I almost invested in it during Kickstarter but I suddenly realized it didn't have enough to be hyped about. I think the Kickstarter presentation was better over what they've shown since. Such as character models, flora, fauna, graphics, lighting, combat looked better. Anyway, my interest has waned.
Pantheon has a much better sense of direction where to take the genre.
I don't believe AoC to be a scam, they'll show the MMO at some point, but I think it will be interesting to see if a gamer can be a creative director and do a good job.
I feel AoC has already gone the way of Fortnight. Fortnight started as a very interesting and innovative castke siege / defence PvE game. but once hey got a tatse of that Battle Royale sucess, thers no PvE game anymore. AoC will pobably be lost in the "testing system" that is BR
When it was first announced, Steven Sharif made it sound like AoC was going to be heavily influenced by EQ. But as the project grew and more information came out it made it obvious to me that the game was not going to be anything like EQ.
Another MMO in development that is similar to EQ is Saga of Lucimia.
I seriously considered AoC - not instead of Pantheon but as something to be interested in while waiting. And on the theory that one of two eggs is more likely to hatch than one of one.
Decided it had too many negatives. Then that battle royale nonsense ended any consideration.