Pantheon fans, if you haven’t swung by the official site in a few days, you definitely should. Visionary Realms’ Brad “Aradune” McQuaid has been busy indeed dropping dev blogs and then doing forum Q&A sessions too.
The first focused on clarifying the perception that Pantheon was downplaying or even eliminating PvP. In fact, the game will indeed feature PvP prominently; McQuaid says the studio’s goal is to build a solid PvE “foundation” to ensure the game’s identity, and then build PvP – independent of PvE’s power level – on top. “This comes from having done this so many times, dating all the way back to EQ vs UO,” he writes. “Nothing’s changed – in fact I’m more sure of my convictions if that’s possible.
Then there’s a piece on instancing, which responds to a player concerned over “neckbeard guilds locking down content” in a game without instanced content. McQuaid says he has a heavy-programming-centric plan to ensure that bogarting content won’t be an issue in the open world but still allows multiple tiers of players in one area, but he isn’t “ready to reveal” the details.
Finally, there’s an even longer piece that bops around from topic to topic in an effort to outline “what Pantheon truly brings” to the MMO space: old-school RPG influence, focus on social relatinships, lack of rails, lore, survival-esque death penalties, and so forth.
McQuaid’s also active in a thread on the official forums about these posts, where he’s clarifying as well as talking more about the playerbase and community, which he says only continues to grow in size – and attract more “skeptics.” There’re many thousands of words to pore over here, so if you’re among the “fantheon” faithful, you’d best get reading.
