To be fair, I can’t blame the modern player I spoken with for not having the different leagues Path of Exile offers. I was sufficiently lucky to get start right before the last group of leagues was introduced, so that it wasn’t nearly as confusing in my opinion.
There have become eight different leagues that you could play in, each featuring its own economy and players. They are separated by ‘league’ and ‘standard’, along with ‘softcore’ and ‘hardcore.’ Standard may be the base game. It’s permanent and possesses had a persistent economy since game’s release.
Because it's been around for way too long, all the items you'll be able to want POE Trade have already been crafted, and they are quite cheap because of supply and demand. Builds in Standard are, normally, cheaper and stronger.
Leagues, conversely, are temporary, and many players spend the bulk of their time playing in the mmoah league. The way that Grinding Gear Games (GGG) adds new mechanics on the game is via the leagues. Each league comes featuring its own gimmick.
The current league is ‘Harbinger,’ and they've got added packs of Harbingers that spawn randomly points in maps, together with new currency with an additional map.