Pantheon Online

Colt ended up signing back into the game for only a short while to find out what had been going on. After relaying what he had discovered so far, he set up a rotation with the other leaders for who would be online and when, so they could all get some rest. It was decided that each of them would have three days off a week to deal with real-life issues. 

Since he had already taken a day off, it was decided he would be in the first batch, giving him another two days to play around with. When he signed off again, he felt at a loss. Those he had called friends were all on his old team. With what had happened between him and Camelot and them remaining silent about it, he did not feel inclined to contact any of them.

'Maybe I should check up on my brother...' Colt hummed as he eyed his contact list on his computer. They had not spoken much since he rejected Colt's offer to join Camelot when he was still the Captain. Instead, he had chosen to join a team that had only recently been created and played an entirely different game altogether. 

The last he heard, his younger brother was doing quite well for himself. Placing in the top ten global players of that game. 'He probably won't be interested in Pantheon...' Colt let out a sigh. After all, if they did talk, he would have to deal with the questions of what he would do for money now that he was kicked off of the pro team. 

He was not ready to answer those questions yet. Not until he found a decent sponsor for Ragnarok. With that thought in mind, he navigated to the team's streaming site on Pantheon's official page. Another three streams had been uploaded by the editors since then, showing off their adventures so far. However, since most of it was something that the editors realised they wanted to keep secret, it was mostly full of screen time for Bjorn, Harik and Ania. 

As well as the Oracles and followers that were closer to the other members. He scanned through the comments left on the streams and discovered that the people who were watching them seemed to be fawning over Ania whenever she appeared. And it was not just men who were leaving lewd comments either!

Colt chuckled at some of them as he read them, but others he chose to ban from commenting since they were just too graphic. Colt let out another sigh as he checked the inbox to see if there were any updates.

He was surprised to discover that there were actually a few sponsorship offers. But they were all from small companies who wanted to advertise their products and give them discounts in return. There was nothing offering them any money or real support. He felt slightly disheartened at that, but he always knew it would take time to reach any of the big fish, since they would be paying attention to the professional teams.

Colt leaned back in his chair as he sipped on the lukewarm coffee while staring at the screen. He was sure that they had made a decent splash in Pantheon already. 'Maybe...' He decided to scroll through the pages of other teams and he was discouraged to find that plenty of them had already received paid sponsorships. The problem was that they were most non-human races. 

It seemed that the average viewer was more interested in these races or finding videos with something that they had not seen so far. 'If we want to grab attention, I'll need to reach out to the editors. Maybe I should ask them to include Skovi...'

However, he quickly stopped this line of thinking. It was ridiculous to reveal this card now, just to try to draw more attention. Skovi could be a vital factor in saving his life one day if the enemy was caught unaware. But that did not really leave him with any options. Revealing the Autosphere and the battle that took place there, and the Alliance were both no goes as well. Which was pretty much all they had up their sleeves for now. 

Colt wracked his brain for an answer. The only other things he could think of was to either reveal his new gamertag and associate it with his real name, or to try the whole demigod thing. That would be sure to bring in viewers who would be interested in it. 'Or... I can create a monster and make sure my followers fight it...' It was worth considering since it would certainly bring some drama to their streams.

He was beginning to realise that they desperately needed exciting content. Something that would draw viewers back time and again. 'Is this how those television producers feel?' Colt thought as he rubbed his temples. 'I need some inspiration...'

He navigated through the web to find old myths and legends that involved heroes and monsters. As he read through them, he tried to figure out what made them so compelling to people who enjoyed them. Once he was done with a few of them, he watched some indie web series that covered the same topics. Whether they were meant as dramas or as information.

It took him some time to start piecing everything together. He would have to orchestrate a whole story revolving around whatever he did. Like, create a monster that would kill the unsuspecting NPC's parents or loved ones before making his own appearance to give them gifts or something to help them defeat it. 

He was unsure whether the developers had this in mind when they developed the game. For it to become one big drama that anyone could enjoy and support their favourite characters. For that was what the gamers would become. Actors of a sort instead of professional gamers. 'Hm... Maybe we should properly roleplay all the time instead of just for the NPCs...' 

He had noticed a trend that seemed to favour the teams that were going along these lines. Although he could not watch the content, just some of the comments that he was not restricted from revealed this fact. These teams had even set up donation pages. 

Colt let out a sigh when he saw that. Would his Pantheon even go for the idea? But then again, donations could keep them going for a while. Even if they had to pretend to be someone, they were not for the time being. But most of the time pro players did not pay attention to things like this. They focused on stats and being logical in how to beat the game. 

He was stuck with a bit of a dilemma because of it. Personally, he felt uncomfortable role-playing a god constantly for the amusement of whoever would be watching. 'I'll put it to a vote and if the others agree, I suppose I can swallow my pride for the sake of the team...'

Colt shook his head as he thought about it. He decided to prepare himself a bit just in case it did go through by searching for the supposed personalities of gods in human history. If he was going to have to do it, then he would do it right. He mainly focused on the likes of those who had ruled their own Pantheons, such as Zeus and Odin.

Then he went through every story he could find of these gods and discovered that they could be kind but were usually full of wrath. He even paid attention to the stories that claimed certain heroes as being their children and how the gods helped them in their own quests. It made him think that real-life history and myths had played a huge role in how the developers had designed the game. 

'Ok, maybe I really should have a child in the game... But not with Ania.' Colt frowned as he thought about it. Even though she was an AI, he would feel really weird with their supposed age gap. 'Maybe in a few years in game time.'

However, his mind was set on making these few things happen. The first thing he would have to do was discover a suitable NPC to be the mother of his child. Then he would have to create a monster and the subsequent hero to defeat it. After that, it would be up to the other members whether they threw some roleplay into the mix. 

All in all, he felt like he had a solid plan to increase their viewer levels and build up a strong fan base. 'I should probably ask some of the players to act like they're against me in the Pantheon or something. Maybe have them create problems for the NPCs while I fix them. Make it seem like there are two factions or drama happening internally...'

'Then again... I wonder if I could declare a Queen for the Pantheon? Then have them act jealous when I create a demigod and send trials against my child?' That wasn't such a bad idea now that he thought about it...