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Brad McQuaid has posted a short note on his Facebook page (now removed, it appears) that reveals the news that development on Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen has slowed. According to McQuaid, initial funding by the team to develop Pantheon has dried up and until further funding is secured, the slow down in production is required.
Bittersweet news:
In the past few months we have seen some of the most passion bubble up from the Internet than we have in some time; all for an idea of a game we all want to see happen. It has been an exciting time for all of us.
Over the first month of development through crowdfunding, we’ve been able to achieve what was needed to be done in order to gain investor interest. That is, we’ve shown there is interest in a game like Pantheon, we’ve built the term sheets and business plan, and now have a prototype we can show to potential investors.
The downside now is that our initial resources have depleted, which regrettably means that development is going to slow down until finances can be secured. It’s not something we want to do by any means, but as we cannot guarantee paychecks to the team, they each need to be able to spend time on other things to pay the bills.
Once we’re able to get that level of funding we can then secure much-needed studio space and be able to pick up the pace of production dramatically. We are deeply thankful to this community for getting Pantheon to this critical point, where we have been able to put together an attractive package to present to potential investors.
In the interim, any donations made at this point until further notice will be going directly to maintaining the website during this phase, and not towards development.
Comments
This was predictable the moment Brad said, "Hey guys, I got another idea for a new MMORPG."
We knew this was Vaporware™ a long time ago.
Bad luck for the kickstarter investors and their pledges.
PS: It seems he has taken the post down... typical Brad.
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After the initial foray of EQ1, and then the staggering clusterF that was Vanguard at launch it has come down to;
"Fool me once, Shame on you! Fool me twice, Shame on Me!"
EQ and VG remain the games I have spent the most time in, years of played time. But much if not most was after others moved in to clean up the mess left in McQuaids wake. Sadly, it is time the old warhorse Aradune is put out to pasture.
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As long as they are continuously keeping notes on current features in MMO's, and improving on their base ideas a bit as time goes on, it's not going to be a huge problem if it's a year or two down the road. People who want to play now, are wanting to do so based on the old-school concepts, after all, which isn't exactly going to get anymore dated than it already is.
Graphics are a different story. Doesn't look like they're going for a stylized look that will hold up for years, so likely won't look the greatest down the road. But still, graphics don't make the game.
I'm gonna keep an open mind and see how things play out, but for the most part, it's true that this doesn't look good.
Maybe SOE will bail them out again, get rid of them and add another game to their roster?
But, but... I thought an old school MMO was what players really wanted! A return to the roots of EQ style 'challenge' and blah blah blah...
The proof is, as they say, in the pudding. People claim to want challenge, people claim to want sandboxes, yet almost nobody's willing to pay for them. What a shocker.
AN' DERE AIN'T NO SUCH FING AS ENUFF DAKKA, YA GROT! Enuff'z more than ya got an' less than too much an' there ain't no such fing as too much dakka. Say dere is, and me Squiggoff'z eatin' tonight!
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It didn't reach the funding goal on Kickstarter, meaning everyone who donated on Kickstarter did not have their pledge charged and lost nothing. People who migrated over to the new site and pledged though Paypal on the new site will not be seeing their money refunded.
I've never seen worst business decisions being made from an "indie" company ever. Making the forums private access to those who either subscribe at $15 a month or pay $300 upfront was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen done by a gaming company, including ones like EA. They wanted to use the forums so people can participate in the development process and keep chatter about the game other than development feedback to a minimum, but forgot that without a publisher their game won't have financial backing to sustain itself and without ongoing and active conversations from potential backers won't continue to bring in new people when they are excluded off the bat for not dropping an absurd amount of money with even less accountability than Kickstarter. They were warned repeatedly about this and the new way too fervent fans of the game labeled people giving good advice via Kickstarter and fan site forums as trolls.
Anyone who expects this to pick up again or them to get a publisher with little to show and a lack of commitment (sorry, but if you can't keep development going when you run out of funds, then you aren't committed enough to see this through) especially when they already stated they aren't willing to try Kickstarter again (they've been putting a lot of blame on it too).
Not sure if this was sarcastic, but:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/22cans/project-godus?play=video_pitch&ref=search
Saw this one coming. No one is going to throw serious money at someone with a proven track record of not being able to do anything but squander it away. He (Brad) may get lucky and find someone to bail him out (again) but I really doubt it at this point.
It is just hard to crawl out from under a bad reputation. Another thing he didn't consider is the original EQ players, the ones that loved that game, are pretty much a niche group now. That isn't the standard (somewhat sadly) any more. A lot of things in this 'idea' point towards bad for investors. Not surprised it died on the vine.
Oh well.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
I understand aim for the moon and land among the stars but this project's aim was way off. More like aim for the moon and land in the ocean. Did they really think things through? I mean come on:
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
It was posted on Pantheon site. https://www.pantheonrotf.com/blogs/355/91/pantheon-s-financial-situation
And on the Pantheon Facebook page. Update your article maybe?
It sucks they did not get founding but who knows maybe big name publisher will pick it up.
Agreed, they just didnt set appropriate goals, or make any realistic promises (VANGUARD).
Its like history repeating all over again, I really wanted to believe in Brad like I did with Vanguard but I see now that despite his best efforts, he just doesnt have what it takes to lead a company.
Some people intentionally ignore context to make rather absurd claims.
Yeah, it's not that people don't want to (and are even willing to put money into) old school MMOs, it's just that the way this has been ran from the get go is just horrible. It's just been one bad decision after another, and considering what was presented to us at the Kickstarter with that little to go on and it still managing to raise over $400k does in fact show there is interest in old school MMO design. I think most people knew this was going to be a longshot from the start, yet were still willing to back it. Shroud of the Avatar and Camelot Unchained I'd say are good examples of the old school design mentality getting backed for a large amount and successfully ran Kickstarters.
I don't think this came down to Brad's reputation, or a lack of interest in old school MMOs, or even poor Kickstarter stretch goals (although out of the 3, poor stretch goals were more indicative of underlying issue here). It was all about poor management from the start. I'll break down just a few of the problems with the Kickstarter:
1. Poor presentation, especially at the start. The first opening video that was up for 2 (3?) weeks is a good example of this. Nothing was really detailed at the front page aside from the core tenants.
2. Lack of marketing to people other than those who played Vanguard and Everquest (or other old school MMOs). There wasn't enough effort put into explain the advantage of some of the mechanics. You can't rely on an old niche player base to fund your game alone.
3. Drops in communication throughout the Kickstarter. You'd have days were communication was good, especially initially, then suddenly devs would go silent in the comments for week.
4. Everything felt like it was being made up on the fly. There was definitely a feeling of poor planning.
5. No understanding of how Kickstarter works. They were still marketing the game as they would to the general public this early in development as if they had secured a publisher. They kept claiming to have prototypes, but didn't think it was worth showing their backers.
6. They basically gave up midway through the Kickstarter and started redirecting people to their site for funding DURING the Kickstarter advertised multiple times through the Kickstarter even when there was still lots of potential for funding.
7. Tiers were terrible. Why on earth would I pay for a 5 person guild tier to get less than I would paying for 5 individual accounts with WAY more perks on each account.
8. The direction they went with post Kickstarter funding basically excluding themselves from bringing in any new backers or people at lower levels (where you make the majority of your money typically) by gating the forums to only monthly subscribers or $300+ tiers. Wanting fan sites to be the active forum for discussing your game as it's really difficult to get a solid fan base willing to actively go to fan sites when you are a startup indie company with no games released and forums to be for development feedback only. Claiming you are going to use funds to back pay employees at "industry standards". Saying you'll use the funds to build a studio and secure a publisher, because that's what Kickstarter and crowd funding is about, right?
It's painfully obvious Brad has no business sense, and he should have brought someone on board who did.
This game has a future, what is holding it back is the negativity toward brad. Since the beginning this game had trouble with funding due to people trying to halt funding from places like rerolled.org to get their jollies. I think it is sad and pathetic to try to stop the potential this game has for your own humor. This game is not done with, but there is no reason to continue the negativity.
Nirrtix
ALPHAs:
-Pantheon
-Shroud of the Avatar
-Camelot Unchained
BETAs:
-World of Warcraft
-City of Heroes
-Star Wars Galaxies
-Saga of Ryzom
-Homeworld
-Starcraft II
-Warcraft III
-Hearthstone
-Star Wars The Old Republic
-Vanguard Saga of Heroes
Yeah choosing him as the lead man after his reputation is just the worst of oversights. Vanguard closing shortly after Pantheon announcement reminded everyone how credible McQuaid promises truly are didn't help either. I hope the project succeeds but a blind man could see the chances are slim of it even launching at this point, let alone thriving.
If I were him I would relaunch the kickstarter, make someone else the CCO frontman and loom in the background silently making the game better. Brad will salvage his reputation by making a great game, not leading another runaway train.
Time to pack up and go home Brad. KS voted down your game which means it's just not something that enough people want to get made. I can't see why any sane investor would put their money where KS failed.
At this point, to keep trying to make the game is just about ego.
Why not start small and build his name again? All these KS projects trying to shoot for the moon simply off of the weight of their names? He had the engine, he had the skills, I think he should have built a smaller, more lightweight game that showcased certain features he would want to see in an MMO..
He's mentioned his combat system many times, perhaps some type of arena combat game with wave PvE or something would have served him better at this point? At least the funds wouldn't feel so wasted..
I feel sorry for the suckers he got to "subscribe" to a forum.. -_-