Pirates of the Burning Sea

SOE is absolutely part of the problem:

• They failed to get boxes to stores when the game launched
• They screwed up their launchpad on the day the game launched
• People are constantly complaining about having problems downloading patches from the launchpad
• They are supposed to be advertising the game...I've never seen an ad for it.
• Don't discount the number of people who wouldn't even buy the game because of SOE's involvement. Something the developers were warned about and chose to ignore.

I have nothing against SOE but many people do and the company has a bad reputation. That alone did not help.

However there is little doubt that POTBS sinks on its own lack of merit.

Originally posted by Illyrian

I have nothing against SOE but many people do and the company has a bad reputation. That alone did not help.

 

However there is little doubt that POTBS sinks on its own lack of merit.

Soe's lack of marketing is not what drove away the population that actualy bought the game.  If soe had marketed it the same problems would exist and probably be maginified.   yes there are some people who just hate soe period, but I find them completely unrealistic anyhow.  NCSOFT and EA gaming is just as bad in fact I think NCSOFT is in fact worse.   BAd games drive players away who actualy buy a copy away not bad marketing.  Even if SOE had done a better job the gamers still would have been driven away by the game itself.  FLS has put in big bold letters that those who had budy keys and free trails left and didn't stay.   If the game had been any good they would ahve stayed.  A free trial and good marketing wont change the fact that fundamentaly there is something wrong with the product.   Crap is crap no matter how wel you market it.  People would simply be screaming louder because there would be more people screaming over it.   Marketing simly meant that they would have pissed more people off then they already did FLS would have made more  money on initial sales but the same amount of account closing would have happened.  Lastly MMORPG.com is one of the largest sites for marketing your game.   Most of the gaming population had the availability of the information.  I didn't find out about this game from an offline store I found out about this game from a forum and website just like this one.   Since I didn't even go to a store to buy the game marketting was pretty much wasted on me.   They had a chance of possibly getting new gamers who have neve rplayed a game into this game, but the fact of the matter is that those are the first to quit from what I have seen who have in the past played only stand alone pc games because fhe game is not that great and in this day and age anyone who wants to try an mmorpg has likely already tried one there isn't much of the population who would be likely to try an online game that hasn't at least tried one trial.  The information was there and I"m not sure it would have drawn much more of a crowd then it already did. 

 FLS has already stated that they did manage to market it in spain and it just wasn't popular.   Boxes appeared in the stores the subscriber base just didn't happen.  Simply put not enough people were interested in the box and even less people wre interested in paying the subscription after opening the box.  

My biggest worry is that FLS thought Potbs was ready for release when clearly it wasn't.

Current subscribers are paying for a game that should still be in beta, the potential is there for it still to be a good game but not many mmo's get much of a second chance.

The only saving grace is that FLS only need a relatively small amount of subscribers to be profitable.

Originally posted by smg77

SOE is absolutely part of the problem:

• They failed to get boxes to stores when the game launched
• They screwed up their launchpad on the day the game launched
• People are constantly complaining about having problems downloading patches from the launchpad
• They are supposed to be advertising the game...I've never seen an ad for it.
• Don't discount the number of people who wouldn't even buy the game because of SOE's involvement. Something the developers were warned about and chose to ignore.

So do you still have an active account?

Originally posted by DJXeon

My biggest worry is that FLS thought Potbs was ready for release when clearly it wasn't.

It was in beta for 2 years.

How long do you expect them to run beta before they finally say, enough already, it's good to go?

Originally posted by Iijs

 

Originally posted by DJXeon

My biggest worry is that FLS thought Potbs was ready for release when clearly it wasn't.

 

It was in beta for 2 years.

How long do you expect them to run beta before they finally say, enough already, it's good to go?

Until it's good to go?

Originally posted by olddaddy

 

Originally posted by Iijs

 

Originally posted by DJXeon

My biggest worry is that FLS thought Potbs was ready for release when clearly it wasn't.

 

It was in beta for 2 years.

How long do you expect them to run beta before they finally say, enough already, it's good to go?

 

Until it's good to go?

 

But that would make to much sense

FLS failed to realise that PVP combat needed to be rewarded until after release, despite the high turnover of players in beta & many warnings FLS did nothing hoping that released numbers would solve it.
FLS now admit that the economy is only currently working with only one of the three intended sinks or legs of a tripod & won't be put right for quite some time.
All in all it looks like the game is still in a beta condition.

At first i thought that SOE had failed on publicity but in retrospect it would not have made much difference because even if they had brought in many more initial subscribers the bulk would still have probably left by now.

Fix the game first & then spend money on publicity - whether either will actually happen remains to be seen but i am still hopeful.

Over the past few weeks we know that quite a few players have objected & even cancelled their accounts over the following:

1. The famous dev statement to play unfairly to your advantage which was widely mis-interpreted.
2. Lack of rewards for PvP combat.
3. PvE players getting ganked when all they want to do is PvE missions.
4. Over-production in the economy.
5. Lack of incentives to win the map a second time after the first due to underdog tools.
6. Pirates disadvantaged in battles & wealth.
7. Low server populations due to too many servers.

Indirectly there is some truth in all the above but most of it are excuses for the fact that some players get bored with constant RvR period.
Until we have other endgame content like player governed ports & Pirates plunder that will break the monotony of RvR it will not be solved.

Whilst winning the map should be the most important goal for any nation, it should not be the be all to end all as it is now.

Thankfully most of the contentious fires are either out or in the process of being put out & we can look forward to much smoother future transitions to the many exciting additions FLS are currently working on.

In short, a bumpy start but not the end of Potbs by a long shot, i would expect subcribers to increase over the longterm in a similar way to what eve has.