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Plundering the free seas: Pirates of the Burning Sea dev talks about F2P
Curious about how a subscription-based MMO makes the transition to a free-to-play model? It's not as easy as one might assume, and Pirates of the Burning Sea was no exception. In a recent devlog, PotBS's Misha takes us behind the stage to look at the logistical details and hurdles that had to be taken for this jump between business models. While the team had been mulling over a microtransaction model from the beginning, it was only after a lot of discussion with SOE that the publisher showed the team a way this could be implemented. Following that, the team had to tackle several tricky issues, such as expired trial accounts, boxes still in the stores and all of the subscription types it had in place. Next, the team ran the system through quite a bit of testing to iron out the snags. "Those who helped us test F2P in the early days will recall pets on their own little boats in the midst of battle, trying desperately to help out. You could zoom in and see a pig or chicken standing in a commanding position overlooking their hardworking crews. This bug is one of my favorite ever, and I'm still a little sad that we fixed it." It wasn't just the software that needed to be tested but also the physical setup. At one point, Misha writes, "For whatever reason, we were suffering hardware failure after hardware failure." While the F2P transition was slated for Thanksgiving 2010, it failed to hit the date. "We hit a major issue on our side and SOE hit a major snag on their side. So, no Thanksgiving F2P. On the one hand, we were really discouraged that we hadn't met our target. On the other hand, we were incredibly glad we had tackled these issues before we went live," she writes. Eventually Pirates of the Burning Sea "soldiered through it all" and made it to the live servers, much to the team's delight. For a full rundown of this saga and the true tale of commanding pigs, head on over to Pirates of the Burning Sea.
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Customer service at Pirates of the Burning Sea answers your questions
In Pirates of the Burning Sea, finding yourself deep in unfriendly waters without a working compass can be a scary matter. When doubloons vanish, new servers fail to transfer characters, or installations freeze, even the nicest of pirates can start spitting out some nasty language. That 1-800 number or email to a random operator can sometimes lead to even more frustration as emails go unanswered and phone calls remain on hold. For Pirates of the Burning Sea, our glimpse into this dark world of customer service is provided by Misha.In a recent PotBS devlog, Misha talks about customer service and gives players an update to the source of, or solution to, their troubles. Backlogs, angry pirates shooting cannons, and parrot droppings are major problems, but that is not stopping the team from getting down to business. They have setup a new tier system to get problems solved, offer more foreign language options, and are working on improving their research techniques. There is also a handy PotBS support page with FAQs and solutions to common problems. So if you find yourself all alone on some sandy beach with no rum and no way home, the folks at PotBS want you to know they are launching the rescue party and will arrive shortly.
Know Your Lore: Rexxar
Rexxar's a bit of an oddity in WoW. Prior to the Burning Crusade, he and his bear Misha wandered through Desolace and Feralas, with nothing to identify him but the title "Champion of the Horde" and no way to pass his time but to help Horde players with their Onyxia keys. As a player new to the Warcraft universe, I always wondered who he was and why he was a hero to the Horde. It was only later that I found out about his past, his true race, and his connections to the rest of the Horde. Oh, and so Big Red Kitty doesn't yell at us, we'll cover Misha and his other "pets" too. Ready? Let's go. Who: Rexxar, Last Son of the Mok'Nathal, Champion of the Horde. What: A Mok'Nathal, which is a tribe of half-orc, half-ogre humanoids. History: Officially, Rexxar was "born of a union of orc and ogre" -- but since we get to meet his dad and his dad is also a Mok'Nathal, he's probably the son of two half-ogre parents. He grew up in a Mok'Nathal village in Blade's Edge Mountains. He was a happy child with a peaceful life, but as he grew older, he realized that there was no future for him in Draenor. So when the local orcs came calling with their plan to go through a portal and invade a new world called Azeroth, he joined up with the Old Horde against his father's wishes. But after going through the Dark Portal and seeing the activities of the Old Horde in the First War, he decided that he would be better off on his own. He took off and wandered through the wilderness and communed with nature, kind of like a hippie but with less weed and bad jam band music. He made friends with several animals while he roamed, most notably Misha, an enchanted bear who he became fiercely attached to. But the wilderness of Azeroth was still too close to civilization, and he could not escape the fighting between the Alliance and the Horde. Misha and Rexxar set sail for Kalimdor, where they roamed the Barrens for fifteen levels until they were finally able to finish their quests and go to Thousand Needles.
