Pirates of the Burning Sea

In another example of refined humour FLS released a new forum thread titled L2P.

After numerous reports how in game economy doesn't work the first sticky in this new thread tries to explain how to work the flawed economy.

Instead of fixing the problems - educate the players how to work with a flawed game design. It is not really surprising having in mind that devs are already instructing people how ganking is a good thing. Be satisifed with less, why play a working game when you can have teeth pulling fun with a poor design.

Two thumbs up for those who are sticking out.

I was interested to see this forum title - and the player reaction to it.

This thread is also interesting:
http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21247

Again, MMOs are an interesting thing IMO in that there is a definate crossover between the in-game community and the out-of-game community(ies) who are often based in forums.
Maybe I'm a snob and / or condecending but I tend to find that "elite speak" (or should that be "l337 $p34|<"?) tends to be associated with a 'younger' player whom in many cases (though not all) is immature with a short attention span?

In fact, although the internet is supposed to be anonymous I think it would be fair to say that in many cases you CAN identify maturity (not age) and to some degree intelligence (?) by the way a person writes?

And in MMOs, maturity, intelligence and perserverance (or lack of these) tend to be reflected in certain playstyles?

So, if you make your community a welcoming place for a certain group then you can expect that to be reflected in game?

L2P n00bz!

when i saw that, i was immediately reminded of Kaplan's rant, of how raiding in wow was fine, just the 99% of the players that didn't raid needed to learn to play and then they'd understand the joys of raiding.

I understand that it can be tongue-in-cheek, but one would think the game has enough of a bad reputation regarding ganking that it would have the good sense to avoid making it worse.

Actually, just earlier today, I came across comments made last July by Isildur (one of the developers) on an external site:

Note that I put ‘hardcore’ in ’scare quotes’ to indicate I was ’sneering’ at the term. Because the people who want fun competitive PvP are already playing fun competitive PvP, in GW and in WoW and in EVE. The people who want to gank are waiting for the Next Big Failure to come along, to let them grief noobs for a few months before it shrivels up and dies. This is because every sane developer has learned this lesson: griefing and ganking doesn’t just lose you the $15/mo from the person who was griefed. It has a multiplicative effect, creating an environment in your game, and a reputation outside your game, and people tend to steer clear. ‘Play to Crush’ as a selling point and marketing slogan probably lost SB twice the players it ended up bringing them.

Competitive PvPers will show up to PvP in Pirates, because our PvP rocks, because it’s fun and rewards player skill. Griefers will show up and discover there’s not much for them to do, because player skill isn’t what they really want — what they really want is 6v1 gangbangs against weaker opponents. Unsurprisingly, I like the former and detest the latter. And I was never even a victim in UO, so I don’t have that ancient bitterness to explain it. But I did fight an awful lot of evenly-matched PvP battles — with open looting and stat loss — in Kesmai.

Source: http://brokentoys.org/2007/07/23/see-you-in-ultima-online-no-shadowbane-uh-daoc-hey-swg-wait-horizons-vanguard-darkfall-yeah-totally-see-you-in-darkfall-newb/

I quoted that comment on a PotBS forum thread discussing the game's "vision" and I can't wait to see if Isildur will respond.  If he was honest last July, he must be somewhat dismayed at what is going on with his game.  There is the additional problem that the collective perception of the game being a ganker's paradise has really been encouraged by the developers themselves, and the "no crying in the red circle" mantra is probably the closest thing I have seen to Shadowbane's "Play to Crush".  Not a good sign.

 His entire post has whiffs of irony at its finest.

Originally posted by Vetarnias

I understand that it can be tongue-in-cheek, but one would think the game has enough of a bad reputation regarding ganking that it would have the good sense to avoid making it worse.

 ...

Actually, just earlier today, I came across comments made last July by Isildur (one of the developers) on an external site:

Source: http://brokentoys.org/2007/07/23/see-you-in-ultima-online-no-shadowbane-uh-daoc-hey-swg-wait-horizons-vanguard-darkfall-yeah-totally-see-you-in-darkfall-newb/

 

Maybe I am just a little bit picky here - but amongst the intelligent conversation you get Isildur with "kthx. bye"...

Not to mention that rather embarrassing jail analogy.

Still, how do you reconcile his position with that of DrewC, who wrote a while back:

First, Open Sea PvP is a very low restriction PvP system. Characters can be attacked by virtually anyone, and they can most certainly be ganked. That's the nature of the system, and we're not changing that system. So we don't want to hear any crying about it. War's not fair. Open Sea PvP is war. Open Sea PvP is not fair. I recommend trying to figure out how to make it not fair in your favor.

Second, it's a reference to the fact that it's only a game, and not something worth crying about. I know MMORPGs are very immersive games, and many people poor a lot of time and energy into these games. I'm really happy that players are that excited about Pirates, but at the end of the day, it's important to remember that it's still a game. It's not worth losing your temper, or getting upset over. It's just a game.

In short: there's no crying in the red circle.

Source: http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showpost.php?p=190578&postcount=6

Translation: Anything goes, and since it's just a game (except to those making $$$$$ out of it) we don't want to hear you complaining about it.

Either the developers are hypocrites, or they don't know what they are doing.  Either way, the game is in trouble.

Originally posted by Vetarnias

Still, how do you reconcile his position with that of DrewC, who wrote a while back:

 

 

It's not very hard to reconcile. You can only get ganked in PotBS if you do one of two things:

1) Voluntarily turn on your PvP flag - many people do this because of the reduction in NPC aggro and speed boost it gives. Surely we can all agree members of this group have no legitimate cause for complaint?

2) Enter a red circle. This one's usually the sticking point. Some folks refuse to modify their gameplay in response to the world (as in red circles appearing over a port they want to get to). Avoid the port and you can't get ganked. It's not a FFA situation by any stretch of the imagination.

Actually, my point was more in regard to the type of PvP that currently exists in PotBS.  By all accounts the red circles have turned into gankfests, often disguised as balanced PvP (with the opponent's five buddies waiting for the word in the closest port).

The type of PvP which Isildur sought seems to have completely vanished from the game, to be replaced almost unilaterally by ganking.  The devs should have seen it coming.

Originally posted by S01

 

2) Enter a red circle. This one's usually the sticking point. Some folks refuse to modify their gameplay in response to the world (as in red circles appearing over a port they want to get to). Avoid the port and you can't get ganked. It's not a FFA situation by any stretch of the imagination.

Anyone doing the PVE quests to level is sent from port to port to do so. It's ridiculous to claim that people don't have to enter the red circles. The game sends you there and only way to level up without doing so is to engage in mind numbingly boring open sea grinding.  

For freetraders, it's even worse. If a port where they have their production facilities gets enveloped in a red circle, they are forced to run the six ship gankers gauntlet in an almost unarmed ship to get resouces in and out of port. The alternative, is to stop playing that character until the situation is resolved by a port battle.

After  my freetrader was forced to move base for the third time in two months (and to make matters worse, contention decay had been turned off), I'd had enough. I did the same as most  other players  and cancelled my subscription.

Originally posted by reaperuk  

Anyone doing the PVE quests to level is sent from port to port to do so. It's ridiculous to claim that people don't have to enter the red circles. The game sends you there and only way to level up without doing so is to engage in mind numbingly boring open sea grinding.  

For freetraders, it's even worse. If a port where they have their production facilities gets enveloped in a red circle, they are forced to run the six ship gankers gauntlet in an almost unarmed ship to get resouces in and out of port. The alternative, is to stop playing that character until the situation is resolved by a port battle.

This is why economic warfare (blockade) is ineffective in POTBS. No player should ever be totally cut off from their production facilities if they think it through. Even when under foreign control, you can still accumulate labor. And the foreign tax on small items is negligable. It actually pisses me off more when my nation puts my economic base under contention, rather than let the other side just keep it.

As to PvE quests, I always have several quest lines dangling, waiting til I get around to them. To break up the monotony on any MMORPG I switch off and do different things. I do not sit at my keyboard and grind all day, nor do I craft all day, nor do I explore all day. Using one of my favorite games, EQ 2 as an example, I PvE grind until I get bored, maybe do some exploring, maybe dig my character dee