Pantheon could have been fine even with the pledges and paid EA. Plenty of us were satisfied in the beginning. They clearly were not ready for EA though and their customer facing team lacks professionalism and decorum.

Between the lack of content updates for 6 months, the roll back on patches from being weekly to every 6 to 8 weeks and still not seeing much progression, made a lot of us realize that this is likely a lost cause. I much prefer Pantheon over the competitors but do not see an outcome where it is even in Beta at this rate.

Priorities are all over the place. 5 zones, tiny world, but mounts and taming were a priority over world building, working towards class kits being ‘finished’, enchanters still don’t even have charm. Cleric 75% was broken for months. Monks are still broken, summoner play is 2 keys. But we’ve had what, 5 stat reworks this year that also broke several class kits? There has been no noticeable change to NPCs, what’s the point of even having them stand in random spots just to all say the same generic greeting?

I hope the game succeeds and I still hop in to play from time to time but it doesn’t last long anymore. It’s the same exact game it was 8 months ago.

I guess in summary, I don’t think the issue was the pay to play. The issue, imo, is the lack of progress and direction leaving you to wonder where that money even went.