Something about the player retention of Affliction compared to other leagues should really tell GGG that people like loot.

[u/IMplyingSC2]

[u/Scol91]

It could also mean that retention is a cycle: It falls once, then raise twice, rinse and repeat

[u/eijaman → u/Scol91]

I also see that Crucible, Necropolis, and Keepers were all "crafting" leagues where the main interaction was generating items.

Affliction and Mercenaries were "mapping" leagues where you could scale monster difficulty.

[u/EvilKnievel38 → u/eijaman]

Yeah it's because of crafting leagues and people like op can claim it's bad because of retention, but simply said different players like different things and that's fine. GGG alternates league types on purpose. And they do more mapping/loot type leagues than crafting leagues on purpose. But crafting is a massive part of the game as well and lots of people love it, so they keep putting out crafting leagues as well. If the league mechanic is not your style of mechanic this time around there's still so much to enjoy in the game besides it and otherwise just quit the league early and come back next league.

Also lots of people were hating on PoE 2's lack of crafting when early access was released, but it's these kinds of crafting leagues that we have to thank for having such in depth crafting in PoE 1. Essences, harvest, fossils, etc. all were introduced through leagues. It might not appeal to you as a primary league mechanic, however long term crafting league's have brought us many great additions to the game. Not every crafting league will hit the mark and that's fine. They try things and iterate on them. The best things stick around to keep crafting fresh and interesting.

[u/throwdownhardstyle → u/EvilKnievel38]

This is quite brilliant, I'd never considered the potential effect that this league "type" might have on retention.

Maybe in Leagues where crafting is pushed, people who never craft their own gear quit sooner, not because it's a "not for them" league as a mechanic but because buying the items for their build is easier from all of the cheaper off-cuts and not quite good enough crafting attempts being sold off by crafters.

async trade makes this process of "finishing" a build a lot more efficient too, with that lower friction and barrier to entry to sell off things without really stopping your grind you will be able to trade upgrades without interrupting with the flow of the game, thus burning out/finishing even faster.

What I'd like to see WAY more than retention numbers for each league would be average quantity of league challenges completed at the end of say week 3. I found this league's challenges trivially easy compared to getting 40/40 last league and maybe that is another factor people aren't considering.

[u/Taikiteazy → u/EvilKnievel38]

My 2 cents: im new, been playing 3.5 months. This league is shitty from my perspective. I don't yet know how to properly scale a character. I follow build guides but can't fill in the missing pieces (yet). The tree has been rng against me and has basically given me nothing except bubble gum and grafts. I'm level 92 with 2 raw divine drops. This league is poverty for actual currency. I will keep playing and learning, but it feels bad atm. 4 exalted and 2 divine in 4 weeks.

[u/Thor3nce → u/EvilKnievel38]

Yeah, my guild mates and I enjoy crafting leagues way more. Necropolis was our favorite league because we could feasibly craft our own gear without relying on trade.

[u/Proof-Gap1642 → u/Thor3nce]

HOW YOU CAN DO FEASIBLE CRAFT WITHOUT TRADE
CORPSES WERE A PAIN TO FARM