LordCrash

Actually there is one blessing I'd really like to get: being able to play with 5 companions...

I just think that there are better solutions to offer those optional features, without tying them to certain achievements. Don't worry, it won't harm my experience anyway. Although I still think that they could use the resources to include stuff that everybody is more easily able to enjoy. Question of preference. And jfyi, I'm a big fan of CRPGs but I almost never play any game more than once. I think it's boring because most of the stuff and especially the overall story stays the same. Even if there is 20 or 30% new stuff there is still 70 or 80% stuff that is still the same. So yeah, it's of course my fault that I don't want to invest time in multiple playthroughs. Another question of preference.

And you making it sound like some achievements are needed to enable content that would give every player more choice and freedom in the first place.

The first part of your quote is a feature that I don't really understand (what about story progression, choices, equipment, XP when you skip certain parts of the game??? to me that makes no sense and isn't really thought through) and the latter part is just typical NG+ stuff. But to be honest, I probably misread your point here because I thought you meant your fav weapon in general (like choosing it from a list), not just keeping the stuff you have at the end of the latest game.

Most of us won't finish the game even once. And a lot of those tho will won't ever start another playthrough. I know many people here don't believe that but that's the reality. Just have a look at the Steam statistics if you don't believe me... You really don't get the difference between choice&consequence within a single playthrough and certain stuff that is only available for a different playthrough if I make certain things in the first one? Apples and oranges, mate. Well, I don't.

I doubt that will ever be the case anyway. But if they do I have nothing against keeping your favorite weapon for another playthrough if you want to destroy your balance on purpose. Still no need to hide that behind achievements. Nobody is forced to use expert settings. Giving players options is still always better than establishing superficial blocks, even if it's a stupid feature like this one. Nobody said you could strip certain parts of the game. I think it's highly unlikely and it actually makes no sense at all. Actually the stretch goal mode is all about certain bonuses. I don't "crusade" against it in any way. I just don't like the way it will be implemented, locked behind certain achievements. Ahem, no. The completion rate of PoE on Steam by the way is less than 10%, just saying. People who play games like PoE multiple times are in the far minority. You hardcore guys must really leave your bubble from time to time. Almost nobody has the time and will to play a long RPG more than once, most people don't even finish it once.

All of which could be available for everybody right the start of the first(!) game, best in some "expert settings" menu for enhanced flexibitily and more choice for everybody right from the start...

No, it's not. It would be perfectly reasonable to give these options to all players right from the start. Just give people some "expert settings" for an individual experience, if they want so. Most people want their first playthrough to be the best (and many people don't have more time than for one) so why not giving everybdoy more options? There is absolutely no need to make these things dependent on superficial "achievements" and to only make this stuff available for a second or third or whatever playthrough. If anything this update punishes people who don't go for achievements and who don't want to be forced to do certain stuff in their games. And it punishes people for playing the game not long and good enough because that's what this strange NG+ mode is actually all about. It's a "reward" system for the best among us who want to play this games for hundreds or thousands of hours, but not for everybody and certainly not for the majority. If there ever was a stretch goal that was only made for a small fraction of "elite" players and that could be classified as pure fan service it's this one. So I don't have anything against these options and it's not an "offical forum response". I just have a big issue with hiding theses options behind superficial achievements.

Who is "we"? I'm already glad if I can find the time to play the game ONCE. It's not like PoE2 was some 5 hour long shooter. So I care much more about everything that can happen in my first (and likely only full) playthrough of the game.

For you maybe. I don't use it either. But big picture here. Alot of people like it. It's not just about you. I just stated my opinion, mate.

I think Edér should romance a pet. He's really into them.

NG+ is a horrible waste of money, even in it's light "Berath's Blessing" way. And it's abolutely nothing you'd need 200k for... The stretch goals for PoE2 sadly continue to disappoint.

Corrected that for you. As for Witcher's Yen the comparison is a bit unfair though since the character AND her relationship with Geralt were already pretty well established(in the novels). There is sadly no such luxury as a bunch of brilliant novels for Pillars to build upon.

I know, but you talked about the old IE games having a broader appeal than PoE and when it comes to measuring broad appeal I think sales figures are actually pretty relevant. Well, I don't think so, at least it's not that simple. And it's imo completely pointless to compare sales figures to those of a game that was released 16 years ago.

But it does! At Normal difficulty or below you don't need to understand the systems beyond the level of "debuffs make the enemies weaker," "buffs make you stronger," and "the immunity against Fear spell protects against dragon fear." When playing at Hard or PotD you do need to dig into them more, but if you're not keen to learn the systems, why would you play on Hard or PotD? I never played PoE on hard or PotD but on normal. And I know that I don't have to understand every system to its core in order to survive on normal but still PoE felt not very intuitive to me. For a possible (simple) reason you could read my post above if you like. Oh, I guess you misread my post here (or I didn't make it clear enough). I didn't speak about sales here at all.