In this week's Path of Exile: The Exiled Tribune, we're going to the races! That's right, the Weekend of Races is set to hit the ground running on February 10th and cross the finish line on February 12th. We had a chance to chat with the devs to learn more about the races, what's involved, what players can score and more.
Players, Start Your Engines!
It's that time again, another amazing Weekend of Races for Exiles. This time, Races are set to kick off on Friday, February 10th and run through Sunday, February 12th. Players will be able to take part hourly to win some awesome prizes: Armor sets and Footprints. Gives you a reason to want to.....STEP OUT, doesn't it? You see what I did there?
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Moving along, we had the chance to chat with the team to learn more about weekend race events and how they are integral to the community.
MMORPG: For folks who may be new to races, give a bit of background about what they are please.
Chris Wilson: Path of Exile races are events where players start new characters in a fresh server with other players and rush to see who can finish key objectives the quickest. These races teach players a lot of really efficient ways to play and generally are very intensely competitive. There are prizes to be won, both for the people who get the best times and also for random participants.
MMORPG: In the past, how many players would you estimate have participated in them?
Chris Wilson: Several hundred thousand players have participated in races. They're quite popular, but certainly nowhere near as popular as the core game is.
MMORPG: What makes this month's races different than others in the past?
Chris Wilson: Honestly, this race weekend is very similar to the last one that we ran. It worked well for our needs and we haven't made many modifications because the team are focusing on the upcoming major 3.0.0 expansion. Our team have some interesting plans for racing in the future, such as allowing you to play the daily race at any time of the day.
MMORPG: How do you 'shake up' races to make each one feel different than others?
Chris Wilson: There are a wide variety of race types used in this weekend's events. They feature special properties like the Medallion, Headhunter or Exiles Everywhere rulesets. Some of these races feature alternate start locations like Act Two or Act Three. Others take place in entirely different minigames, like the Descent and Descent: Champions stories. The races are all very different than each other!
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MMORPG: What have been the most amazing things you've seen players accomplish in past races?
Chris Wilson: Players demonstrate immense mastery of Path of Exile in races! It's awesome to see the times that people can rush through game content. Getting to and killing Brutus in 11 minutes, or getting to level 27 in one hour are both very impressive achievements that have come out of our race events.
MMORPG: Any surprises in store for players as they run this coming weekend?
Chris Wilson: While the race weekend itself doesn't have any surprises, we're making some major announcements the following Tuesday (February 14)!
The Calm Before the Storm
Grinding Gear is going on the road with some big news that will be shared during a press event to be held this week. Thanks to this bit of expanded information, we know that v3.0.0 content will finally be revealed to the world on Tuesday, February 13th! Consider is an announcement of an announcement.
Press will be getting a look at the new content that is coming and the number of journalists attending is "the busiest it has ever been", largely due to PoE's popularity.
If that's not enough for you, on Thursday, February 16th, GG will be talking the v2.6.0 challenge league that is currently slated to begin on Friday, March 3rd!
There is a lot to look forward to this week, isn't there?
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Need a Job? GG is Hiring!
If you're talented in any one of several areas, Grinding Gear needs you as it is hiring. Available jobs include Senior Visual Effects Artist, Linux Server Admin, and Customer Support. As expected, all jobs are on location in New Zealand.
Get those resumes together!
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Last, But Not Least
This is as brief as it gets. In a recent Reddit post, Chris Wilson confirmed that a new Microtransactions System will be put into place.
Our 3.0.0 release includes the removal of the MTX tab, replacing it with a cleaner system that we have mentioned a few times before.
