Why I’m Supporting Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen
I promised myself after pledging in support of Everquest Next and seeing what happened to the game that I would never pledge in support of a game again. It was the first and only time I had supported the funding in support of a game and felt so burned by it all.
Until now. I am officially supporting Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen with a $250 pledge, and I’ll explain my reasoning. There is some background needed on my gaming history to help explain it.
Part of my background in gaming is engrained with MMORPG’s. A lot of people know me from competitive Smash Bros, or even my short stint in competitive Halo, but MMORPG’s were just as much a home for me.
The first MMORPG I played was Everquest Online Adventures on the PS2, which I will defend to this day as a game ahead of its time and doomed due to being on the PS2 when no one wanted to bother playing an MMORPG on the PS2. It was a vast world without loading between zones, so you could just go out there and explore in this huge, breathing but dangerous world. I remember before school I would just run as far as I could before I had to leave for school. It was the coolest thing to me, I saw a lot of different parts of the vast world due to that.
What MMORPG’s truly miss nowadays is a sense of community and a reason to make friends along with a dangerous world. How do you even make friends in World of Warcraft nowadays? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been an avid player of WoW, but I’ve recently met my WoW breaking point. The beginning of WoW shared a sense of community early on as well, but convenience features took that away. The anonymity that cross-servers/looking for group features provided bred a toxic culture. You’ll find many old school MMORPG players who have stories about their server reputation. It’s like reminiscing about old friends and acquaintances.
Your actions in Everquest had a direct impact on your ability to find groups, so if you were a jerk, you might be playing solo. Which is great that you can play Pantheon solo, but the best and most effective experience is with a group. If you scammed someone, you might not ever be trusted again. Word will get around about you. Games nowadays don’t provide that. I loved that familiar feeling of seeing someone I’ve grouped with a few times that wasn’t even in my guild 10 levels down the road. We’ve endured a lot together, especially since older games had a slower leveling pace.
Speaking of slower leveling pace: Anyone else love that? Because I sure did. It was a blast to get a group together and just grind out camps for hours. If MMORPG’s are all about the journey, which I find them to be, why would we want to blast through it so quick? Pantheon will have content that isn’t just backloaded to the end-game. Leveling will be impactful. Every level up will feel like an accomplishment. The difference in feeling between level 26 and level 29 is huge. It almost feels like the difference in your own age! It took work and time and you can’t help but give a little internal (or external) fist pump going when you level up.
Have you gotten tired of classes all feeling the same? Me too. If you played Everquest or older MMORPG’s, you’ll know that every class is truly different. From Bard, to Shadowknight, to Cleric, to Ranger. They all serve specific roles and have abilities that no one else can learn. Games like WoW have gotten so hyper-sensitive to making sure everyone can do everything that none of them feel unique. Take a look at the Pantheon classes, find what sounds cool to you, and carve your mark. An Enchanter is vastly different than a Magician and has capabilities that only they themselves can serve. Every group will feel vastly different and have a different way to combat a camp or a boss, which allows for complex gameplay depending on group composition. It won’t just be an AoE fest like it has become in the market today where you will hardly notice who is in your group as shiny colors and explosions emit from you.
Slower combat? Strict resource management? How can that be productive for a game? If you aren’t making friends in an MMORPG, the experience gets lessened. It doesn’t have to be a 400 APM experience. In fact, the more APM it requires, the less time you have to chat, unless you‘re on Discord and leave your mic open, but come on... Spare us the dog barks, don’t leave your mic open. Along with strict resource management, this allows for strategic gameplay and the ability to chat at the same time instead of just mashing the keybinds on your 12 button mouse. (I’m not hating on those mice, I have one and they are incredibly useful!) Naturally, when the pace of combat is slower, it does allow for bonding. Sure you’ll talk about the game and your strategies for that camp or boss, but because you aren’t just mashing 2 and breaking your keyboard, you naturally develop bonds and learn about people.
The reason I’m so drawn to Pantheon is because the vision and goal behind it is something that isn’t in the market nowadays in a more modern setting. That doesn’t mean casualizing it, but the team at Visionary Realms want this type of game in the world we currently live in, as do many of us. I loved Everquest, I’ve tried to play Project 1999, but I just can’t. I can’t get over awful UI’s, clunkiness, all of it. So that’s in the past for me. However, I always wanted the past brought to the future, and Visionary Realms is doing that.
Pantheon is not to be mistaken for Everquest HD though. You can check the website yourself to see what differences it has to push the game forward and past what Everquest was. Make no mistake, this is targeted at an audience that did generally grow up with a more difficult, slower paced, open world, social reliant MMORPG, but this isn’t just Everquest HD. They can’t escape the spiritual successor connection because of Brad McQuaid’s history with Everquest and Vanguard, but Pantheon will push that type of game forward further.
I would urge even a younger audience to give Pantheon a try though. This type of game will foster a community you bond and grow with. The slower pace of combat and leveling allows for communication and naturally forms friendships. The reliance upon each other breeds a positive culture, and everything you earn feels rewarding in a game like this. All classes feel entirely different from each other and contain playstyles you won’t find from current MMORPG’s. The vast world and lack of teleportation will have you appreciate and respect the world you traverse, instead of just being summoned everywhere.
So, congratulations Visionary Realms and Brad McQuaid. You’ve got $250 from me and I can’t wait to help be apart and test Alpha and enjoy a style of game I’ve so deeply missed.
