The State of the Game, December 2009

[ukebec]

Boss - thank you for posting this thread. I like reading (for the second year now) your take on the 'state of the game'.

Captain Whale - I must most respectfully disagree with you. Angel is correct in that the Kraken promise she referred to WAS made in January 2009. D has done a nice little sleight-of-hand with a link for a Jan. 27 news article that actually leads you to the July link you mentioned.

Using that jumping off point you can use the Next link at the top of that page to get to Dev Diary #13, dated 1/27/09. In it you can read the following:

Take for example the Kraken , maybe you've heard of this mythical sea monster? As the right-hand squid for Davy Jones, we can officially say the Kraken is coming to the Caribbean this year.

That's a pretty emphatic, cut-and-dried guarantee. No hemming and hawing to it. Or at least it seemed to be at the time. Lots of us were hanging our game hats on that statement.

Here is the direct link: http://piratesonline.go.com/#/game_i..._diary_13.html

By April Disney was apparently ready to admit they had major issues with the Kraken they'd previously promised:

The Kraken. This beast has proved to be a real challenge. Why? Well, it is basically our next story chapter, many things will be tied to it, such as Notoriety increases, new Story Quests, and so much more.

Direct link:
http://piratesonline.go.com/#/game_i..._diary_14.html

To my knowledge Disney has not mentioned said foul beastie again this year, other than give us the notoriety increase.

I agree with Nelly; the Thrall Captains aren't even truly new enemies. They're jumped-up Kelpies.

I find the Tormenta cave visually beautiful, and many of the others more visually interesting, with much more attention paid to detail, but less playable than before.

The invasions were a fun diversion for a time, but I've lost my taste for them as the lag is too much for me.

I attend very few GM events. I was pleased the other day to finally see my first ghosts, but now that I have, I'm satisfied.

ex8404 summed up my feelings about content better than I ever could:

Content is what goes in your Journal. If it doesn't end up there, it isn't content.

I'm also in the game 2 years now. When I first started playing, the Black Pearl battle was down for repair. I was anxiously awaiting it, while completing my quests to be ready. After that was re-released you didn't hear anyone complain about anything, or ask for something new, for months. Because, for those players at that time, it was an outrageous, over-the-top feast of a Boss Battle.

2 years later Disney hasn't shown us anything that would indicate we have something like that to look forward to again.

I think what a lot of us want, and feel guilty about actually expressing, is TRULY a new chapter. New people to see that we haven't seen, new tasks to perform that we've never done before, new weapons to learn and gain skill with, new places to go that are foreign and strange to us. All leading up to an amazing battle that we really have to work at, and maybe fail at a few times, before we finally succeed.

IMHO, a lot of what we've seen this year seems like making stroganoff instead of steak. They don't have much meat to go around, so they're adding noodles to stretch their player-goodwill budget. And I hear Clara, from the ancient Wendy's commercial in my head, asking "Where's the beef?!

Sure, I'll keep playing. I agree with many others...this game has massive potential. I've got a lot of friends in this game that I like too much to lose touch with. And one of these days, I really believe, I'll log in and Disney will blow my socks off with something awesome. It's Disney - I never count them out.