Pirates of the Burning Sea

Three weeks ago after trying Tabula Rasa and well.. my GF and myself really liked it.  We just didn't see much to that game.. we gave in and decided to try potbs.

I'll just state up front that we both like the game in general.

The next thing I'm going to say is my first MMO was UO... and I really liked the early version of that game.  I liked the PvP etc etc

However, with a few years added on and a different outlook.. I go into potbs.

Basicly what I see without going into a 300 paragraph wall of text ramble.  My observation is it reminds me of the UO syndrome as I'll call it.. just 10 or 11 years later.  A certain segment of the player base has a certain type of behaviour that is inflicted on everyone.

The "care bear" as some like to call people who PvE press the cancel button and move on.

Developer starts to impose systems or fix exploits.  Certain players can no longer grief "care bears" because of fixed or soon(tm) to be fixed exploits.. or the fact that "care bears" left the game.  This certain player type can now only fight people who can kill them and inflict loss on them.  This is where I say "yes I can have your stuff."

Then the "I quit" post start that always make some mention of "the care bears won".

****

That may not make sense to most people.. there may be some that follow what I said.  It was the shortest version I could come up with.  What I can't figure out really is...

Why people who want a PvP game so badly.. haven't figured out in the last 11 years.. that the reason they keep "losing their games" is due to their own actions...

Honestly after watching the population drop this early into release.. I wonder if this game will outlast Tabula Rasa.  What makes me sad is... its actually a fun game to play.

/end ramble

Oh and if anyone can explain to me what change in the last week was made to give this game to the "care bears" I would love the explination.  Its one of the themes of the "I quit" threads and I really just can't see anything that allows me to follow that statement and see any logic.

You say you liked it, but you didn't see much to the game so you tried POTBS? Is that a typo?

Originally posted by Antarious
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Why people who want a PvP game so badly.. haven't figured out in the last 11 years.. that the reason they keep "losing their games" is due to their own actions...

...

I will tell you why (I think) PvP games tend to fail (mostly). 

Travel times.

That's it.

PvP works but it MUST be buffered so that there are buffer zones where a player can play in relative safety.  Note: I did NOT say total safety.

It's that element of risk that gives a game an element of excitement.  When 'death' no longer matters you will find that the game loses its edge.

So, how do you keep PvPers away from the PvEers and the Carebears? 
With distance.
But a lot of players HATE travel... so what do the Devs do?
Make the world 'smaller' by reducing travel times.
In PotBS you can travel right across the world and back in minutes.  This reduces the 'distance' between the different factions, reduces the 'buffer zones' and gives the "gankers" (and yes SOME PvPers ARE gankers) access to everyone everywhere.

There are successful PvP games out there:

EvE and WWIIoL (no crafting in the latter, admittedly) - and what do both those games have in common?
Long travel times.  You can still "gank" and be "ganked" but you can also avoid trouble because of the distances involved.

IMHO that is the key to making an MMO with open PvP work.  You need long travel times.  That way people who wish to avoid PvP can hide well away from PvP areas in relative safety.

So how did you like the game OP, im thinking about buying it.

Also to answer the statement about which would last longer i think you would be happy to know that potbs is actually part of the SOE station pass. What this mean is that all the mmos owned by soe share the profits of the station pass owners, therfore potbs shouldn't have a problem staying alive because of the safety net that the soe station pass provides.

Originally posted by MasterPain55
...

 i think you would be happy to know that potbs is actually part of the SOE station pass. What this mean is that all the mmos owned by soe share the profits of the station pass owners, therfore potbs shouldn't have a problem staying alive because of the safety net that the soe station pass provides.

Surely they don't all get an equal share of that money?  It would be based on usage surely?  Metered somehow?

Otherwise a "dead" MMO would be carried by the others forever?

Originally posted by Gyrus

Originally posted by MasterPain55
...

 i think you would be happy to know that potbs is actually part of the SOE station pass. What this mean is that all the mmos owned by soe share the profits of the station pass owners, therfore potbs shouldn't have a problem staying alive because of the safety net that the soe station pass provides.

I have actually wondered about that.  How does this work exactly?

Surely they don't all get an equal share of that money?  It would be based on usage surely?  Metered somehow?

Otherwise a "dead" MMO would be carried by the others forever?

Exactly , PotBS's pops are going down quickly - there are at all times 3/4 light pops on all nations with moderate rotating around occasionally on certain nations - no servers with more than 1/2 mod 1/2 light at all times and a very rare heavy anymore - this was very different two-three weeks ago - there is no sudden magic influx of numbers coming in and just as VG people did the fanbois are going into extreme spin/head in the sand mode

The All-Access pass part of the SOE/FLS will allow them to keep at least a few servers open indefinitely and never have to "close" - it will be right there with Matrix Online

Originally posted by Gyrus

 

Otherwise a "dead" MMO would be carried by the others forever?

As for the ganking in PotBS...just look at some of the bigger threads on the FLS forums. There is a group of people who are only interested in ganking crafters who aren't looking for a fight and they are upset that there aren't enough opportunities to do it. The crafters (or freetraders as they are called) cry bloody murder when they get ganked and lose a week's worth of effort. What we are seeing now is that the freetraders *and* the gankers are leaving in droves and the population is spiraling down. It's the perfect type of situation for a Station Pass game...

any freetrader carrying a weeks worth of materials into a pvp zone is either a noob or doesn't understand that you need a party of 6 to go anywhere in a red zone.

Originally posted by MasterPain55

any freetrader carrying a weeks worth of materials into a pvp zone is either a noob or doesn't understand that you need a party of 6 to go anywhere in a red zone.

I had hope they were going to pull off a fun PvP game , now in the coming months I'll at least get to tell the fanbois I told you so as they screamed the pops are not dropping , everything is fine