Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen Selling NFT 'Unique Collectibles' for Development Fundraising | MMORPG.

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Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen Selling NFT 'Unique Collectibles' for Development Fundraising | MMORPG.com

The team behind Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is selling unique assets as NFTs to help fundraise for the game.

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Slapshot1188

I think it's stupid, but at least the purchaser is getting exactly what they purchased. Unlike most of the prior funding which has been raised on stuff that maybe someday will get delivered.

Yattaproz

The more I see about this company the less professional they look.
Except for a few very talented and respected individuals, VR really seems amateurish. The more it goes the worse it looks.

Party_at_PoD_Lift

Once Pantheon dies I think we can all say it'll be the final end to the first wave of inspired MMORPGs which means that the system WoW Retail has now is the system we're going to be looking forward to for a long time.

Ashes of Creation is really the only hope we have right now for something to be different. If that flops then we're kinda just going to have to admit that the genre overall is in a dead state. It's become nothing more than a lobby game for over-mechanized boss fights in dungeons and raids, and a lobby game for 3D PvP.

The romanticism of MMORPGs with an ever-present world will be sent into the graveyard.

Mendel

So, the fiction of 'fully funded' and 'angel investors' has been put to bed?

The bigger (and less cynical) question is, if this NFT actually succeeds, will there be any reason for VR to actually produce a working game?  It seems like they can become highly profitable as virtual artists (a la Star Citizen) and forget the whole 'I work as a developer' thing.  Concept art is far, far, far quicker to produce than a game, and this just monetizes conceptual art to levels beyond what SC and the like have done.

How long will it be before some game company tries to pass off something of Boris Vallejo's or another famous fantasy artist's work as an original NFT?

saker

Disturbing...

saker

Party_at_PoD_Lift said:

Once Pantheon dies I think we can all say it'll be the final end to the first wave of inspired MMORPGs which means that the system WoW Retail has now is the system we're going to be looking forward to for a long time.



Ashes of Creation is really the only hope we have right now for something to be different. If that flops then we're kinda just going to have to admit that the genre overall is in a dead state. It's become nothing more than a lobby game for over-mechanized boss fights in dungeons and raids, and a lobby game for 3D PvP.



The romanticism of MMORPGs with an ever-present world will be sent into the graveyard.

Depressing, very depressing.

Vorthanion

My concern is that if they are willing to go to this extreme for financing, how likely will that be reflected in the operational business model for the MMO? Using a cash shop for fundraising is one thing, but I will be a very unhappy gamer if they implement this or other similar kinds of monetization schemes after release.

goldwheat

Wow, so this is the milestone after 7 years of taking donations and producing nothing? Selling a digital token that means nothing in a desperate attempt to continue funding?

Sometimes, the best you can hope for is to serve as a warning example to others.

At least Bazgrim and Kilsin have stopped with the "We're fully funded to launch" nonsense they were zealously defending during the entirety of Project Faerthale, which also never actually completed. How's the latest retcon attempt coming along, boys?

Maybe they should just ask the EQ2 team how they finished that MMO in five years? Dunno, just a thought.

Slapshot1188

Torval said:

Slapshot1188 said:

I think it's stupid, but at least the purchaser is getting exactly what they purchased. Unlike most of the prior funding which has been raised on stuff that maybe someday will get delivered.

Everyone is getting actually what we purchased. No one purchased a finished MMO. They purchased the development of one and part of that is the finished product if and when it ever delivers.

If we break down what people are purchasing here it isn't much more concrete. I disagree with the article in that they're getting a uniquely minted item. They are not. They are purchasing digital ownership of this asset based on a unique blockchain key.

The item itself is not unique. It can be copied and downloaded and used by others regardless of ownership. These purchasers don't even own the copyright to the work. The original "artist" still owns that and can make exact reproductions of the work while tying other unique keys to the asset. Basically what people are purchasing is the right to sell this file that anyone else can freely download on the internet.

So the TL;DR is that this project is going full Star Citizen. Okay, that's a way of doing it, but the only value these screenshots hold are from fans of the project. At least with Star Citizen the digital asset you purchase is useful in game. I wouldn't be surprised though if SC eventually tied their ship assets to a blockchain key so they could be bought and sold on a market.

There is a lot of focus on this particular event, but lost in that buzz is the fact that the studio has been sending mixed messages about funding for nearly the entire project. Is it fully funded or not?

In any event I find this to be extremely low effort. I'm not a fan of this blockchain art concept at all, but at least they could have created real "in game" items and tied them to NFTs. That way players would have something of use and would be valuable when the game launches. Easily reproducible JPEGs are not.

My point is that these folks are immediately receiving everything in the transaction.  An NFT of some art.  All the donations/purchases/whatever include items such as Beta Access, or cool sounding items... which are hoped to be received someday in the future.

Aenghas

"The romanticism of MMORPGs with an ever-present world will be sent into the graveyard."



The Simpsons 'stop, he's already dead' meme comes to mind.
Games with overlands keep getting made but so many factors get in the way of creating alive worlds bustling with players. Outside of launches, expansions or updates you'll always have significant chunks of overland turn to ghost towns. The challenge isn't to make a persistent world, it is to be able to deliver content in a way that can keep it alive.

On topic though, I personally would never spend money on virtual art so this is a nope from me.

inmysights

Christ, this is so upsetting, I hope something good comes from this.

Utinni

I did not have blockchain based art assets on my pantheon fundraising bingo board. If you're at the point of needing 100s of dollars then uh...

DarkEvilHatred

Oh, how the story changed since Brad passed away.

Tokken

Bad news for Pantheon Fans.

jimmywolf

i wonder after 7 years of hard work, with little to show for it, good new pre alpha / alpha 1 is sooooon !!!!


if they really learned anything about programing making games and are really making progress or still stuck trying work out the " bugs " slowing down development. i ignored the criticism for HEX TCG and that turn to shit real quick with talk of hex 2 reboot... my biggest grip and point of my rant, is it not hard to sell a dream and it not hard to get loyal followers, releasing a finished good product? that is worth gold.


i have zero faith this game will be any good 7 years and this is it? so what the timeline for one expansion? 2-3 years? what about events, free updates ? their not going sell millions of copies and higher 50+ people to churn out fast new content and what is made will feel underwhelming but if your invested am sure the payoff in 3 years will be sweet when the full game is out with a few patches.

goozmania

I find people saying "the genre is dead" amusing, as the genre has more players today than it ever has, by a longshot. YOU just don't want to play the existing games.

That said, I also don't want to play any of the existing games. The genre has never been more alive, though.

Kyleran

goozmania said:

I find people saying "the genre is dead" amusing, as the genre has more players today than it ever has, by a longshot.

Prove it.

goozmania

Kyleran said:

goozmania said:

I find people saying "the genre is dead" amusing, as the genre has more players today than it ever has, by a longshot.

Prove it.

As much as this stupid comment made me cringe; it's easy enough to prove...

World of Warcraft: 4,343,343 estimated daily players.
World of Warcraft Classic: 1,408,310 estimated daily players.
Old-School Runescape: 2,604,508 estimated daily players.
Runescape: 1,374,030 estimated daily players.
Final Fantasy XIV: 2,353,644 estimated daily players.
Elite: Dangerous: 1,011,980 estimated daily players.
Elder Scrolls Online: 1,182,175 estimated daily players.
Black Desert Online: 1,021,841 estimated daily players.
Guild Wars 2: 538,015 estimated daily players.
Star Wars: 429,877 estimated daily players.
EVE: 478,649 estimated daily players.
Phantasy Star Online 2: 315,145 estimated daily players.

These are only MMORPG's that are played in the west... Lineage, Lost Ark, Aion and Dungeon Fighter Online double these numbers.

These numbers are at least 100x the total MMORPG player population 11 years ago, when people on this website considered the genre "alive."
When Everquest was at its peak, and they were thrilled about their population... they had a whole 200,000 players.

BruceYee

goozmania said:

Kyleran said:

goozmania said:

I find people saying "the genre is dead" amusing, as the genre has more players today than it ever has, by a longshot.

Prove it.

As much as this stupid comment made me cringe; it's easy enough to prove...

World of Warcraft: 4,343,343 estimated daily players.
World of Warcraft Classic: 1,408,310 estimated daily players.
Old-School Runescape: 2,604,508 estimated daily players.
Runescape: 1,374,030 estimated daily players.
Final Fantasy XIV: 2,353,644 estimated daily players.
Elite: Dangerous: 1,011,980 estimated daily players.
Elder Scrolls Online: 1,182,175 estimated daily players.
Black Desert Online: 1,021,841 estimated daily players.
Guild Wars 2: 538,015 estimated daily players.
Star Wars: 429,877 estimated daily players.
EVE: 478,649 estimated daily players.
Phantasy Star Online 2: 315,145 estimated daily players.

These are only MMORPG's that are played in the west... Lineage, Lost Ark, Aion and Dungeon Fighter Online double these numbers.

These numbers are at least 100x the total MMORPG player population 11 years ago, when people on this website considered the genre "alive."
When Everquest was at its peak, and they were thrilled about their population... they had a whole 200,000 players.

That didn't go well...

Also adding to what you wrote EVE was touted as a success story in the western game industry for getting and maintaining 300k subs.

SOE was touted as another success in the west because SWG had 250k subs which is why at that time subbed players were so upset at them for changing the game just so they could try and get some of WoW's 1 million. Yes, you read that right... SOE changed/gutted their already successful game to try to snag/lure some of WoW's 1 million subscribers...

Kyleran

15 years ago many developers published actual hard data on number of subs, the real cringe worthy point of his figures is the word "estimated."

By who, what methodology, etc, show me the links to those figures, otherwise it's just numbers from some rando on the internet.

Point being, he can't actually prove his comment, so his assertion is as invalid.

We "know" WOW no longer has subs anywhere near it's peak, and with today's hybrid monetization models, mega servers etc it hard to say much other than I'm pretty sure they are earning a lot more money, very likely from far fewer customers / accounts which CCP actually confirmed was true in their case several years ago before the acquisition.

ChildoftheShadows

I don't get the complaints at all. They're taking advantage of the NFT craze to earn some more money. Big deal.

HidesBehindShadow

saker said:

Party_at_PoD_Lift said:

Once Pantheon dies I think we can all say it'll be the final end to the first wave of inspired MMORPGs which means that the system WoW Retail has now is the system we're going to be looking forward to for a long time.



Ashes of Creation is really the only hope we have right now for something to be different. If that flops then we're kinda just going to have to admit that the genre overall is in a dead state. It's become nothing more than a lobby game for over-mechanized boss fights in dungeons and raids, and a lobby game for 3D PvP.



The romanticism of MMORPGs with an ever-present world will be sent into the graveyard.

Depressing, very depressing.

It's depressing you actually take his magic mirror shit seriously lol.

laserit

goozmania said:

Kyleran said:

goozmania said:

I find people saying "the genre is dead" amusing, as the genre has more players today than it ever has, by a longshot.

Prove it.

As much as this stupid comment made me cringe; it's easy enough to prove...

World of Warcraft: 4,343,343 estimated daily players.
World of Warcraft Classic: 1,408,310 estimated daily players.
Old-School Runescape: 2,604,508 estimated daily players.
Runescape: 1,374,030 estimated daily players.
Final Fantasy XIV: 2,353,644 estimated daily players.
Elite: Dangerous: 1,011,980 estimated daily players.
Elder Scrolls Online: 1,182,175 estimated daily players.
Black Desert Online: 1,021,841 estimated daily players.
Guild Wars 2: 538,015 estimated daily players.
Star Wars: 429,877 estimated daily players.
EVE: 478,649 estimated daily players.
Phantasy Star Online 2: 315,145 estimated daily players.

These are only MMORPG's that are played in the west... Lineage, Lost Ark, Aion and Dungeon Fighter Online double these numbers.

These numbers are at least 100x the total MMORPG player population 11 years ago, when people on this website considered the genre "alive."
When Everquest was at its peak, and they were thrilled about their population... they had a whole 200,000 players.

Those are some serious estimations. I’ve never seen estimations like that down to the single person before.

The only number that looks like an estimate is the very last one.

Where did the data come from?

bcbully

Ha, check the books BCBully first crpto post on the site a few weeks a Magic legends is on the blockchain.

Come on gramps I'll show you how to setup your coinbase wallet.

You guys mad, but they implement blockchain tech it will make this game. Shit they'd make me a pve'r lol