Why pay full price for this game? I mean really.

[Swash]

Originally Posted by tayseth

Nah.

Pirates Online's community is mostly based on the pirates films. Since we just got our last pirates film (probably) we're going to be losing interest in this game from Disney. Disney likes the "this game was a promotional tool" excuse when closing down games.

On stranger tides is far from being the last pirates film. Disney is going to continue milking that cash cow until they run out of ideas.

[Catherine Ironcutter]

Swash is correct. They will continue making films until they star losing major box-office revenue. In fact, the 5th movie is reportedly in "talks" (possible casting options, screenplay, writing and such) though at this point I'm not putting much faith in the reports. By next January it'll be certain or not.

After reading through this entire thread, I need to make some very clear points made.

1. Disney does NOT use the money made from movies to make games. Money made from movies is pumped right back into more movies. Same with games- money made from games is pumped right back into those games.

2. Do you know how MUCH programming is required just to allow you to hit "shift" and walk through a door, much less to program ONE table of Blackjack? I recently began to learn how to program computer games. After I finished reading the book on how to program, my first computer game was a very, very, simple blackjack game, with the cards as white blocks with numbers on them. You know how much programming that took? Over 1200 lines of numbers, parentheses, brackets, and other such things. In fact, when you read the program, it looks like a bunch of gibberish. It most likely takes well over several BILLION lines of code to program a game as extensive as Pirates. Plus, you have to have specially trained programmers for a game like Pirates.

3. With my second point in mind, remember this: The Pirates team also has to animate, draw, color, and everything else that makes this game have any color or graphics at all. To program something like the Kraken would take a very long time.

Finally, the Pirates team listens more than you think. They do read the forums, and they do care about what the players want.

[Ofury/ Tom]

Originally Posted by Catherine Ironcutter

2. Do you know how MUCH programming is required just to allow you to hit "shift" and walk through a door, much less to program ONE table of Blackjack? I recently began to learn how to program computer games. After I finished reading the book on how to program, my first computer game was a very, very, simple blackjack game, with the cards as white blocks with numbers on them. You know how much programming that took? Over 1200 lines of numbers, parentheses, brackets, and other such things. In fact, when you read the program, it looks like a bunch of gibberish. It most likely takes well over several BILLION lines of code to program a game as extensive as Pirates. Plus, you have to have specially trained programmers for a game like Pirates.

3. With my second point in mind, remember this: The Pirates team also has to animate, draw, color, and everything else that makes this game have any color or graphics at all. To program something like the Kraken would take a very long time.
.

lol I used to think like that too. I know what it takes to make a game and how boring code can be.. but think about it. They REALLY need to step it up if they want to last much longer... A ton more games beats this game in ammount of quests, story, map size, graphics. I mean this game is pretty low on the totem poll now.. I still enjoy it don't get me wrong. I just like this genre and I'm a huge pirates fan. If I was just looking for a fun game to play though. This would probably be my last choice. You can understand how hard it is for them to do these things, but there are countless examples of others doing better.

[Catherine Ironcutter]

Alright, so there are others who have some better games. How many of them are kid-friendly? Very few. How many kids play this game? A lot.

I personally play Pirates above, say... WoW or games along that line, because I would rather cut the gore out of my gameplay. Sure, I kind of want to try LOTRO, but only because I want to see how it plays against POTCO. Plus, Pirates supports Mac. Many, many games do not support Mac. Sure, they may have better graphics, quests, etc... but what does it benefit the wonderful Pirates who use Mac computers?

[Ofury/ Tom]

Originally Posted by Catherine Ironcutter

Alright, so there are others who have some better games. How many of them are kid-friendly? Very few. How many kids play this game? A lot.

I personally play Pirates above, say... WoW or games along that line, because I would rather cut the gore out of my gameplay. Sure, I kind of want to try LOTRO, but only because I want to see how it plays against POTCO. Plus, Pirates supports Mac. Many, many games do not support Mac. Sure, they may have better graphics, quests, etc... but what does it benefit the wonderful Pirates who use Mac computers?

I play LOTRO. Its kid friendly there is no gore. The graphics are extremely polished way over top of POTCO. Updates are meaningful. Theres thousands of quests. Their updates are very nice. A few weeks ago there was an update adding 50 new quests for higher lvl players. Then 2 weeks later another 20 for higher lvl players. Now I'm not very high so I've not reached that content but I think that beats out POTCO's new island every 3 years.. :/ I really wanna keep playing POTCO but its becoming harder when theres other games that can beat out POTCO so easliy and theres no real meaningful updates within a good range. Granted I will be playing potco much less when SWTOR comes out.

[MacIronhawk]

I think the fact that the POTCO community(and Toontown's community) is so friendly is the reason it's a decent online game. POTCO and Toontown bans the people most other online games won't. If there's any sign of threats or bad language they're on top of it, so the majority of the community is full of "nice" people.

The only problem I have with the game is that the content doesn't roll in as fast as other games. That's not necessarily bad(I'm patient) but other people want content every three months or a new boss battle every year. We just don't get that from a game like POTCO.

I'd just like to see Disney hire more developers to get the content rolling out. What the developers put out is very entertaining and has good replay value but it's just too little in these days where games like call of duty get a new map pack every two months.

[leo]

Originally Posted by MacIronhawk

I think the fact that the POTCO community(and Toontown's community) is so friendly is the reason it's a decent online game. POTCO and Toontown bans the people most other online games won't. If there's any sign of threats or bad language they're on top of it, so the majority of the community is full of "nice" people. .

In-game, POTCO does not ban players the right way. There was a player who dropped the F bomb at another player but did not get banned. However there was a player who got banned for saying a forum website based on potco??? POTCO needs a lot of reorganization in the game as far as everything goes....


I think the game does not need new content as much as it needs fixing what already is there for the time being. There is so many issues compared to other games that i personally hate more than i like new content. After fixing the game then the POTCO developers need a plan for their updates. An example would be uploading patches of new quests, enemies, place changes, bosses, ships, weapons, etc. every 5 months. Updates For mastered Pirates such as quests only for level 50s, A cave or Two with high levels and bosses only for level 50s pirates, etc. Quests for pirates on the low levels. In a few words, LONG TERM CONTENT ADDED A FEW TIMES A YEAR.

QAR was added, in a week, it became boring for many. Invasion was added it became boring for a lot withing a few months for many pirates. Fleet was added, It became boring within a few weeks. Now the Scoundrel of the seas with the Bounty Hunters got added and it was fun in the beginning however after doing it a few times, it becomes boring. PLAYERS DO NOT LIKE TO SEE A REPEAT. That's what QAR, SOTL, Invasions have been, Repeats for all level players. That is fun only in the beginning then after a few days, weeks or maybe in the rare case months its plain boring.

The world is the same, There's just less in it.

[Captain luke]

Originally Posted by leo

In-game, POTCO does not ban players the right way. There was a player who dropped the F bomb at another player but did not get banned. However there was a player who got banned for saying a forum website based on potco??? POTCO needs a lot of reorganization in the game as far as everything goes....


I think the game does not need new content as much as it needs fixing what already is there for the time being. There is so many issues compared to other games that i personally hate more than i like new content. After fixing the game then the POTCO developers need a plan for their updates. An example would be uploading patches of new quests, enemies, place changes, bosses, ships, weapons, etc. every 5 months. Updates For mastered Pirates such as quests only for level 50s, A cave or Two with high levels and bosses only for level 50s pirates, etc. Quests for pirates on the low levels. In a few words, LONG TERM CONTENT ADDED A FEW TIMES A YEAR.

QAR was added, in a week, it became boring for many. Invasion was added it became boring for a lot withing a few months for many pirates. Fleet was added, It became boring within a few weeks. Now the Scoundrel of the seas with the Bounty Hunters got added and it was fun in the beginning however after doing it a few times, it becomes boring. PLAYERS DO NOT LIKE TO SEE A REPEAT. That's what QAR, SOTL, Invasions have been, Repeats for all level players. That is fun only in the beginning then after a few days, weeks or maybe in the rare case months its plain boring.

Totally agree with you. I played potco for a while, and i have been retired for almost a year now. There have only been maybe 3 long-term content updates(Correct me if i'm wrong) Those are Svs, the new looting system, and ravens cove(maybe). What i find very wrong with this game, is the lack of end-game content. Once we reach level 50 (Which almost everyone eventually does) then what? Sure, we could hunt for legendary weapons but that could be very very frustrating. Svs could be fun, but that will die out eventually.

Now i dont know if anyone remembers that weekend about 2 years ago, where svs was glitched. And if you launched a spanish ship, and ported at the french island, you could kill anyone on the french island. It was a warzone, one of the most fun times ive ever had on this game. I remember, me and 3 other people would stand on top of the tower on the french island, and just throw seige and pretend like we were in an actual war. Potco needs something like that, Just like a pvp island, where there are 2 teams, and they could just kill the other team.
Honestly, i dont think thats too much to ask for.

[leo]

Originally Posted by Captain luke

Totally agree with you. I played potco for a while, and i have been retired for almost a year now. There have only been maybe 3 long-term content updates(Correct me if i'm wrong) Those are Svs, the new looting system, and ravens cove(maybe). What i find very wrong with this game, is the lack of end-game content. Once we reach level 50 (Which almost everyone eventually does) then what? Sure, we could hunt for legendary weapons but that could be very very frustrating. Svs could be fun, but that will die out eventually.

Now i dont know if anyone remembers that weekend about 2 years ago, where svs was glitched. And if you launched a spanish ship, and ported at the french island, you could kill anyone on the french island. It was a warzone, one of the most fun times ive ever had on this game. I remember, me and 3 other people would stand on top of the tower on the french island, and just throw seige and pretend like we were in an actual war. Potco needs something like that, Just like a pvp island, where there are 2 teams, and they could just kill the other team.
Honestly, i dont think thats too much to ask for.

Agreed and As many may know, It is one of those Long term content updates that keep me playing and paying. That is SvS to be exact...However when you think of pirates, you can think of many more ideas that could be added in a long term run.

Examples:
1. A PvP island where only mastered pirates or 45 and above can go to fight.
2. Ship customization... necessary for a pirate game or by the least new ship types
3. Quests based on notoriety level to keep all levels interested with a final REWARD(weapon, skill, etc)
4. NEW SKILLS. there has been no new skills since the game was released!!!
5. Raids - Special places where groups of pirates can go to take over and loot with bosses, soldiers, etc....possibly 5 raids to start it off than expand on it.
---Example: one against navy for pirates level 10 to 18, one against EITC for levels 19 - 26, one against skeletons for levels 27 - 35, one against ghosts for level 36 - 43, one against the fish people 44 - 50. Later update could be a raid with all the high levels of and bosses of ghosts, fish people, EITC, etc for level 50s only.

These are just a few ideas...