At the Game Developers Conference, Jon Wood had the opportunity to sit down and play Pirates of the Burning Sea, the nautical MMORPG being made by Flying Lab Software.

At the Game Developer's Conference, I had the opportunity to sit down and take a quick look at Flying Lab's Pirates of the Burning Sea. Now, fortunately for us, this was our second look at this game in the last month, Staff Writer Hasani Davis having been to the Flying Lab booth at the recent New York Comic Con, but I thought that it was worth giving a second opinion.

If you're tired of the same old cookie-cutter MMOs hitting the market, Pirates of the Burning Sea has probably been on your personal watch-list. Not only are some of the game mechanics new, interesting and innovative, but the entire setting is about as far away from the fictional game worlds of the classic fantasy WoW or edgy sci-fi EVE Online. No, this game is what might be called a historically-based fiction. PotBS is set right here on good old planet earth. No choosing between Elf, Dwarf or Orc here, instead, your choices are more terrestrial, Spanish, English, French, or of course, Pirate.

You can read the whole article here.

I think this game COULD beat all current MMORPGs on the market.

One suspects the devil's in the detail though - hope it doesn't go the same way as SWG.

Originally posted by velocity
the game is p2p right, or f2p, i hope the realese it in stores with a pre paid game card if its gona be p2p, i would buy it and play it my whole life :D (as a pirate ofcourse, aahhh why the didnt put in The Netherlands where i live, we where good at ship building etc.. like The VOC) 

I am dutch too...near breda to be precise.Anyway more people , also non-dutch, asked the same question why the dutch did not get their own nation since in that time the dutch still had one of the toughest fleets in the world and traded their ass of.The reply they got was that in the region they use for pirates of the burning sea the dutch only had a few islands as colony and mostly where occupied with colonizing indonesia at that time.Also the fact that the dutch mostly where in that region to trade slaves..wich offcourse is not implemented in the game.But no worries ... go pirate like most of us to revenge this decision .I for one am gonna play a "piet hein" on the spanish navy .

Small edit: i read that there are a few dutch guilds allready formed up.You can find em easily on google or on the POTBS website if you are interested.And yes it is p2p.

Originally posted by SUMB44
Because the Dutch are weak...  (read: Seinfeld allusion)

And seinfeld is a genie?Mmmmm then i'd say read bassie en adriaan...

...at least the dutch where a nation back then , had some cities up there..mmm  something called new amsterdam ...

Originally posted by SUMB44
Because the Dutch are weak...  (read: Seinfeld allusion)

No, that's the Ukraine. Ukraine is game to you??

This game looks really different, and these days that might be enough. The graphics look really good, can't wait to have a look at it myself.

Originally posted by Jack_Target

I think this game COULD beat all current MMORPGs on the market.

One suspects the devil's in the detail though - hope it doesn't go the same way as SWG.

One of the concerns of mine about this game is the fact that they have not given any real level of detail. They could have a great game... or a total dog, there is no way to tell based on the information that they give out.

It will not be until this game goes into open beta, or maybe even until release that people will know how the game actually plays.. and whether it will be fun. Sadly, this will be too late to fix any issues that are not as good as they can be, and it will be too late for any real player feedback to change the game.

I am VERY glad to hear that PotBS will have supernatural elements in it.

Early on it sounded like the Devs were trying to make a 'historically accurate' game.  Forget that!  Who wants 'historical accuracy' when that would mean single wound to your leg would have a good chance of getting infected and killing your character?  

Plus for the people at the time, the supernatural was REAL.  They truly believed sea monsters and ghosts existed.   We might laugh at that now but how do you capture that fear and dread of sailing out on a moonless night and hearing some unearthly sound echoing across the waves?

By introducing real ghosts and sea monsters of course :)  Well done Flying Labs! 

Originally posted by Alienovrlord

Plus for the people at the time, the supernatural was REAL.  They truly believed sea monsters and ghosts existed.   We might laugh at that now but how do you capture that fear and dread of sailing out on a moonless night and hearing some unearthly sound echoing across the waves?

By introducing real ghosts and sea monsters of course :)  Well done Flying Labs!