on one hand i agree. but on another, game devs should ideally create seasonal content with the idea that it should be integrated into the game seamlessly.
a good case study is poe.
poe’s league content used to be like this in the early days. the seasonal content gave more loot and more ways to get specific loot but was not too required. for example, rogue exiles, strong boxes, beyond.
one of the main reasons that seasonal content was kept in a reset realm is to “protect the sanctity of standard”.
all the early seasons had always kept “sanctity of standard” in mind. the level of FOMO was minimal. in fact, i felt no FOMO and did not participate in any POE seasonal content for YEARS.
going back to your comment on limiting the dev’s creativity. limitations MUST always exist, both on player side and on dev side. the very notion of limits comes hand in hand with “game balance”. i would argue, if a game devs just goes bonkers every season with FULL creativity, it will be bad for the game. it is likely the sanctity of standard would not be preserved, and the entire seasonal content is ultimately a “keep the players engaged” project which brings no benefits to the core game.
to this we get diablo 4 which is doing just that. you want a game where the devs do not have to worry about creative limitations? thats what you get. every season you gain a new “power”. but by the end of it, its just taken away. its 100% borrowed power. at most the devs would introduce some new uniques that would allow players to have some remnants of that borrowed power back into the game, but it’s very hollow.
if i m reading you correctly, you like the idea of permanence. and thus you’re similar to me where you like playing in a permanent server setting.
in diablo 4, before the first season, players were strong. blizzard in all their wisdom knew if they wanted to go “full creative” in their seasonal content, they had to make it in a way that didn’t trivialize the game. so they NERFED everything. players lost maybe around 40-50% of their power. whenever you played in a new season, you were given powers that gave you back that 40-50% power that you lost.
newer gamers who do not know the history behind the game do not know or have forgotten. or simply chose not to care. that is the extreme of having a fully seasonal game with full creativity without limits. and in case you’re wondering, NO standard players get NO POWER in standard. the nerf that they were hit with before season 1 has been standardized. since you dont get any seasonal powers in the standard league, you’re effectively weaker than anyone playing seasonal content. there are deluded “d4 defenders” who would say dumb shit like “but you have access to powerful gear”. i can tell you with confidence, even with mid tier gear, a seasonal character could easily outperform a fully maxed out d4 standard character.
to that, i’d say devs NEED to limit their creativity for the sake of their own game/fans. i remember when GGG decided to just go bonkers. they released harvest. chris himself said it might have been a mistake. but they just did it anyway. they ended up reintroducing harvest into core, nerfing it multiple times. where has all the “sanctity of standard gone”?
i would even argue without limits the devs actively HURT the standard playerbase. look at the alternate quality gems in poe. many players such as myself spent a huge lot of effort/resources to get ones that we wanted. one day the devs felt alt quality gems were a mistake and just nerfed them back into regular gems.
with the experience i have playing poe for a decade. i can tell you. devs limiting their creativity can be a good thing. everything needs limits. without limits then balance flies out the window. when balance flies out the window, 50% player base will play a certain class to kill the hardest boss in the game to get one of the best items in the game and likely following a build guide.
one criticism that i have on EHG is, (if i m not mistaken) is that the devs do play the game (which is good) BUT they follow build guides. and instead of nerfing outliers, they created more content to challenge these players. indirectly making it worse for others.
to me i m halfway with you on why how i love permanency. which is i dont need to refarm my gear and i can amass wealth infinitely. to me in a “live service game” we should never assume our characters will always perform the same from beginning till the end.
we should always adapt. to me adapting is one thing i do when playing games. playing a new game, i need to learn the mechanics and adapt to make my build work with the gear i have. its a “mini puzzle” game within the game where i constantly make tweaks to my build based on the gear that i have.
if things get nerfed/rebalanced. i simply adapt. having a wealth of items and crafting materials makes adapting so much easier.
in fact, i would ask you, why are you afraid of change? are you afraid that your build gets nerfed? if so, then the real issue is that you’ve chosen an overperforming build that the devs might need to nerf to maintain balance.
for me i love making my own builds. good devs tend to want to balance their game. i dont like how poe turned into but to give credit due, my weak build did become vastly stronger after the devs rebalanced the game over many years. my build that did 100k tooltip dps now does 2 million tooltip dps, and thats without factoring in buffs. it should be way higher.
personally i feel that players that are afraid of change are the ones that are utilizing OP builds. change should be embraced.
one of my IRL friends had a 90% block build in poe. came back to poe after a few years to see it was nerfed. 90% to 80% can be huge when you have layered defences. his build could no longer perform as a godlike tank even tho it’s just a “10%” value difference. he rage quit.
but that said. i do see the appeal of keeping your build the same until end of time. but the only real way to do that is if it lives in a bubble. no updates, no new content. this could only work in a game that is not live service. technically it could work, but as time passes, this version of the game will be lacking tons of QoL and bug fixes. you’re also effectively locking yourself out from new items/uniques/new skills and perhaps even new classes. new enemies to fight etc.
theres so much you would miss out if you want to insist playing in that bubble.
but that said. if you truly enjoy that method, i would prefer if EHG give players like you to play in that bubble. but perhaps based on season. for example. you can install LE “Season1” patch. and enjoy the game as is from that season.
the caveat is that any progress/gear acquisition in any of these seasonal bubbles will stay in the bubble. no transferring of anything, and it will be offline only.
