Anyone else watch Cohhcarnage's stream today? The game reminds me a lot of EQ... Just need someone to cast SoW on the project (remember when you could SoW boats in EQ?) lol. What does everyone think?
Meh. I'll definitely check it out when (if) it get's released. Otherwise no point in drooling over something that may never be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon:_Rise_of_the_Fallen Brad McQuaid, the co-creator of EverQuest and founder of Visionary Realms, served as the CCO for Pantheon until his death in November 2019.
If I remember right Kickstarter for development started in January 2014 and they started pre-alpha in December 2017. With the game in pre-alpha for that long and still taking people's money to get into pre-alpha I would question if they have any plans to release it.
The project was questionable as happening and delivering what was originally promised while Brad was still alive. After his death I have less than 0% confidence on it ever coming to market. If it does it will be nothing at all like what was ever promised or shown. I want to say that it started in 2013 almost immediately after he left SOE again, but that could have more so been setting up the company and team for it. I also want to say that they started close pre-alpha well before December 2017, but that a buy in pre-alpha started then.
I was excited for Pantheon 8 years ago. Today? Naw. Why do the characters look like they're prancing across the prairie? Did they hire animators off Fiverr?
These replies smell like fear. The fear that these veteran EQ players know when Pantheon releases its going to kill EQ. Being a Pantheon denier made much more sense about 12-18 months ago when they admitted they didn't have the funding to bring the game to launch and they had to rebuild it. Now that the game has 7 figure investors and the proof of progress. I think saying the game wont launch is more copium than anything. Will it be successful? That's still up in the air but I do not think Pantheon has to even be successful for it to hurt EQ. EQ has only existed this far because it exists in a void. If you want to play a EQ style game you have to play EQ but there is no part of EQ that is not horribly out of date and/or barely functional. Even a bad modern EQ is going to be better to play than EQ itself. Pantheon is an ambitious project and its going to take a long time to make if they want it to be everything they say. I have not seen any sign of it being vaporwear or a scam like the other MMOs we saw fall apart in the past years (Crowfall, Camelot Unchained, Chronical of Elyria). Its just taking longer than people would like and that doesn't seem like a reasonable reason to doubt its validity.
I was about to joke that Pantheon seemed more like a conspiracy theory gone weird than a possible reality. But, if they have actual funding, who knows?
A game that has been in pre-alpha for over 5 years is going to kill a game that is almost 25 years old? Also how many other games have been said to be Everquest killers over the years yet it is still around? Pantheon has taken so much money from people so far and there is nothing to show for it except for some videos they produce once in a while. Until the game moves far enough along to be in beta I don't think there is any concern about it being an Everquest killer, not that I think that would happen even if it does get released.
If by "release" you mean "push 'a thing' out the door like a wet fart and immediately abandon it," sure, they'll release something, someday.
You say 25 years like that means something. EQ is on life support already. Like I said the reason this game still has a player base is because its unique. It has gotten away with not modernizing because its never had direct competition. I think in 2 years Pantheon will be an objectively better EQ even if its still in pre-alpha. I make that prediction based on the pattern of progresson. Pantheon has made more progress as a game in its development even after having to rebuild much of the game than EQ has in the past 10 years. Is EQ a better game than it was 10 years ago? Other very old games have found ways to keep themselves relevant in spite of direct competition. Best example of the top of my head is Age of Empires II which was released the same year as EQ. This game is still a titan of its genre and despite other similar RTS games being developed over the years has maintained its relevance. In contrast EQ has lost players to games that are not even direct competition. Even a bad Pantheon looks like too much for EQ to handle.
If it comes out in a playable state that matches what it promises I'll play it. Probably won't happen though. If you'd like to be militant about disagreeing feel free, but that's no way to live. I'm disappointed in Crowfall, but never sunk any money into it.