 What's up everybody, I'm TheMangoose, you are awesome and today I want to talk about how Ethereal went from being the long bet dark horse of the third person MOBA race to what has become the safest bet. My earliest polls showed Ethereal way behind everyone else, while my latest poll, granted that one did not include fault, had Ethereal on top by far. While much of it is due to their own hard work and determination, there is something to be said for the other games simply cancelling each other out since they all offer much of the same thing. Catharsis, a member of my discord, compared the entire situation to Game of Thrones. I find that to be a very apt comparison. As much as I respect and admire all of the teams currently attempting to revive Paragon, you have to look at the reality of the situation. Core, predecessor, and fault are these Starks Baratheons and Lannisters, squabbling over one territory while Ethereal is the White Walkers, radically different and marching forward with the intent of taking over the entire world. While I've often spoke out in the past against any kind of merger, I think it's probably the only way that a Paragon reboot is going to survive. Part of the reason for Ethereal's popularity is because they appeal to a wider player base. There's something you see in Undying Games Discord that you don't see in the others, people that have never played Paragon. Sure you have a few outliers here and there for the other games, but it isn't nearly as much as you have with Ethereal. They never intended to become a Paragon replacement, they just happened to have a third person Z-Axis MOBA in development at the time of Paragon's death. They've been able to attract the attention of players from Dota, Law, and especially Smite. Players who look at the Paragon Resurrection projects dismiss it as a failed game and move on. Is that fair? Fuck no, but it's true. Another problem I foresee is with the PlayStation crowd. Paragon's fanbase was around 70% PS4 players. One can assume that most of the people looking forward to a Paragon reboot are mainly looking for whichever one can make it to the PS4 first. None of them are. Again, hard truth here, I'm not shitting on PS4 players, I'm just saying that none of these games will be PS4 ready before the PS5 comes out. So yes, you can look forward to a release on the PlayStation Network, but Ethereal will be well into the swing of things by then, possibly also releasing their game on the PSN, all while not relying on a player base that can't even play the game yet. On top of all that, Undying is just flat out producing quality. Though we haven't seen gameplay yet, but you normally don't until just before a game's alpha release. Everything else they have released has been outstanding. The character models, voice lines, map, website, everything looks great. All indicators point to smooth gameplay. I know there are many people that dislike the art style believe that the project as a whole is overly ambitious, but most of those people are Paragon veterans and that's not who Ethereal is being made for. Ethereal is targeting the MOBA audience as a whole. Dota, Law, and Smite are juggernauts of the MOBA genre. If you're going to pull players from that audience, you need to do something radically different. I think floating lanes, flying heroes, and unique class abilities qualifies as just that. A long time ago I compared these games to investments. The Paragon remakes were a low risk investment. You have a fan base in place, but the reward is just Paragon. That's fine with many people and it's something I want as well. But I ended up buying myself a lottery ticket with Ethereal. There wasn't much of a chance at the time that Undying would be able to pull anything off, but I believe that the payout would be well worth it. Right now I have 5 of the 6 winning numbers matching up and the only one missing is gameplay. The jackpot is right around the corner and I am very much looking forward to it. MANGOOOOO