So, I'm not ticked off. I am disappointed. I understand the decision that was made though.
The wording that they used in this post though, very, very wrong. The thing is, they had issues trying to get everyone's Alpha Test Keys out to them because the email system had a limit to how many it could send. This was a huge indication they knew how many people already wanted to join.
There was absolutely no testing done during this session. So, they can't really say that the system wasn't ready for it because it wasn't attempted. All this was for was to get people to ask for their keys so they can anticipate how many will come when they are actually ready.
I agree though with many people on the forum here. If the Pre-Alfa testers are able to play a different version, then why can't we? Perhaps they should put a queue system in place and only allow so many people on at one time. And then increase that number slowly until the system breaks. this will allow them to get a better understanding of how much strain their servers and systems can handle.
THIS would be true testing. This go around was definitely a failed attempt and shouldn't be called a test. VR, I hope you have a plan set in motion for the first Alpha test. I am ready to see the world on my own PC.
Theres issues and yet pre-alpha pledges will be allowed back on later today...I'm not buying any of this crap. If we lived in a world where embers adrift and monsters and memories weren't running circles arround VR, i may give them a pass but seeing as how smaller teams with less funding have actually managed to release a game (embers) or at least allowed their community to pop on and check out what they have to offer for free(MnM) this is just pathetic.
xhawk29 said:Removing posts from this thread is hilarious. There's no recovering from this. Let the people grieve. The least you all can do after 10 years is let us yell and make fun of you.
Visionary Realms:
Forums moderation: 10/10
Beanies: 11/10
Making a video game: ERROR ERROR
Posting your reaction to this news is fine, but some of the comments were downright hurtful and ugly.
Gaku said:xhawk29 said:Removing posts from this thread is hilarious. There's no recovering from this. Let the people grieve. The least you all can do after 10 years is let us yell and make fun of you.
Visionary Realms:
Forums moderation: 10/10
Beanies: 11/10
Making a video game: ERROR ERROR
Posting your reaction to this news is fine, but some of the comments were downright hurtful and ugly.
Damn sorry I missed such quality posts...most people are so weak these days.
Mizaro said:My Birthday is tomorrow and I cancelled everything so i could play the whole 24 hour's what a bum deal this is. I'm still excited I wanted to see if this was my next MMO because i truly haven't found one since Everquest and Everquest 2. I don't know if i should just throw down 500$ more to get into the pre-alpha.
don't. These people don't deserve any more money from us at this point.
Very disappointed, yes. Still optimistic, yes. Running out of patience, yes. Getting older, yes.
I played EQ back in the day. I'm now 56. I was hoping Pantheon would be my bridge from which Wow, Rift, GW2, and others, would step in. I only got so many more years. Just saying...
It would be nice for more transparency in terms of numbers. How many Pre-Alpha folks are there? How many Alpha testers showed up?
I won't give up on Pantheon, but I won't give anymore money.
I cancelled an armpit waxing session to play but now I have nothing to play AND hairy armpits still. The shame. Even with major issues most people would have been happy even if they could have just logged in and ran around exploring a bit even if things didn't work quite right. Oh well, time to play Hello Kitty Adventure Island. Better luck next time.
My guess is they understood that whatever it is they have now... would have been viewed as a complete disaster if we were allowed to play it. From the undesirable art change, to wonky at best animation, this would have done more harm than good. The PR nightmare of canceling the first alpha test is better than all the people getting in and seeing it.
This goofy pastel look is by far NOT what I expected for a game of this type. Evil horror monsters in pastel sounds like a fever induced nightmare that no one would want to visit. From what I have seen thus far I feel like I should be planting carrots and befriending animals for the giggle kings birthday party. The few videos showing active game elements looks more like a upscaled farmville adventure than a gritty dungeon crawler that is crazy difficult. If on the first days of my adventures in the opening days of vanilla EQ had me going into a pastel Crushbone... I am not sure I would have lasted long. EQ worked because it did the best it could to convey the D&D esque world with all the grit and grime that 16 bit pixels could do. It may not have looked real but in no time it felt real. I still have friends today from that very first week in EQ, it was like meeting people you had never met before in a foxhole during combat, we fought together and died together... and best of all triumphed together. There is absolutely no way that a game with Pantheon's current art style could conjure those feelings.
World of Warcraft is a game on its own, it never attempted to be EQ. The art style pushed it to a more laid back approach and one that had you work on your own more than together. Dungeons and raids were the only time you needed a group and it was much more of a "video game" feel. Jump here, look over there, attack this and not that, chase the blue glowing ball and avoid the green one kind of stuff. It has its own place. The art fits the game perfectly.
In my opinion VR is not currently on the right track and they need to dial it in. Goofy monsters that wouldn't scare the most timid child to uninspired landscapes that look like they were ganked out of a phone game farm simulator will only disappoint their core audience. For these reasons I am glad I didn't play today. I would have forever remembered that this... this is the image they wanted me to have of this game after seeing years of a much more interesting and desired game. This is all they can do. I am not looking for ground breaking "Unrecord" level realism, what they had was looking real good. I do not care that other games have better realistic graphics. I would have been happy with what they had if it had the gameplay I wanted. With that said... art CAN break a situation, I want an adult game... not farmville.
I forget how many years ive been waiting for pre-alpha access. I think the package I bought was back around 2017'ish? Anyways, I had stopped following the game when the release of the Black Rose Keep (I think thats what it was called) footage was released by some youtubers. Life just happens ya know.
I got my access code a few days ago, much to my surprise, and set everything up so Id be ready to go today. Having the access put on hold was disappointing however the real disappointment was catching myself up and wow. Ya'll went from 'Teen Titans' to 'Teen Titans Go' with the graphics? Whoever thought that was good idea was very wrong. I mean have you played any other mmos in the last 5 years? I have. People that are here dont want fornite or WoW graphics. It looks cheap.
People are calling this game a scam. Its hard to argue against them with stunts like these. The development of the game is becoming a meme.
If I may be frank, get your act together and quick because this whole thing is about to fall apart to become "Pantheon : The Never Was".
Robert60 said:Hey VR, is the guy with the injury OK, will he be back soon to help remedy the issues?
There are rumors swirling that he intentionally ran over his own foot with an office chair when he realized the servers wouldn't be able to handle the 10's of players logging on.
xhawk29 said:Robert60 said:Hey VR, is the guy with the injury OK, will he be back soon to help remedy the issues?
There are rumors swirling that he intentionally ran over his own foot with an office chair when he realized the servers wouldn't be able to handle the 10's of players logging on.
This might actually be as close to the truth as we are going to get.
obiquon said:I forget how many years ive been waiting for pre-alpha access. I think the package I bought was back around 2017'ish? Anyways, I had stopped following the game when the release of the Black Rose Keep (I think thats what it was called) footage was released by some youtubers. Life just happens ya know.
I got my access code a few days ago, much to my surprise, and set everything up so Id be ready to go today. Having the access put on hold was disappointing however the real disappointment was catching myself up and wow. Ya'll went from 'Teen Titans' to 'Teen Titans Go' with the graphics? Whoever thought that was good idea was very wrong. I mean have you played any other mmos in the last 5 years? I have. People that are here dont want fornite or WoW graphics. It looks cheap.
People are calling this game a scam. Its hard to argue against them with stunts like these. The development of the game is becoming a meme.
If I may be frank, get your act together and quick because this whole thing is about to fall apart to become "Pantheon : The Never Was".
no you cant be frank...you might hurt someone's feelings by telling them the truth and holding them to a reasonable standard. But if you want to give them another few hundred bucks, you can get in the PA and get in the servers, cause they are up for PA testers!
I don't understand what in the world is happening with this game. No reasonably managed product takes five years to put an MVP in front of investors, let far alone ten.
I was extremely excited for the project while watching developer gameplay streams five plus years ago but have long since given up on the project after not seeing or hearing anything meaningful for quite a while. When I got the invite for the play test earlier this week I was ecstatic to finally check out what you guys have been working on all this time.
Is there really nothing you can stand up for a single day after ten years? How can you possibly expect prospective customers to invest hundreds or even thousands of hours into a platform with such little promise?
Majarin said:Savanja said:
... We will keep you informed as we work through the current issues and are able to set a new date for our Alpha pledges to join a Pre-Alpha testing session.
On a more constructive note, please send an email with this info. Many of us 'old backers' aren't following the forums and had no idea the test was cancelled. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there just hitting 'Login' with the assumption they will eventually get in.
Ya an email would have been great. I spent half my day trying to get out of work early to play this game. had I know it was a no go from the start, I wouldn't have asked 70 people to cover my shift. I shouldn't have to come to these useless forums to see what is going on. EMAIL PEOPLE. it's a thing, use it.
dakkoros said:I don't understand what in the world is happening with this game. No reasonably managed product takes five years to put an MVP in front of investors, let far alone ten.
I was extremely excited for the project while watching developer gameplay streams five plus years ago but have long since given up on the project after not seeing or hearing anything meaningful for quite a while. When I got the invite for the play test earlier this week I was ecstatic to finally check out what you guys have been working on all this time.
Is there really nothing you can stand up for a single day after ten years? How can you possibly expect prospective customers to invest hundreds or even thousands of hours into a platform with such little promise?
What is funny/sad is that... That 5 year wait? That was 5 years ago. This is a 5 year wait after a 5 year wait because some of us backed this project on the KS when we were given a delivery date of 2017.
Whats worse is... That was the delivery date for the final project, not the Alpha access we pledged for. The Alpha should have been 1-2 years before that.
This was VR's chance to earn back some good will and trust from people like me who have been supporting this project for... so long... with not a single thing to show from it. But all its done for me is made me think about how many times I have been burned by VR in those 10 years. For me personally, the missed Alpha time frame, the missed delivery date, the switcheroo on the experience I expected for my Alpha access being instead given to the made of phase of "Pre-Alpha" and Alpha being setup to be a glorified Beta, each year that passed of checking my monthly email to see "no. no Alpha testing invite yet. just talk of like 5 pre-Alpha phases. Anything but the phase I pledged for.", and now this... utter failure of a rug pull test. For others you can take that list and add in the 247 (while reversed, you can't say it didn't damage the trust of supporters) and the art style change. Those I see/saw issues with, but did not personally feel them to the extent of others. But looking realistically at the future of the project, we honestly cant say that it will be done in the next 2-3 years. FFS... they cant even write a basic patching client that supports using a checksum list for file updates and download resume! I feel this game wont be out for at least 5 more years!
Honestly... I am finally starting to feel the stage of Apathy thanks to this debacle. And the fact that these forums have not blown up more with posts/comments as a result of today suggests that Apathy is what most have now. People not even caring enough to post about being upset.
So I'm not sure giving us nothing instead of a unstable experience was the correct solution here. Realistically... again. I signed up to be an Alpha tester (read that as "Pre-Alpha tester" if it helps you understand what I expected from my pledge). To be a part of testing the early stages of the games development. I didn't expect a stable bug free experience like they seem to think we need/want. We don't want/expect a polished game at this point. We want a game that we can put our hands on. Period.
Merry Christmas! This is the gift we got from VR this year...
Transparency - How much has VR absorbed over the years? Just curious. I know I spent $300 like 4-5 years ago. Actually, I almost dropped another $450 this morning to get pre-alpha status after the postponement announcement, but no, no, NO. I'm not spending another dime until I am able to smile and enjoy something that resembles the EQ Janara of old.
I feel like they are trying but dang... Not much to show now for a lot of years. I will keep tabs on Pantheon, but I'm moving on to look for other options.
FYI - I still Play EQ p1999 and have a great time, no pledges, no monthly fees, and EQ still rocks (minus their quirky boxing rules).
I'm not after state-of-the-art graphics. Just want a game with the challenge of EQ (no pandering and consequences for bad decisions). Tank, Healer, DPS, Buffers, and Porters - That's it! Shouldn't take 10 years to develop that basic construct.