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Flying Lab Software | Official Site
MMORPG | Genre:Historical | Status:Final  (rel 01/22/08)  | Pub:Sony Online Entertainment
PVP:Yes | Distribution:Download | Retail Price:$19.95 | Pay Type:Free | Monthly Fee:$14.99
Desktop Client | System Req: PC | ESRB:T

Pirates of the Burning Sea News - Life After the Server Merge

Posted by Jon Wood on May 07, 2008  | 30 comments in our forums

MMORPG.com's Carolyn Koh speaks with the folks from Flying Lab Software in this progress update that brings us information not only on the recent server merge but on the game's past issues and its future.

“What server merge?”  Russell Williams, CEO of Flying Lab Software deadpanned, comfortably seated in his office on top of Queen Anne hill in Seattle, WA.  “Didn’t you read the follow up announcement?  Our web servers were hacked.  Ha!  Gotcha!” 

Russell really wasn’t trying to pull one over me, but was simply joking, this sunny morning in the Pacific Northwest that I was visiting to talk to the team.  Take a temperature reading, find out the whys and wherefores of the server merge in Pirates of the Burning Sea and what they had planned for the future.  One thing I know about Russell, having interviewed him several times previously, is that he is candidly honest and would provide a wealth of information.  I lusted surreptitiously at the model of the Yamato (among other toys) he has in his office, pondering once again how I could tuck that under my coat when I left, then urged him to “tell all.” He did.  Starting with what went wrong.

Read more here.

Read more Exclusive News...

 
 
Teiman writes:

Is a war.

A merge is a interesting thing in a way. sudenly.. tons of people are moved to a war zone, and change the old status..   on my server,  Roberts, the piracy is now a new real faction. The old pirates where tamed by the english, and server the english purposes, the new pirates are german people, that play seriusly and want to win, and imho, will win this map.  

This merge will make the game much more interesting for this map. A merge every month could be mandatory, hehehe ....    Eve online only have a single server!.   Maybe having different servers has ben a  lame idea. The game IS traducted to several langs, so german people can play the game in german, spanish  in spanish, etc.. having a different server could be unneded. So why?  maybe lag and architecture, maybe the game servers design can't handle that stress.. and that is sad, because a well populated server can make this game very interesting :DD

New Post Quote
5/07/08 8:23:05 AM
 
salvaje writes:

Does POTBS hold the record for fastest to server merge from release?

 

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5/07/08 9:32:19 AM
 
3on1 writes:

what does it matter?

they did the right thing, they learn from their mistakes and admit it by merging the servers

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5/07/08 9:45:22 AM
 
Elsabolts writes:

In case FLS has not noticed folks are leaving in droves. They had there shot, not sure if Sony will hire Rusty like the did Brad but the slow dance of death has started for the game.

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5/07/08 9:48:39 AM
 
Hrica writes:

wow server merge already?

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5/07/08 10:06:09 AM
 
WolfClaws writes:

Originally posted by Elsabolts

In case FLS has not noticed folks are leaving in droves. They had there shot, not sure if Sony will hire Rusty like the did Brad but the slow dance of death has started for the game.


Dude, stop with the SoE hate.  Has nothing to do with them this time.

PotBS is a great concept.  The only problem is that it is repetative.  I loved the game, loved the beta, but unfortunatly, gets kinda old. 

I think I am going to give it a shot and Conan at the same time... One for the gipper... especially since the new Pirate class is coming about.

New Post Quote
5/07/08 10:37:07 AM
 
njdevi66 writes:

Originally posted by WolfClaws

 

Originally posted by Elsabolts

In case FLS has not noticed folks are leaving in droves. They had there shot, not sure if Sony will hire Rusty like the did Brad but the slow dance of death has started for the game.


Dude, stop with the SoE hate.  Has nothing to do with them this time.

 

PotBS is a great concept.  The only problem is that it is repetative.  I loved the game, loved the beta, but unfortunatly, gets kinda old. 

I think I am going to give it a shot and Conan at the same time... One for the gipper... especially since the new Pirate class is coming about.

 

Well really, it does have somepart to do with SONY, he did say that the spanish has no boxes available, you cant find any boxes of the game. Ain't that SOE's job? Aren't they hired to put the games boxes on shelves? Looks like SOE didn't do what they were hired to do... hmmm, wonder why?

New Post Quote
5/07/08 2:12:13 PM
 
WolfClaws writes:
Originally posted by njdevi66

 

Originally posted by WolfClaws

 

Originally posted by Elsabolts

In case FLS has not noticed folks are leaving in droves. They had there shot, not sure if Sony will hire Rusty like the did Brad but the slow dance of death has started for the game.


Dude, stop with the SoE hate.  Has nothing to do with them this time.

 

PotBS is a great concept.  The only problem is that it is repetative.  I loved the game, loved the beta, but unfortunatly, gets kinda old. 

I think I am going to give it a shot and Conan at the same time... One for the gipper... especially since the new Pirate class is coming about.

 

 

Well really, it does have somepart to do with SONY, he did say that the spanish has no boxes available, you cant find any boxes of the game. Ain't that SOE's job? Aren't they hired to put the games boxes on shelves? Looks like SOE didn't do what they were hired to do... hmmm, wonder why?


Bleh, I am not a lover of SoE nor am I a supporter... if SoE was responsible for putting boxes in Spain, then yeah, they dropped the ball ,but I doubt sales would have been so over the top that it would have affected the decision of a server merge   : /

New Post Quote
5/07/08 2:21:20 PM
 
Grifin writes:

 

         Been hanging around this game for years now,Hoped it  would have launched a bit better.

 but it is what it is ,So Im willing to wait and see if it gets on a regular schedule of improvments

 before I throw in the towel yet.Just have to see if the game gets better before they run out of money

if so Ill be back on.Wish em nothing but the best.

       Indeavor to persevere

 

New Post Quote
5/07/08 3:01:56 PM
 
Gruug writes:

I have been wanting to give this game a try. I love the idea of it. I was a bit put off by the way avatar combat seemed to flop though. I would still like to give it a try but only once there is a 14-day free trial.

New Post Quote
5/07/08 7:27:11 PM
 
BigBlackWook writes:

When they put this game in SOE's hands we tried to warn them. I beta tested this game starting in June of 06 and I tried to tell them. They had a product that could fill a niche and instead they sold out. People just don't seem to understand what SOE is doing to this genre.

New Post Quote
5/07/08 8:26:04 PM
 
Larhten writes:

Nothing what so ever to do with SOE guys. The blame lies purely with FLS and their handling of the situation. The only 'happy' players that Rusty speaks of are the Pirate players who have 2 more love patches lined up for them , Nationals now barely bothering with any side of the war be it the Port Battles or the Open Sea fighting.

New Post Quote
5/07/08 10:44:01 PM
 
mynameisben writes:

fixing the interface? thats good i suppose why wasnt it done in beta lol. avatar combat sucked in beta as well maybe ill try this game in another year if its still around.

New Post Quote
5/07/08 11:16:52 PM
 
jiveturkey12 writes:

Single worst Idea for the game was making it casual freindly.

 

-Jive

New Post Quote
5/07/08 11:51:05 PM
 
Obee writes:

MMORPGs don't recover from poor launches.  The only game that has done so is Eve, and the only reason they were able to do so is because nobody had heard of eve when it launched.  PotBS is too high profile to recover from their poor launch.

PotBS was released early and unfinished.  The developers have admitted as much on their own forums.  As consumers, we should not support products that are released with vague promise to improve at some later date, or the companies that have such disdain for their potential customers that they expect us to pay for buggy, unfinished products.

Ship a solid product and add features later.

 

 

New Post Quote
5/08/08 12:24:30 AM
 
kazamx writes:

I think they key will be how fast they can pump out new content.

If they do introduce the player run ports, full skirmish, new class, more mission types, less instancing in a timely manner then I have no doubt it will be fine.

The concept is great, the core ship combat is fantastic and I have always wanted to play a game where the economy was player run not NPC drop run.

 

Only time will tell. If you not already playing I say give it until patch 1.6 or so. by then we should have most of the promised content that should really have been in at launch. if by then we can see things all coming together then this game will grow and be a success.

New Post Quote
5/08/08 8:23:24 PM
 
Tomsavage writes:

Originally posted by WolfClaws
Originally posted by njdevi66

 

Originally posted by WolfClaws

 

Originally posted by Elsabolts

In case FLS has not noticed folks are leaving in droves. They had there shot, not sure if Sony will hire Rusty like the did Brad but the slow dance of death has started for the game.


Dude, stop with the SoE hate.  Has nothing to do with them this time.

 

PotBS is a great concept.  The only problem is that it is repetative.  I loved the game, loved the beta, but unfortunatly, gets kinda old. 

I think I am going to give it a shot and Conan at the same time... One for the gipper... especially since the new Pirate class is coming about.

 

 

Well really, it does have somepart to do with SONY, he did say that the spanish has no boxes available, you cant find any boxes of the game. Ain't that SOE's job? Aren't they hired to put the games boxes on shelves? Looks like SOE didn't do what they were hired to do... hmmm, wonder why?


Bleh, I am not a lover of SoE nor am I a supporter... if SoE was responsible for putting boxes in Spain, then yeah, they dropped the ball ,but I doubt sales would have been so over the top that it would have affected the decision of a server merge   : /


Oh boy, those who can't wait to jump at SOE's throats...

OK. SOE are responsible for 2 things:

1. Subscription payment for US and EU countries

2. Publishing of PotBS in USA

Read that over again and again. The EU publishing was handed over to another group, mainly as SOE stated to FLS that they didn't have recent experience with launching a game over in the EU (true, they've released many games in the past, yet FLS wanted large coverage with a current publisher who knew the market specifically in the EU).

As a result of that, the EU publishing was handed over to Koch Media GmbH, Austria. That was the choice of FLS and SOE were happy with that arrangement. SOE still provide the subscription service and the production and publication handed over to Koch Media. As to why it didn't launch in Spain, no-one's got a clue. The launches in all the other EU countries went great, yet something with Spain just didn't happen.

FLS are happy to admit that it went wrong, yet overall things are going great with them. They had their Australian launch to total success, that is going through a different company entirely, without SOE's involvement on the whole. BigPond's covering that over there for FLS.

New Post Quote
5/08/08 9:15:53 PM
 
keNg_eLLy writes:

..i heard pirates* is a pretty good game!!!can someone post here any more info(hardware req., game rules,etc)??thanks

New Post Quote
5/08/08 9:22:49 PM
 
graill writes:

not beating a dead horse. but a month and change after i quit (once my 30 free days and one paid month were up i couldnt stand the bs gameplay) i get a reply on a ticket for an unanswered problem, lol.

anyway, how can this ceo living in my state, lie to all still playing the game? he quotes the chatter in the forums as positive, whata crock. but as the reporter said "the ceo likes telling jokes"

New Post Quote
5/09/08 1:36:54 AM
 
Ozmodan writes:

This game reminds me of Eve a lot, the development team is slowly remaking the game into what the playerbase needs.  I just hope they have the time to do it.

New Post Quote
5/09/08 8:16:31 AM
 
reaperuk writes:

Originally posted by Ozmodan

This game reminds me of Eve a lot, the development team is slowly remaking the game into what the playerbase needs.  I just hope they have the time to do it.

I see it more as a case of them treading water, trying to delay the inevitable sinking without trace beneath the waves of mmorpg history.

New Post Quote
5/09/08 8:27:40 AM
 
Teiman writes:

Originally posted by reaperuk

 

Originally posted by Ozmodan

This game reminds me of Eve a lot, the development team is slowly remaking the game into what the playerbase needs.  I just hope they have the time to do it.

 

I see it more as a case of them treading water, trying to delay the inevitable sinking without trace beneath the waves of mmorpg history.

IMHO, thats exactly what everybody else is doing, even WoW, and specially EvE.  The EvE dev's are smart, and the new Fx and hi-res texture is exactly what was needed. Other MMO's like Planetside, Anarchy Online, etc.. also need a hi-res texture pack, but seems theres not money to make it. So these games will die, once the graphics look that outdated, that most people will not understand the screen.

New Post Quote
5/09/08 11:12:35 AM
 
BigBlackWook writes:
Originally posted by Tomsavage

 


Oh boy, those who can't wait to jump at SOE's throats...

 

OK. SOE are responsible for 2 things:

1. Subscription payment for US and EU countries

2. Publishing of PotBS in USA


And if you believe that you'd believe there are Richard Simmons Juniors running around!

New Post Quote
5/09/08 11:12:39 AM
 
Tomsavage writes:
Originally posted by BigBlackWook
Originally posted by Tomsavage

 


Oh boy, those who can't wait to jump at SOE's throats...

 

OK. SOE are responsible for 2 things:

1. Subscription payment for US and EU countries

2. Publishing of PotBS in USA


And if you believe that you'd believe there are Richard Simmons Juniors running around!


Look onto the back of any EU box of PotBS. They're required by law to post who's publishing it and it's not SOE.

New Post Quote
5/09/08 1:15:35 PM
 
Tomsavage writes:

Originally posted by keNg_eLLy

..i heard pirates* is a pretty good game!!!can someone post here any more info(hardware req., game rules,etc)??thanks

The current reccommended specs are as follows:

Windows XP/Vista

Core Duo 2.0 Ghz or greater

1024 MB RAM

6Gb Hard Drive space

DirectX 9.0 compatable video card (NVIDIA GeForce 6800, ATI X850 or equivalent with 256Mb of texture memory)

DirectSound compatible audio hardware

Broadband Internet Connection

16x DVD-ROM

Game rules are far too numerous to go in to here, your best bet if you want to look into the main combat rules and such is to look at the stickied posts on this part of their website

New Post Quote
5/09/08 1:24:29 PM
 
Gyrus writes:

 

Originally posted by Tomsavage

 


Oh boy, those who can't wait to jump at SOE's throats...

 

OK. SOE are responsible for 2 things:

1. Subscription payment for US and EU countries

2. Publishing of PotBS in USA

Read that over again and again. The EU publishing was handed over to another group, mainly as SOE stated to FLS that they didn't have recent experience with launching a game over in the EU (true, they've released many games in the past, yet FLS wanted large coverage with a current publisher who knew the market specifically in the EU).

As a result of that, the EU publishing was handed over to Koch Media GmbH, Austria. That was the choice of FLS and SOE were happy with that arrangement. SOE still provide the subscription service and the production and publication handed over to Koch Media. As to why it didn't launch in Spain, no-one's got a clue. The launches in all the other EU countries went great, yet something with Spain just didn't happen.

FLS are happy to admit that it went wrong, yet overall things are going great with them. They had their Australian launch to total success, that is going through a different company entirely, without SOE's involvement on the whole. BigPond's covering that over there for FLS.

 

 

Well actually, AFAIK the handing over to Koch was SOE's call - they contracted this work out - and FLS were the ones who said "okay then".

But, don't take my word for it - here are some quotes and links from FLS:

The Press Release:
http://www.burningsea.com/pages/page.php?pageKey=news/article&article_id=10349
and note within that:
Here’s exactly what SOE brings to this that we want:

1) Strong distribution: We want Pirates of the Burning Sea to be in every retail store that carries games. SOE has that down cold.
2) Great localization process: We really want a simultaneous launch in Europe and the US because we think it could do as well over there as over here. Working with SOE gives us the best chance of making that happen.
...

The related thread:
http://archive.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24865
Within that thread (post # 62)
http://archive.burningsea.com/forums/showpost.php?p=459691&postcount=62
RUSTY[FLS] SOE only has distribution rights for NA and Europe.

So, as I read it SOE sub-contracted the European Distribution to Koch.
Sorry, but that still makes it their responsibility.
It is up to them to oversee Koch and make sure Koch meets the requirements.  If Koch was unable to distribute in Spain then they were well within their rights to sub-contract the Spanish Publishing and Distribution to a different company.
Ultimately though - it is up to them to see that it got done.

If you can show different information I would like to see it?

 

Oh, and as an aside: In Australia the publisher / distributer is Telstra / Bigpond.  You will not find any advertising for PotBS here either - outside the computer community I mean.
(They did advertise heavily in ATOMIC magazine - and the last edition had the Client as a cover disc)
 It is not on any shelves (Even in Telstra shops!) either.
The server population here is "light" across the board.
This is particularly bad here as the Client is FREE.
All they would have to do is put a box on the counter with a sign "Please take one!" - they have not even done that.

New Post Quote
5/10/08 9:43:04 AM
 
nohey writes:

I'm sorry to say but i think their time has already run out. They released this game without any decent content at all and whats more they continue to mess it up with a series of major flaws.

The most recent being merging and disbanding several servers. Not only did they disband servers but they placed the plays from those servers onto others servers (roberts etc) and unbalanced them heavily.

This problem is not just about the server merge.

This game had major content flaws from day one and they really as a majority, refuse to listen to those players and improve the game.

New Post Quote
5/10/08 11:08:56 AM
 
Airspell writes:

 Maybe pirates will make a decent f2p game like Anarchy Online, or Shadowbane :P

New Post Quote
5/11/08 2:51:48 AM
 
WSIMike writes:

Originally posted by Teiman

 

Originally posted by reaperuk

 

Originally posted by Ozmodan

This game reminds me of Eve a lot, the development team is slowly remaking the game into what the playerbase needs.  I just hope they have the time to do it.

 

I see it more as a case of them treading water, trying to delay the inevitable sinking without trace beneath the waves of mmorpg history.

 

IMHO, thats exactly what everybody else is doing, even WoW, and specially EvE.  The EvE dev's are smart, and the new Fx and hi-res texture is exactly what was needed. Other MMO's like Planetside, Anarchy Online, etc.. also need a hi-res texture pack, but seems theres not money to make it. So these games will die, once the graphics look that outdated, that most people will not understand the screen.

Actually... for Anarchy Online, they are releasing an entire engine update in the not-too-distant future...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bRmk0hZam7A

 

 

New Post Quote
5/13/08 5:55:36 PM
 
NightGod473 writes:
Originally posted by reaperuk

 

Originally posted by Ozmodan

This game reminds me of Eve a lot, the development team is slowly remaking the game into what the playerbase needs.  I just hope they have the time to do it.

 

I see it more as a case of them treading water, trying to delay the inevitable sinking without trace beneath the waves of mmorpg history.

And here's were aligning with SoE pays off for them. Games that SoE publishes and adds to the Station Pass seem to never really die. If Matrix Online is not only still active, but actually publishing updates regularly, then I don't see any major threat to PotBS in the near future.

New Post Quote
6/12/08 5:25:55 PM
 
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