This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/pathofexile by /u/slojun1 on 2023-07-30 19:37:47.

I have spent a lot of my life searching for hobbies that scratch a certain itch in my brain. At a young age I found modifying and racing cars, motorcycles and pretty much anything else with an engine. I absolutely love the thought of taking something that is standardized for everyone and creating something unique and ridiculous. As I got older and settled down, I needed to find something to replace my expensive hobby that still scratched that same itch. I found a home in POE. I was by no means a big gamer when I first started but I have come to find the gaming community home.

As leagues have gone by, I have found certain similarities across my old hobby and my newfound passion. The main being a group of like-minded people that love crazy performance and modification. Hanging out in a stream with Captainlance feels like shooting the shit with your car buddies in the garage while you are trying to come up with ideas and calling each other idiots. It helps that he is an old man and I find him so relatable.

When it comes to vehicles, especially when it is in the performance realm there is always tons of talk. Everyone is always curious if the next release will be the new icon that changes aftermarket car modification and takes the next step in what is possible. The major problem with this is that the OEM manufacturer and the modifier are two separate entities. It is not the job of Toyota to hand you the keys to a 1800 horsepower Toyota Supra with a powerglide and completely backhalfed suspension. It is their job to create enough variables within their asset to enable people to do crazy shit.

It seems to me like everyone was expecting Exilecon to be a motorsports event. Where we can see what things are capable of. It is the opposite. I look at Exilecon like I do a press event for a new vehicle. Chances are the car does not even run. Chances are the suspension and finishing is not even close. But we do get to see the bones. We may even see it drive into the convention center if we are lucky and see what it looks like when it moves. The engineers at a car manufacturer do not spend their day making sure the guys modifying their cars will be the fastest out there, they just want to get the thing running.

The only thing we can ask a car manufacturer to do is to give us the chance to change variables. This is where I see POE being the best at what they do. Things may change but they will always give us enough room to work to change out the engine, figure out crazy interactions and break the servers.

D4 locked us in a stock Mazda Miata and told us we can put on new tires if we want. After Exilecon all I see is a new car with a team that wants to give the player opportunities to change variables.

I understand why people are upset; change is difficult. I am glad they are keeping POE 1 a thing. To me it is the same as having grand prixs for vintage cars. Who knows that may even draw more of a crowd. I just think people need to be honest with what they are upset about. We do not know what is underneath the hood, what the transmission is, how aerodynamic it is. But I do have high hopes for one thing, if any game company is going to let me rip out the engine, turbocharge it, completely change the suspension and redo the interior it is going to be GGG.