I have played Path of Exile since beta. I know what the game feels like when the loot loop is working. I also know what it feels like when something is off. This league, Keepers of the Flame, has a very specific kind of off feeling. I finished the storyline. I killed mobs like I always do. The longer I played, I noticed upgrades, relevant to my character, stopped dropping on the ground.
Not slowed. Stopped.
If I wanted gear that actually moved my character forward, I had to run mechanics like Breach or Kingsmarch. Or trade. Nothing from normal mobs. Nothing from bosses. If it was a bow, it was not an upgrade. If it was a rare, it was the wrong base. If it was anything useful, it came from a system layered on top of the game instead of the game itself.
For someone who prefers a solo self found style, the experience was disappointing. It pushed me into trade even though I did not want to go there. That shift is where my concern begins.
Async Trading Arrives With a Price Tag Attached
This league introduced async trading, which is objectively long overdue. The community has asked for this for years. But… there is a catch. To be part of async trading in any meaningful way, you need a merchant tab. Not a regular premium tab. Not a currency tab. A specific tab that costs extra.
You can still trade without it, but your trades are delayed. Your items sit. Buyers pick faster sellers. And faster sellers are the players who paid.
In a vacuum, it might look like nothing more than a convenience purchase. The problem is that it arrived at the exact moment when loot became unreliable for progression. When the drops dry up and trade becomes mandatory, convenience turns into pressure. The path from pressure to paid advantage is short.
The Pattern Looks Familiar
Tencent owns Grinding Gear Games. Tencent also has a history of tightening monetization systems slowly and quietly. Warframe players lived through the same thing. When drop reliability weakened, players moved toward buying prime parts. Not because they wanted to spend money, but because the game gently pushed them there.
Now Path of Exile is showing similar signs.
- Less ground loot.
- More trade reliance.
- Paid trading convenience.
- Delayed fixes to loot issues.
You do not need a conspiracy theory board to see how these pieces line up. You only need to be a player who remembers how the game used to feel.
The Chris Wilson Video Lands at the Worst Possible Time
Chris Wilson recently released a video about harmful industry practices. He did not point fingers. He did not name studios. But… the timing raises questions. People do not produce those types of warnings without a reason. Especially not people who spent more than a decade shaping a studio from the ground up.
It creates a shadow in the background. Not an accusation. Just a feeling that something is shifting behind the scenes.
The Real Loss Is the Fun
Path of Exile shines when you kill a mob and an upgrade drops at your feet. It shines when the game rewards curiosity and experimentation. That sense of possibility has always been the antidote to the game’s complexity. Even when the systems were overwhelming, you could still step into a zone and walk out stronger than you walked in.
Right now, that feeling is missing.
If loot stops being fun, everything else collapses. Mapping becomes a grind. Bossing becomes a checklist. Trading becomes a requirement. Buying convenience becomes the path of least resistance.
Games can recover from bad leagues. They cannot recover from losing what makes them joyful.
Where This Leaves Us
I am not claiming this is malicious. I am not saying GGG set out to pressure players into buying merchant tabs. The combination of decisions creates a very real concern. A pattern is forming. A sync trade was released in Path of Exile 2 during the last league. If today’s Path of Exile 2 reveal leans further into paid convenience while the core loop continues to suffer, the pattern will be impossible to ignore.
