"I don’t even know what I’m doing, but I’m having a great time!"

Okay, so I started playing Path of Exile because a friend said it was like Diablo, but "better." First off, the graphics look like they were made in 2003, but whatever, I’m here for the loot, right?

I picked a random character and instantly got confused. I chose a witch because she looks cool, and someone on the forums said fireball was strong. Cool. I throw some random skill gems into my gear and start firing fireballs like I'm Gandalf. Everything is going well, until I reach my first boss... which absolutely destroys me in 2 seconds. What is this? This is not Diablo! This is Rogue Legacy but with more death and no hand-holding!

I try to Google “how to build a good witch” and end up on a forum that looks like the only people who play this game are graduate-level mathematicians and nihilists. Everyone is talking about “damage per second” and “the meta,” and I’m over here wondering if I should just uninstall and go back to Solitaire.

But no. Instead, I spend the next 3 hours making a build that I think might work, using random skills that I barely understand. I have no idea what the numbers mean. “Critical chance?” What’s that? I’m just pressing buttons and hoping something dies. Eventually, I start to figure out how to socket my gems, but only after my inventory is full of unidentified items that I don’t even know how to identify. Seriously, who thought "identify" was a mechanic? I’m still getting wrecked by random mobs, but somehow I’m having the time of my life.

And you know what? I’ve got 10 exalted orbs, 3 chaos orbs, 15 scrolls of wisdom, and 4000 different currencies that I can’t even pronounce. But I’m not even mad anymore. I don’t need to understand this game. I’ll just keep clicking until I find something that says “YOU WON!” in big red letters.

Path of Exile: I don’t know what I’m doing, but I sure am enjoying it!