The Ferry Maiden Cometh

[Draven Maiden]

You know, I've not been on Pirates long, but long enough to know that after the late-April updates, everything went straight into the sewers with many a player. In fact, the only reason I was pushed to seek out a forum was because my friend and plunderin' first mate could no longer play the game.

We both did the trial. Game worked fine. I told her I'd buy a six-month if she could play and she could.

April maintenance came -- she hasn't played in 10 days. The game broke just THREE DAYS after we purchased it. What kind of scam is Disney running here?

The Ferry Maiden Cometh:

I've gathered a lot of friends in the last few days, primarily from people who CANNOT SAIL. They can't sail but want to do quests and so whisper to me and ask me to go to an island so they can "go to." I don't mind it. It's only what a respectable pirate should do when others are in need...but as I ferry players back and forth island to island, I'm thinking, "How insanely stupid is this?"

I know there is no "tech help" existent on PO, despite their claims.
I know that the end-server agreement says you purchase the game "as is." Well as of April, it ain't "as is" any longer. They BROKE IT.

That said, I'm frustrated for all of you that are being dragged through the bilges over this. Has anyone thought up a petition?

It might be far too soon for a class action lawsuit. If your game only started crashing these past few weeks (and you paid the 6-month sub.), then you're only out of $8 really.

If NOTHING else, Disney should refund time lost those who have been having issues and making steady complaints about the game through the...ahem...tech help page.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks a bunch.

[dangerousden]

What exactly is the problem these people are having? I have had no problems with the game whatsoever.

[Draven Maiden]

It seems that people can't sail. A LOT of people can't sail. Ever since the April slew of midnight maintenance runs, people either can't get on the water or even if they do, if they shoot at anything larger than a light sloop, the game freezes.

Here's a link to someone complaining on YouTube about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxQNKSEwbck

[Angel]

Definitely contact live support. They might put a hold or even reimburse you for some play time for the inconvenience. Some Mac users cant even get on at all too.

[Draven Maiden]

Disney just offered my friend a refund. And wouldn't you know, now MY game is getting choppy. WHAT THE....???? I've a brand new laptop not more than a month old.

I wanna SEE Disney claim I need to update video drivers on this baby. I also got Vista and a whopping FOUR gigs of ram.

I'll wait it out. I really like this game, minor glitches and all, but this is getting stupid.

Like my friend said, she'd rather them FIX the game than refund her money. She wants to play.

And to top it off, her account's cancelled and they're now sending her a slew of form letters regarding their non-existent tech help chat that don't even address the problem.

And because she gets them after 10 p.m. EST, I'm wondering if their so called Tech Help is in India somewhere, which is why NO ONE can get a REAL tech on the line (phone or virtual) until they put up a stink for a long while.

This is cruddy, Disney. Really really cruddy.

[dangerousden]

Please bear in mind that just because you have a new laptop it does not mean that it meets the minimum requirements for the game. Some laptops only have low level graphics cards.

I shopped around for a month before I chose my laptop, because I wanted a decent graphics card.

It works great on my new one, but is very laggy on my old one.

I too keep getting told to update my graphics drivers on my very new laptop lol.

[Draven Maiden]

Oh yeah, well aware of the vid card issue. I made sure my laptop had a good vid card for gaming even though I wasn't sure at the time if I would even game or not.

i'm an old fogie, but I've always been curious about halo. LOL

I don't think i've the patience for something like that. Pirates is enough excitment for me.

But my friend has an ATI and from what I heard, ATI is junk. I've always had good luck with Nvidia, but my last one was a bear. It didn't like anything I fed it, so my old laptop didn't see much gaming but this new one is really doing well.

Will keep you all posted. If my friend finds any "fixes", I'll be sure to let you know.

[poisonpanik]

My friend was having issues prior to the patch yesterday (hasn't happened to him yet since) where he'd get booted out of the game randomly and fairly often. Most of the time it seemed to happen when he tried to get out his ship. Disney has told him on several occasions that it's his video card driver when he's running a Geforce 8800GTX with the most current drivers. His system puts the min requirements to shame but Disney refuses to admit that the game is actually messed up.

I am running a Geforce 8800GT 512MB with Vista Ultimate 4GB of RAM and an AMD x2 6000+ and I have "graphic lag" issues quite a bit as well. I've even turned all the graphic settings all the way down. I can play games like Frontlines: Fuel of War or Battlefied 2/2142 on full settings with no problems but it seems Disney has figured out how to bring it down in a hurry...