You guys will probably enjoy this level of gaming autism because I've been quietly studying the meta maths of both RPGs and RTS' in the background to get a much more detailed understanding. Even though I enjoy RTS campaigns etc. pretty casually I'm not that great at RTS games in multiplayer and I've been studying professional matches and how they play as part of my learning process regarding the maths of that genre of game and how build orders work etc. Mainly studying their overall macro but it was interesting seeing how the micro/meta side of things worked too.
I've also been studying RPGs quite a bit since that's another favourite genre of mine and really been getting into how the maths for the classes work. One thing I've been quite confused by is how it seems that there definitely seems to be a strange bias I would argue towards fancy new classes and units when they get introduced in patches.
I think this also happens though to the point they kind of break the older content in the game making it rather imbalanced even in singleplayer. Obviously devs are going to want players playing the new stuff but I was unprepared for just how much of a buff this type of thing got.
Can you guys think of specific examples of what I'm thinking about? Like content updates and such? Warhammer 2 is a great one because I remember every faction introduction people would complain they were too OP then eventually CA would fix them slightly with a nerf. Thinking of the Vampire Coast and Wood Elves mainly on that one. It's one of those things where once you notice it you can't unsee it and sometimes they're often even quite sneaky about the crap they pull with stealth updates.
I bring this up because in RPGs I actually enjoy the classic fighter/mage/rogue archetypes. However it seems like more and more with 'modern RPGs' you almost get punished for picking them depending on the situation.
I looked into Path of Exile earlier this year and while I didn't really play it more than a few minutes, a lot of opinions about early game seem to match that. Meaning the end game was good, but for a new player getting there was broken. I know several here are into the game so bear in mind to you all this is opinions I read and not personal experience. I didn't end up playing it because it started to look a bit too MMO to me. Not necessarily in the gameplay but the way it will suck you in and become an addiction. I swore off WoW in 2011 for that reason. It wasn't healthy and I stay away from going down those roads again.
I have almost no doubt they make new characters strong to sell them. They need you losing to it so you will want to trade your money for it too. I used to speculate that with things as simple as weapons in an FPS game even, it's just harder to prove there.
The problem with a lot of long lasting games, especially seasonal ones, is that they stop expecting "new players" at some point. So the game just becomes built around people who already know how to cheese and skip the entire story mode and just instantly start at end game. Often times with the game itself providing the means to do so.
So for the pure brand new players, its a slog where you are basically expected to get someone to Run you to the end quickly to get to the good parts. Which really isn't any different now than it was back when Diablo 2 came out and set the stage for games like POE.
I find it a shame because I don't understand why they can't make the classic archetypes fun or put a new twist on them or at least buff them up so they're as good as everything else if it's singleplayer. I feel like this is part of the whole player retention scammy behaviour that a lot of big studios seem hyper focused on these days. Also a great example of why devs should be far more transparent about the maths they use in games because gamers will check this stuff out like they are doing in Battlebit.
Well, when I played poe (around 8 months ago and prior), the story was basically what most of us just pushed through to enjoy the end game, because we'd seen it a lot. And you don't really get a lot of abilities to explore the builds with enough skill points or gear until mapping.
Power creep is a problem, but the main issue with PoE was they nerfed fun by 99.999% because of the way they handled loot and difficulty.
Inventory management is another one of those mechanics I love to rant about.
My issue was the shitty drops and lack of progression in a way that made sense.
Every mechanic they had to craft items got nerfed, good loot drops got nerfed. I like grinding, but fucks sake