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Pirates of the Burning Sea CEO on the economic revamp and a player-driven world
Pirates of the Burning Sea recently celebrated its sixth anniversary as well as the one-year anniversary of parent company Portalus' decision to strike out on its own following the expiration of its Sony Online Entertainment publishing contract. The dev team is currently prepping a major economic revamp, but CEO Charles Ellis kindly spared a few moments to answer Massively's burning questions. Join us after the cut as we talk about life after SOE, the game's robust economy, and Portalus' future plans.
The Daily Grind: Have you lost track of an MMO only to rediscover it later?
Last night I started thinking about Pirates of the Burning Sea. I don't know why. It's a bit odd, actually. Anyhow, you might remember PotBS as a piratey SOE title set in the age of sail and featuring some pretty awesome ship-to-ship combat. If you're really hardcore you might remember the game's pre-SOE days or even its 2008 launch under the Flying Lab Software banner. In any case, I lost track of the game completely and didn't even realize that it was still operating. So right now I'm downloading the client via the Portalus website and digging through old screenshot folders, just because. Oh, and there's a Daily Grind question buried somewhere amidst my ramblings. Ah, here it is. Have you ever lost track of an MMO only to rediscover it later? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Pirates of the Burning Sea opens new account creation
Pirates of the Burning Sea continues its voyage of transition from the old days of SOE to the new ones under Portalus Games. As such, the team has opened account creation for new players on the Portalus website and added new seasonal exchange items to the game. In addition to account creation, Pirates of the Burning Sea can be downloaded from that site as well. The official game site is currently being "rebuilt," so stick to Portalus' home page for the time being.
Pirates of the Burning Sea fine-tunes engagement odds
It's never fun to be the one on the bottom of a PvP dogpile, and the folks at Pirates of the Burning Sea understand that. The developers have been making adjustment to their open sea engagement rules to find the right balance to make a memorable encounter. While the team initially restricted confrontations so that ganking by player mob couldn't happen, the devs admit that the end result wasn't what they had hoped: "That adjustment went too far, and the fights since have by and large been less dynamic." So to bring back some of the unpredictability in encounters without making it a gankfest, the devs will be tweaking engagements so that at maximum they can only be two-on-one fights. They also vowed to keep an eye on these fights going forward, particularly in regard to the reinforcement timers.
Pirates of the Burning Sea unfolds 2013 road map
Portalus Games Lead Programmer Hamled has apologized to players for "the lack of discernible progress and substantive information" in Pirates of the Burning Sea as of late. To make it up to fans, Hamled has posted an extensive development road map for 2013. In descending order of priority, the dev mentions the following projects for the team: getting out the 2.12 update, completing the transition from Flying Lab Software, bringing back up needed hardware infrastructure, rebuilding the account system, providing localization services, creating a dedicated game installer, and redesigning the official website. "I will be working on many of these tasks in parallel because we can't afford to wait until each one is completely finished before moving on to the next," Hamled stated.
One Shots: You were saying?
If there's a class in Star Wars: The Old Republic that has a monopoly on the best lines, banter, and dialogue, it would have to be the Smuggler. Reader Danielle sent us in this nicely framed shot: "Here's my confident, sassy Smuggler striking a pose as he interrupts a conversation." But isn't interrupting a conversation... rude? He shouldn't do that, then. He should wait patiently until both parties are finished, and perhaps raise his hand and wait to be acknowledged by his betters. Or he could totally interrupt their boring chit-chat. The One Shots column is a time capsule of some of the most important MMO moments in history, and you're about to witness the latest entries into this hallowed vault. Steel yourself and prepare to gaze in wonder at the peak of human ingenuity and the print screen key!
Jukebox Heroes: A few of my favorite MMO soundtracks
I could hear some of you thinking in disbelief last week, "If Age of Conan isn't one of your top MMO scores, what is? And just how much am I not sending you a Christmas card this year, you loser?" You were kind enough to just think it and not say it, but I could hear it even so. As we've mentioned countless times in this column, musical tastes are subjective. What's appealing to you may not be for me and vice-versa. What more is that musical tastes -- and favorites -- are always shifting around. I listen back to the jams that I enjoyed in the '90s and absolutely pity my younger self for such a deficiency in his musical diet. So I thought that I'd take a week off our normal soundtrack reviews to bring to you my current top six favorite soundtracks. This list comes with the caveat that it's always subject to future changes as I continue to listen through more soundtracks for this column.
Pirates of the Burning Sea account migration is ready
Pirates of the Burning Sea is preparing to cast off from the safe harbor of Sony Online Entertainment for good. It's time to get on board if you don't want to be left behind; Pirates of the Burning Sea will now be sailing under the banner of Portalus Games, which means you'll need to migrate your account in order to keep swashing and buckling. The migration system is now totally ready. You won't be able to spend Station Cash in the game after the 31st of January, but Burning Sea Notes and Points will transfer over in the migration process. Arrr.
Pirates of the Burning Sea sails away from Sony Online Entertainment
Pirates of the Burning Sea is leaving port, but it's not getting scuttled. After a great deal of discussion between Flying Lab Software and Sony Online Entertainment, an agreement has been reached and the game will leave SOE's portfolio on January 31st, 2013. But this doesn't mean the end of the game -- instead, the game's management will be taken over by Portalus Games, a new company formed from several former members of Flying Lab. What does this mean for current players? Well, if you want to keep playing the same characters, you're going to need to go through a few steps to ensure your account migrates properly over to the new management. Beyond that, any new developments remain to be seen, as the new company has high hopes for the game's future but hasn't announced any firm plans. All we know now is that the game's servers are planned to continue operating as normally through the transition, and should help calm minds as the waters get a bit rougher. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
