, it’s about the entrenched playerbase for POE2 that directly overlaps with LE.
It was the right choice financially and I don’t think they’ll lose many players due to the delay. They will definitely get more eyes on the game as POE2 streamers can now give it more time when Season 2 launches. Streamers bring in new players and can bring back players that might not otherwise return.
I kind of lost sympathy for people that take personal time for game launches many years ago. It’s always a gamble with server based multiplayer games even if they launch on time. Yet the complainers never accept that they chose to take the risk when asking for those days off.
If GGG ends up delaying 0.2 then LE could be screwed again sure. I’m not sure what they would do if it was close to the 17th. Because then they’d have to delay again and work around D4’s season 8 launch.
In case you didn’t notice, but temp league updates still apply to the permanent league. And if you also didn’t notice but we’ve been playing the same league in Last Epoch for 9 months now. Season 2 alone is not going to fix that burn out
