That's a nice Fiat Nagasakee, something you don't aee everyday! I saw a similar shape Alfa a couple of weekends ago, wonder what that was?
I appreciate the input everyone has provided, especially those I haven't seen before or much of.
And apologies Kilsin for giving you extra work!
Been pledged since 2014 and just upped my pledge for alpha access. Saddly this is a "one of a kind" game, with almost every other mmo coming out being a "theme park". So for my money I hope they take as long as they need to bring forth their vision. I watched the Rogue "tech demo" and was blown alway. keep up the great work VR, and know when you're ready for my help in alpha i'll be there.
Lafael said:I'm interested in everyone's opinion on this; do you feel that we, both this community and that at large, are becoming more Pantheon patient?
I'll go first; Yes, I do believe that the community have shown more patience, especially the most recent few months. A few reasons have crossed my mind, but one in particular is the cadence that VR has established with community engagement, announcements and content showcases.
I would say, overall, yes. Even over on the p99 forums, the more skeptical members have shifted from "it will never release" to "I'm not waiting years". The progress being made reassures those who are patient that their waiting is not in vain and it also quiets the trolls. Everyone else in between probably checks in periodically and that's about it. Personally, I don't dislike the development stage at all. Will I be glad when PRotF is finally completed and released? Of course, 100%. But that goes for most everything in the making, Elden Ring included. In a lot of ways this waiting period is comparable to the session zero of a d&d campaign, only the miniatures are still being painted, the maps are still being finalized, and so on. Session zero can be just as fun as any other part of a campaign, imo, but the other sessions won't be as fun if the session zero is rushed.
I remember learning about Pantheon from the P99 stream with Brad for the Kickstarter - I pledged then. I think it is hard to maintain an intense level of interest in something for 7 years and it is also hard to keep discussing a product in development when you've sort of talked about everything theoretical that you can. I think people's immediate interest moves on - as is natural - to something else. What then happens, is that people tend to just sort of check in from time to time. They're waiting and watching for something big - ie Alpha, or Beta, etc. At that point, their intense focus will likely switch back.
Sort of hand-in-hand, there is a level of intensity and emotions in the above process that comes out in the form of anger, irritation, and impatience. People are disappointed at not being able to get their hands on something they love, or irritated by periods of silence, or impatient on development. That is a somewhat natural response - people just vary in how they express it. Some do so realtively destructively - which is unfortunate. Others by just being impatient/etc. I think good communication can help manage that process. Improved communication is something VR has been expressly public about working on - starting late last year/early this year - and improving it throughout the year. At this point, practically all items in my "improved communication" checklist for VR are checked off. We have a schedule coming out monthly. There is a consistent cycle of communication. They've even started giving us explicit progress updates to each item for Alpha & patch notes. I think these actions have done a great job at helping keep people updated and the by-product is that informed supporters are less angry, more understanding, less irritated, and somewhat more patient. We know what is being worked on and how it is going. That's huge.
I don't think a large amount of people have "moved on" totally from Pantheon. I think many have had their more immediate interest/focus switch to other things. How can you not - some killer games have come out over the last X years. I mean heck, I can list about 10 games in that time I've been really into - heck, I have about 2k hours in Battletech alone. Life also happens in the meantime. That's not a bad thing - those people will likely check back in when Alpha is launched, or Beta, etc. Several games have had a ton of hype and intensity in supporters - that's really hard to sustain. AoC has had a ton of hype - which largely died down shortly after their NDA fell for their Alpha. New Worlds has had it's ups and downs, including what were certainly doom and gloom moments given their massive changes to the game at times. Yet just today, a guildie linked a ss of a nearly-16,000 person queue they're waiting in. I think Pantheon, with it's improved communication, and clear progress towards Alpha, is at a great place right now. I think it will get a ton more eyeballs focused back on it when it hits Alpha too, and I think people who liked the pitch before are still hungry for the same experience will find Pantheon is still offering a great menu.
I think patience has improved and the forums have seen less activity because general communication has improved across various other platforms.
Between the monthly Developer stream, VIP roundtable, in-depth newsletter and the Discord (official and unofficial); I get all the information I need each month about the development, and the last several months show that development has been improving a lot.
Also posts like Vandraad's keep me away from the forums, just not interested in people that are always negative and angry.
Lafael said:I'm interested in everyone's opinion on this; do you feel that we, both this community and that at large, are becoming more Pantheon patient?
I'll go first; Yes, I do believe that the community have shown more patience, especially the most recent few months. A few reasons have crossed my mind, but one in particular is the cadence that VR has established with community engagement, announcements and content showcases.
I'll go with more. My involvement has definitely changed over time from sometimes checking in and reading a few updates, to monitoring the forums and news regularly, and then pledging and trying to partake in the community. I've actually enjoyed watching the game be built and consider it an entirely separate thing of enjoying a game. Of course I'm looking forward to the game, but I might actually be able to spend more time playing after a wait than I could right now, so I'm fine with it taking a while. I hope it takes as long as it needs to and I hope to enjoy the time in between. I'm not sure why you would be here if you don't enjoy it honestly.
Ranarius said: This community is growing, not shrinking. Yes I'm sure people have moved on, but to say "most people" have moved on is just not true.
You're absolutly correct that the community is growing. We see the names of new members every day on logging in to the forums.
Despite not having actual statistics, I DO observe that there are significantly fewer 'active' conversations going on in the forums now then there were years ago when I joined the forums. (Which I believe is a fair bit longer ago than when you did :D )
So I can understand the perception that people have moved on. The catch is that people 'moving on' from chatting on the forums regularly means very little in the grand scheme of things. Every pledger will get their invite to Alpha/Beta or their license keys when the game releases. Since I find it hard to believe that most of them won't log in and try Pantheon when they get the chance, I see no reason to give much concern either way to how many people are coming and conversing here. Though I do recognize the dysfuntion of being SURE the game is going to fail, yet continuing to visit the forum and vent one's disappointment over and over.
Iksar said:You got proof on that? I can think of only a couple people who were banned or had threads removed for their behavior in many years.
You yourself have had posts deleted... as have I.
To the O.P., it was said before that a lot of people posting more recently are repeating topics that have already been addressed if it isn't something regarding a recent update. We have no choice but to be pactent.
philo said:I think it's more likely that people are losing interest and moving on to other things than patience. (That doesn't mean they can't return eventually hopefully).
Participation here seems minimal except right after a stream. Other forums on Pantheon like MMORPG.com have been quiet. Their "most hyped" games poll has seen Pantheon go from being #1 repeatedly for years to dropping down the list, to now it's off the list entirely. There aren't many people who have been following from the beginning that are still around. I think you are mistaking the quiet for patience when it's really people moving on to other things...which is to be expected at this stage. 95% of the people participating now are newer members rehashing the same topics that have already been discussed.
Once Pantheon gets to a more advanced state VR will advertise and hopefully people will return. We just aren't there yet.
100% agree with you. I am one of those individuals, joined in 2017 but moved on to other games. I try to keep up with the streams but each stream actually makes me sad because it appears they are still far behind. When I heard about the streaming world bit, the first thing that came to my mind was "How long is this going to take?". Let alone not many details on that front either which doesn't make me feel good inside. People are generally tired of waiting for years and the amount of changes that happened over the years makes people angry and or leave for long period to hopefully get some decent updates. I'm sure they game will be fun but they need to turn it up a few notches for people to get hyped again.
I've been following since the kickstarter but didn't pledge until the roadmap came out.
From my perspective, it's impossible to know what the community at large is doing: there's just no solid way to track it. I'm sure some people have completely given up on the game. I'm sure some people, knowing there's nothing we can do but wait for VR to do their job, are just biding their time. I'm sure some people visit the forums daily hoping to find out all they can the moment new news is out. Personally, since I'm financially invested in the game, I'll be more vocal now where before I just lurked; how much depends on what's going on in my life at the time. I've no idea how long it's going to take VR to do their job, but I have full faith that they'll keep us up-to-date on everything noteworthy that we need to know. If I didn't have that faith, I wouldn't have invested. I'm just going to watch them tick-tick-tick things off their roadmap checklist.
My only concern is that VR may run out of money before finishing the game.
Edit: spelling fix.
BigBadAzz1 said:traseaStarmist said:I've been following since the kickstarter but didn't pledge until the roadmap came out.
From my perspective, it's impossible to know what the community at large is doing: there's just no solid way to track it. I'm sure some people have completely given up on the game. I'm sure some people, knowing there's nothing we can do but wait for VR to do their job, are just biding their time. I'm sure some people visit the forums daily hoping to find out all they can the moment new news is out. Personally, since I'm financially invested in the game, I'll be more vocal now where before I just lurked; how much depends on what's going on in my life at the time. I've no idea how long it's going to take VR to do their job, but I have full faith that they'll keep us up-to-date on everything noteworthy that we need to know. If I didn't have that faith, I wouldn't have invested. I'm just going to watch them tick-tick-tick things off their roadmap checklist.
My only concern is that VR may run out of money before finishing the game.
Edit: spelling fix.
You'd be surprised how much support they need to get this game going. Honestly the recent news we've been getting from the Developers is that even though it looks clearly a money grab. The game is a crowd funded game and because as the Developers have already voiced out. This game is crowd funded and their vision towards what they have in mind in this game needs more support as they can get because I feel they have a vision worth supporting. The reason why it's crowd-funded now is because they have a great vision that this game cares a lot about something good that you and US as gamers need to share together. To me, that speaks volumes.
Been around since the kickstarter event. I drop in once a month or two and catch up with some of the latest developements. Still excited and still very excited to see what my kickstarter pledge rewards will look like in game. Esp. my in game Taurokian horse and physical cloth map + postcard from the devs. Patient though excited still but ... patient.
I think the people with the loudest outcry's have moved on and gave up. I'm sure they will be back. There are also a lot of people like me who have quit following on a daily or even weekly basis because it's so far out still that getting excited aboout it now only makes it seem like longer and longer. I check in from time to time hoping to hear of advances and a possible time line. I'll be along more often when things start to heat up. But for now I'm playing some other games and having some fun as I'm sure others are.
Keep up the good work! We will see you guys in another couple of months to see if it's further along and has some kind of time line.
Ive been around since I first ran into the game (a little after the close of the kickstarter) and I play other games while I wait for this one, but it doesnt mean I have moved on. I intend to be here at alpha and beta and launch. I dip in and out and check out the streams and news.
"Moved on" (in my book) means given up and not coming back. I think that people will be playing other games, of course, but I am sure they use the various sites from time to time to see what the current state is with Pantheon. I dont think many have "completely given up on the game" as some claim. Of course, this is just my opinion and I do not know this for a fact, but it seems the most likely course of action. I am sure that when the game opens up, those that are doing other stuff will come back and check the game out and make a decision at that point. I believe that most have not moved on, but are just doing other things while VR gets the game ready for them.
95% of the people participating now are newer members rehashing the same topics that have already been discussed...
From this page alone, I see a lot of posts from people who have been around for a long time. In fact, from those that allow profile viewing, the join dates are: 2014, 2016, 2016 2020, 2021, 2014, 2014, thus substantially in favour of those that have been around for 5 year or more, 60% in favour of old timers. But that is just this one page and I have not checked out all pages and cannot see the join dates of those set to private views. If I include myself, then its 66% in favour of old timers!
Seems to me that the posts are indeed quieter, but still populated and producing some interesting ideas from time to time and by people who keep believing in this project.
Seems to me that a stat without proof is just hearsay.
Personally, I have been Pantheon patient since joining the band and intend to be at the end.
I think the community engagement has been great lately, but I don't think it has affected my patience one way or the other. Honestly, I prefer it when I get distracted and sort of forget about Pantheon for a few months, then I come back and have a fair bit of content to consume.
The points about the general hype around Pantheon are well received and I do think there are probably a fair number of people who followed or even pledged to the game early who have decided the game is vaporware. There is an easy fix for that; finish the game and release it. At which point I don't think VR will have any difficulty renewing the hype.
chenzeme said:
95% of the people participating now are newer members rehashing the same topics that have already been discussed...
From this page alone, I see a lot of posts from people who have been around for a long time. In fact, from those that allow profile viewing, the join dates are: 2014, 2016, 2016 2020, 2021, 2014, 2014, thus substantially in favour of those that have been around for 5 year or more, 60% in favour of old timers. But that is just this one page and I have not checked out all pages and cannot see the join dates of those set to private views. If I include myself, then its 66% in favour of old timers!
