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Pirates of the Caribbean Online - CES Update
When the Pirates of the Caribbean MMORPG launched before anyone knew what was happening, no one knew what to expect from the Disney game. Today, Carolyn Koh follows up on her first look at the game with a CES Progress Report.
The Disney group. What does that name convey? A higher bar than expected in others? I rather think so. “People expect big things from Disney,” said Katie Gerber, Communications Manager of the Walt Disney Internet Group, as we walked to their suite. Mike Goslin, Vice President, Virtual Reality Studio and Joe Shochet, Creative Director were there to speak about their game and answer what questions I had. We started off just chatting about the game, the changes they’ve implemented since release and their plans for the future.
PotCO was shipped with little fanfare. They had planned to ship with the opening of the 3rd movie, but that was just not to be, as the game just wasn’t ready at that point, Mike imparted. Their targeted audience is the wider non-game playing public. Such a diverse number of people is a hard group to target, but that is what Disney movies – especially their animated movies - target. Fun for the kids, with some adult humor built in to amuse the adults – take Aladdin with funny guy Robin Williams cast as the voice for the genie for example.
As an experienced MMOG player, I had some expectations. PotCO’s controls was quite different. But as I had mentioned before, if I could formulate a set of “standard” commands for MMOGs and get every development house to follow them, I would be a happy camper. Each time I played a different MMOG, I also had to figure out how to /tell or /whisper a friend, or trade an item – right click? Left click? Drag item over character? PotCO builds upon ToonTown, Disney’s first MMOG offering, so of course those who have played ToonTown will find the controls similar. Children ready to move onto a higher level game than ToonTown maybe?
I asked Joe and Mike about the seemingly high penalty for losing an encounter – the “grogginess” you experienced. Well… it seems like this old MMOG player (and a few of my friends) expected a penalty. When we woke up groggy after being thrown into jail (depressed stats), I got up and went for a sandwich – we all went AFK! When we got back, we were still groggy, so we complained and whined that the penalty was too harsh, played cards and just sailed around until grogginess wore off. Now, Joe tells me that the best way to get rid of grogginess is to work it off! Doh! “We didn’t communicate that too well,” he admitted, “but you’re supposed to get back in game and go back to fighting. That works off the grogginess.” Mike was also quick to point out that your stats are only a little depressed, not by much.
What I had seen as deficiencies in the ease of creating a group by being able to type /group or /invite and your friend’s name were caused by design decisions. Firstly, there was security, in that the game is designed for ages 8+ and PotCO allows you to immediately teleport to anyone in your friend’s list or your group. Parents may not necessarily want for just anyone to invite little Susie into their group from across the world. The group interface only opens when your avatars are in close proximity to one another.
Secondly, PotCO does not require unique names. Why? Based on the story and history, they wanted to create a certain feel to the game with names. To that effect, PotCO has a very strong naming policy. Also, they wanted to make sure that friends could play with friends. Hence, players can move from sever to server. Also, with free to play accounts, unique names could be taken up very fast. Imagine there being only one “Catherine” or “Jack” allowed. What would the other 10,000 avatars be named and still remain true to the time period?
However, players can create invitation codes and email them to their real life friends. Once this code is received and activated in game, you’ve got them on your friends list and can teleport to them to form up. Improving the social aspects of the game are a priority and further updates to group functionality will expand their current Look Out system - a matchmaking system for card games and PvP – to include a “looking for group / crew / quest” functionality, changing the color of your group mates’ names so that they can be more easily followed in a crowd of “Catherines” and “Jacks” and changing the color “dot” on the radar. It is radar, I was told, not a true “map” hence the lack of geographic features on it.
;)
Level cap is currently 45. They shipped with 40, but a *cough* bug allowed some players to attain 42, so they raised the cap to 45. This is not your father’s MMOG. There’s a single overarching story line. You rescue the Black Pearl for Jack Sparrow. Some quests are repeatable, but the storyline quests are not. Boss battles, for example – the recovery of the Black Pearl- are repeatable. If only because it’s so cool that they wanted players to be able to play it again and again (and of course you’ll probably fail the first time around).
I also asked about the differences between character level and notoriety levels and how they impacted your avatar’s ability to defeat NPCs of which only character level is displayed. Here, the explanation was exactly like your father’s MMOG. Shhh…. Sekrit! But do pay attention to the color cues. If it’s red, you’ll probably lose.
When I wrote my “First Glance” article for this site, I imparted several caveats to my readers – that the game was designed for ages 8+ and that system specs designed for was very, very low. Avatars are on the blocky side as the one thing we just cannot get away from is that avatars take up a boat-load of system and video memory. However, this is not to say that the game is ugly. They’ve done very nice things with the environment and environmental effects. A tableau is created in each NPC area so that NPCs aren’t just standing around or patrolling. They dance, they interact with each other. This hearkens back to the tableau you might see while touring various areas of Disney theme parks. Skeletons are dancing around a bonfire. Pirates may be drinking rum and getting drunk. The pirates in the jail are trying to tempt the dog holding the cell key to come closer to them.
Recently, the Pirates DXD or Disney eXtreme Digital community portal was launched. Flash and widget based, it is an easy to use, customizable portal where you can track your own stats, check leader boards as well as keep track of your friends. In February, their first big update goes live and that adds a whole new layer of customization to your avatar. Jewelry, clothing, hair and tattoos. Yes, they snuck in like Pirates in a fog bank when they launched, but as they told me, they are ramping up marketing and working harder than ever to make this the game the best that it can be.
I read the previous article about this game..And I remeber the comment about the sk "death penalty"..Well all i can say is that it's ironic when a game aimed for Kids got a more harch death penalty than say EQ2..
It's even like this in ToonTown online..When you screw up..you have to pay for it..
Maybe the next generation of gamers will understand that this is NEEDED for thr sence of danger..
And..If you had been paying attention to the tutorial, you would have seen that fighting is lowering the "groggines" faster...
This is infact one of the best things with these 2 games...
/Cheers for this Disney..Well done.
I've been itching to rant about something, regarding this game, and have nowhere to do it, which is part of what's bothering me. There's a feeling of unfriendliness from the megacorp and its tightly reined devs, which seems wrong for the whole cheerful Disney image, but I guess it fits, when you think realistically about the company, and what many such big corporations are like.
So first off, if there are any official forums, I can't find them. Even the news site only covers the press release facades, and nothing about any issues the game is having.
Such as a recent bug that locked lots of characters out of the game for a few days. Upon contacting tech support, they were only allowed to give canned responses, and had no power to help or even impart any friendly human information. The canned response was vague, and left me wondering if I was the only one having the problem, and if when they said they were working on it, that might just be generic run-around to get me to go away.
They could have said this was a recent bug introduced in a previous patch, and that numerous other players were also afflicted, thus a major priority to fix ASAP - but then they might seem fallible, and better to seem cold and uncaring, I guess.
Then there are other little things about the game, like the advice it gives to spend skill points wisely, because they're not refundable (implying that they never will be, so even if players could ask for respecs, they shouldn't bother) in a UI system that allows for misspending of points way too easily. It's bad enough to waste points on skills we learn aren't anything we'll ever use. Even worse, after grinding out all level trying for a point to spend on something, only to level and excitedly misclick on the wrong icon, spending the hard earned point on something useless. And I guess they don't care. What devs want optimal characters running around anyhow, players prone to feeling gimped be damned.
So to me, things like that make the game feel cold and impersonal - I mean, sure we can run around in happy cartoon land with our fellow players, but the people behind the game come off as uncaring jerks who want nothing to do with their players or their concerns.
/rant
And yet, judging by your avatar, you play DAOC, which also has no official forums and only gets canned information on their website. The Herald is a scripted forum where they impart what information they want you to know. The only 'forums' for the game are 3rd party like Warcry, Vault, IGN and other networks.
TBH I have often felt that 'official' forums for games rapidly turn into cesspools. And considering the game is targetted at 8+ year olds? A forum is the LAST Place I want my 12 year old daughter visiting. No, so far I've been impressed with this little title. It's got enough 'depth' to keep it interesting and the gameplay actually feels quite smooth. TBH it blows it's competition (POTBS) out of the water. The only things POTBS offers that are better than PotCO, imo, is the crafting and sea combat. Other than that POTCO is far superior. (Oh and graphics... the graphics aren't horrible, as the review states, but they're nothing to write home about, that's for sure.)
And, actually, thinking about the Sea Combat... PotCO does offer features that POTBS does not: Namely having a crew of other players to man your guns while you concentrate on sailing. Crewed guns can be aimed high, mid or waterline allowing you to target sails, rigging, crew or hull, which is pretty darn cool actually. So while I do think POTBS did a better job of getting the mechanics of sea combat down I think POTCO did a better job of making it fun.
I thought the Herald was run exceptionally well, and came across as very human to me, not canned at all. They were always posting real game issues, patch notes, beta patch notes, etc. It rarely read like an advertising hook, and was aimed entirely at existing players, not prospective players.
Integrating forums into it probably would have been nice, despite major cesspool elements, though. At least they were indirectly involved with VN boards, so that counted for something, too. Albeit, not exactly official or anything, it was somewhere to rant, where enough communal ranting did seem to reach the devs.. eventually.
I agree, but another thing POTCO did differently than both POTBS and VC - none of it's instanced. It's all open sea, from travel, to port, to combat. To me, that has a major effect on the gameplay, that combat is out there in the open, with all the unpredictability that brings, of passing friends and foes, and whatever else. Not the same old repetitive strategy every fight, because it depends on your surroundings. Not a huge amount of variation, but enough not to feel monotonous almost immediately, like the other two.
Also that the sea travel is right there at sea level, you can even see your avatar there at the wheel when you zoom in, rather than looking down at little boat icons on what's about as exciting and immersive as a fast travel map.
To me, those two elements are huge. Course, I wish POTCO had more depth and all, maybe a bigger, more realistic gameworld, maybe characters that didn't all have the same exact same skills, or how about even just more than three kinds of ship? Well, it just isn't that sort of game. At least I can play it with my 8 year old nephew, though.
It's simple really..The diffrence between POTBS and POTCO is more reallity versus fun/arcade/action..
Even thou this game is made for a younger audience It doesn't make it less fun for older people..I played it for a time..and it's a fun and addictive game..You can say it's a fammily game.
Ohh..And the land combat of POTCO if far better than the land combat in Pirates of the burning sea, due to intence action and the system in itself where you have to time your moves..
No thark, it is a clone vs a kiddie game.
They both suck. Beta Tested POTC for 2 months and then after the rework,still sucked
POTBS is a EQ clone from the ground up, and sucks jsut as bad. Stunning graphics,but crappy game. Enjoy standing at an NPC all day to adventure in a limited enviroment :)
The whole reason for death penalty is probably so non-paying customers will get frustrated being owned by actual customers, so they will either quit, or pay as well to stand a chance.
Anyway, i just downloaded this game, so can't say much, all though it seems interesting enough so far.
I once spoke with a dev from Disney's VR Studio, and he let me know that they don't create official forums (or even acknowledge the existence of unofficial forums) on their website because of child safety issues. They don't want to be responsible for younger kids chatting withi other players outside the game world.
As far as the penatly for dying, it's not all that bad, really. It's a 20% reduction in health for about 20 minutes. You can spend that time in sea battles, since your avatar's meter isn't applicable there. Or just play some card games.
Or..you can fight it off in a few minutes..This is covered in the games tutorial and even all the hints covered when loading.
I was in the same boat as Vandelay. I didn't know better when I first started playing - back when it first launched. They've covered that now in the tutorials and hints.
Which is great to know that they are listening to feedback.