I understand your concerns, especially when the community's feedback can sometimes feel overwhelmingly negative, particularly about the art. It’s important to remember that the people most vocal in comment sections are often the hardest to please, and they don’t always reflect the larger, more patient audience who just want a good game.
You're right that trust in VR (Visionary Realms) has been a rollercoaster for some people, with delays and changes feeding into those trust issues. However, while the time it's taking to roll out Pantheon is frustrating, it also shows they’re committed to getting it right. I agree with their decision-making and the reasons behind it. In many cases, rushing a game to market has proven disastrous for other titles. It’s a matter of short-term gains versus long-term success, and I see VR making the long-term choice—and I agree with it.
As for the art change, I understand the disappointment. But the devs are focusing on core systems and gameplay because, without solid mechanics, no amount of good art will save the game. It shows they’re prioritizing long-term playability over short-term aesthetics, and that's a decision that should pay off in the end. To me, it indicates they’re thinking ahead and making smart choices I fully support.
It’ll take time, especially in a world where people want everything now, but I believe solid gameplay will win over the doubters and keep them coming back—especially when Pantheon carves out its niche in the market. If you see a negative comment or article and you want this game to succeed, do us all a favor-take the opportunity to spread some love and positivity about Pantheon in the comments.
The game gets hate from the gaming community because it's terrible. It's not really that tough to figure out. The towns are empty. The quests feel like they were designed by a five year old. The crafting is a joke. And the graphics style, which I honestly couldn't care less about, looks like is was created by a first year graphic arts student who never created anything for a video game in his life.
There is a small group of rabid fanboys defending this game as if they own it themselves, but despite that right now, Pantheon is an embarrassment
That's not to say it might not be fun to play in 2030 when it finally fully releases, but it will never be a legendary experience like EQ1 was in 1999. My prediction is doa and Pantheon will be forgotten quickly.
Mod Edit: You can rant about the game, but no one gets to say what Brad would or would not want on the Pantheon Forums.
I sadly agree with all of this, and I also sunk hundreds of what feels like wasted money into this game. I found the game unplayable last time I tried months ago. Perhaps I’ll be pleasantly surprised in a few weeks. I just think there’s many vocal, extremely saddened people like myself.
You should give it a go for Early Access, Ulan. If it doesn't scratch the itch a that point, it probably never will. I personally enjoyed my last session with it at the end of Sept. It gave me old-school vibes while feeling fresh. I can see the vision. And the art style is growing on me. I was also someone that lost my hype for the game around when they were doing the 247 stuff. Bottom line is that VR has tried and failed several things with this project but I think they are on the right track now. People willing to try EA will *probably* be pleasantly surprised (like me). But there will always be people that enjoy being negative for the sake of it. And let's face it that gets clicks online.
The game needs to steal audience from one established MMO, and we all know which one. That said, if VR does nothing else besides make gold/item farming bots and their subsequent chat spamming either nonexistent or minimized way better than the "Game We All Love to Hate and Hate to Love", then word of mouth about that ALONE will grab target audience, so long as Pantheon is remotely playable and stable.
That may be a huge ask, since the farmer bots are a relentless lot, but if they can keep P2W spam and game dynamics to a minimum, word of mouth alone will grab a chunk of the target audience who honestly will play anything with elves, swords, spells and dragons so long as they aren't constantly bombarded with farmer-bot spam.
Slow, steady and VIGILANT will win this race. Keep the farmer bots away, be diligent about that, and let the initial core of hardcore support do the word of mouth thing. Pantheon might never top 50-100k accounts, but plenty of other MMOs have been around for 20+ years on less than that. Define success for yourself, not compared to others.