Pirates of the Burning Sea

Originally posted by Wolfenpride

Im curious in people opinions on why this game didn't really take off?

I see alot of negativity directed towards the game as well, why is that?

I can't speak from much experience as I haven't played the game but I did read on a few forums the launch was less than stellar,again I could be wrong because I barely bothered to remember due in large part to my second reason. Pirates I would think would tend to fall into too great of a niche market to be highly successful,you couple that with a bad launch and you have a prescription for trouble.I've always noticed games offering gear and such that looks like pirtes and a "few" in game that seem to imitate them but I have never found them as interesting as that myself and I'm not sure many others will in general.

I was a long time beta tester for this game. In fact, I was 1 of the original players selected for beta.

And I can tell you the reason this game was not successful was because the devs abandoned what they originaly set out to do.

The changes this game endured during beta was more dramatic than any ive ever seen. Graphics aside, every aspect of this game changed. The intent of the original game was much more sandbox than the final product.  

In an effort to please everyone, they pleased nobody.

I think the biggest problem is that some penpusher thought that a pirate themed mmo would be popular.

People only rejoiced in its announcement because it doesn't revolve around elves and orcs.

In order for a game to make it in todays market, I'm of the firm belief that it will need to be of a different ilk, and not published by SOE.

For me, the reason this game failed was simply because of the endgame, or lack thereof.

If a team won the game, ie. had so many points, then the game was over and the map restarted. I can see this working for a game where rounds are 30 minutes or so, but for a game that lasts several weeks, it's just tedious and boring. They made the game with 4 factions, but only made battles where 2 factions could fight at a time. Then there was the pirates total inability to have any effect on the other nations, which made them useless to play.

 I have actually went through and read all 11 pages of post here before responding.  My biggest issues with this game were not mentioned so I'll share my 2cents.

First my game play style.  I hate PVP.   I believe in every mmo I've played - PVP just brings out the worst of players.     I accept it as a part of the game and avoid it whenever possible.    That being said I am not a player who totally fears PVP,   if the reward is great enough I will risk a trip through a PVP zone when necessary,  this is why I love playing in 0.0 space in EVE.     Plenty of rewards for visiting PVP areas.

Some how when I read about this game in the POTBS forums a couple years before release I pictured a much better economy.   POTBS talked about how the market would be a completely free, without regulation or restrictions, economy that players would set the prices on and control.     Now seeing what they have offered it seems to me that the economy wasn't some well thought out and designed tool for us but instead just laziness on the part of the developers.     What the heck is this reverse auction type thing.  I put my item on the market without being able to see what price other items are selling for? I just hope people will pick the price I have it at?   Why can't people place Buy Orders to be filled.

I also hate the concept of no shared warehouses?  Why can't I transfer goods from one character to another.    Well besides using another player to make the transfer.   It seems silly to me that all my characters are forced to be totally seperate from each other.   Oh except they must all be same faction as well so not really seperate.

Along those same lines - Why are their no shared society warehouses?  The game forces societies to work together but requires all the players to be online at the exact same time.   We started a guild on a server that had a pretty good start with a successful production line running.  We had a few players who disappearing for a period of time.  This shut down our ability to transfer goods. Several goods got lost on players who were missing.   It was just a really bad design.   We even had to use a players Alt account with shared passwords passed to store guild goods.    No shared warehouses - come on.

I heard the no shared warehouses was to force players to use the markets,  but did anyone actually believe they would work?   All this did was force players to find work arounds and pull the entire economy off the market.

The level/quest system was messed up.  Some of these quest were just mislabeled .    You take on one quest at a level and find it extreamly hard - then you do a quest 2 levels higher and find it extreamly easy.   

Killing servers and forcing all players to move - thereby destroying our society wasn't helpful either.

I am not exactly sure what everyones problem with SOE is.  I have heard they destroyed SWG when they took it over.  As I didn't play SWG preNGE - I really have no fair way to judge.    I really enjoy SWG now, wish I had seen it prior to the changes.    

I do enjoy Everquest 2, or at least use to,  but I hate the idea of buying extra expansion packs every 3 - 6 months.   I intend to return to the game in the future.

I didn't really like Vanguard,  bought it, played it, but left really early in the game never to return.

Since I do have a stationpass account, I will probably always visit POTBS every once in a while.  It makes me a subscriber which makes them look good on paper.   But really the game provides me no value, and I provide no value to it.      I'm just waiting for changes that will never come.

Originally posted by Wolfenpride

Im curious in people opinions on why this game didn't really take off?

I see alot of negativity directed towards the game as well, why is that?

I was curious about this game but never tried it, because of two issues:

1. Everything I've read about this game, tells me this is a ganking game, not real PvP.

2. The devs/mods way to reply on the forums. They act like spoiled brats with no clue about customer support and service.

(Didn't read through this thread, only the OP.)

Originally posted by JumpingJax
....

I am not exactly sure what everyones problem with SOE is.  I have heard they destroyed SWG when they took it over.  As I didn't play SWG preNGE - I really have no fair way to judge.    I really enjoy SWG now, wish I had seen it prior to the changes.    

...

In this case it has NOTHING to do with SWG.

I will repeat that - just in case you missed it and this turns into a "U h8 SOE OMFG getz ovr it alredy SWG waz yerz ago..." thread.

It has NOTHING to do with SWG in this case.

SOE's (Platform Publishing) handling of the PotBS release was appaling.

They botched virtually everything they touched in this release and FLS had to step in to cover for them on several occasions.
If SOE had been a brand new company - with no history at all - based on the terrible job they did in relation to this game I would advise any developer to stay well clear.

I have dug up a couple of links for you - when reading them ignore all the Anti "OMG SOE!" crap spam posts and just read the facts in relation to PotBS and FLS.
Follow the links.
It's all there for you to see for yourself.
Don't believe me (or other posters) if you don't want to.   Don't believe the fanbois and apologists either. Follow the links and you will find posts by the FLS Devs about all this.

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/156251

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/170795

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/164227

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/164199

Oh - and if you can't get some of the older FLS links to work (or the link makes no sense) remember to check the archives;

So the link http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showpost.php?p=682335&postcount=142 is a bad link

but http://archive.burningsea.com/forums/showpost.php?p=682335&postcount=142 should work

I was also looking for the link here about the Spanish release which FLS was never able to confirm even happened at all.

Okay?

POTBS was a concept that fell through the broken glass of an already weakened company.