The Power to Predict The Future of Pirates Online
 

Ahoy mates, If you had the power to see into the future for this game, where do you think the game is going towards for the end of year in the sence of updates. I'm not looking for the right answer here mates, I just wondered where would you like to see it go and where do you think it is going. Sort of like what happens next sort of thing. I'll start:
I think we will Raven's Cove Island and the new quest released on the test server in the next few weeks, and If we're lucky It will arrive on The Live Game a week before or a few days before Halloween 2010. After that, I believe we will see the introduction of maybe more islands and more ships. This could lead to the second story chapter etc. I bet next year will be totally different from this year meaning more updates like "new content" that we "the players" want and NOT anymore "mini-games". :bookishfj7::piratewheelgo2: Now it's your turn mate's and matey's where do you think the game will go next? :)
Edit: I just saw these comments the other day, maybe they're hint's but maybe not anyway here they are:


September 01, 2010 07:30PM
ADMIN GM Cayman Trench
Lawrence, lets not forget about the other guilds that came close. These guilds are still in high recognition in the Caribbean. In my opinion, if your guild is fighting the enemy of us pirates, then ye be doing a great job. Loyalty is something we all need, "especially since the nearby future maybe challenging to us pirates!"

ADMIN GM Cayman Trench
Well I was rooting for the Marceline Guild, but I heard that they have been very busy fighting all enemies in the Caribbean! If ye see one, tell them good ole' Cayman Trench said thanks for all their brave acts. And for the rest of the guilds, keep up ye good work. Remember these words, "Tomorrow may be more challenging, so prepare and be ready!"

ok if i could predict whats coming in order, this is what its going to be.
1st)Ravens Cove/ New staffs/ New ships (Maybe)
2nd)New Story Quest/ Kraken
3rd)Trading System
That was just my guess. But this blog really made me think of something. Basically for a long time all of us have been looking forward to the kraken, new islands, trading system, and the new story quest. After that, whats next? None of us really have any ideas to what comes after all those good updates come. You guys have any ideas about what comes next?

My guess is that the updates after that will be things like pets, more islands, an even larger inventory expansion and stuff like that

I honestly believe that POTCO will suffer the same consequences as VMK. I just cannot believe how PH & TT get constant updates while POTCO gets none. I wasn't around for VMK, which I wish I was, to see the way it closed. That was a game that I really think I would have enjoyed.

POTCO's efforts are to survive a bit longer. Its efforts are not the efforts of a game that wishes to become one of the greats of its genre. It is taking way too much time for POTCO to reach from one point to the next. And one of the many reasons the game has seen things like "Guild Attackers", "Attacking Guilds", "dating", among all the crazy unnecessary junk that seems to flood this game is the lack of that very content.

Yes, the game is free to download and play. Yes, the game allows the Basic Members more freedoms and perks than those other games of it kind. However, that doesn't mean that the game should not release things more often. I give PH & TT as examples, after all They all come from the same company.

Hopefully I am wrong and this once great and awesome game that now lives in mediocrity rises once more and lives to the potential that has within itself. I really wish that I am wrong and POTCO shines once again and becomes the Flagship of Disney Online Games as it truly deserves.

You would've enjoyed it. Every month had a theme, released new items to go with that theme, and they really listened to what players wanted in the game. Since POTCO is a subscription-based game, I wish they would listen to players more. They would have a spike in subscriptions, getting more money, making more updates, which is just a continuous cycle. VMK didn't have anyone paying them and they did a better job than POTCO is currently.

I realize it's not fair to compare the games, but in my opinion, POTCO pales in comparison to VMK. I would love to see POTCO adopt a program to the "Community Leader" position that they had in VMK. Putting players that show great interest and love for the game and have always been nice to players into a "official" position in a sense would help with the moderation of the game and would let the developers and other staff focus on testing new things and tweaking them while the social problems of the games are taken care of otherwise.

Other than that, I agree with Captain luke. The things they've announced so far need to happen before we can start thinking up new ideas for the game part of the game to improve on anything else.

The way I see the updates for the rest of this year is like this:

September:

• Fishing, daggers, and Ravens Cove (without the ability to port) released on Live

Late September - Early October:

• Ravens Cove now accessible on Test
• Ravens Cove quest and cursed weapons released on Test a few days after the island is accessible

October:

• Zombie dance on Test and Live
• Muertos moon event on Test and Live
• Ravens Cove accessible on Live a few days before Halloween
• Halloween - Ravens Cove quest and cursed weapons released on Live

November:

• More GM events leading to either A) Return of Captain Walter, B) New weapons, C) both
• New weapons (see the weapons thread) released on Test

December:

• New weapons (see the weapons thread) released on Live
• Free unlimited access codes (for a week) emailed to members
• Double rep for a few hours on the weekend (they did it last year)

As for next year, I would want a very long quest to be released. On top of that, new ships, higher caps, more friend (player and pirate) room, trading, place to store items, better guild ranks, blah blah blah..

Instead they'll probably fix the leader boards. Follow that up with more GM events. Release a quest. Throw a "Strongest Guild (or pirate)" event. Break the leader boards. Then leave us bored for a few more months.

I think the only reason that those two games are updated more is due to them having more developers (I could be wrong). Either way, there's really no excuse for it, considering all of those games are released by the same company. As for POTCO suffering like VMK, I highly doubt it will. VMK was entirely free to play, and they basically set a date that the game was going to be closed, and ended it on that day. If they were to do that with POTCO, they would never hear the end of it, especially since people are spending money on it.

Remember, toontown has been online since 2002, and that's given the toontown developers eight years to work on their skills, and get better at developing.

According to the potco developer diarys, only TWO of the toontown developers moved to POTCO to help work on the game.

Toontown only started bringing in content fast after about five years. Let them roll out Ravens Cove, and the Kraken, and I'm positive things will start getting better.

I'm pretty sure POTCO won't suffer, mainly because of the name itself. And once POTC 4 comes out, that gives a lot of advertisement for the game. And any new members coming in after the movie in 2011 SHOULD have the Pearl Quest, Ravens Cove quest, and the second story Kraken quest. Even that small amount of content compared to toontown should be enough for them to release another story quest by the end of 2011 or early 2012 for them to keep players.

I'm just assuming that POTCO is in a grey area right now. I have hopes for this game, and enjoy it, so I refuse to let any doubts of it being destroyed get in my mind.(boy, I stink at phrasing things sometimes)

If I could see the future of POTCO, I'd like to see how things go ten years from now, assuming the game still exists.

I couldn't see POTCO fail unless they keep this rate up of taking forever with things. Why don't they do something where they say what is coming each year like World of Warcraft does? :bookishfj7::piratewheelgo2:

good idea but there hardly comparable games. world of warcaft has expansions is run by a deticated company and have more money to spend on updating it.

Disney is one of the richest and more dedicated companies in the World. I assure you money is not an issue with Walt Disney Co.

I agree...
 

I agree, I mean where does the money go that we spend at "their parks, on their games." etc? :bookishfj7::piratewheelgo2::sadmh9:

The thing is, Disney does not have a huge team of workers. However, even without a large team of workers, they are doing things slow. I know that it takes a whole lot of work for these things, but, they seem to have big problems with bugs. Even after they are on test, when they are released on live, there is even more bugs that weren't even on test. I know there is still a few bugs on test, but, I'm not going to doubt that there will be even more bugs on live. I don't know - but maybe they should hire more people to help with creating and updating POTCO. This would help updates come faster, less bugs, and more variety in updates to come along. That's just my idea here.

I completely agree with Sven. I think this year will end the way that he thinks.

http://captainhotdog I believe everyone will get unlimited acess

Hmm..., something that I am not understanding is why they have not updated the release notes since that "update" a week or so ago, and why have they not fixed the remaining bugs? I know it takes awhile to fix things etc but this is just ridiculous. Maybe they are trying to release this on live the week before Raven's Cove can be accessed on test? I thought they wanted to release this update A.S.A.P.?! :/ :bookishfj7::piratewheelgo2:

This is where I think everything is going.

Fishing, new daggers, veteran rank, etc should be coming out this month... this week if we get lucky.

The next thing on test is probably Raven's Cove, and probably the Raven's Cove Quest with it. This will hopefully be on test the week after fishing comes out, and if we get lucky, it could be out by the end of September or early October.

Of course, October will bring the Muertos Moon and the zombie dance back, but thats obvious.

After Raven's Cove, I think they will release some new voodoo staffs. If they released new dolls and daggers, staffs are almost certain. Hopefully they shouldnt be on test too long. Hard to say... could be out sometime in November.

After the staffs come out... thats when I think that it gets really hard to predict. Probably some more stuff to do with Jolly Roger and/or Casa de Muertos. That would probably be during the majority of December. Oh, and of course there will be some holiday events.

Now maybe... just maybe if we are very very good boys and girls, Santa will give us a very good Christmas present (or if you celebrate some other holiday, then a very good _____ present) and we might, just might, get the Kraken and the next story chapter at the end of 2010 or the beginning of 2011 ... however I could easily be wrong, trying to predict this far....

Really? Here's a clue James.

It costs an estimated $4.8 Million a day to run Disney World. That comes out to $1,752,000,000 per year. That is nearly $2 Billion in operating costs for just one park.

Now how much does it cost to run ABC, ABC Family, ESPN, Miramax, Touchstone, Disey Pictures, Disney Animation, Marvel Comics, The Muppets, Disney Channel, Toon Disney, Disney Interactive and that is only a teeny-tiny SAMPLE of what Disney runs and owns.

So honestly? I think we need to count our blessings and be happy for our little corner of the Disney Empire. POTCO is SO far down the list of "Things To Do" at Disney, it's a wonder the little Dev Team can do what they do at all.

I applaud them. :treas:

Mr. ex8404 you hit it right on the money. POTCO is way down that list.

However, I would like to dispute those figures because all of those companies owned by Walt Disney Co. make huge profits on their own and they don't need extra profit money to sustain themselves. If that is not what you meant and I misinterpreted, my apologies.

Money makes money. It's simple, put money in and add developers, make a small to regular advertising campaign, and POTCO will grow more and it will help promote the new film and not the other way around, like many have said.

TSC, I know that MOST of the companies under the Disney umbrella do quite well. But in this oddball economy we are in, a new holding like Marvel (for example) is a financial burden until the dust settles.

But you are right. Takes money to make money. And Disney has plenty of money. The figures, by the way, are simply for Disney World. And I have NO idea how old they are. The point there was to remind some of us that Disney World did not rise from a swamp as an act of nature. It was built and it costs money to run. To say, "Look. Toy Story 3 made a billion dollars so put it into POTCO" is ridiculous. That money runs PIXAR. Money spent at Disney World runs Disney world. And so on.

But honestly? I get a little miffed over all the anti-Disney talk. I know that we use Disney when we mean Disney Interactive, POTCO Division but it can still irk me. Guess it is because I was raised a Disney kid and I raised my kids as Disney Kids. (If you weren't one or aren't raising one, that last sentence will be meaningless.)

TSC. I am in 99% agreement with you. I might question the power of this game and the importance of the next film. But just 1% worth.

Well... back on topic, I think that maybe sometime next year we might get some form of ship customization, and hopefully trading. Going that far I dont want to predict months, just saying that maybe sometime during 2011 those may come. Hopefully we can also see a few more islands, and of course the new ship classes.

-_- idk anymore you know

new weapons are coming out with ravens cove actually

Good point, but you have to remember that this is based off of a MOVIE FRANCHISE. VMK wasn't. That usually gives it a better foothold. Plus, with the new movie coming out (Which I wanna see so bad!!!) I would expect TV spots, more Unlimited members, and of course a slew of new updates. Just my opinion.

I think i can safely predict Raven's Cove and that new story quest. But what else? I am just going to run a list of what I think could be added. For starters they must incorporate something with the Legendary Abu-Nar Clan because they've already announced something about it but said they might just be a legend. New Staffs should be coming, and then there are my shockers.......

They might do something with Guild Hideout's or Private Forts for Pirates. Which would make a great expanded loot system...

trading should come to hopefuly and i envision it as something like those meat and deli stands on all the islands were you can walk up and see what people put up for trade

Maybe new guild ranks but that isnt too important

There should be more interaction between the Marceline and The Black Guard with Pirates, and I would like to see Captain Walter back, maybe as a ghost on Raven's Cove???

My final thing is the Kraken Boss Battle and this could be how it would go... (after you complete everything)

You take out the Black Pearl and locate the Flying Dutchman with your crew. You take out its sails and grapple it and then you board the ship, then you and your crew fight a couple waves of Davy Jones crew, and then you see Davy Jones walk out and you flee back to your ship you hear him call the Kraken and then the Kraken comes and you must shoot down its tentacles, then you ,well, win and you should get some sort of reward.

Parrots --- I know it sounds stupid but I remember a couple years back having a discussion on what to add to POTC back when it was only about a year old and the idea of the Kraken first came about. I remember more of the board discussions centered around Parrots that would sit on your should .... the problem was that no one could come up with something for them to do. I think because of some of the other on-line games that are out there in competing markets pirates need some kind of pet like a parrot or dog that follows them around. Other things that need to be added are already discussed... some form of trading... more ships that can be customized and then trading. Oh and of course some kind of room of our own so to speak. With those features added it would contain all the features of its competitors for the most part.

Pets are coming Sven... they're most likely amongst the pets.

To predict the future of Pirates Online.. heh, I'll try.

Raven's Cove- Mid to late October, to celebrate the 3 years of POTCO!

And after that.. well, I think the rest of the year will be pretty quiet actually. The GM events run every year, Muertos Moon, Founder's Feast, etc. Staffs will probably be released around November as well.

And then 2011... I think that New ships will be released in January, including Ship of the Lines. Then Ship Customization, which has been on everybody's agenda. Then we'll be getting a weapon ovehaul. There's been a lot of reports of New kind of weapons, like Boarding Axes. Also, they'll release more weapons in each class.

And on everybody's mind.. the Kraken. The Kraken is something not easily added, because what do you put it as? Do you add it as a New Story Chapter? Do you put in it as a new Boss Battle that doesn't require any questing? Or as a new event similar to Fleets? In my opinion, it will be added as a story chapter, in December of 2011. If they take the other routes, it could be released at the end of summer or beginning of fall.

Just a guess, but I don't think next year will be a great year of updates. This year.. we got a lot. New mini-games.. Fleets.. Inventory and weapons... and soon enough, Raven's Cove. Disney hasn't disappointed this year, in my opinion, they've been working a million miles a minute. Hopefully, they continue with this trend of continuous updates on test and live.