The MMORPG community has just experienced a week like no other. First, we learned the bad news that EverQuest Next was cancelled. Second, a fledgling company called Visionary Realms silenced their detractors with a successful pre-alpha live and unscripted demo of their Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen fantasy MMORPG on Twitch.tv.
After years of stumbles and setbacks, Visionary Realms put their money where their mouth is and once and for all refuted the critics who believed that Pantheon was only vaporware or just another crowdfunding scheme du jour.
Show Me, Don’t Tell Me
In an industry rife with hype, it’s easy to become cynical about proposed MMORPGs these days. The unfortunate cancellation of EverQuest Next is a textbook case of how not to produce and promote an upcoming MMO and only serves to harden those of us who become jaded and skeptical.
We have come to the point in this genre where talk has never been cheaper. People are tired of it. They want to see something concrete. Show me, don’t tell me.
Well VR did just that at 4 PM Friday March 11, 2015. For over 100 minutes the Pantheon development team dared to show off their pre-alpha progress to thousands of gamers via live streaming at Twitch.tv. The demo was comprised of a group of 6 dev members — logged on from various parts of the real world — ready for battle in Avendyr’s Pass. The group wasted little time getting in the thick of things and they promptly engaged in combat, exploration and that rarest of experiences in today’s MMOs: social interaction.
The current tally for views of this session — now available as a replay — are an impressive 7,000+ as I write this article.
As one could plainly see by watching the stream, there were no gimmicks or GM tricks used. What we saw and heard was actual gameplay and audio interaction where a party of appropriate level players actually had to have their wits about them and cooperate with each other to survive and progress. The group headed by Brad McQuaid playing his iconic Aradune avatar complete with the Fiery Avenger sword was as real and authentic as it gets in a MMORPG complete with victories and defeats.
As the group made their way deeper into the zone, they would pull mobs to their temporary campsites. Sometimes only one would come but on other occasions other mobs would aggro and join the battle and cause all manner of chaos. What we got to see was the kind of unscripted gameplay that makes memories.
What We Saw
We got to see the outer regions of the human city of Thronefast. We got to witness the untamed wilds of Avendyr’s Pass firsthand. As the party of adventurers progressed into dangerous territory, they encountered a few orc camps, some undead ruins and eventually they came upon a creepy locale under control of an unsavory cult known as the Union of Shadow.
As the live stream progressed we got to see various classes in action. We saw a tank, a healer, damage dealing classes such as a wizard and a rogue and even a crowd control class called the enchanter — all of them familiar MMORPG class archetypes that have become the staple of fantasy MMORPGs such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft.
We also got a in-game preview of the new colored Mana system that VR revealed back in September of 2015 in the Pantheon Difference section on their official website.
More importantly we got to see the group members having fun devising strategies, using tactics and leveraging unique class abilities to battle their way from camp to camp.
Eventually the group managed to make it through an atmosphere — another Pantheon new feature — to find themselves in the foreboding sanctum of Contravictarious Irra the Unions of Shadow boss. After engaging the boss, the group wiped and respawned in the village square.
What happened next caught everyone and even the devs off guard. Somehow someone in the group still had aggro and the enraged boss and his sinister henchmen arrived in town and proceeded to wipe out the group for a second time. This was even more unexpected as at the time the unsuspecting VR devs were doing an extensive question and answer session taking questions from the Twitch.tv audience.
Upon seeing this, the Twtich.tv audience erupted in howls of delight that likes we haven’t seen since the days of classic EverQuest back in 1999-2001. What we got was a brief taste of the unscripted magic and mayhem of what can happen in a living and breathing fantasy virtual world.
Question and Answer Highlights
After the demo concluded, the VR team had a good solid 10 minutes of Q and A with the viewers. Here are some of the highlights:
- There will be consequences for death. They have some interesting ideas for this but it will require testing and feedback from testers in alpha and beta.
- Pantheon is primarily about grouping but there will be opportunities for soloing.
- Pantheon is also going to have raiding at launch and more content for high level players after launch.
- Deities will be involved in the storyline and players will be interacting with them via questing, faction and even eventually encountering them.
- Classes will grow into defined and powerful roles as they level up.
- Necromancers and bards will be introduced post launch.
- Multi-core processors will be supported.
The Pre-Alpha Gambit
In the past, showing off pre-alpha live action gameplay would never be allowed. This is for good reason. Pre-alpha is an early stage of development where various design concepts and assumptions are being tested and validated. Everything is in a state of flux and subject to change with a relentless process of testing, improvement and refinement. Some features may be removed and others may be added.
First impressions can make or break a video game — especially a MMORPG. But today’s video game consumers don’t care; they expect a AAA video game experience. What VR did in demoing a pre-alpha build of Pantheon on Twitch.tv was extremely daring and risky but after seeing the live demo in action and witnessing the largely positive comments of the viewers in attendance, the gamble paid off big time.
Conclusion
Like the mythical phoenix that dies and is reborn, we witnessed something similar this week. As one proposed MMORPG sadly expired, we had the birth pangs of a new one. Although Pantheon is far from finished, this week marks a major existential milestone for Visionary Realms. This is the week that their upcoming MMORPG Pantheon transformed from just a cold ember of an idea in the minds of the public to a warming campfire of actual substance.
This past week the dream of a classic high fantasy MMORPG that follows in the steps of the venerable EverQuest became one giant step closer to reality. The torch has been passed on. Let’s hope this torch lights a bonfire.
-Wolfshead
Oh dear god it was painful. I understand pre-alpha and all that, but, showing it was a huge mistake.
It felt like they were proud and amazed to even have something up and running themselves.
But all it showed was 5 people needing to beat 1 orc. Turn a few dials, and any MMO does the same thing in the open world.
The rest of what we saw didn’t have even a shadow of a mechanic or feature that looked interesting.
I’m being critical because I want a game like this to exist, but it will struggle if the bar for everything is not set EXTREMELY high… art, engineering, everything. It can’t just be “HAY WE HAS ORC AND SOCIAL”.
Good luck guys, I recommend not showing it again for at least a year until you get some art in place, some mocap, sound design, and most importantly SOME of what makes your game unique.
I disagree. What we saw was pre-pre alpha according to VR. It’s not supposed to be finished and polished yet — not even close. They sounded happy and yes proud because they should be happy and proud of what they have achieved with such a small team of people.
Regarding the addition of great sound FX and sound design, from my experience in the industry this is something that is one of the last things to be included in the production process.
Don’t forget they have a lot of people that have pledged to Pantheon that have been patiently waiting to see something. The MMO industry operates by different rules these days.
Not everyone can appreciate the reality of a pre-pre-alpha stage of a MMORPG. It’s human nature to want to see something as finished as polished as possible. What we got to see was a work in progress and not a finished AAA MMORPG. It took courage and guts to demo what they have so far and I’m glad they did it.
Well, help me out here. What exactly did it do that other games don’t do? I mean, peeling an Orc off and zerging him 5v1? That has already been done and undone and done again and undone again 4x over in WoW.
I agree, I want that kind of hard-ass open world combat, requiring a group to move around, putting value on the world and resources in it. But there also *has* to be something more to it than that… modern features, feel, art, etc.
Again I’m more than familiar with pre-pre-pre-pre Alpha stuff. And I agree, the backers deserved a look.
But with the public seeing this, do you honestly believe they gained anything from it? I’m almost certain they lost credibility with it.
I don’t get what your problem is… You say you want a hard game that requires a group to move around, and yet you complain about them needing 5 people to kill a mob? Which is it? You can’t do both.
Also, the mobs they fought in the start of the game all died very quickly and easily. It was only when they started taking on red and yellow cons (much higher level than the group) that it got more dangerous.
Also you comments about “it has all been done / what is new” is totally off base. First off, just the fact that it is like a modern EQ is by itself enough to make this a completely unique experience. Because early EQ no longer exists, and there are NO other MMO’s on the market that work in the same way. Anyone who played EQ in 1999 knows that WoW and everything that came after it is a dumbed down kids game. Yes even “vanilla WoW”.
Also the “what is new” thing, they have constantly talked about how their objective so far has been to make the base game. They have a small team and had no budget to begin with, so there is no point trying to make an epic MMO like that. What they have done is make the base game in the way the audience wants it – ie, like early EQ. It works like a hardcore MMO already, that’s what matters. All they need to do now is build on top of this, flesh out the classes and skills, add more zones, more levels of content, and add the new features they intend to make. The new features are numerous and listed on their website, and most of them don’t exist in any other game. But the first priority was getting the base game together and that’s what they have done. I wouldn’t be surprised if some big publisher picks them up now to make the rest of the game.
“Hard” is not 5 people zerging one mob.
“Hard” the way I’d like to see it is 5 hard mobs fighting 5 people. Where everyone’s individual moment-to-moment contribution is important to the entire group survival, from control to attack to healing.
“Hard” is having all mobs with line of sight to a battle join in. Not stand around like nothing is going on, like mobs from 1999 EQ. Oh. wait…
I am a fan of the effort, but you and VR is *sorely* mistaken if anyone outside of the immediate cone of disenfranchised will watch that video for more than 15 seconds before moving on.
It was simply too early to show, and if they think *this* is progress and something to be proud of, that’s more of a problem. It simply isn’t yet.
Mm, I think much the same. It was in quite a good-looking state for not even being pre-alpha, but it seems unfortunate to be unable to show any of its distinguishing features. I came away thinking that I’d played this game in countless incarnations over the last couple of decades. Could’ve been any of them with another skin.
That said, Brad did seem to say on the forums that they’ll be showing some “Pantheon Difference” features at GDC behind closed doors, so perhaps we’ll read at least some impressions in the next few days.
I completely disagree that WoW has anything similar to this. What level 5-7 mob needs a full group to kill in WoW? I don’t think any of my characters ever died before they reached their teens in WoW, and even then it was really no big deal. I could just run around the zones tagging everything and pulling everything and it was fiiiine.
In EQ my characters had multiple deaths even at level 1. There was a real FEAR of pulling more than you could handle. It did take a full group to clear the orc camps. There were random high level mobs that would one shot you if you weren’t constantly always paying attention to your surroundings.
WoW just has nothing at all like that. I am very excited to get some of that excitement back.
The point is. that alone is not a compelling feature. It’s one aspect of a game that has to exist in modern times, with modern technology and modern systems.
Put a WoW dungeon in the open world and you have exactly what we see here. As I said, it’s been done but people don’t really want it. A handful, sure? I’m one of them… but it has to be more than increasing the stamina on one mob and figuring out how to “pull” them alone.
I watched the video and this brought me back to the days of UO, SWG, FFXI, AC, and EQ. While I enjoyed my endless hours of game play in these games it came with some very bad experiences as well. Too much down time like waiting 15 minutes for the starport in SWG, or spending an hour getting a group in FFXI on a Friday night, or someone taking our camp in FFXI, heck even loosen my gear in UO when I did. While these were not game breaking mechanics when I was in my late teens early twenties in my mid thirties these are game breaking. And dont fool yourself saying that everything will be all peaches and cream in a new old school MMO. There is a reason very few people play UO, EQ1, or FFXI today; that is because not just that they are old but the amount of effort one must give to these games.
Nothing Pantheon has shown says they can make a game that more than a handful of people will play much like the numbers of people who play EQ and UO today. Both games I have gone back to and let no one fool you. These games are basically empty. While yes Pantheon will have its group of players from old time MMOs, Pantheon will not grow past that because Pantheon does not transcend Generation 1 MMOs.
What I mean by transcend Generation 1 MMOs I am talking about mixing features from Generation 1 Pre WOW and Generation 2 WOW and on. The problem is Developers and blind fans like refuse to acknowledge the good WOW has done for the industry, they just love to bash what WOW has done. They choose not to learn the lessons of the past which will cause a lot fewer players that may not be sustainable vs chosen to learn the lesson.
For example on Pantheon’s forum there is great anger over instances (Instanced Dungeons) and developers as well as blind fans both do not listen to why this is a key feature in today’s MMOs. This is coming from someone who did camping in generation 1 games and has played WOW from Vanilla on. I would take Vanilla WOW instances any day of the week vs camping and so would millions of MMO players. Yet a few players who sit on MMO forums and remiss about the old days refuse to acknowledge why MMOs had to move past camping. Having another much larger group coming and fighting for your camp is very real and forces you to go else where as seen in the first part of the video where another developer group was pulling mobs from the same spot that Brad’s group was pulling from. While In Generation 1 MMO games you had camp stealing it was not a common thing, however with the MMO community being very ME centric and having no regard for what others think of them, today’s MMO gamers will exploit this way of grieving people.
This is why Instances come in very handy. It will allow players in small groups to do the content together without having to worry about grievers taking their spawns. That does not mean grievers will not exist, they will however Vanilla WOW and TBC had a good counter balance to this; while not perfect if people knew who you were and it would spread fast on your server players wouldnt play with you. I remember on my WOW server we had a list of players that were ban from other guilds on our server because of behavior. This with the fact that there were for a while no server transfers, character renames, and LFD tools punished players for bad behavior because they couldnt find groups to run with. I remember at least a dozen players who in time quit or went to other servers because they were not welcome among any raiding guild even the casual raiding guilds. While this did hurt the anti social group who wouldnt reach out to other players to do group content, it counter balanced the bad behavior. Yes there were some guilds that popped up that all that server trash ended up in and that too was fine.
So what is the problem with instances? MMO CEO’s and the business seen an opportunity to make a ton of money. So they turned MMO instances into a must do only path to progression treadmill and allowed random groups to be the primary way everyone grouped using the LFD tools and premades to be so uncommon that friendships rarely happen in MMOs today. This was to get more Anti Social people into MMOs and single player types into MMOs to get them to spend money. Today’s instances are not the root cause of the anti social behavior. CEO’s looking to line their pockets with more money because a 20% to 40% profit margin is not good enough for today. No larger margins are what is wanted by these CEOs and because of this game play suffers. Yet Pantheon and other Kickstarter developers cannot see that; they just think re-skinning EQ1 will be the answer to everything.
I wouldn’t expect it to garner much more of a playerbase than EQ and Project 1999, but to be fair, I think they’ve been pretty candid about not even aiming for a wide audience. Even the most niche of games can live healthily if scaled and budgeted accordingly.
About re-skinning EQ I agree, and a re-skinned EQ is definitely how I’d characterize what we saw streamed. But the plan is at least a little bit more than that, according to the “Difference” bulletpoints, so here’s hoping.
Only carebears will want the protected instances, PVPers will not. Vanguard was GREAT minus the bugs. Of they can replicate Vanguard Aline that will be good enough. Why do carebears think every game should coddle them?
The important thing is not what they did (kill a orc and talk) the most important thing it’s HOW they did that and how they didn’t. The sound, amazing spells sounds (EQ!!), rest for refill mana, at least, kind of thigs what we are waiting long time. For me it (watch the video) was a great experience and a very good idea.
As a day 1 backer I was more than thrilled to see the progress thus far. I very much enjoyed seeing how the mana system works as well as getting a peak into the world itself. That small amount of video showed some very cool ideas and it leaves me wondering about all the other fantastic stuff they hhave in store. Kudos to the team for having the balls to show such an early look…. I for one was very impressed.
For anyone that knows GAMING would be more than what was expected of the developers, they in all honesty showed the most IMPORTANT parts of the CORE (game play) which is 80% of the product were looking forward to being launched If that did not tickle your fancy and to finish off with a level up (DING)….I was amazed at this stage VR has come so far for the limited amount of time and resources, WTG Brad & Co. Good Luck with your presentation @ the convention : )
I thought the “reveal” was great and a little better than I expected honestly.
Compared to a lot of recent MMOs it looks like grouping (hopefully leading to people being socials) will be a requirement to get things done. I’m also excited to see a proper return to 4 role gameplay.
If you’re not sure or it doesn’t appeal to you, that’s ok. Wait till release.
This game definitely isn’t for everyone, but I DO feel like there is an audience for this.