KickStart The KickStarter - Brad McQuaid's Pantheon: Rise of The Fallen

Kickstarter is and forever will be one of them things that people either hate or love. But it doesn't matter wither you hate or love it cause with titles such as Camalot unchained, The Repopulation, & Star Citizen raising more then 2million dollars, the fact is KickStarter is an efficient & well established way to kickstart an MMO & its company. For those of you new to KickStarter the idea behind it is that companys can post a page on KickStarter.com basically showing the gaming community what they wish to create & asking for a sum of money. It is then up to the community if they wish to "back" the project giving the company money from $1 to any where to $5,000 called "pledges." So you can understand why some people can hate the idea of giving a company money to create a game which that said company hopes to make money on. But if your a KickStarter enthusiast (like myself) its more then that. KickStarter gives companys that are not EA, Sony, Blizzard, etc. A chance to make MMOs that players want to play. So what is worth looking at this month? Pantheon: Rise of The Fallen that's what!


If you dont know the man behind this KickStarter your either 12 years old just getting into gaming or you've had your head stuck under the rock that is World of Warcraft. Brad McQuaid  is the maker of the original Everquest, An MMO that well defined MMORPGs to this day, And yes. It came before WoW. Brad was also the man behind Vangard: City of Heroes. An MMORPG he had made in an attempt to change how people play MMORPG focusing of group play, But unlike Everquest did not do so good. Eventually going free 2 play & soon to be shut down. However, Brad is back & looking for the community's help to create the dream he had so many years back & create an MMO with strategic combat & an MMO with meaning that rewards players who play together and more, And when I mean more I mean alot more. Its list of game features should just send chills up your spine, So taken from the KickStarter Page here's just some of features that you can look forward to in Pantheon:

• A classic take on epic MMO adventure
• A focus on exploration, adventure, and combat.
• Finally, an MMORPG for players wanting a challenging and rewarding experience. No risk, no reward.
• Play classes that have defined roles of tank, healer, DPS or utility (crowd and encounter control).
• Group-focused, intensely social gameplay using a class based system to encourage teamwork.
• Customize your class by bonding with the spirits of fallen warriors.
• Questing that’s optional, and not the primary means of character advancement.
• Engage in combat that will test you and your party, requiring strategy and preparation. (Read more about Pantheon's combat here)
• Train and use a wide variety of skills as part of your character’s growth as you level up.
• An economy that’s largely player driven.
• Visible loot. If you see an NPC wielding a weapon it should be a part of its loot.
• Dual targeting--attack your target while healing your allies.
• Horizontal character growth, with fewer levels and more meaningful gains per level.

And this is really just the beginning as there is just so much more that can be found on there KickStarter.

So why back this project? Why is it something you should be looking at and excited about? Well, if your not already excited from the list above of what this game is trying to do. I think just the fact that this isn't some indie developer behind "ideas" its being created by an already established & credited group of developers that we've seen 2 MMORPGs from one that was simply amazing & ground breaking and while the other one not being so good it wasn't down right horrible, And wasn't exactly a complete fail. But the fact is we know that Brad can deliver what he sets out to do. I really want you to watch their promotion video either on their KickStarter page or here on the site:

So what do you think? Worth Backing? Not convinced yet? Check out there KickStarter Page. let us know if you Pledged! And as always happy gaming!

-Brandon Losch