Current News: May 07, 2009
 

http://www.piratesonlineforums.com/g...BlackGuard.png

The Black Guard Cometh May 07, 2009
http://a.disney.go.com/pirates/onlin...vider_line.gif
It's been rumored the EITC Black Guard are interrogating Pirates for information about the whereabouts of Captain Walter and the Marceline Guild. Be warned Pirates, these devils are also offering rewards for the Marceline Guild's capture - don't trust them mates! Instead continue to take the fight to the EITC on both land and sea!

UPDATE: It's rumored the Black Guard will be roaming the town of Port Royal during the hours of 3:30PM - 5PM (B named Oceans) Friday, May 8 and 11AM - 1PM, and 2PM -3PM Saturday, May 9! (All times Pacific.) Be on the lookout Pirates, report any sightings!

Have you seen or been interrogated by the Black Guard? Report your encounter here.

They are kidding right?
 

While I appreciate the story line they must be kidding with this cheap theatrical buildup. Do they really expect us to play along if one of these guys starts talking to us? I would have some questions for them and they can forget asking me anything.

1) When is the new content coming out?

2) When can I get one of those nice EITC uniforms?

3) I need a bigger ship, do you have one I could borrow?

4) I can't pronounce "Marceline" let alone tell you where they are, can you?

5) Why couldn't I log in today and why did I have to wait on hold for 30 minutes to find out the site was going through a maintenance cycle?

Finally, where is the kraken and how did you get that black spot on your hand?

Hehe.. I like that one! Nice CaptainGeenGene :laughks2:

I have been with the Black Guard. There were three little level 12 at first but then all of a sudden... THERE WAS LIKE A HUNDERED ALL LEVEL 37!!!!!!!!!!! So our GM ran and we attuned many Black Guards.... but they all jumped on a ship which they got to tp away... To bad we cant hurt them or they be dead ROFL:laughks2:

LOL

"Potential Conversation"
Black Guard: You know where Captain Walter is?
Me: Yes
Black Guard: Well, where is he?
Me: Wait, what were we talking about?

Rinse and Repeat for some laughs. :laughks2:

I'm glad that Disney found out a brand new way to waste a player's time. Maybe it's the new quest. Answer questions, maybe play 20 questions and you get a very useful tattoo?

I don't think they expect people to play along but I think they hope people do. One of the things I like most about MMORPG's is the role playing portion of the acronym. It's hard to find people who play MMORPG's that actually take the role playing aspect to heart (either because people feel silly RP'ing or just don't like to). What Disney is trying to do is bring a little more life into the game by posting story lines & lore and even having some of the story line be interactive with the players. I'm admiring that and if I come across the Black Guard and their interrogation, I will play along and have fun with it as I just don't think it's appropriate to bombard them with unrelated questions and demands when they're trying to do something interesting that some people would actually appreciate.

I doubt a lot of people share my view on that and upon seeing a Black Guard player, they will immediately get everyone to come to their location and start with the usual questions and/or nonsense that the GMs get asked whenever they hold an event, ultimately turning the event into something it wasn't meant to be - a lagfest and severely off-topic. I know the GMs try to play it off in stride but it must be at least a bit frustrating to them.

It's obvious a lot of people don't think these cheap theatrical events are of any use and demand to just be served content. Everyone has a right to their own opinions but this is a type of content. Al beit not the type that includes a huge patch and a months worth of quests but still content in its own right. I welcome some interaction from the staff and if done right, content like this could set POTCO apart from other games in a positive way.

added Update to first post
 

UPDATE: It's rumored the Black Guard will be roaming the town of Port Royal during the hours of 3:30PM - 5PM (B named Oceans) Friday, May 8 and 11AM - 1PM, and 2PM -3PM Saturday, May 9! (All times Pacific.) Be on the lookout Pirates, report any sightings!

Well then they got a few more staff or a lot more computers :) In any case - this kind of turnout shows that there are serious numbers now working on the game for both entertainment and expansion :D

I agree with Sven. I like the idea, even though it doesn't give any new content as far as rep, weapons or quests. It does give us a chance to role play.

The only problems I have are:

A) The unfortunate timing. Going home rush hour and dinner time today, and 2 to 4 and 5 to 6 (Eastern) on Saturday, The weekend.

B) The shortness of the event.

C) The limited notice. Why did they wait until today to announce this?

They should do things like this at various times, and multiple days over a week time period. Give everyone a fair chance to be involved.

Also, I'm hoping this is a preliminary lead in to the upcoming new release that is coming. Remember, they always do something just before a new release. Load up the ocean around PDF just before the new PDF. The heavy EITC presence on PR just before the new PR. Etc.

This was interesting... and nothing new. First round, just ran after the EITC only to have them tp away. Once I ran across them again.. I decided to make one mad :D

http://i327.photobucket.com/albums/k...92171e3170.jpg

http://i327.photobucket.com/albums/k...40b2aed7a5.jpg

and those led to this.. but of course he tped away -.-

http://i327.photobucket.com/albums/k...e4f3829a72.jpg

Well ill say this

Black Guard: Where's Captain Waltar

Me:Is he the guy who is like the ultimate pirate but never shows up

Black Guard:Yup

Me: I doubt you will find him

I loved this! It was actually fun to get into it, and they talked to several of us. They asked me to join the EITC lol!

I really do want new content, but this was a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to it tomorrow. :piratewheelgo2:

Agreed Basil. I'm not going to even be online tomorrow for this since I have other obligations during those times. I was out tonight so oh well. Wish they would have made it at random times in random places... or else you get what you see above in Sven O's screenshots when you name the time and place. Lots of people... and chaos. True I wasn't there but that's what it looks like. Kind of looks like the GM had to improvise with the running.

You don't know how right you are other Sven. Even though you weren't there, your guess as to it being full of people and chaos... well heres some more proof to that.

http://i327.photobucket.com/albums/k...14ee83b9c8.jpg

They should do this at random times - places should be mentioned, such as, where they will be. By that I mean, tell us what island, and give us a larger range of servers (A-C for example), but don't give us a time frame. Or possibly, instead of having the EITC GMs hunting down the Host GMS, they should randomly appear on servers - as a group or as a whole - hunting down pirates. Having them always go for one Host GM at a time makes no sense, especially since they always end up finding the same GM over and over again.. only to end the same way - Find the GM, threaten to arrest him, back and forth conversation, pirates show up, EITC runs, EITC then finds the GM (who at this time is supposedly hiding) and the cycle continues again.

As for the GMs improvising by running, the way they went about it made it seem as though that was the way they wanted it to happen. The Host GM that was confronted, and the EITC GMs went back and forth for a little while, once the Host GM told the pirates to attack, the EITC GMs ran away. As seen above I had one attuned and was healing him, I did that since all the others tped, so I figured i'd stop one, just to make that worth my time :D

Ah, so it was more of a stage play. Well, that's fairly interesting choreographing at least. Good idea on the healing as they couldn't teleport "while in battle" so then he jumps on his ship so could teleport away.

Would still hope for a random chance meeting. Dark alley like. 1 pirate surrounded by their lot being interrogated while on the backend they could flip a bit to disable your pirate from teleporting and others teleporting to you so you can't escape or call for backup too easily. I may just have a more vivid imagination though.

That certainly would make it better. As we've heard over and over again, they are supposedly after those who sunk EITC ships, but in this event, whenever someone insulted the EITC, they would say a phrase that meant, they were added to that list of pirates.

I don't think we can expect to see them doing this at random if they haven't kept their word on those other matters. They say they are hunting those who are fighting against the EITC, but they're only going after (from what i've seen) 2 different GMs, and just repeating the same act over and over.

Hopefully what they're planning on doing from this will happen soon.

Okay. I got the idea of this. Let me ask this now:

What if I WANTED to tell them where Captain Walter was? Is there a player other than the Game GMs who would know?

Guess if I run into them I'll tell them I know where he is and see if they follow me....

BTW: When did this turn into the Captain Walter show?

You should try that Bart :D... Lead them all around then after awhile just say to them, "And why might I ask.. are you following me?" LOL

We should make a pirate called Captain Walter Walter (just to clear any doubt as to whether the name is first or last). Then we could be all like, "Right here" and they'd be like "What now?".

And here we go
 

To bring my point home, what a mess it was when they showed up. Who can talk, who can interact? You just stand there and listen to the song and dance without any ability to really participate. Now if they let us all kill him then I'm all for it, but since you can't do that what's the point? Role play only works if there is control and limited numbers of players at a time. That's never going to happen so I stick to my original position, this is all a waste of time that could be used better on content instead of stalling until the content arrives.

well, a EITC costume quest may be a little off, maybe more of a disguise to sneak into a fort for a story quest. being able to wear that causes too much chaos.
EX:
Player: kill the EITC
ME: this is an outfit I found
Player: Thats what all the EITC say

It would just be an annoyance

True, the eventual outcome of this event is a bit disappointing as stated. However it seems this useless event provides a little more story. Role play did happen but it's sad that the role playing was mainly done by the Black Guard players and Marceline with minimal changes in the course of their act. As I've said above, the execution of these interrogations could have been played out differently if the interactions with the Black Guard was more random in time and place (i.e. not announced ahead of time so a big crowd can watch dinner theatre). It was naive of me to expect a more well thought out plan from them. Just from reading the original announcement (without the servers/times), I had assumed and hoped for something better but alas. That said, a little interaction with the staff should be welcomed.

I don't disregard your point that it didn't execute well at all, but I'll stick to my original position of keeping unrelated topics, questions, and spam out of GM events and to attempt to at least give them the benefit of the doubt & do their thing as they've planned. I don't believe it's necessary to make events like these worse off by bombarding the GMs with that type of discussion when the intent of the event isn't for that.

Again, these type of events are a type of content. I hope that what they're doing with these events will enrich the story line and help marry the chapters together while we wait for the next one.

I know where walter is.......

Me Too
 

I also know where he is. The unfortunate part of this is who really cares at this point. If you want to know where Walter is, put yourself in his shoes. If the entire game was looking for you, where would you go? Simple answer is offline. Captain Walter is boxed and will not log in or be seen until the new quest line is open. That is my opinion only so don't go asking me where I read that.

Well they came danced a little talked about how much there job sucked ppl wouldnt stop asking CAN I JOIN? CAN I JOIN? they pretty much ingnored everyone and after twenty minutes they teleported


Funny thing is they got attacked by one of the navy cadets on port royal

P.S I want those twenty minutes of my life back!

I came right when Walter left... But i did get his Pirate Profile =)

Well, I really loved it. :dancetl6:

It was something different to do on a Saturday. My guild & friends had a great time hunting the GM's and then role-playing with them. They changed the game from yesterday, and actually responded to the things we were saying, which kept it fresh & fun.

I think maybe it brings home that there is more to this than leveling & rep. Its a game, and there are a lot of things we can do just for fun, too.

Plus, I'm hopeful that this is their way of introducing something new that may be on the horizon. A teaser maybe?

quite a bit of history rackat

So, primarily this was a way to get a bunch of players to show up, watch a scene unfold... and have absolutely no effect on its outcome.

While I admire the efforts they're doing on a LOT of LEVELS (new islands, improvements and bug fixes), I guess I'd be happier if the ETIC agents were actually trying to interact with the players instead of performing a scripted scene and then leaving.

Actually, they were interacting with us quite a bit. PvP might have been more fun (for us at least :laughks2: ) but they weren't just reading a script. They were talking directly to many of us, responding to the things we said as long as we stayed in character.

Maybe you have to be into the role-playing part of the game to appreciate it.

This seems pretty cool. I'd hope to come across some.
Doubt it, since there is such a randomness of it.

So Walter DID make an appearance... interesting...

Just out of curiosity, do the "EITC Guard" GMs have weapons/weapon levels just like pirates? Or are they just pirate GMs with spiffy outfits? Sorry, I've never really participated in a GM event - except the Shamus O'malley search, but I gave up on that pretty quick.

um when i looked them up on dxd the black guards had all level 25 weapons but they didnt use any of their skill points and so they only has the skills you start with even though they had level 25 weapons

Hmm, verrry interesting. I decided to look up some GMs on DxD myself...

Captain Walter has 4 pirates - Walter is lvl 38 and he has 3 lvl 37s - all with all weapons mastered.

I also looked up Shamus O'malley... NOW it gets weird.

Shamus is lvl 23. His cutlass and pistol are mastered - NO other weapons are unlocked. His sailing and cannon are both at level 1. He has 65k gold and no cards.

Shamus and Captain Walter had both used their skill points.

Next I looked up Lieutenant Clayton Mead. He's lvl 37, all weapons mastered, 65k gold, no cards, and skill points NOT used.

The GMs had some interesting ship info as well.

Captain Walter apparently named his own ship - he has a war frigate named "The Magic" (Another Disney reference perhaps?) as well as a war galleon and another war frigate (both with generic names)

Shamus O'malley has only a light sloop and a light frigate.

Lieutenant Clayton Mead has only a light sloop.

I guess everyone can draw their own conclusions from this info....

Rackat - that was very cool information! Thank you for the link.

Now we know where the guild name comes from.

I actually know where walter is, But it may be a spoiler to some. So im not saying lol.

Well it looks as if this event wasn't all about leading us to ask questions and get angry as dirt when they never replied. Heh, this time they were asking questions, good GM's...

I dont think the skill points the GM's have really mean any thing, they are just characters made by the developers with skills that are done there when they log-in. The first few times the GM's ever showed up in the game they were all level 37, people started noticing the trend and they made some different levels now (I still think they are just Disney interns they make play the game some and are given a list of things to say not actual players). I have no clue what the EITC Black Guards mean, if it means new quests I guess that means I will return to unlimted access lol. I will be watching and waiting, it peaks my interest in POTCO again.

Larence Tuppington

How to get meat i see in pictures meat is a tonic?

The meat you see in Sven O's screenshots are ham that was available during a couple of holiday events last year. When used they restore 2000 health (not sure how much voodoo but probably quite a bit). I actually have 8 left from Christmas!

On open, I have seen a couple of players that do no have the GM symbol that have the EITC hats. Any idea why? Are these available in the Men's section of POTCOutfitters?

There is a hat similar to the EITC hats available to the male players.

I actually interacted with Walter quite a bit, he even complimented Eliza by name in front of the gathering for comments I made.

MY POINT was that when the EITC showed up, there was little interaction other than them warning pirates to back away and stand down while they arrrested Walter.

The scene was completely meant to get the players motivated to stand with Walter and drive the EITC off. I GET THAT. But it just seemed too stilted, like they were going through the motions during the scene.

Perhaps it was because there were a lot of players gathered or because they did it all the night before and would be doing it again and again and again on the all the other servers... the same scene.

I've done a ton of roleplaying in my days and there is something to be said for static exposition. It has to be done to promote the story, but often those in attendence feel they had no say. That's what I saw.

lol i wish they would hurry and get new content this is ridiculous....

At any time I have encounter GMs - anytime you engege them in more of a "role playing" stance they tend to give out more information and you get better stuff...

Just pointing out that though "role playing" may not be the best use of their time or resource - but if you're willing to play along they actually try to engage you hoping to encourage others around and answer more of your questing with more info :)