Oh this bit I understand, I am constantly bouncing around between many games. 
What I donāt get is the frenzy to play as soon as a game is released. It is not going anywhere soon.
I started playing 1.0 at the end of March, no queues or lag, working servers, less bugs. Sooo much better.
And I also donāt get the need to make a fuss when you āleaveā. As you say, it is a hobby, not a marriage. I start, I stop, come back or not, it doesnāt matter.
Class imbalance, no content, slow patches, people ācompletingā characters too fast due to class imbalance. Not everyone wants to play warlock or falconer but they are clearly op and makes every other class feel obsolete and why play inferior classes? even though it doesnāt matter people have fomo
Itās the same for every season based ARPG. Literally nothing to see here.
The population for the second season launch will be informative though.
Ironically, I believe having players stay too long is actually bad for business in this kind of model.
I suspect most of the money is made at season start, people buying new supporter packs or new cosmetics. Mid-cycle is probably very low income.
Now, if someone plays LE only for six months non-stop, they are much more likely to burn out, and once they leave, they never come back.
Best business model is people coming back for 2-3 weeks, every 3-4 months. Again and again and again.
Yes, that will be the only interesting number.
some classes scale so poorly or have such week defense they arent even worth playing though. Itās more than fomo, its what happens when you need to level a mastery to farm for a weaker mastery only for it to still be mediocre with amazing gear.
That really depends on the type of player you are. As long as a build is fun, I play it. Even if it can only do 200 corruption (and thus isnāt a successful build, according to EHGās goals), as long as itās fun I have no problems with it.
In fact, I personally avoid all builds that can do 1k+, since theyāre less fun for me.
Thatās not how players think these days, though. Mostly because there are much more games available now than there were even 10 years ago. Most players these days consume games in bite-size time portions. They play a game for a few days or a few weeks, then move on to the next.
Live service games work (in certain genres) because they give players a reason to return regularly. So as long as LE gives players new reasons to return, it will be fine.
LE is innovative in many aspects, but they donāt need to reinvent everything. Some things work as they are and donāt need to change.
Again, incorrect. I havenāt lost interest, itās called time management. I enjoy Last Epoch (445hrs) and I enjoy other games to. I portion my time accordingly and play all the games I enjoy. Iām currently developing my Blood Bowl 3 season content, Iāve only got about 4hrs into Enshrouded and I want to get deeper into that and Iāve not had time to play my Boulders Gate 3 game yet!! Manor Lords and No Rest for the Wicked are out later this month and I want to pick those up. Then Iāll have Total War Warhammer 3 new expansion to play.
So you see, people have to balance their game time. Playing 445hrs of the game so far has given me a very good return on the Ā£35 I spent on it and I look forward to getting back into the new seasonal content when it arrives. Trying to dig up bad emotions in people just because they have a balanced outlook on life tends to be fruitless imho. Sure, youāll occupy your time arguing with the loud minority on the internet but Iāll not be one of them unless you start to bring up well thought out points. This is just how seasonal based games work, they ebb and flow, but youāll find no negative emotions from me.
Hope you find a game that you can finally enjoy. 
i find that perfectly acceptable myself. But some masteries have no lower end. With marks as an example(and not the only one) there is very little room between busted and useless. And we all know explosive trap isnt going stay how it is next season.
Yes, I expect some major balance changes for 1.1 (at least, I hope so). It will be an important factor for how many players return and for how long they stay.
This!! +1
Very well put across and hits the nail on the head! You put it across far better than I.
Iām dyslexic though, so I tend to always struggle. 
i guess thats why other companies get more money and grow bigger.
since people love to use only 1 tag on the game āARPGā
this is āARPGā Warframe https://steamdb.info/app/230410/charts/#1y
regular updates with major changes and no seasonal ladder.
a nice steady 40-80k+ every single day for an entire year, every year.
thats a game that didnt even have any sort of end game content and felt extremely repetitive, but people still play/played it, just to support the developers.
i wonder if this is actually the real problem with LE and other games alikeā¦ āBest business model is people coming back for 2-3 weeks, every 3-4 months. Again and again and again.ā
not my intention at all.
Hope not.
Warframe is a totally different game. Yes, itās classed as Action RPG because it has elements of that, but the gameplay model is closer to a shooter. You canāt directly compare PoE/D4/LE to it. Or to CoD, or Destiny 2.
The gameplay is different, the playerbase is different. The coop/pvp is very different (which is what keeps Warframe steady).
Thatās my oppinion on 25+ years of playing games. the only restart that worked out somehow was FF14. Everything else was a complete nosedive. On top of it I think more people will stop play the game compared to the ammount that come back. On top of it there will be a season 2 what is a reset so everyone can start new with a āhopefullyā more polished game.
i know what you mean.
the above mentioned games are top-down instead of like warframe which is third person, but all including warframe are looter games, grinding, crafting and all that jazz, not the same as CoD.
i agree. but my point was that those players just play to support the developers.
LE also has players that just play to support the developers. Just not as many since the diablo-like genre is more niche that the genre Warframe carved. Even though it also has loot and grind, the main gameplay loop is closer to a shooter, which attracts a much larger playerbase.
Also, many of the players that just play to support the developers have been doing that for 5 years, so they need to take breaks, due to the very nature of the genre.
Ultimately, diablo-like ARPGs have a lot more attrition built into them than most games outside souls-likes. Itās by design and what the players enjoy, but that attrition inevitably requires players to take breaks. Itās core to the genre and why the seasonal model came to be and why itās become so widespread in it.
you dont think its because people dont feel like they are really engaging with the game or enemies?
which would make the solution being, to make it feel more engaging, than just make it seasonal?
I agree in principle to this but, do you find that games are goi go through a rapid alteration at the moment? Boulders Gate 3 winning all their awards, Starfield and D4 was seen as a dumpster fire of a game. Then we have new highly anticipated games that have been tested prior to release such as, No Rest for the Wicked which has mixed things up and looks extremely promising, though Iām unsure of replayability. Manor Lords after about 10yrs of development by 1 guy is due to release this month and has a new take on city builders with its combat to. Then there is PoE2 which looks to change the ARPG genre with its WASD movement (why this has only just happened is anyoneās guess!!). All different games from smaller companies and they all look completely amazing after testing. Also it may be worth noting that Riots new MMO has been scrapped and they are starting again. I think weāre about to behold a much needed revamp to the world of gaming, or at least I hope we do.
I do like the idea of seasons but the 1 problem I have is that if you have a few games with seasons as a core mechanic, they feel very much like a job to play. One of my favourite games of all time, Blood Bowl, is starting to feel like a chore because Iāve a 3 month window to complete and collect content. I love the idea but in practice it puts undue pressure on people to complete. I hope that some of the games allow you to complete the season after the 3 month period cut off. I know of 1 game that does this, though itās name eludes me at this time. Basically, you keep the content until you complete it.