• Ben Dean was asked what the current target audience was for the current stage of development Pantheon is in. He discussed that it is currently a bit of a mix. While acknowledging the need to raise funds, by broadening the game’s reach, he talked about the dangers of moving too quickly. He discussed that at this stage of development, Pantheon is not ready for a mainstream push. That said, the team is working on plans to reach experienced gamers, not just MMORPG players that we could see unfold soon.
• Ben Walters talked about the evolving challenges of being the community manager for Pantheon. He was quick to credit the community itself for setting the mood and leading by example. He looks at his role as keeping conversations and the atmosphere of the community on track with gentle nudges. While you cannot eliminate toxicity or difficult situations, he navigates it with the priority of allowing the community to have a voice, while also being a welcoming environment for new and old community members to speak their minds.
• I (Minus) spoke to our plans for how we release content and what my overall role entails. First when coming on board, I had a vision of widening the way to consume Pantheon content. While the developers stream and VIP roundtable are valuable ways to communicate, both were rather long and offered in video format. Together as a team we worked to release the VIP roundtable as a podcast alternative for easier consumption on the go, and also now look into opportunities to release smaller easily shareable content. This includes videos like the Monk feature video and the 4K Halnirs cave footage we released, and there will be more to come. Next, bringing back the large scale newsletter was something I thought was important. While we had video covered, and now an audio offering, text communication was something I felt was still a great need in communicating to a widespread audience. Overall it was about providing different content types to allow our supporters both present and future, to consume information the way they enjoy doing so. Finally, a big part of my role is to schedule out content in advance and ensure we are able to hit deadlines on those projects. This is what has led to more preemptive announcements of upcoming events, including our new monthly schedule announcements.
• Ben Dean went into depth about the perception of Pantheon “forcing” players to group. He touched on the fact that there will be plenty to do on your own, that won’t require a group. He noted that for the best experience in Terminus, we highly recommend engaging your peers socially. Pantheon has always been designed to foster social engagement and community.