The State of the Game, December 2009

[Basil Dreadflint]

Last December I posted the thread, "Dying or Dead, POTCO has let us down". It was a statement of how I felt about the state of the game at that time. This year, I am calling my end of year post as "The State of the Game".

Another year has gone by, and it's time for all of us to discuss the accomplishments, and the letdowns, that Disney has given us.

New enemies??!! The only new enemy that we saw this year is the Thrall Captains. Not one other enemy is new. They are only different levels and names assigned to old enemies. A Stump is a stump, regardless if it is called Corrupt or not.

I would also like to address the redesign of the islands. The old Port Royal, Tortuga and Padres were just as functional as these new ones, and in some ways were even better. The facelift the islands were given was interesting, but they did nothing to enhance or improve game play.

Next, the caves. I really like the graphics improvements (level of detail) here. BUT, I feel that these new caves are almost completely a waste of developer time. The old Lava Gorge and Catacombs were truely caves. The new versions are nothing more than tunnels. The old versions were very functional and felt more like CAVES and CAVERNS, not just paths through a mountain.

Next, the GM events and role-playing. These are aspects of the game that people either love, or else they hate them. I personally have attended exactly ONE GM event. It was a lagfest and I garnered exactly NO information from it. After it was over, I felt that I had just wasted 30 minutes of good game play time. I have not attended any since then.
I have heard and read all about the sightings of Constance the ghost, the meetings of Captain Walter, and other GM's at various times, the spontaneous running into of the Marceline Guild, but again, I have not attended any of these. Now they are closing the Constance and John chapter of the role playing. (See below comments)

Then there was the Captain Rott quests. These were released at the same time as the increase of the Notoriety and Weapons level caps. Since I had 4 level 40 pirates who I wasn't playing anymore, it was really good to see the level increases and that there was some quest rep to be earned again. I did the Cap'n Rott quests on all my pirates. It was fun to speculate on what the effect of doing these quests was going to be on the direction that the game was going to take. (See below comments.)

The increases in Notoriety and Weapons levels was, in my opinion, the best thing that Disney did for the game this past year. It gave many, many pirates something to do again. Even grinding weapons is better than doing nothing with those pirates that we all had worked so long and hard to get levelled up.

Next the Invasions. I believe that the invasions are a method to help pirates reach those new level 50 marks. The rep earned during invasions is huge, and serves no purpose other than to pop your notoriety! The invasions themselves do relatively little for individual weapons levels, and does nothing toward any quests. Although it is fun to be able to say that we successfully defended our server, they can be monotonous after a while.

Comments in reference to the GM events and Captain Rott quests. One of my major problems with the GM role playing and the Captain Rott quests is that they are limited. Once the Rott quests were removed from the game, now there are an entire new generation of players and pirates who will never get the opportunity to do those quests. Same with the role playing. Once a role playing event happens, it is over. The role playing events are limited in scope, do not happen on all servers, with all players, even when they are prearranged, let alone when they are spurious. Other players will never get the opportunity to ever see these events. Now the entire segment about Constance Sorrow is coming to a close, and any player who may have just joined the game, or who may join the game in the future, will never know what this is all about. Role playing in a game such as this one is not truely viable, unless you can get the role playing to ALL the players. Not just all the current players, but to future generations of players. Having role playing events that can only be attended by some players, or events that leave the game, OR having quests that are limited in time, and then disappear:: These things are not good for the game.

Last year I voiced my dissappointment at the lack of progress that the game had taken during 2008. Mostly, I was frustrated that Disney hadn't released enough, (ANY) new material that would generate interest in remaining in the game. I was upset that I had watched many, many friends, and entire guilds go away.

This year, that trend is continuing. Long time players have/are leaving in droves again. Even those who are staying are decreasing their game time. Large groups are moving to other games. Disney hasn't lived up to the hype they themselves put out throughout the year. I'm not going to address any supposed "promises" that were made. I'm just going to say that Disney made statements that they were going to do things, release stuff, and they haven't done so.

While I understand the need to correct problems with the game, (fix bugs), I don't see that Disney has done anything to generate increased interest in playing the game. Even the long awaited level increases were not accompanied by any story line or major quests that gave the senior players anything to do other than grind weapons.

I still enjoy this game. I still see great potential for it in the future. I just do not see that Disney has given the players the quality game that they (the players) have been waiting for for more than 2 years.
The game gets a solid grade of "B" from me, but Disney gets a "D minus" for the year. They have not lived up to expectations.