Yeah, it was in conjunction towards the lower rate of drop-off for PoE compared to LE for % player-rate where this all came up.
My argument was that since we had a ‘staggered’ peak situation would’ve been that the ‘initial’ peak should’ve been higher (on a Friday or Saturday for example) and hence being a bit ‘misleading’ in terms of what the actual curve represents over that timeframe.
That then lead to the saying it’s not happening because of a weekend.
And the drop-off rate of PoE is less (by 2%) then LE, and has been fairly high since ever, which is a different reason then LE has though, and that’s the ridiculous new player experience of PoE, while in LE the new player experience is… decent definitely, nothing majorly overwhelming. So it’s likely more that since the differences between 1.0 and 1.1 aren’t glaringly huge they didn’t stay and simply are waiting for 1.2 or 1.3 or later, until ‘enough’ is there.
End-game content issues shouldn’t arise until… around end of week 1 outside of the core playerbase, which is a fraction of the playerbase.
So since that happens already there in a more pronounced degree then PoE looses player during that time it’s more then likely that something else more fundamental is the issue. Be it slow-paced gameplay, be it the sudden spike at Lagon, be it the long stretched of no gear upgrades even happening early on… those are the week 1 ones.
Week 2 I would say we get into end-game. No content… yeah, we know that, also lackluster content like the dungeons, which are a bit of a joke. Another one is itemization, which includes exalted drops, crafting and LP slamming for friction areas which cause retention loss (Some secondary outcomes).
https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/12zls11/i_analyzed_path_of_exile_retention_numbers_so_you/
Here’s a proper rate comparison from a while ago actually, also the comment section there is gold.
We can see that at the half-month mark there’s some very very distinct differences in retention rates. From 38% up to 70% (which is massive). So also PoEs different leagues are extremely differently taken up. While they all seem rather close-by as it tapers off the starting area is the most insightful area, especially since GGG usually provides a so called ‘week 2 patch’ that generally fixes the last major issues.
I can’t sadly put ‘Delve’ in there but some newer ones and give you some reasonings as to why some were so bad. For example… Scourge. It was a bad mechanic and there was a whole lot of mess going on with balance reworks that went in every direction but not into one being functional. Then came Archnemesis which was just outright a bad decision, and ‘Sentinel’ was loved but still had the Archnemesis mechanic inside before finally after another one ‘Kalandra’ they fixed that stuff with ‘Sanctum’ and the second they did people came back.
Well received ones were Metamorph as a massive rework which went in the positive happened with the core gameplay, that caused people to flock towards the game and stay for long. And mechanics like ‘Ritual’, ‘Legion’, ‘Heist’ and the - original - ‘Ultimatum’ were quite beloved mechanics, Ritual was for example easy and the main reason why it stood that for up during that time was the core-gameplay rework like a similar one happened in Metamorph.
But for the method of ‘Arena’ ‘Delve’ or ‘Endless Corruption’ it definitely does only appeal to a small percentage, the concept of the design itself. Though the content inside the concept is another topic as well, some mechanics are done despite not having liking for it because the outcomes can be so rewarding, others… the other way around.
I’m trying to argue that it has nothing to do with the concept of the mechanic we run, or even the content inside that concept. I’m more focusing solely on the itemization aspects, how far apart steps are, how that affects people when they reach the ‘perceived’ end of the game… be that Monoliths, empowered monoliths or Abberoth, depending on how that player percepts the game and as having done the content provided.
I did pull them from thin air after all 
But it’s well known that specific archetypes are not balanced all too well to each other or have vastly superior or inferior core rates of buildings, the ‘don’t think’ builds which the game naturally shoves into your face, without becoming creative.
Some of them have still trouble reaching 300c without decent upgrades and others brush at the same stage around in 1k+
We had the same in 1.0… and before. It’s nothing new, classes are simply due a balance pass to handle that once and that’s it.
That’s all what I jokingly wanted to say with that.
Lemme fix: I never said that.
And well, yes, I remember, and we have people rushing through 2k+
They made looooooads of mistakes there.
We can hope, because unlike GGG… nowadays there’s competition there, hence you better bring more to the table then others did a decade ago because you’re in a far more cut-throat environment to survive long-term.
I understand your point. But the game has a myriad of possible upgrades available.
Instead if ‘barring’ them… offer the dedicated people a way to push a little bit. It doesn’t have to be much, it just needs ‘some’ way to feel progress even after the content is gone.
Because if I play solely for the content as a more invested player I’ll bring what… 4 classes to 100 before the famed 2 month mark is over? 2 in a month if I actually play decent amounts?
We have 15 classes, that means my game will last me as a multi-character player… for not even a year.
Why not allow that a single-character player can use those 2 months fully and never completely stop progressing? Sure, things take long, but they’re visible for that person, hence not a sole lucky drop. That can happen, sure, nice! But something more is needed simply.
