Paying for Early Access of a soon to be free to play game. Yes or no?

[JRPGfan]

SvennoJ said:

LegitHyperbole said:

Well, that makes sense. They should have clearly marked thus as Early Access and that it'd release as ftp. Hopefully they'll manage to transfer your stuff to the 1.0 version, I guess the good thing is that these types of hack and slash CRPGs are infinitely replayable and the hardcore player base starts from scratch every season which is three months long.

It's just so mind blowing that SO many people bought in for EA with this and on console too, it's going to set a god awful precedent, really wish they had confined EA to PC like usual.

It said Early Access on the store page, but usually it's a lower price for early access and higher at release... Not free later.

Starting over from scratch is not that fun. We basically already did that in cruel mode which was luckily a lot easier than the first time. Hence also not wanting to start with zero equipment again and having to grind levels to be able to get past the boss roadblocks. The good thing about the end game is that the bosses are better balanced with the rest of the mobs. Or rather the rest come in such large numbers all at once that it evens out. And they bosses so far are as big bullet sponges.

Having to defeat the Act bosses again, no thanks. Rather repeat random zones than the same zone over and over before being able to continue. So yeah, hopefully something carries over.

You say that now.... but give it time, and you too will be converted.

In POE seasons usually run 3-4 months.
And honestly thats fine.  In POE1, your "respec" points are hard to come by.... and expensive to buy as curency, so often times, its cheaper/faster (than farming for it) to just reroll the character.

Once you master the art of running through the campagne it takes like 6-7 hours (if your a godly speed runner type, you can go down to like 3hours).
At that point, your at maps and ready to start chaseing endgame and crafting upgrades, and collecting/completeing challenges for free skins and effects (every season has them, so its like a "to-do-list" to challenge yourself with). (if your a newbie, you might take like 13-15hours)

Anyways.... since its always right before the weekend, in those 2days, you typically go 12-16hour of gameplay pr day.
People prep meals, and plan sleep ect around new league launchs, and challenge themselves to see how they end up on the ladders rushing through it.
After a week or so, typically the upgrade paths are minor ones, and its just more fun to make a new character and do it all again.
(maybe you had differnt builds for differnt content options or farming strategies? ect ect)

Anyways 3-4 months is plently long, when most people usually only play their characters like a week or slightly longer before rerolling.
The league mechanics are typically added to the game, so POE is huge, theres so many differnt paths of endgame to enjoy that it appeals to many differnt types.

However I feel like most go for completeing the atlas, and doing enough challenges, for whatever skin they are trying to unlock that season.
Maybe do a few Ubers?

"So yeah, hopefully something carries over."

Your character doesn't die, but its moved from "whatever this league is" to standard league (graveyard of old characters).
Like 99% of POE players, don't care that seasons last 3-4 months, and thats it.
When your character is moved to standard, you go on to play the new season, with new mechanics and content.
You can recreate your "old" character if you wanted, in the new league.

Honestly I love running the champagne and trying differnt builds.
I get some crazy idea, and just go try it out.
its part of the charm and appeal of POE, and why it can last so long.
Plus every so often, theres new abilities (skill gems) (support gems), changes to acensions, balance changes ect ect.
So its often fresh..... and you watch some youtuber (like mathil : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnaP100kTBB_WGM9IiF73yw )
Do something silly, and your like "I gotta try that, it looks fun".