Calling All Pirates!

[Kriss_Man1]

Originally Posted by Crim

Aye, I'll admit the initial sentiment was laced with a little annoyance over how I've received the same response (over, and over). However, I am very disappointed in their customer service. Since my return, I've sent requests for two guild names; the first I submitted went a week without a response. So, assuming it was declined, I submitted another the following week and still have yet to receive a response. It becomes grueling at the fact that a game with so much potential is being underutilized. (I understand sending too many guild names will run their system amuck, but there have been days when guild names would be approved/denied within hours)

I just expected a little more in their reply. Two years ago, a guildmate and personal friend of mine had some malfunction with their account. The 'higher ups' personally contacted him by phone and sorted the situation out within a day, in addition to apologizing and granting him a few temporary perks. To me it seems like they don't care anymore (consider it a little stubborn). Perhaps I'm overreacting or simply expecting too much. Perhaps I'm being a little naive or nostalgic, but no matter how deep we go with this, such suggestions may fall upon deaf ears. For the longest time have we been preaching to the choir.

If we are to truly make a change and rekindle the spirit (for all of us, including the staff), then I do believe we must call upon old friends. Aye, reality consumes a great deal of our priority, fueling the leave of many who have gone, but to those who desire to continue on this journey and have lost hope, I dare to say we must make one more plunge.

For the guildmasters, let us make it our duty to hoist the colours. Let us sing the song that shall echo to the very ears of those who call themselves pirate; to make it not only a duty, but an obligation - not to restore glory, for such guilds have not tarnished in time or nobility - but an obligation to making Pirates Online what it once was. If infamous pirates return to the seas, stranger tides may be upon us.

For the pirates who claim their loyalty to such dastardly captains, I, in my own opinion, dare to say the bonds of friendship shall hold the ship together for the time being until new content has been released.

Let us convene a gathering of pirates - old and new, far and wide.

Guildmasters, guildmates, noble independent pirates: for now, let our task be unity and espouse a community that deems us all Pirate Brethren.

- raises mug of Rum -

AYE! I'll drink ta that!


Kriss.

[Platinum Pirate]

Originally Posted by Crim

Dear Crim,

Thank you for your email, we appreciate hearing from our Players. We certainly
try to have personal emails for every guest that writes to us. I will certainly
pass along all your points to the appropriate people.

I can speak into some of the points you've mentioned. We make updates and
changes to the game according to what we hear as feedback and new additions to
the game. In fact most of the changes that have happened in the game have been
specifically for these reasons. We do rely on guests to actually contact us
regrading issues, questions and concerns as there are many websites out there
that people chat on. So unless they have actually contacted us through our modes
of contact there is no guarantee we will have heard it.

Hacking as you've mentioned is becoming an ongoing problem. We absolutely do not
condone this and Terminate any account caught cheating. Trust me this is an
active daily activity. To help us out please continue to report players you see
cheating in the game.

The updates you mentioned and the Blogs about 'Pirate Admins will never ask for
your information' are in direct response to trends we are seeing. It's not to
insult anyone. Although you are an adult and I know there are adult players,
this game is intended and designed for kids, but we certainly welcome all
players. But we do see kids (and Adults actually) sharing their information
which results in losing their accounts.

Like I mentioned before, I will pass along your feedback, we do appreciate it!
We certainly appreciate the friend you are to many pirates Online.

Sincerely,
-

Its a kids' game. Perhaps, they should tell us up to what age from 10 they define a kid to be? I ask this for two reasons:

1) It has an E10+ rating. Parental guidance is suggested. It's not required, just suggested. If parents aren't paying attention to what their kid(s) is(are) playing, then technically POTCO is not held responsible for what the kid does [with his/her own pirate account] or why the kids has issues with other players. Yet, POTCO does care and takes the appropriate actions with each case. Why? Because they actually do care or because they could be held legally responsible after all?

2) Why are there more Open Chatters than Speed Chatters in this game? If its really meant to be a kids' game, why isn't the reverse true? How much of all that account theft could have been prevented if that chat system was enforced from the get go?

There was a time when the chat policy was more strict, and shockingly, account theft was unheard of. Then someone in POTCO, for whatever reason, came up with this policy:
Only open to players 13+ or on accounts 12 and younger that have approval from an authenticated adult account.
http://piratesonline.go.com/v3/#/hel..._policies.html

Then, in some magical way, account theft (along with extreme hacking and scheming) started to happen readily and brazenly. When the representative mentioned how adults have shared their info, I wonder which set of adults are they referring to? The one where one complete stranger gives their account info to another complete stranger in clear violation of the rules? Or the one where parents either permitted their kid(s) to play their Open Chat accounts, or permitted their kid(s) to use Open Chat communication instead of Speed Chat? Which set of adults?

Oh, I'd like to know what that age range technically is. Not only is their current Chat policy in need of an extreme reversal, but their customers need to know if all content has, is, and will be designed for that age range alone [like between 10 and 12]. It sure would explain why the changes became more kiddie-like since 2008 when I first played the game and why so few play it anymore. Most have gone on to Teen-related games (which are geared for 13+).

Just removing Game Cards isn't the magic bullet that will solve these account thefts. Neither will adding more word censoring into their heavily filtered chat system will do the trick. Something as simple as making sure that only adults, 18 and over, may use Open Chat while kids, 17 and under, stick with the Speed Chat system for their own good... will.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

[Carlene]

Its a kids' game. Perhaps, they should tell us up to what age from 10 they define a kid to be?

Well that's really funny, because when you go to Disneyland, 10 and older pay the adult price for admission! I guess there are different standards for all things Disney!

[Bart Blueginty]

Hacking as you've mentioned is becoming an ongoing problem. We absolutely do not
condone this and Terminate any account caught cheating.

Hmm, so they'll terminate any account they catch cheating? Strange how some of the players on there are hacking away and disney are not doing anything about it. If they actually did care about the game they would bring in their Games Masters or Mods to monitor the situation but have them where they were normal players until they see a hack taking place then turn themselves back to GM status and Boot the person immediately noting their IP number so IP ban them

[CYblade]

Originally Posted by Bart Blueginty

Hmm, so they'll terminate any account they catch cheating? Strange how some of the players on there are hacking away and disney are not doing anything about it. If they actually did care about the game they would bring in their Games Masters or Mods to monitor the situation but have them where they were normal players until they see a hack taking place then turn themselves back to GM status and Boot the person immediately noting their IP number so IP ban them

The issue that a lot of pirates forget is WE, as players, are ALL responsible to keeping to the code. We have do have the tools to keep our game in best shape IF only we act ourselves and report those said pirates that are cheating and hacking away. It's called REPORT button or send Feedback.

*Gasps* What do you mean report another player?
Let's face it. With the downsizing and shifting of resources, there's not that many Games Masters or mods to monitor all these activities. What we can do is HELP by notify Dx of these scalawags on game and report what we see. Savvy?

[Bart Blueginty]

Originally Posted by CYblade

The issue that a lot of pirates forget is WE, as players, are ALL responsible to keeping to the code. We have do have the tools to keep our game in best shape IF only we act ourselves and report those said pirates that are cheating and hacking away. It's called REPORT button or send Feedback.

*Gasps* What do you mean report another player?
Let's face it. With the downsizing and shifting of resources, there's not that many Games Masters or mods to monitor all these activities. What we can do is HELP by notify Dx of these scalawags on game and report what we see. Savvy?

But surely it's not down to us to report those using 3rd Party programs, after all they may have been using them for a while in secret before showing off to everyone saying oh look I'm a level 1 and do crazy ned emo or I can do the zombie dance even though its not out yet. Surely Disney should have a program installed that blocks 3rd party programs.

[Davy_Mcwrecker]

I feel as if there would be a solution to the problem. The solution would be a simple update and email about the said update. It would be like dominoes. But I feel they don't have enough people working on it, or/and They arent receiving the funding for the things for it. Wouldn't you think, that if someone made a kickstarter for a Pirates of the Carribbean Online Game, that it would be funded, easily? I personally believe that they should talk to the people above them about creating a small and simple kickstarter or indigogo. It wouldn't be hard. You can donate $1. You get features for donating money. For example, on the Oculus Rift Kickstarter, people who donated a certain amount got a beta copy of it. With POTCO, they could easily make a kickstarter with rewards that are $5, $10, $25, $50, $100. Maybe $5 would give you the ability to color your clothes whatever, $10 would get you Automatic Test access, $25 would get you a custom badge beside your name, $50 would get you a custom outfit, and $100 would get you a custom ship or a custom weapon. Obviously, people would pay for special features, and since this is was a popular game, it could have potential. With that small amount of money, they could pull of a little update where they add crafting or items. They would send out an email, and people would come back to try it out. Then they would buy a membership to try more out, then they could get a TV commerical. Then, more people would join and become members. It's again, a domino effect. They just need an update. (Or money)

[wmah]

Disney could do more advertising that would actually get more paying customers in to increase revenue.

My simple idea is to bring back game cards but not to a store near most of us. Place the game cards at the exits of their very own ride "the Pirates of the Caribbean".
Just imagine you go to either Disneyland or Disneyworld and you step of the ride and right into the gift shop, and right before you exit the shop you see a sign that advertises "Rode like a pirate and now play like a pirate". A simple advertisement at a very key place that would work. And they could also insert ads in their Pirate movies.

[Lilys]

Originally Posted by wmah

Disney could do more advertising that would actually get more paying customers in to increase revenue.

My simple idea is to bring back game cards but not to a store near most of us. Place the game cards at the exits of their very own ride "the Pirates of the Caribbean".
Just imagine you go to either Disneyland or Disneyworld and you step of the ride and right into the gift shop, and right before you exit the shop you see a sign that advertises "Rode like a pirate and now play like a pirate". A simple advertisement at a very key place that would work. And they could also insert ads in their Pirate movies.

I have always felt that Disney was really missing out by not doing this, they have you exit the ride and you have to walk through the shop, it really would be a great place to advertise the game. You can purchase Club Penguin game cards in the park, but not Toontown or POTCO whereas, they have Toontown and POTC attractions, but no CP attraction. Makes absolutely no sense to me.

[Davy_Mcwrecker]

Originally Posted by Lilys

Makes absolutely no sense to me.

What makes no sense to me, is how even though it could be done for free, and it would make it more money, it seems that Disney pretty much refuses to acknowledge POTCO, or at least attempt to get kids to play it. You see all these commerials for Pixie Hollow, a little bit of Toon Town, and mainly Club Penguin. I'm sure if Disney Channel would suck it up for one or 2 commercials during the day on a Saturday, kids who loved Pirates and the POTC Movies would try it out, love it, and buy Unlimited. Then they would have a temporary income of money to make a game improvement or make an update. It seems extremely simple to improve the game, but they just don't do anything with it.

[Platinum Pirate]

Then there are those official Disney cards you can load up to $500 and buy anything Disney with it... except their online games. Gee, if I could, then I might be incline to buy anything Disney with it. But since they don't... I'm not interested.