Pantheon - Brad McQuaid's next foray into the monetary forums market

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Node: May 20, 2001; KICKED IN THE COOTER; Taco Defender

Short history: Brad McQuaid, lead designer behind Everquest and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, rejoined EQ's development staff for a short time last year and then left to work on a new project. It was very mysterious and sekret. It turns out that project finally has a name, from this tweet: https://twitter.com/Aradune/status/418948466849480706 .

Important links:

Kickstarter, Here!. And for updates, Here! which has Q&A and other things. Since the kickstarter was very first launched, they have added some new tiers with different incentives, and they plan on redesigning the stretch goals.

The official site for the game is at https://www.pantheonrotf.com .

Mr. McQuaid is also answering questions when he can in this very thread, under the name Aradune! And add a second developer to that list, Ceythos, who worked on Vanguard! It's a party!

Anyways, since that tweet, we now know a few things about it! It has a name! Pantheon - Rise of the Fallen. It is a fantasy MMORPG that makes many claims that it will be a niche MMORPG that does not try to out-WoW WoW, and especially should appeal to players of Brad and his team's philosophy of how a game of this genre should play. Think classic Everquest up until, oh, Planes of Power or so. One of the comments he made on twitter in response to bringing us back to the old days of MMOGs was "That's the plan!"

So, what does the kickstarter and site claim about this game? What's going to make it special? Well, copying and pasting the kickstarter page would be huge and also redundant, so I'll try to summarize it as best I can. The goal of Pantheon is that they want to make a MMORPG a "virtual world" again, not just mere game you play. Social interactions are encouraged, because the more effort you expend, the more of a reward you receive. So grouping together with friends, spending more time on something, will feel much more rewarding in the end, instead of simply logging in, doing dailies, and logging back out. This means risk vs. reward is going to be emphasized - traveling alone is dangerous, and reaching the end of a dungeon and defeating the boss will give you a feeling of accomplishment.

There is a list of game tenets they will adhere too. There are more are on the kickstarter page, but I picked the ones that stood out, to me at least.

quote:

An understanding that a truly challenging game is truly rewarding

A mindset that Designed Downtime should be a part of the game to ensure players have time to form important social bonds. I love this one. In old EQ, or any virtual world, you aren't fighting and massacring things 100% of the time.

A belief that an immersive world requires intelligent inhabitants This is ambiguous. I wonder if it means the NPCs have daily routines. If that's the case, as long as its better than Radiant AI (a goal not hard to achieve) that would be quite a feat for a game of this genre.

An understanding that faction should be an integral part of interacting with the world and its citizenry.

A commitment to creating a world where a focus on group play will attract those seeking a challenge

A belief that the greatest sense of accomplishment comes when it is shared Probably the biggest part of what made old EQ great. Your friends and comrades helping you get that Big Badass Sword you've always wanted, and helping others do the same.

Here is another section they have under game details, again I'm only posting part of them.

quote:

An MMO developed by gamers who aren't afraid to target an audience of like-minded gamers. I take it this means they aren't aiming to become the biggest MMORPG in the world, and they aren't trying to design a game like that. Practically everybody else has tried that since World of Warcraft and they never last.

An MMO for players wanting a challenging and rewarding experience.

An open world in which you explore to obtain not only more powerful items but also new spells and abilities. I take it this means no zones, like Vanguard.

Travel where and when you want to in a non-linear world.

A huge world to explore, trade, and adventure in.

A complex back-story that players may gradually discover as they grow in power and explore the world. As someone who loves the lore Verant made for EQ, I love this one.

Group-focused social gameplay using a class based system to encourage teamwork.

Customize your class by bonding with the spirits of fallen warriors. Surely more about this will be detailed upon later, this sounds interesting.

Travel the world and profit from selling exotic items collected from distant realms. Different cities and outposts may have local Bazaars.

Limited and class based teleportation may get you close, but in order to reach many destinations you will have to traverse the planar scarred lands of Terminus through the use of your own two feet or on the back of your mighty steed. Did you love EQ before Plane of Knowledge's portals, and before they added that fast travel in Vanguard? It makes the world feel huge, and locations significant. While this may not be the most convenient, I think is a really important aspect that so many MMORPG developers simply do not understand.

Earning experience is only part of what it takes to level up. Exploring the world you will gain knowledge and power allowing you to overcome more powerful enemies.

The game will run on PC, Mac , and possibly other platforms in the future.

As for combat, this is not much on the page about it yet. Right now, they have this: (there is also autoattack, not mentioned here)

quote:

Pantheon�s combat places a focus on preparation and awareness of your enemy. The player can actively dodge, block, counter or deflect incoming attacks. You�ll want to choose different spells and abilities before an important encounter, selecting from a mix of offensive and defensive abilities. You�ll also see where the NPC�s spells and abilities are going to land and have an opportunity to avoid the attack.

I've got some other tidbits of information. First, I don't know the entire team, but I know three people that are in this development team, Visionary Realms, all of which I personally am excited about. First is obvious, Brad McQuaid, also known as Aradune, is the lead of the project. You can pretty much thank him for this genre getting popularized (along with Richard Garriot's Ultima Online) and this forum existing in the first place. If you played Everquest during Ruins of Kunark, and you liked the dungeon Old Sebilis, the person that designed that dungeon is on the team as well. Finally, Silius, the person responsible for Vanguard's crafting system, is on the team as well.

Media:

Since this is the very beginning, there isn't much here. We've got a clip, a couple small pre-alpha screenshots, and some concept art.

The first video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7mfQ94mzbQ
Q&A #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9nYMMluAMY
Q&A #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slve6F4aM9w

A dungeon design in it's very early stages. Sure seems familiar somehow...

I like how dark and foreboding this one is.

The caption for this one is: "My past has taught me that fallen deities become vengeful god kings." -- Aradune Mithara, Ranger Lord, warning the people of Triundia about the exiled god, Oranthel. Aradune, you aren't turning evil on us, are you?

Again, go to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1588672538/pantheon-rise-of-the-fallen , read up, and make a pledge, especially if you enjoyed the philosophy, gameplay, and design of Everquest and Vanguard, or if you want to fund a MMORPG that claims to break the mold as hard as it can.

Node fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Jan 19, 2014

# ? Jan 8, 2014 23:25

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# ? May 5, 2024 14:28

Tarq: Apr 25, 2008; by Ralp

I never tried Vanguard but I had always heard that he got screwed over by publishers and later SOE when they took it over. I'm curious to see what he has in the works.

# ? Jan 9, 2014 04:17

Matthaeus: Aug 1, 2013

I imagine he is going to have to get a lot of money from somewhere else as well to make this work? The 1-2 million that he's likely to get from the Kickstarter seems a little low for developing an MMO barring the project maintaining Star Citizen like momentum with PayPal donations afterwards.

# ? Jan 9, 2014 04:33

Bieeanshee: Aug 21, 2000; Not keen on keening.; Grimey Drawer

Tarq posted:

I never tried Vanguard but I had always heard that he got screwed over by publishers and later SOE when they took it over. I'm curious to see what he has in the works.

Story I heard is that he squandered time and resources on a huge scale, and when the investors said 'poo poo, or get off the pot', poo poo is precisely what they got. Either way, stories and a buck might get you some lovely coffee, and no matter what might have happened there are obviously people willing to bankroll him again.

I'm just going to sit on the sidelines, waiting to see how much of what is promised or assumed actually makes it to live. The usual.

# ? Jan 9, 2014 17:29

Alexander DeLarge: Dec 20, 2013

Bieeardo posted:

Story I heard is that he squandered time and resources on a huge scale, and when the investors said 'poo poo, or get off the pot', poo poo is precisely what they got. Either way, stories and a buck might get you some lovely coffee, and no matter what might have happened there are obviously people willing to bankroll him again.

I'm just going to sit on the sidelines, waiting to see how much of what is promised or assumed actually makes it to live. The usual.

I've heard both sides and I can't tell who is right, I'm just pretty sure that I'll be purchasing a $20-$30 pack in the off chance that it will be great. That's nearly nothing to me.

# ? Jan 9, 2014 21:26

Cnaiur: Jan 14, 2013

Wasn't there some inside information from former Sigil employees about Brad's drug abuse, crappy management and straight out lies? I'm all for second chances and his EQ success is definitely worth something, but hopefully he can put his ego aside and focus on the actual development instead of being a big CEO boss man.

# ? Jan 9, 2014 21:36

Peechka: Nov 10, 2005

On the past and the future, shamelesly stolen from rerolled.org

quote:

quote:
Brad- will you be talking about your past in regard to VG and what you've learned in the KS? That seems to be a point of contention for a lot of folks.

If I need to, yes. I really don't want to dwell on the past -- it's time to be forward thinking and to get excited about the future. That said, you guys need to know that we've learned from our mistakes so some discussion may be appropriate. If we aren't honest and we don't learn from the past, then the past was simply a failure and a defeat. I refuse to look at it that way and we won't be defeated by the mistakes of the past, because we are going to learn from them and do a better job this time. I've learned so much, especially about myself, because of both my successes and my failures.

For me it all came in a frustrating sequence. 9 times out of 10 a person fails, fails, fails, and then succeeds (if he ever succeeds at all). For me it was 1. huge success (half a billion dollars of profit for Sony, etc.), 2. Commercial failure (I say commercial because I still think VG was awesome in many ways and I�m still proud of it)

Anyway, the success first and failure second really jacked with my mind. I became extremely arrogant, thinking whatever I touched would turn into gold. And then when things didn't work out so well on my second try it was really quite a blow to me because I had deluded myself big time. I ended up in a bad place and I never want to be back there again, ever.

But also in learning more about myself over the years, I know this is what I want to do for the rest of my life: make MMOs that I and other gamers want to play. It's just who I am and it's the only thing that professionally makes me happy.

I just don't want to get bogged down in the past too much. If it makes sense to discuss something about the past, then I'll participate. But to be totally upfront and honest, I'm here primarily to promote my new game. It's a blast talking with you all, and I'm here for that as well, but let's spend most of the time here together facing forward. We will need your feedback and opinions in order to insure we make the game you guys want and that I want. It's about community building and being accessible.

Anyways, I hope that makes sense.

-Brad

Admitting the above is a good start. At least he realizes what happened and is willing to learn from it. Anyway as EQ was like the game of my life so far, Ill give him a second chance. In fact VG, while buggy and unfinished had a lot of of good poo poo going for it.

Peechka fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Jan 9, 2014

# ? Jan 9, 2014 22:28

Alexander DeLarge: Dec 20, 2013

Peechka posted:

On the past and the future, shamelesly stolen from rerolled.org

Admitting the above is a good start. At least he realizes what happened and is willing to learn from it. Anyway as EQ was like the game of my life so far, Ill give him a second chance. In fact VG, while buggy and unfinished had a lot of of good poo poo going for it.

It's a goddamn shame they never expanded on Vanguard. After it got fixed and it was actually playable due to optimization, it became infinitely better than EQ2.

# ? Jan 10, 2014 10:39

Cnaiur: Jan 14, 2013

It definitely *is* a shame that a rich virtual world like Vanguard's will go to waste. It makes you wish there was a tool to export large dungeons/landscapes from that game into new MMO's, without the textures.

All those years, all that money, and another unsuccessful for the MMO graveyard. Wouldn't it be lucrative for SOE to keep Vanguard's base and just keep developing the mechanics and re-release the game under a different name?

Cnaiur fucked around with this message at 13:08 on Jan 10, 2014

# ? Jan 10, 2014 11:32

Peechka: Nov 10, 2005

Cnaiur posted:

All those years, all that money, and another unsuccessful for the MMO graveyard. Wouldn't it be lucrative for SOE to keep Vanguard's base and just keep developing the mechanics and re-release the game under a different name?

Thats definitely what Sony should of done when they acquired the license from Sigil. People do give mmos a second chance and the proof is FFXIV.

They simply could of got a rag tag team of heavy hitter devs and programmers to fix it,squash the major bugs, add a bit of content where its missing, and then try to re-release the game. Minimal investment for a long haul of some profitability.

Instead they acquired it and let it sit in the bowels of their games section.

# ? Jan 10, 2014 17:22

Lemon King: Oct 4, 2009; im nt posting wif a mark on my head

Kickstarter just went live.
Rewards aren't crazy, just item and possibly some questline design and input.
The bonus tier rewards are the real meat of the funding campaign.

PC Gamer Article: http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/01/13/pantheon-rise-of-the-fallen-preview/

Lemon King fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Jan 13, 2014

# ? Jan 13, 2014 21:01

Matthaeus: Aug 1, 2013

I'm not sure what exactly this game is supposed to offer that other MMOs cannot. The team seems quite enamored with groups and exploration but I don't see how that is going to keep players past the free month.

# ? Jan 13, 2014 22:27

xZAOx: Sep 6, 2004; PORKCHOP SANDWICHES

Thanks Node - I'd been debating posting a thread, or bringing up in the like...5 threads that us EQ fans all run around in. I was worried about how the no-Kickstarter rule would apply.

Anywhos, yeah, a lot of info is over on rerolled.org where Brad answers questions sometimes, and someone is keeping their first post updated.

Decided I'd put my money on it, after all the free P99 I've played - I obviously love a lot of Brad does. Looking forward to it.

# ? Jan 14, 2014 02:17

Meow Tse-tung: Oct 11, 2004; No one cat should have all that power

I decided to jump on board too, because it seems like Brad knows the niche we want. Between EQN: landmark and this, I'm hoping MMOs are finally moving away from being game after game that tries to unsuccessfully copy wow. If it crashes and burns, then that's $45 I'm out. I can live with that considering the only games I'll probably get at launch this year are dark souls II and the new shadowrun expansion.

# ? Jan 14, 2014 02:32

Node: May 20, 2001; KICKED IN THE COOTER; Taco Defender

Wow he really went nuts with the stretch goals.

Just going with Brad's name alone I'd rather play this than EQN.

# ? Jan 14, 2014 02:39

Node: May 20, 2001; KICKED IN THE COOTER; Taco Defender

I really like this line on the kickstarter page:

A mindset that Designed Downtime should be a part of the game to ensure players have time to form important social bonds.

So what does everybody think? Will this make the target goal? If it does, how many stretch goals will it make? Or are people sick of Brad McQuaid, his design philosophy ("The Vision",) and the kickstarter will not get enough money?

Node fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Jan 14, 2014

# ? Jan 14, 2014 02:51

Matthaeus: Aug 1, 2013

Node posted:

So what does everybody think? Will this make the target goal? If it does, how many stretch goals will it make? Or are people sick of Brad McQuaid, his design philosophy ("The Vision",) and the kickstarter will not get enough money?

I don't see why Pantheon can't break a million, Pathfinder Online and Camelot Unchained got at least that much with nothing but a big name or two and concept art. Though the limited quantities for backer levels may complicate things.

# ? Jan 14, 2014 03:04

Meow Tse-tung: Oct 11, 2004; No one cat should have all that power

Node posted:

So what does everybody think? Will this make the target goal? If it does, how many stretch goals will it make? Or are people sick of Brad McQuaid, his design philosophy ("The Vision",) and the kickstarter will not get enough money?

The only thing I'm not too happy about is bard being a 3 million dollar stretch goal. I want to be a bard again and that feels like extortion

. Otherwise, I think the tiers are kind of poorly designed, and he shouldn't limit the $45 one since I think that's what most people will bite on.

# ? Jan 14, 2014 03:10

Hexel: Nov 18, 2011

Bearserker posted:

I'm not sure what exactly this game is supposed to offer that other MMOs cannot. The team seems quite enamored with groups and exploration but I don't see how that is going to keep players past the free month.

I just watched the video on pcgamer and when I saw the words: planar high fantasy I immediately thought of Planescape: Torment and how cool it would be if someone made an MMO like that.

# ? Jan 14, 2014 03:45

Node: May 20, 2001; KICKED IN THE COOTER; Taco Defender

How much did Eternity, Wasteland, and Numeria make on the first day?

# ? Jan 14, 2014 04:34

Matthaeus: Aug 1, 2013

Node posted:

How much did Eternity, Wasteland, and Numeria make on the first day?

I don't have the exact numbers but according to the updates Project Eternity hit its 1.1 million goal in a day and both Wasteland 2 and Torment also met their 900,000 goals in around the same amount of time. If you want other MMO kickstarters for comparison Pathfinder Online raised 120,000 out of a million and Camelot Unchained 500,000 out of 2 million.

# ? Jan 14, 2014 04:59

Hal_2005: Feb 23, 2007

Smells alot like Vanguard 2.0: Electric Boogaloo.

Anyone who is going to throw money at Brad really should read the rerolled thread and do a bit of due diligence on this venture.

# ? Jan 14, 2014 05:42

grrarg: Feb 14, 2011; Don't lose your head over it.

I'm amazed this thread has gone five days without Utnayan popping in to cite his notes and inside sources on Aradune kicking a puppy.

It is a shame Brad wasted all of Microsoft and later SOE's money on Vanguard. That game could have been great if he wasn't too busy stealing employee's painkillers to manage his team. The Blood Mage was one of the best healing class ever, and some of the cities had amazing art design.

# ? Jan 14, 2014 07:10

Node: May 20, 2001; KICKED IN THE COOTER; Taco Defender

Bearserker posted:

I don't have the exact numbers but according to the updates Project Eternity hit its 1.1 million goal in a day and both Wasteland 2 and Torment also met their 900,000 goals in around the same amount of time. If you want other MMO kickstarters for comparison Pathfinder Online raised 120,000 out of a million and Camelot Unchained 500,000 out of 2 million.

It's not even at 40k yet and it's been over half a day. That $6.7m stretch goal just might not be attainable, if you can believe it. Or even the initial goal of $800k.

# ? Jan 14, 2014 08:46

Matthaeus: Aug 1, 2013

Node posted:

It's not even at 40k yet and it's been over half a day. That $6.7m stretch goal just might not be attainable, if you can believe it. Or even the initial goal of $800k.

I think Pantheon can make it if the Kickstarter breaks 100k tomorrow and builds some momentum but meeting the stretch goals seems quite unlikely. I'm not sure if it is because the relative lack of coverage leading up to the Kickstarter or McQuaid's history that is holding it back but you would think that if City of Titans made it Pantheon could as well. It also was probably a bad idea to limit each of the pledges and reveal all of the stretch goals out of the gate. It may have helped to save them for later in the Kickstarter where they could tailor them according to backer feedback.

# ? Jan 14, 2014 10:00

Byolante: Mar 23, 2008; by Cyrano4747

I think most people rightfully think 'this guy thinks making a game that tries to avoid all the improvements made to the genre in the last 10 years is a good stretch goal' and avoid it like the plague it is,e specially when he is a junkie who already ran a 'totally a new improved everquest' into the ground losing huge ammounts in the process.

# ? Jan 14, 2014 12:16

Stanley Pain: Jun 16, 2001; by Fluffdaddy

What I got from that video is. I like teams, and grouping and grouping teams to do team things into this team group game of teen groping...

# ? Jan 14, 2014 13:08

Peechka: Nov 10, 2005

Byolante posted:

I think most people rightfully think 'this guy thinks making a game that tries to avoid all the improvements made to the genre in the last 10 years is a good stretch goal' and avoid it like the plague it is,e specially when he is a junkie who already ran a 'totally a new improved everquest' into the ground losing huge ammounts in the process.

And what improvements are those? Insta travel? Throw away spreadsheet +2 binding loot coming from loot pinatas? Dungeon finders turning mmorpgs into glorified lobby games? Running same L shaped instances over and over with people you dont give a poo poo about and never will? Quest hubs of meaningless quests leading only to more quest hubs of more meaningless quests, that needs to be all done solo as quickly as possible because END GAME? Combat that evolved into playing the UI instead of playing a game?

Sometimes poo poo needs to go backwards in order to move forward. MMORPGS today are stuck in the mud with the wheels spinning and the entire car is sinking. In the meantime, enjoy your bright future of mmorpgs with all those improvements of the last 10 yrs, you have Wildstar, TESO to look forward to.

Peechka fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Jan 14, 2014

# ? Jan 14, 2014 15:58

xZAOx: Sep 6, 2004; PORKCHOP SANDWICHES

In case it's not obvious, it's important to remember the goal with this game. He's trying to make a niche game with a specific target audience. Not the "everything to everyone" that WoW and almost all MMOs since go for.

This will probably include things like a harsher world, forced grouping, less UI quality of life changes that have immersion-hurting side-effects, etc.

There's definitely a market for people who want a prettier EverQuest. The question will be if it's enough to get it funded or not.

# ? Jan 14, 2014 17:07

Peechka: Nov 10, 2005

Well to tell you the truth, they did not do a good job with the kickstater to start with. It feels cheap and grossly underdone IMO. Instead of taking abot specifics like you outlined in your post, he talks about general poo poo and in reality trying to appeal to everybody. and those screens they put up, WTF is with that?

I dont think this will be funded, sad to say. I gave him $45 /shrugs because I believe. But its looking like a lost cause.

# ? Jan 14, 2014 19:12

Lemon King: Oct 4, 2009; im nt posting wif a mark on my head

Peechka posted:

Well to tell you the truth, they did not do a good job with the kickstater to start with. It feels cheap and grossly underdone IMO. Instead of taking abot specifics like you outlined in your post, he talks about general poo poo and in reality trying to appeal to everybody. and those screens they put up, WTF is with that?

I dont think this will be funded, sad to say. I gave him $45 /shrugs because I believe. But its looking like a lost cause.

The other kickstarter projects had some media buildup before they went up, letting people know what was going on.

# ? Jan 14, 2014 19:31

Doh004: Apr 22, 2007; Mmmmm Donuts...

Stanley Pain posted:

What I got from that video is. I like teams, and grouping and grouping teams to do team things into this team group game of teen groping...

Seriously, that video was horrendous. The sound was completely hosed (that's why they had to CC it), McQuaid was clearly ad-libbing (not well) and some people were reading straight from a script (not well). The screenshots looked like poo poo and they showed the same thing over and over. If their proposal is that lovely, I can only imagine how the finished product will turn out (if it ever does).

# ? Jan 14, 2014 20:03

Lemon King: Oct 4, 2009; im nt posting wif a mark on my head

New tiers were added and some more info was released:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1588672538/pantheon-rise-of-the-fallen/posts

quote:

One of the most prominent suggestions over the past 24 hours has been to add in some better tier options. And you guys have made some excellent suggestions! We've added in several new pledge tiers to offer more variety in rewards. And there are more to come! To have a quick look:
We've added in an unlimited tier at $55. This will get you beta access to the game. Right now in that price range your best deal is still the $45 alpha invite, but those won't last, so we wanted to make sure everyone had an opportunity at beta.

By popular demand we've added a $250 tier. We cannot offer lifetime subs on Kickstarter, so instead we're offering a special discounted subscription plan that will only cost you $1 per subscription year. These will go fast!

The Guildmaster's Pledge at $750 is designed for guilds. It includes 10 copies of the game with 30 days subscription time, access to beta for those 10 players, early guild creation and guild name reservation, and a customized guild tabard.

For those who want the deluxe guild package, check out the Forefather's Pledge. It includes everything in the Grandmaster's pledge, except you get alpha access instead of beta, a cosmetic pet for the 10 guildmates, AND your guild gets to name a boss encounter. Every guild facing that boss will know who you are.

We'll be adding more tiers over the next little while, so be sure to check back often, and please, feel free to continue to make suggestions. Maybe there's something you want that you don't see? We love to hear from the players.

# ? Jan 15, 2014 00:31

xZAOx: Sep 6, 2004; PORKCHOP SANDWICHES

Doh004 posted:

Seriously, that video was horrendous. The sound was completely hosed (that's why they had to CC it), McQuaid was clearly ad-libbing (not well) and some people were reading straight from a script (not well). The screenshots looked like poo poo and they showed the same thing over and over. If their proposal is that lovely, I can only imagine how the finished product will turn out (if it ever does).

I thought it was mostly fine, except for Silius. He was horrible, and painful to watch - much more-so than the others to me. They should've cut him out. I felt the rest of the guys at least were speaking what they believed - he was totally 100% just on the script.

# ? Jan 15, 2014 01:08

Inimicul: Oct 14, 2006; Shenanigans!

Lemon King posted:

For those who want the deluxe guild package, check out the Forefather's Pledge. It includes everything in the Grandmaster's pledge, except you get alpha access instead of beta, a cosmetic pet for the 10 guildmates, AND your guild gets to name a boss encounter. Every guild facing that boss will know who you are.

Loading... Please wait.
Now entering GOON RUSH

# ? Jan 15, 2014 05:52

Node: May 20, 2001; KICKED IN THE COOTER; Taco Defender

Inimicul posted:

Loading... Please wait.
Now entering GOON RUSH

The Alpha Goon hits you for 439 points of damage!
The Alpha Goon hits you for 439 points of damage!
The Alpha Goon hits you for 388 points of damage!
The Alpha Goon hits you for 241 points of damage!
The Alpha Goon tries to hit you, but misses!
The Alpha Goon hits you for 498 points of damage!
The Alpha Goon shits his pants for 10,000 points of damage.
The Alpha Goon has been slain!

# ? Jan 15, 2014 08:29

Tom Powers: May 26, 2007; You big dummy!

Meow Tse-tung posted:

The only thing I'm not too happy about is bard being a 3 million dollar stretch goal. I want to be a bard again and that feels like extortion .

Man SCREW that. Bards rule!

.. On the plus side, though, while most people may not LIKE to play bards, they at least recognize that bards are definitely A GOOD THING TO HAVE - and, in addition, making it a stretch goal tells me they may be planning on putting in extra effort to make it great.

Screw kickstarter in general, actually. I have not seen one MMO on kickstarter that wasn't seemingly just a concept that changed radically after it was funded. EQN pretty much dropped off the radar like a rock for a lot of people when they brought out more details about Landmark and their stupid founder's crap.. to be fair, there wasn't a kickstarter- but it's a good example. Star Citizen, and you may disagree with me, piqued my interest and promptly lost it when they started bringing out exclusive ship designs and such (that weren't simply cosmetic) for paying $x on holidays long before the game was even released. That one WAS on kickstarter.

FWIW, I still enjoyed Vanguard. I think the studio went into it expecting it to be a huge success, but it was dated before it even came out. GW2 in contrast got a shitload of polish and DOESN'T have a monthly sub, so it's going to be pretty tough to lose their userbase, and that means people are happy- nobody likes a ghost town. Even if it's a GOOD ghost town.

I'll be keeping an eye on Pantheon's development. I'm not sure this is really a good time for the MMO market in general, though.

Edit: Also, the kickstarter rewards are (currently) pretty reasonable. Monetary bonuses are the best bonuses- of course, I don't know the stats on the items, I'd imagine they're not really game changers.

Tom Powers fucked around with this message at 08:57 on Jan 15, 2014

# ? Jan 15, 2014 08:51

Cnaiur: Jan 14, 2013

The Kickstarter just isn't that strong. I've backed Camelot Unchained in the past, and that had a lovely KS as well, but at least Mark Jacobs was all over the place spreading the gospel and answering questions on the KS page and MMO communities. I might be overlooking something, but I'm missing the passion I guess? It doesn't show that they are dying to develop an MMO for a specific niche. It sounds like, 'we want to do what we've done in the past, but with a twist'.

Still, I'd like them to actually make it and deliver, just to prove that lower cost MMO's are viable as well and able to deliver an ROI and a small but enthusiastic community.

Cnaiur fucked around with this message at 10:51 on Jan 15, 2014

# ? Jan 15, 2014 10:49

xZAOx: Sep 6, 2004; PORKCHOP SANDWICHES

Cnaiur posted:

Still, I'd like them to actually make it and deliver, just to prove that lower cost MMO's are viable as well and able to deliver an ROI and a small but enthusiastic community.

Part of the risk with this one is that $800,000 isn't really even to fund the game. They still plan on getting additional funding after that. It's to prove that the game has a market.

That said, I still backed it. I've been wanting to see an old school-ish MMO, so felt it was time to do what I could to support it.

# ? Jan 15, 2014 20:36

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# ? May 5, 2024 14:28

Meow Tse-tung: Oct 11, 2004; No one cat should have all that power

That's pretty much it. People constantly say that it's a rose-colored glasses thing, and that no one wants to play a title with oldschool design ideas, so I put my money where my mouth is on this one. I think EQN looks interesting, but overall I'm really disappointed MMOs went the direction they did, and I want a return to a lot of the ideas we had in the UO/EQ days.

# ? Jan 15, 2014 20:41

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The MMO HMO > Pantheon - Brad McQuaid's next foray into the monetary forums market

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