Let’s talk about Path of Exile 2’s hideout situation. I think it’s pay-to-win. The gaming industry won’t call it that. I will.
What’s Actually Happening
In Path of Exile 1, you unlock hideouts while going through the campaign. It’s straightforward. It works. It’s fun collecting them. Players get a personal space to concentrate, organize their stash, and get away from the sensory overload of town areas with their sound effects and visual clutter.
In Path of Exile 2, Grinding Gear Games changed this. Now you have to complete the campaign, then unlock hideouts through Atlas maps. Unless you spend $100 on a supporter pack. Then you get a large hideout immediately. Day one. Every league.
Why This Matters
Here’s what the $100 gets you that free players don’t have:
Trading access. To sell items using PoE2’s new asynchronous trading system, players need a merchant tab, which is also pay to win, and they need a hideout for players to visit to collect their items. Players must grind through the campaign to Act 4 to access Ange who manages the transactions. Then they must unlock a hideout, in endgame Atlas maps, before they can participate in the real-time trading system. In comparison, $100 supporter pack buyers can start trading the moment they reach Act 4.
The early league economy is where real currency is made. First days, first week. Item values are highest. Demand is peak. Being able to list and sell drops immediately versus waiting until you’ve completed the campaign and unlocked hideout? That’s a massive economic advantage.
Early currency compounds. Better gear purchases. Faster progression. More efficient farming. More currency generation. The gap widens.
Focus and concentration. I use hideouts in PoE1 to get away from people and the sound effects some player items have. When I need to concentrate, I go to my hideout. Some players have sensory sensitivities. Some need quiet to think through builds or trades. The $100 price point essentially taxes the players who need this space most.
Let’s Call It What It Is
I think pay-to-win is when a player is given an advantage early. It doesn’t matter to me if the player can eventually get the item in the game. They’re buying the item to get it now versus doing the work for it. That’s pay-to-win.
I’m not saying these items should be removed from the game. I’m saying to be honest and call it pay to win, because it is.
In a real world environment, most people would be annoyed when someone can skip steps to progress. Nepobabies. People who have privilege. We recognize it’s unfair in real life. Why should games get different standards?
The gaming industry has trained us to accept increasingly predatory practices by redefining terms until “pay-to-win” only means the most egregious examples. Direct power purchases. Loot boxes with exclusive gear. They’ve narrowed the definition so much that indirect advantages fly under the radar.
Paying to skip effort for any functional advantage is still pay-to-win.
The Manufactured Problem
Here’s what really bothers me: GGG made the experience worse, then monetized the solution.
Path of Exile 1 proves early hideout access works. Players like it. It’s functional. PoE2 removed this feature, pushed hideout unlocks to endgame, then charged $100 to restore what players already had in PoE1.
This isn’t about technical limitations of a new game engine. This is deliberate design to create friction, then sell relief from that friction.
Why I’m Writing This
I stopped playing Warframe because of The New War quest. When you start it, you have to finish it to play other parts of the game. If you can’t finish it or the quest bugs out, your account is bricked. I refuse to put my account at risk.
The idea of asking a player to potentially risk bricking their account is a lack of respect I cannot participate in. I wish I could use platinum to skip that quest. Digital Extremes considered it, but backed away from it when players protested. The fact that I want to pay to skip it shows the design is hostile to players.
Ironically they are adding a mini-skip in their latest expansion. They admit it is to survive as other games do not have a rigid requirement like completing The New War.
Developers sometimes create problems they could solve with better design, then either ignore them or monetize the solution.
The PoE2 hideout situation is milder than bricking accounts, but it operates on similar logic. Create friction. Sell relief. That’s not respecting players. It’s leveraging their discomfort.
Warframe and Grinding Gear Games are both owned by Tencent. You can see the difference in consumer friendliness between Path of Exile 1 and 2. Similar changes are happening in Warframe. It’s time to be honest about it.
What This Means
If you bought the supporter pack, this isn’t about you. You’re not the problem. The system is the problem.
Let’s be honest about what the system is: players who pay $100 get immediate access to critical game infrastructure, trading and personal space, while free players must complete the entire campaign first and unlock it in Atlas maps. In a game with league resets where the early economy matters most, that’s an advantage that compounds.
The supporter pack isn’t just cosmetic or a convenience. It’s a functional advantage locked behind a $100 paywall.
That’s pay-to-win.
I think we should call it what it is.And… since companies are doing these predatory practices for money, how about stopping the “support a streamer” campaigns where they request players purchase a subscription from a Twitch streamer to receive an item in game. Let players pay the company directly. Maybe these predatory practices can stop as companies will be directly earning money.
