Pan'Theon: Rise' of th'e Fal'Len - #1 Thread in MMO

I want to know if this isn't funded, if they'll continue to work on it after-hours. Or just say "oh well!" and move on.

Troy_Costisick_sl said:

The no warrior thing works for me. I like the idea of all tanks being paladins or shadowknights. I think it will make groups more interesting and flexible. I can't wait to see how the actually implement it.

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The way its working out you will have to wait till the end of the KS to find out.

Soygen_sl said:

Stuck with an 02? You mean the year the board opened?

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You sure? Coulda sworn all the cool kids had 01 tags. Maybe I had an 03.

Utnayan_sl said:

Even if it is funded, you wouldn't see a shipped title. The entire project would be managed about as good as this kickstarter.

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Still going to peddle the story of Smed as silent secret backer even though it's obvious Brad has just about nothing? Really think Smed would have signed off on nothing?

Utnayan_sl said:

Even if it is funded, you wouldn't see a shipped title. The entire project would be managed about as good as this kickstarter.

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I'm not convinced it is a mismanagement issue... I think it might just be a case of bad taste... Did you see the screen shot they chose at the top of the KS page? The layout, the fonts, the colours, the graphics, the camera they used in the videos, the audio quality... Every single thing missed the mark.

Quaid_sl said:

You sure? Coulda sworn all the cool kids had 01 tags. Maybe I had an 03.

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Definitely '02 .. I was an '03 after lurking for ages. Regretted not registering earlier. PMs with Furor got me activated though.

Zaven_sl said:

Well said. Unfortunately this forum has many trolls that do nothing but spew garbage and complain about everything. The mods here do nothing about it and let them shit up every thread they want to.

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I let all the fanboys jerk each other off endless as well. Would you like to start banning everyone?

Quaid_sl said:

I'm not convinced it is a mismanagement issue... I think it might just be a case of bad taste... Did you see the screen shot they chose at the top of the KS page? The layout, the fonts, the colours, the graphics, the camera they used in the videos, the audio quality... Every single thing missed the mark.

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You do know that was all placeholder generic Unity art, right? This isn't the direction / art they want to go with.

Which in itself was a mess because they didn't make that clear on the KS. Hell, even now it just says "pre-Alpha screenshot". It took someone a few dozen pages back to figure out it was all generic Unity placeholder art. It absolutely gives the wrong impression to anyone at first glance of the KS. In my opinion, they would have been better off omitting those screens altogether and just use concept art.

Fedor_sl said:

this eqn iksar concept art is also more exciting than anything we've seen from pantheon

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I'd still rather put my faith in Brad than ole Ponytail.

Quaid_sl said:

I'm not convinced it is a mismanagement issue... I think it might just be a case of bad taste... Did you see the screen shot they chose at the top of the KS page? The layout, the fonts, the colours, the graphics, the camera they used in the videos, the audio quality... Every single thing missed the mark.

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That's a management issue. They knew they weren't KS experts so they should have sought expertise instead of going it alone, Hell second thing VR should gave done after getting a CEO is setup a guild roundtable of interested ex eq/vg guildleaders/key members and used them as a sounding board before hitting the KS.

Now in VRs defense too much deference to market research leads to the Edsel but for sure they could have gotten feedback on what the guilds needed to see to pledge.

Jysin_sl said:

As a warrior main, myself, I am kinda disappointed. I always liked the fact that War gave up all of the utillity for being the best at 1 single thing. In the end, it just led to class envy, whining, and never-ending nerfs / boosts to class balancing for everyone else. I am open to see how they implement this though. I hope there is enough contrast between the Pal / SK (DK) to make them truely stand out from one another and not just "divine nuke DD" vs "evil torment nuke DD" cookie cutter classes.

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Warrior was my favorite class in EverQuest. I too would love to see an EverQuest style warrior with very few buttons in Pantheon but if that's not the vision I'm okay with that so long as what they do put in ends up working. At least your criticism of the Dark knight/Crusader class listing is more constructive than "OMG Dark knight is a terrible name". I'm pretty indifferent to what they call the classes. When I read dark knight first thing that popped into my mind was Final Fantasy; I didn't even think of Batman till someone mentioned it in the comments. If they want something more unique they could make them a revenant that is actually undead; that would be cool.

That said they could and should be doing this whole campaign a lot better but I'm not going to pull my pledge over it like others have. If they can't turn this around it wont get funded and it wont matter if I pull my pledge or not. They have great developers like Salim Grant that created Vanguard's awesome crafting system and Vu Nguyen that created some of the best zones in the history of MPOGs. If they can get the proper funding; I have no doubt that they can create a quality game. What they need to do right now however; is quit dicking around with the drip drip of information and just put as much out there as they can and do it yesterday; no more relying on crappy press outlets like PCgamer and no more mistakes. They should also revisit the pledge tiers and add some new ones and make existing ones more desirable. They have time to turn this around but only if they get their act together ASAP.

Jysin_sl said:

You do know that was all placeholder generic Unity art, right? This isn't the direction / art they want to go with.

Which in itself was a mess because they didn't make that clear on the KS. Hell, even now it just says "pre-Alpha screenshot". It took someone a few dozen pages back to figure out it was all generic Unity placeholder art. It absolutely gives the wrong impression to anyone at first glance of the KS. In my opinion, they would have been better off omitting those screens altogether and just use concept art.

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Oh no I know.

But look at the SS. What the hell is that showcasing about the game? A generic caster model in the air... backwards? 'SLASH!'? GPS minimap? What made them see that screenshot and go 'ya, this really shows what Pantheon is gonna be all about, and it's gonna get our backers PUMPED'?

The demand is definitely there. There has been a big response to games that are actually challenging in the last few years. Tons of indie games have gotten a lot of praise for the difficulty across all genres. More mainstream games like Dark Souls have gotten a lot of attention and success due to their difficulty. It's also impossible to ignore that 15 years later there are still thousands of people playing on EQ Emu servers.

Whether it was meant to be or not, this kickstarter has been a trial run of whether or not the 'Brad McQuaid' name alone is enough to fund a project. So far it is looking like it is not. Pantheon is just an idea, and it looks like Brad and co. rolled the dice hoping that the idea alone would be enough. If the history of the MMO market wasn't so disastrous it might have worked, but nobody's name is big enough to erase MMOschwitz. Especially a guy as polarizing as Brad.

Bruman_sl said:

I want to know if this isn't funded, if they'll continue to work on it after-hours. Or just say "oh well!" and move on.

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This is the same question that I have speculated about. As it stands they haven't lost anything because they haven't done anything. They very well could have said 'let's see if The Vision alone is enough to get us started, if not back to the grind where we work now.'

The idea of entering this space with absolutely nothing to offer, no matter who you are, is delusional.