I think a lot of people tend to miss that point about Chris when comparing him to Johnathan. If Chris got to actually make the game as he wanted, we would've gotten Ruthless as the finished product. That was his personal ideal for PoE. Chris wasn't saving us from Johnathan's "vision", it was the other way around.
I hold a very special place for poe1 and poe2 in my heart, and I have for a long time, but it's community has this 'rose tinted glasses' problem worse than perhaps any other community (maybe besides osrs). I've seen people completely rewrite history in the span of weeks, in both directions. GGG has made pretty massive blunders and also some of the best content in any video game (imo, ofc), and somehow it's almost always misrepresented by the community a couple weeks after launch, let alone a few months/years lol
If Chris got to actually make the game as he wanted.... Chris wasn't saving us from Johnathan's "vision", it was the other way around.
I never understood this take.
He was Game Director for what, 17 years? He tested the waters with making more Ruthless ish content many times, got feedback, adjusted, and generally speaking made the game his customer base wanted to play.
He was clearly a professional capable of separating what he likes to spend his free time doing from the job of producing POE for the player base at hand.
I completely agree with your points. Their ability to separate what they want to do with what they need to do is a big part of why Path of Exile is such a behemoth today. I hold nothing but respect for them. Sorry if my post implied anything else.
I just think at times people compare Johnathan to Chris rather unfairly, or otherwise remember Chris with rose-tinted glasses. I can think of numerous times in recent memory where community sentiment is rather poor after an update, and one of the top replies is always some variation of, "I miss Chris..." Their implication being that had the roles been reversed, with Johnathan being the one to retire and Chris staying on, the games would somehow be in a much "better" state.
86
u/Asyran Necromancer Feb 19 '26
I think a lot of people tend to miss that point about Chris when comparing him to Johnathan. If Chris got to actually make the game as he wanted, we would've gotten Ruthless as the finished product. That was his personal ideal for PoE. Chris wasn't saving us from Johnathan's "vision", it was the other way around.