The latest newsletter about Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is now out in the wild with the great news that Linda "Brasse" Carlson has taken her dwarfy self to work with Visionary Realms. Many will remember Carlson as a driving force with both Sony Online Entertainment and Trion Worlds. Other positions have opened up as well, with the team culling through applications for both tech and art teams.
The newsletter also provides a brief look at the recent pre-alpha 4 event and how fans can get involved in the ongoing testing process. The letter also delves into the ins and outs of the Perception system and the core mechanics it is built around and that answers a few questions from the community about how the system works in-game:
The trend of most modern MMOs is to deliver story and quest content to players in a highly linear and directive way. The familiar format generally goes something like: travel to new area, find the hub within the new area where quests are dispensed and gather them all, follow minimap to various quest objectives and do as many as possible in one run before returning back for the grand turn-in. Then do the follow-up quests or move to the next new area and repeat. This rhythm has become synonymous with “the best way to level” and even pre-raid item progression, given that players are often able to go from level 1 to max level using the gear they acquire through quest-leveling alone.
But this formula has also conditioned players to see the game world in a very different way. The grand worlds MMO players inhabit have become less things to be explored for the sake of adventure and discovery. Instead, they have become more like the line connecting two points on a map - if the points are all that matter then the only good line is a short one! And if the points are already determined for me and shown to me, what am I actually discovering? Many of you are familiar with this experience and the mindset it creates, as was I.
You can read the full newsletter, including a nifty lore story, by visiting the Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen site.
