Dying (or DEAD) Disney has let us down!

[Basil Dreadflint]

The game is dying, or has already done so. Disney has let us down.
The one year anniversary came on October 31. By the end of the first week in November, a ton of the players had let their accounts expire. By the third week of November, Disney cut about 1/2 of the servers, (We all know that it was because game play has dropped significantly.)

All the rumors about new stuff coming on the anniversary were bogus. Then the Tavern Takeovers, where the Disney GM's kept hinting and blatantly saying, new things are coming,, be sure to be at the Founder's Feast to find out more. (HA!) Other than the roast pig giving out 10 super tonics, nothing happened there, either.

There has been major update after major update, but none of them has actually added any major new content. Yeah, the clothing quests and the level 5 weapons, but no increases in Notoriety, Weapons levels, ships or ship capabilities. Nothing that the average level 40 pirate wants or needs!

Guilds are dying left and right. Most guilds are losing full access players, and they are seeing no new players coming in. The die hards are creating new baby pirates, but it is rare to find a "new" player. Be honest. If your guild has about 100 pirates in the list, then you may have 20 to 25 ACTIVE players right now! Probably even less.

Even those who play pretty regularly are beginning to chat about how bored they are with the game. No incentive to continue their memberships, because Disney hasn't given us anything to keep us active. Grinding weapons gets extremely boring, when all you are grinding them for is to reach the last level. There isn't even any fanfare for mastering, unless your friends make it for you.

Where is the second story chapter? What use is having the Pearl, if we can never sail her, or chase after Jolly Roger? When are they going to raise the notoriety and weapons skill caps? What use are weapons that are more powerful than our old ones, when there are no enemies to use them on, or they don't earn us any rep?

COME ON Disney!! Quit making up these little side quests and amusements, Give us something that is truely MAJOR! The Muertos Moon is fun, ONCE! After that, the best anyone can hope for is that it happens on a different server than the one they are on.

My suggestions:

Raise Notoriety max to level 60, using the same progressive scale factors that are in place now, the final level would require around 80,000 rep to achieve. This should keep us all busy.

Raise weapons max to level 50 each.. Same reasoning as for Notoriety.

Give us at least 2 new types of war ship, but only allow us 3 total. Time to make some decisions!

Allow customization of our ships, allow us to "move" cannons. I would love to take 2 cannons from the side of my War frigate and add them to the front. I would also like to be able to fly a Guild pennant from the top of my main mast. Paint job would be a nice touch, too.

New, higher level enemies and ships! We will need the challenge if we are going to raise the caps.

GIVE US THE NEXT STORY CHAPTER! There has to be a reason we did all that work to recapture the Pearl from the Navy. Jolly Roger has been growing more powerful. There are French and Spanish undead. Where is the story that ties it all together?


What does everyone else think?

[anndreeuhh]

I couldn't agree with you more Basil. The other day I was forced to delete a good 20 friends from Dragon off friends list simply because they don't play anymore. Active guilds are hard to come by. I'm so lucky and thankful I'm in PIC otherwise I'd be gone with everyone else. It's so frustrating to not have anything to do. The only time I have fun is when my friends and I get a game going. (Played hide and seek yesterday and SvS the day before). I really really wish Disney would scamming us with these pointless events. The Founder's Feast was pointless, all we got was some super tonic like you said, and there's no way to get it again once you use it all up, which blows even more. I only play now for the friends that I've made in the past few months. Other than that I'm ready to throw the towel in and go search for a new game.

[Card Shark]

Basil, I couldn't agree with you more. I really have never played any other online games but if the lack of new content is the same on those games as it is on Pirates, I can't see how they would stay so popular. If it weren't for my incredible guild mates I would have let my subscription go a long time ago. We need some major additional content and we need it soon. I am just about to finish maxing out my pirate and really have no desire to start over with a second one. I really have a hard time understanding why a company with the resources that Disney has doesn't publish more content on a consistent basis.

[Captain Grizzly]

Basil has hit the nail squarely on the head with this post. The game has improved compared to what it was when most of us started. If you are brand new to the game there is plenty for you to do. But, if you have been around awhile, have a mastered pirate or two, then the new things that will keep a new player busy for a month we'll burn through in a few hours.

Tis a sad thing to say but I've seen too many mates leave the game. They either quit completly or just stop in from time to time when a new bone has been tossed our way. Disney really needs to step it up if they want to keep us around. We need something with substance to it and not more of the little string em along to keep em paying items we've been getting.

I guess I'm one of the die hards but it's getting harder for me to want to stay in the game.

[Rackat]

It is a sad commentary on Disney that so many have left. I like the game, and have found ways to entertain myself and my guild while waiting for updates. Recently, we've started interacting with another guild to have more fun things to do. The main reason I haven't quit or disbanded my guild is because occassionally some of the 'rare' members pop on and it would bother me for them to come back to a guild without a guildmaster. That happened to me in another guild. Another is for the friends I have in the game. I have 3 lv40 pirates and my fourth is lv30. If Disney has not given up us more to do by the time James Buffitt Jr. hits lv40, I will let my account expire and go basic. Maybe in 6-8 months there will be something to do.

[Benjamin Dreadgull]

IMO they are working on the cars game now, when that launches they will turn attention back here. If I am estimating correctly when they release the game in england with all the upgrades, we will get them too. I dont however understand what their aversion is to raising the note level. Thats a simple fix that would make many people very happy.

Changes are comming, just in time for christmas , thats my guess, not a fact.

[akamystic]

Wow, you saved me a whole lot of typing. I've been frustrated for quite some time now. POTC Online may not cost as much as some of the other online games, however...the other games release things called "expansion" packs which include far more than minor changes.

I'd hate to cancel my account after all the hours I've invested building my characters....but if this pace of expansion continues, I'm at least dropping back to basic access until major improvements are made.

This new added feature of ships being glitched at sea is wonderful as well. I was unable to repair or launch my ships for two characters for over two weeks. Finally someone helped bring a flag ship over to me so I could fire on it, grapple it and sink myself. That seems to be the only way to correct it. What did I get from Disney support besides we're working on it? A complimentary week (resets billing cycle).

Overall I enjoy this game and the people I've met. Unless something changes quickly I will continue to lose guild members and friends as they are frustrated as well. Sometimes when I sign in I have to ask myself....ok, now what?? Is this turning into a big Pirate chat room for $9.95 a month?? I certainly hope not.

Robert Darkskull
Pistols N Bladez

[Sarah]

Originally Posted by Benjamin Dreadgull

IMO they are working on the cars game now, when that launches they will turn attention back here. If I am estimating correctly when they release the game in england with all the upgrades, we will get them too. I dont however understand what their aversion is to raising the note level. Thats a simple fix that would make many people very happy.

Changes are comming, just in time for christmas , thats my guess, not a fact.

Benjamin, I like your optimism. However, this is a multi-billion dollar company. They dont' have two people sitting in some back room working on pirates, they have teams of employees working every aspect of each of their online games. (although it would seem there are only three people and a little hampster running a wheel in the customer service dept.) Time to crack the whip on the POTCO division IMO.

[Dr. Zeppers]

Basil has many great points, and with how things have been going for alot of families, under the circumstances, POTCO is also one of the easiest things to cut when your doing your family budget. If your not getting your money's worth, why continue.. im sure goes through thier minds each month.

I've noticed some changes recently since the last update on the 11/20.
Server resets/maintenance that were common place (almost daily) have been discontinued (a sign they are not working on it anymore?) I havent seen the red notice that the system was going to be shut down a single time since the 20th (maybe I just missed it).

The comment that was made about Cars online, I hope thats not the case, as I dont see any major competitors coming along for that game genre, they have time to work on it, unlike the pirates genre which is much more competitive, and POTCO is losing ground steadily. And like Sarah mentioned, I believe they have the staff/funding to finish the project if they should choose to do so.

[davy redflint]

aye we all be fustrated... i still playin but my years up end of next month not sure i will renew and i did finally load pirates of the burnin sea,,, away more indepth game so far. but i do like the ease of this game so time will tell if big d want to keep this going or not.

[Poison elf]

Even before you posted this I have been trying to get a poll to go through, basically on this exact subject. If Uk is coming out soon with customize ships, darts, scars, etc. If you could would you go there. I haven't got it to go through a couple times so far.

I have been saying this for a very long time, while I basically argue with people saying the feast was great, not bad etc. I sure hope no way the Disney people ever read that junk and get the idea that's what makes everyone happy.

I have bit my tongue several times just the last few days, seeing posts on svs runner/dockers, while many find many ways to defend it. Where it really boils down, many gave up on it like me, when they took all the damage from characters who were running down the cheats, to leave the cheats in the game. The very mosted used tactic by the healer on the move ships was racing to dock if they got someone after them.

Or for that matter on bb battles and jumpers taking the wheel. What do people expect when damage is taken away, BB being half set up, and not having control to the wheel to the captain. (referring to who has the quest and gathered a crew) People just not left in guilds to help others do this type of battle and Forced to take who they can get.

Just never have understood the stupidity in game designs, that everyone says they want this or that, and it is completely ignored. While in the case here it has even gone opposite. Degrading of characters, so called upgraded weapons, that gives a high percent damage on low level skills, to slow down leveling. Promises, hints and such just doesn't make it for a game, that just never happens month after month.

I have even argued the point that everyone quiting is becoming a basic account, obviously there are going to be a lot more basic than unlimited, but you won't see that in the game. And by no means, whatever this grouping of people are who mainly don't play, dictate where the game and improvements should be going.

[Basil Dreadflint]

Originally Posted by Benjamin Dreadgull

Changes are comming, just in time for christmas , thats my guess, not a fact.

Benjamin,

I wish I could support your theory, but if there was any major content upgrades coming out in time for Christmas, then it would have to be on Test already. Although I'm not on test, I do know that anything that gets put there, information starts to leak out. Nothing has leaked from any of the test server pirates since they all disclaimed the October update!

Then again, maybe none of the pirates who have test accounts are using the test servers anymore. They were all so upset when the October update came out full of bugs that they had complained about and been ignored on, they may have all quit!

[Aliese]

Aside from the limiting of ships (OCD - I want complete sets...and a racing sloop...LoL), I totally agree.

Like many others, if it weren't for my guild (what's left of it), I'd be done with Pirates.

[Benjamin Dreadgull]

Originally Posted by Sarah

Benjamin, I like your optimism. However, this is a multi-billion dollar company. They dont' have two people sitting in some back room working on pirates, they have teams of employees working every aspect of each of their online games. (although it would seem there are only three people and a little hampster running a wheel in the customer service dept.) Time to crack the whip on the POTCO division IMO.

Disney is a multibillion dollar company , that does not mean they are throwing that money at their online gamming division, I would be very curious to see exactly how many are really working on this game exclusivly, my guess all their division works on all their games. I dont think its as populated with staff as you would imagine it is

[Chris]

Basil do you know what you just did!? You just typed everything i wanted to say but couldnt put it into words. I agree 100% idk what they are doing but their game is dying. Guilds are falling apart because members arent logging on because there is nothing to do.