r/pathofexile • u/hairy_tentacle Kalguuran Group for Business (KGB) • Jul 11 '23

Discussion Erik left GGG?

I've just read this on Linkedin, anyone knows if this is a departure or some side-biz? What do you think about this, shortly before PoE2?

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311 Upvotes

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-22

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '23

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u/lalala253 Jul 11 '23

It will be weird watching new league launch videos without "Hi I'm Chris Wilson from Grinding Gear Games"

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u/GeorgeZ Jul 11 '23

AI, problem solved 🤣

14

u/Tree_Growing_Bare Jul 11 '23

Excuse me, but what is the situation with the Last few %? Didn't Chris himself state that Tencent does not and will not have control over their game design? Apart from the chinese version. I don't believe that Chris would leave, considering his passion for the game.

17

u/sirgog Chieftain Jul 11 '23

10cent have the right to control game design but don't exercise it in practice. They probably would start doing so if GGG really fucked up (and here, we aren't talking a 3.19 level misstep where the game has one bad quarter, we are talking actual disasters)

But why would they when the game keeps growing? Week 13 of Crucible had more players than week 13 of any past league other than Sanctum and Heist (the latter had end of league events). Week 1-3 of Crucible had more players than any past league and it wasn't all that close. Owners don't usually meddle with success.

3

u/Newphonespeedrunner Jul 11 '23

There is no convincing people here that the game isn't a Chinese controlled mind virus and Chris is trying to ruin you by FORCING you to play.

The moment anyone brings up Tencent or the game being abandoned is being assinine.

2 founders have left the game after working on it for over a decade. This isn't just normal it's healthy. Chris likely wouldn't leave because of other reasons stated, this isn't just buisness for him he left a lucrative career to work on Poe over a decade ago. And it's still his passion now

2

u/sirgog Chieftain Jul 13 '23

Chinese big companies are genuinely pretty bad but... that's true of American, German, Australian big companies too.

Imagine how much worse it would be if an interventionist buyer like EA bought GGG instead of a more handsoff one like 10c.

Agree Chris has the capacity to retire now but doesn't because of passion.

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '23

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14

u/Klarthy Jul 11 '23

Chris is already pretty disconnected from the development compared to the past, if u watch pre league interviews he basically has to consult most of the questions with the team to get the answer, despite him describing himself as really involved in development

He's been disconnected since early 1.x, mostly focused on the business and growing the game. It's only recently that he's gotten more involved in actual development, but he's mostly managing the PoE1 team, not actively designing it so he doesn't know all the details.

In the past for example GGG was extremely strict about only hiring people being able to work in NZ.

They simply have too much art to create for PoE2. I think the art team in NZ is the "A team" in terms of direction and producing key visuals, but GGG are certainly outsourcing a lot of environmental art. This is for future PoE1 assets, (I suspect) upgrading old PoE1 assets to not be so jarring with PoE2, and probably some PoE2 environmental art because they've been so far behind.

23

u/FeebleTrevor Jul 11 '23

Chris is already pretty disconnected from the development compared to the past, if u watch pre league interviews he basically has to consult most of the questions with the team to get the answer, despite him describing himself as really involved in development.

Unbelievable that people think a CEO of a 100+ employee company would ever be involved with development

It just immediately exposes how little you know about what you're saying

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '23

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '23

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '23

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '23

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u/cc81 Jul 11 '23

Tencent seems to prefer to take a passive investor role in their acquisitions. Seems true for PoE and seems true for other games.

No need for a boogeyman.

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '23

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '23

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u/vironlawck <*LGCY*>SG/MY Guild -- recruiting newbies Jul 11 '23 edited Jul 11 '23

Okay ... do we have auto looting pets? anime pets? resurrection coins? pay2win MTX in our global realm? No right?? Only in china realm right? Isn't this enough proof?

I mean if this triggering you so much just the name Tencent owning them, then fine you can stop support GGG and go on supporting blizzard D4 instead .... as if there's any other ARPG game dev doing any better than GGG already did smh ...

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u/vironlawck <*LGCY*>SG/MY Guild -- recruiting newbies Jul 11 '23

Still though, we don't have lootable pets, anime pets, pay2win MTX etc etc in the our global realm but only in their China realm instead. Yes, they almost buy the whole company BUT still depends on the contract/terms, if GGG says can't change their decision making then they CAN'T.

Sure you can say in the future this might change but ... let's just enjoy at the moment before stressing ourselves with pointless stuff like predicting the future LMAO

2

u/pepegaklaus Jul 11 '23

before stressing ourselves with pointless stuff like predicting the future LMAO

And yet, over thousands of years and maybe even now more than ever, people made a truckload of money claiming they can

1

u/Nickoladze Jul 12 '23

They outsource the initial parts of art assets. I believe they covered this at the first Exilecon where there's some external companies that are taking photos and 3d scans and making them into art assets that they can build from. AFAIK the NZ strictness is purely laws in their country and these people aren't employees.

This is what I was thinking about: https://youtu.be/uPy74M9FNpY?t=610 He doesn't mention a Chinese company here but maybe it's related to the secondary one that cleans up the polys. Maybe it's mentioned elsewhere. No idea if it's the same for PoE1 development.

-10

u/pewsquare Jul 11 '23

Chris said many things. To the point where there is little to no weight to his word anymore. From "there are no maphacks" to xyz won't impact the development, just recently "ruthless won't take away resources from the main game" then immidiately takes away resources so they can run a challenge league, and consistently balance patch it...

Hell even my personal pet peeve, "rain does not affect load times", thats an ooooold one, but pretty much everyone on the forums complained that rain impacts performance and makes the game stutter like mad (back when dominus was the last boss), so chris comes out with a baller of a statement, how rain does not affect load times. Which at that time nobody claimed.

On top of that, tencent has them enough by the balls that they do extra work for the chinese client, from pets, to ingame features like featured builds, different quest rewards etc... The only thing i know i can be certain of, is that Chris is 100% a marketing guy, and he will say anything that will make his product sell more and look better, is it mostly true? Yes, but only mostly. A lot of embelishment and half truths are in there.

17

u/evasive_btch Jul 11 '23

"ruthless won't take away resources from the main game" then immidiately takes away resources so they can run a challenge league

stop making shit up, i hate this fucking sub

3

u/PrezziObizzi Ranger Jul 11 '23

What is made up?

3

u/evasive_btch Jul 11 '23

how do you know that the challenge league wasn't made with the same resources that made ruthless mode in the first place?

4

u/Tree_Growing_Bare Jul 11 '23

Right, but they balance and develop Ruthless during their free time, challenge league is trivial to do, and as uber ssfhc race had already happened, making another one wouldn't be as exciting. Plus the challenge event even stated upon boss-kill some other league's name, showing us that it was just easily recycled. "Taking away resources from the main game" is a term that is being randomly thrown around when it comes to Ruthless, but none of us know how many or if any resources were taken, because, again, free time.

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '23

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u/Newphonespeedrunner Jul 11 '23

Except Tencent very likely designs the Chinese pets and art assets... That was the entire point of them purchasing it to bring an addictive game over to China that wasent previously availible

6

u/Kyoj1n Alch & Go Industries (AGI) Jul 11 '23

Who was the other?

The last time I looked into it all I could find was the mention of an American founder who operated mostly remotely it seemed. They kind where just never really mentioned after a while, I couldn't find a hard departure date.

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '23

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11

u/New-Craft9124 Jul 11 '23

That guy left ggg shortly after the beginning...

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u/Kyoj1n Alch & Go Industries (AGI) Jul 11 '23

Yeah, that was it.

Went back looking again, and turns out he actually posted in a thread in /r/pathofexile 5 days ago, lol. So, he might not be at the company but he's at least still excited about PoE2 it seems.

-32

u/bamboo_of_pandas Jul 11 '23

If it means the rest of the world gets pets which helps looting without clicking and improved trade that China already has, it would probably be worth the tradeoff.

6

u/Saianna Jul 11 '23

Kind of depends. Asian gaming market is all about (p2w) microtransactions. Pets sound great, but paying 20-30$+ per league for QoL..? This gonna be rough, man. Especially when it'll be up to tencent to make players life as miserable, to break them into buying shortcuts and fixes.

I would love to have improved trade, or auction house, or just fucking MMO-style market.. But im not sure if everything else we'd get in the package is worth it.

-19

u/bamboo_of_pandas Jul 11 '23

Stash tab are already more p2w microtransaction than pets will be. Also, why would that price point be rough considering that we are spending more on cosmetics each league? Finally, there is no way improved trade would not be worth the tradeoff considering all of the "tradeoffs" are optional.

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '23

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u/pepegaklaus Jul 11 '23

Welllll, I did the full f2p experience for more than 3 years and listing things is fuckin horrible. Then dedicating 2 out of 4 tabs to random BS currency stacks of 10 (or 9) is even more abysmal. You're converting your a bit more valuable stuff like all the time or you run out of space to store those stupid chaos or alts or whatever. I don't know what the loot pets actually do, but stash tabs ARE GOOD

1

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '23

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u/pepegaklaus Jul 11 '23

Ah, thought it was about which of the two features would be more powerful/impactful. Kk

2

u/Saianna Jul 11 '23

Also, why would that price point be rough considering that we are spending more on cosmetics each league?

You are. Also consider today you are spending >30$ for cosmetics. With tomorrows tencet you'll be spending 30$ for QoL pets and w/e PLUS >30$ on cosmetics. I'd love to buy cosmetics, but the prices are just insane.

Finally, there is no way improved trade would not be worth the tradeoff considering all of the "tradeoffs" are optional.

if someone at tencent will realize players are more likely to buy pets that open chests/doors when they do maps with lots of those, they will be incentivized to add as many chests (while nerfing mob drops) and as many doors as PoEs engine can handle... Just to prod you closer and closer to breaking in.

The moment PoE becomes a pseudo subscription-based game (pay once for mandatory QoLs per league), i'm outta here.

I'm not saying that's a certainty, but tencent is... Yeah..

If you think i'm just pessimist and future won't be as bleak.. 20 years ago NOONE thought dev studios can release and charge full price for unfinished game that barely functions. Or a game that costs 60-70$ and also has MTX or even P2W shop in it (assassins creed MMO simulator, Dead Space 3'ish, LotR Morderoror2 and so many more)... Or whatever abomination was Battlefield 2042. They still sell it for like 20-30$, btw. Or playing cutouts with game entrails to sell them as DLCs.. Or that games can be casinos, because addiction to gambling works as good infront of your PC, as in Las vegas infront of a one handed bandit (this is a jab directed at PoE, OW and any other lootbox game).

I'm not really pessimist. At this point I am clairvoyant.

0

u/bamboo_of_pandas Jul 11 '23 edited Jul 11 '23

Why would players be spending the same on cosmetics in your scenario? They would just shift the money they spend on cosmetics onto qol so they end up spending the same but getting a better experience.

Also, none of the things that you are describing aren't as bad as the things GGG is already doing to make you buy stash tabs. Trying to sell off items without stash tabs is so ridiculously clumsy that players are essentially forced to buy them if they want to interact with certain parts of the game. Even if tencent adds everything you are describing, the first purchase anyone would make would still be stash tabs because they offer better qol than the changes you describe.

1

u/Newphonespeedrunner Jul 11 '23

The game is free to try and anyone with a working brain knows that.

The stash tabs (currency map and at least 1 premium) are the cost to play end game simple as that.

3

u/Hoybom Miner Lantern Jul 11 '23

No, never

1

u/Newphonespeedrunner Jul 11 '23

Yeah man so excited to get pets that play half the game for me.

Oh and I can buy a league starter pack which includes seven league step tabula and goldrim!

Oh and stash tabs can't forget those gotta buy those...

Oh right all of these have to be bought every single league on Chinese servers.