Going (Ser) Medieval

Going Medieval

As Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen’s development continues, our community expands in continuity with our game world. Perhaps that’s what makes the MMORPG so unique and engaging. As developers we enjoy interacting with new and long-term supporters alike, but watching the community expand, and with-it new impactful conversation, is always part of what lights the fire under all of us to drive Pantheon to completion. We work hard to put out development updates in forms that can appease all our supporters, whether written newsletters like this one, podcasts to listen to on the go, or video offerings to consume visually and it excites us to see what the community does in digesting this content. Whether it fosters conversations that pop up across our social media platforms or in the case of this community spotlight – taking a new point of view on our content and putting it out in new mediums.

We’ve said many times that we are thankful for the content creators that have dove head-first into our content, whether it’s lore, updates, art, or systems. It helps expand the conversation to greater audiences and open up new avenues within our community to discuss our systems, give feedback, and further engross us all in Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. Today we are thankful to learn more about long time RPG content creator, Ser Medieval.

Thanks for joining us today to talk about your journey in gaming and content creation. First, why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself?

Absolutely! I’m 27 years old, currently living in Nevada but originally from California. I work as a Smart Home Tech Specialist full time and spend all my free time pursuing my passions. I’ve been a content creator for over 6 years alongside being a gamer since I was old enough to walk. The first consoles I ever got my hands on were the original Gameboy, a GameCube, and an Xbox since my brothers were always the PlayStation part of our family. As my name gives away, I have a deep fascination for all things Fantasy and Medieval.

My top favorite part of the world would likely be Greece which houses my most loved historical figures of all time (Alexander the Great being my favorite) and some of my favorite history dating all the way back to the Trojan War itself. Following this I would have to say England, Scotland and Ancient Rome are my next favorites and the areas I’ve learned the most about. About a year ago I began studying Latin in my spare time through Duolingo and any books I can get my hands on. It’s the language I feel hooked me most to the Medieval period, so it became an easy choice when the opportunity presented itself. It’s a difficult language but I’ve had such a blast learning the basics and practicing it wherever I could.

Let’s get into gaming. What was your earliest memories of gaming, and what are some key games that brought you into the RPG world?

I have so many great memories of that time. For MMORPGs my first experience began in middle school but before that, I had such a golden age experience in the world of RPGs. Being both a GameCube and Xbox fan, I counted myself incredibly lucky to experience some amazing RPGs. Fable was a big part of my summers. I can still remember the days I’d lounge back in an orange sofa chair, Xbox controller in hand, feet in a motorized massager, and a BLT on the stool right next to me. Couldn’t ask for a better day than that.

Aside from that game I had the pleasure of experiencing ones like Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (1 was great but I’ll always be a 2: Sith Lords fanatic), Halo, The Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Dragon Age Origins (extremely large part of my childhood), Fallout, Two Worlds, The Gothic Series, Dark Messiah of Magic and Might, The Lord of the Rings RPGs, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh of course on the handhelds, and so many more including ones occasionally on the PlayStation side when I got the chance like Kingdom Hearts.

Towards teen years I finally had my first MMORPG experience in middle school. It all started around the 2003-2004 period with Runescape. I can’t even remember how I found it but what I do remember is that all my friends played it with me, we’d talk about it every morning before school while sitting in the courtyard, and I’d always visit the office in my apartment complex to sign myself up for the computer so that I could sign on and play it. I’m lucky that no one else ever really needed to use the computer because my name would be on that list all day long and I thoroughly enjoyed the coffee and chocolate chip cookies they sat out as snacks.

Fast forward about a year towards the end of middle school and I encountered an exceedingly popular game known as World of Warcraft. At the time I had no idea how massive it would end up being but jumping from Runescape to this at the time felt like a massive jump forward on the graphics and gameplay side. Felt like an entirely unique experience. Unfortunately, my time with this game did not last longer than a few months due to a swindle I ended up falling prey to.

I remember myself having a blast on my Dwarf Warrior in and around the area of Gnomergan when a whisper came my way about a “Pet Trial”. This being my second MMORPG out of the gate I was naïve enough to fall for it and put my login details into the false website, and for some reason never gave thought to trying to reach out to customer support or figure out if I could get my account back. I at times think back to that and wonder if I would have decided to stick with the game throughout the expansions if that hadn’t happened, and what kind of gamer I would’ve ended up as had I not experienced what came next.

After my short but sweet World of Warcraft journey, I entered the phase that I loved referring to as “Game Hopping”. I was so curious about what was out there in the MMORPG space and decided to spend my time experiencing all I could get. This was around the 2005-2014 period when game portal sites such as IJJI, Gpotato, OG Planet, Nexon, AeriaGames, and so many more were dishing out fresh MMOs like crazy.

I had such a blast dipping heavily into various ones such as Age of Wushu, Tera, 9Dragons, Defiance,
Vindictus, Mabinogi, Wurm Online, and a ton more that I found through the MMORPG.com game list.
Towards the later years of MMO releases I found myself diving into some of the more modern releases
Like ESO, FFXIV, Guild Wars 2, WoW’s later expansions, Archeage, anything I could get my hands on to capture the MMORPG fantasy I was becoming so addicted to.

In your content you are heavy in fantasy and in particular the medieval period, what drove your interests to this particular subset of fantasy?

I’d have to say all the games I played/movies and shows I watched as a kid had a heavy influence on this. I always had dreams of living in a fantasy world when I was younger. Some of my favorite fantasy movies – Beowulf, Lord of the Rings, Narnia, The Spiderwick Chronicles, many of them had a huge influence on my love for fantasy and I’ve always gravitated towards games or subjects that emulate them.

Talking more about your content creation, as far as your channel, your oldest video was over 5 years ago, covering the game Dauntless. What motivated you to start making content? Did you start with any goals?

I remember around that time I was still working retail and didn’t have a whole lot of time to pour into it but figured that I could give it a chance since I was already streaming in my spare time on Twitch.
It started off extremely casual, I’d occasionally upload clips or guides for topics that I was struggling with. And it didn’t really pick up until I took a chance and e-mailed the developers of a game called “Kingdom Come: Deliverance”. That ended up being an amazing boost to my channel and gave me the much-needed motivation to really start dedicating myself to content creation on both sides.

Do you have a fun story you could share with us about your content creating journey?

My most favorite moments from content creation involved being able to share the experience with my community. Whether it was in a survival sandbox private server we created and were all playing in (like for Valheim) or a public event we’d start in an MMORPG, anytime I had the opportunity to play and share the experience with any amount of people was the highlight of content creation for me.
This was especially true for MMOs like Conqueror’s Blade and Kingdom Under Fire: 2.

Moving to Pantheon, the first Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen video you create was covering our Racial passives about three years ago. How did you discover Pantheon and what motivated you to dig into it at that time?

I remember that around that time, a lot of people in the gaming community including myself were looking for a new MMORPG to call home. Something that could recapture the “Golden Age” of the pre-2012-2014 era as I remember it, and one of the upcoming crowdfunded games I came across was Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. What immediately interested me was the desire to capture the essence of the old-school experience of MMOs, while innovating on it to create something new.

I count myself lucky that I was able to experience RuneScape as my first MMO, but there were so many that I regretted not being able to experience in their primes. Star Wars Galaxies, Ascheron’s Call, Dark Age of Camelot, Shadowbane, Ultima Online and especially Everquest being the main examples. Pantheon to me was a chance for newer gamers to have the opportunity to experience what I believe many of us have forgotten while constantly seeking the next big thing.

As of late you’ve been covering a lot more Pantheon news, and even recently began creating lore videos to share the stories of Terminus, what caused the uptick and more consistent content?

I think what ended up turning the tide for me was my shift away from modern MMORPGs like New World and me realizing that what I was looking for was no longer being captured in modern titles on the market. To me the games were improving graphically but they were missing an experience that I was still longing for but could not quite put my finger on.

It’s not as much a focus on the social side of MMOs as it is on the open world itself. I miss the times when your character progression could take you down multiple paths depending on what you wanted to do, and it wasn’t as heavily tied to quest-based leveling as it could be for open-world grinding and exploration.

And I believe Pantheon: Rise of The Fallen will deliver this experience and then some.

What advice to you have for aspiring content creators out there?

When I first started making videos and streaming, I remember that a large portion of the time I didn’t look at any numbers. The views and view count, it can be very disheartening when you’re first starting off and seeing little to no results. I would intentionally hide them from myself/avoid looking at them and had a lot of peace of mind because of it. I believe the trick is also to jump into it as if it were a hobby, and to keep marching through it whether you’re in a phase of highs or lows.

It won’t always be an easy thing to do, I think every one of us has strayed or will stray at some point along the way. But perseverance is what I believe will always be the most important thing. If you can maintain that, no matter how little or large, you are bound to find some success.

Moving off your content creation side, what is it about Pantheon that has you excited as a gamer?

Pantheon has so many aspects I find intriguing and would love to see in any MMORPG. One of the biggest things I always wish for (especially after playing games such as Rift, Guild Wars 2, and Defiance) is a bigger focus on the open-world and all the possibilities that it can bring. Dynamic Events, Field and World Bosses, Rifts (fractures and atmospheres in this case), all aspects of it are my #1 source of enjoyment in any MMORPG. And personally, I have a huge preference for mob grinding/open world content as a primary progression method as opposed to one of a quest-based nature.

The perception & mount/travel system are other features that cause me to resonate with Pantheon to a greater degree. From the past few years, I have grown to realize how much an MMORPG’s story can contribute to its success. Deep lore, cinematics, iconic characters, these are some of the aspects that I feel can help to build the foundations of a great title in this genre, and I believe the perception system further elevates this to a deeper level than we would usually find in MMOs.

Having played a lot of fantasy RPG and MMORPG games, is there something specific that causes Pantheon to stand out for you?

Absolutely. Different features such as the Weapon Technique System, Fractures, Horizontal Progression,
Dynamic NPC Encounters, and NPC Dispositions/Behaviors are all major standouts to me for Pantheon.

If you had to pick three qualities that must stand out in an MMORPG for you, what would they be?

• Non linear progression
• Robust and influential crafting
• A living breathing world – a dream MMORPG for me would be one you could jump into and instead of it feeling like a world heavily influenced and ran by the players, it feels more like a single player RPG that a multitude of people have stepped into and are existing in, instead of being the primary focus of.

We always must ask, at this moment what class and race do you see yourself playing when the game launches and why?

It’s currently a very tough tossup between Dwarf Warrior and Ogre Warrior. I have always loved the
Dwarven lore and characters as a race, but at the same time, ogres are also another one of my favorite entities across fantasy universes. It doesn’t make it easier that both choices in Pantheon have incredibly rich backstories, but it will likely come down to where my party decides to go.

When you play MMORPGs do you find yourself as a solo player, picking up group mates you come across, or do you typically join a guild and stick with them? Are you a level as fast as possible player, or do you typically like to explore at your own pace?

I used to be much more guild oriented in MMORPGs. In Age of Wushu I had a blast leading a clan known as Hattori on the Red Phoenix server, and running a guild called Murder Business in the Archeage Kyrios server, but since then I had transitioned into more of a solo player/pick up group mates as I went type of playstyle.

But for Pantheon, I’d like to dip back into the guild-based playstyle and develop long lasting friendships to further enjoy the game for all it has to offer.

As we develop Pantheon, I cannot stress how thankful we are for our community, so before we wrap up this spotlight, is there anything you’d like to say to the community?

It goes without saying that I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to share my story and I am extremely hopeful for Pantheon’s success. I have always believed that there should be multiple MMORPGs that cater to different experiences rather than one that tries to fit into all of them at once.

Have a great 2023 to the team at VR and the Pantheon community. Onward and upward!

Thank you to Ser Medieval for taking us on a journey through his past, and into the pieces of his gaming history that infatuated him with the fantasy genre. We look forward to seeing you in the upcoming Pre-Alpha session and thank you for your thought provoking and entertaining content you dedicate yourself to.

We are thankful for the amazing stories our community has shared thus far with us. Do you have a story about how MMORPGs have made a difference in your life? Has it driven your creative urges? Has it made you a better leader? Has it helped you overcome difficulties in your life? We’d love to hear your tale and show why community truly matters. Drop us a line in the forums.

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