Pirates of the Burning Sea Interview, Part 2

If you recall, we began a series of interviews yesterday with Taylor Daynes, the Lead Designer for Flying Lab Software, and, most importantly, their flagship product: Pirates of the Burning Seas. Today, we bring you Part 2 of the interview with this most verbose of MMOG developers.

What's your opinion about the saturation of the Massive Multiplayer marketplace, and how does Pirates of the Burning Sea fit into it all?

As with any market, the prospects are better for those who can produce a quality product based on an original idea. Legions of budget titles will always try to leech off the successful - but MMP games are so large and complex that few low-end projects actually survive long enough to enter the market, and those that do are usually so tiny that they wither and die away quickly.

The market for fantasy-themed MMP games may be saturated, and sci-fi is getting close, but there are other genres which are completely unexplored. Indeed, the whole potential of the genre is scarcely scratched; everything to date has been but prologue to a far more interesting future reaching beyond level treadmills and rat-squashing.

The commonality of experience in single player rpg and action titles is that the developer can always manufacture a way for the player to be at the center of the action. In retrospect, many of the larger established titles have come to believe that the separate and outsider feeling that players feel is one of the main reasons for a lack of adequate retention numbers. Does your game address the issue of the "hero" complex?

The problem with many of the larger established titles is that they are fundamentally thousands of players playing their own single-player games. Thus far, I haven't seen any implementation of static content that leads me to believe that it encourages a feeling of participation in a larger, more dynamic world. In fact, the only places where the retention seems to be high is in the high-level PvP of EQ, and in the RvR of DAoC - both of which focus on intra-group cooperation, and inter-group competition.

With the static content of these games, everyone goes through the same motions. In some games, this redundancy is taken to the extreme, with players completing the same 'heroic' quest dozens of times, camping a 'boss' monster, forming lines to complete noble tasks, etc. And in the end, completing the quest doesn't change anything. There's a tremendous amount of veneer on a structure of sawdust. You're not a hero - you're nothing at all - just like everyone standing in line next to you, waiting their turn to kill the endlessly re-spawning dragon. It's no wonder people feel separated and isolated. Not even the new trend of 'personal' dungeon instances truly solves the problem, since everyone else in the world went through an identical 'personal' adventure.

Pirates of the Burning Sea is designed from the ground up with massively multiplayer interaction in mind. There are no random monsters popping out of spawn points. Where we have NPCs, we treat them the same as PCs, and are included as an adjunct to player activity. In addition to interacting with one another directly, players need to be able to interact indirectly through the world itself by making game-wide changes to it. Every player has equal potential to change the world dramatically, whether by leading a fleet to safety, holding off a more numerous foe, gouging merchants with taxes, launching a war against an ally, burning a port to the ground, or building a cathedral.

Every action a player takes contributes to the shifting balance of power in the game. The Spanish merchant that you capture is no longer generating taxes or hauling goods for the Spanish. Capture a few more, and you're a thorn in the Spanish side, and they'll send out a squadron of coast guard ships to deal with you. With you. You are the focus of attention. You are the center of your own story. Nobody else is playing the same game - nobody else is camping the treasure chest. It's just the world you see, the actions you take, and reactions the rest of the world makes to you.

Every player is a hero because every player is empowered to change the world - and not in the way some dev writer scripts months before, but in the ways that the players themselves choose.

Since you say that Pirates was designed with interaction in mind, does it also exhibit the classic "level treadmill" found in so many other Massive Multiplayer games?

I hate level treadmills. They have turned me off of every MMOG I've played. At some point, usually very quickly into the game, I've realized that what I am doing at that moment is fundamentally the same as what I will be doing a thousand hours later.

Another thing I hate is a game that requires a thousand hour investment before I can 'get to the good stuff'. What a waste of life!

Pirates of the Burning Sea focuses on making the game fun - and making sure that every player can make meaningful contributions - right from the get-go. However, we integrate this with a natural and optional progression. If you are interested in different types of gameplay, there are paths that you can take to get there.

Those interested in commanding squadrons and fleets, and helping determine the military strategy of an entire nation should consider joining the navy and climbing the ranks to the admiralty. The lower ranks are obtained through duty and service to the empire, but as you get higher, your strategic and leadership ability become more important. At the highest ranks of the admiralty, advancement becomes very political.

Players who love to manage a vast empire of economic minions would be wise to consider joining a trade company. Proving your value to the company will land you management positions of more and more responsibility, and strong leadership skills can land you in the board of directors.

The method of advancement through the ranks changes as you progress, accounting for the new duties and responsibilities of these higher positions. Even the gameplay changes at the higher levels. Instead of focusing all your attention on a single ship, the highest ranking captains will be in command of entire squadrons from the deck of their flagship. Players back in the admiralty or company headquarters will be busy assessing the bigger picture, planning macro-level strategies, and creating directives and orders for their fleets to carry out.

The joy of the system is that the advancement is not rigidly defined by how many rats you've killed, nor is it required to become powerful. A merchant can choose to go it alone and can make a vast fortune without the backing of a trade company. Eventually, that merchant could even start a company of his or her own. Privateers are generally independent captains, taking Letters of Marque and making huge fortunes off the prize ships they capture. And, of course, pirates become powerful from the ships they capture and the gold they steal from the backs of the weak.

Given that PotBS is primarily about ship to ship combat, mercantile trade, and a player driven economy, I've heard it compared to many of the space-based MMOGs out there (i.e. Earth & Beyond, Eve, JumpGate, etc). Besides the actual storyline and context of the game, how well do you think this comparison fits?

Not at all. Earth and Beyond is little more than EverQuest in space, and the same comparisons that are made between Pirates of the Burning Sea and JumpGate or EVE could be made between us and Dragon Empires or Horizons.

One critical difference is our focus on making the ship-based gameplay fun from the start. Space is big and empty, whereas the Lesser Antilles is packed with large tropical islands and tiny cays - in fact, it's difficult to find a place in the world where you can't see an island. Treacherous reefs, narrow passages, hidden coves and rocky shores await both the cunning and the unwary.

Cruising through space is point and wait. Sailing on the high seas is a test of skill and flexibility. Anyone who's tried to navigate the treacherous shoals around Antigua by the light of a crescent moon while fighting gale-force winds can tell you that sailing can be a white-knuckle experience.

And despite combat being the only thing you can do in these space games, the combat itself isn't very interesting. Select a menu item, or hit a key and wait to see who wins. Pirates of the Burning Sea brings the sophistication and intensity of real tactical naval action to the MMP setting by making our ship-to-ship combat nearly as sophisticated as full-featured naval combat simulations. Your character, you ship and equipment, and your cunning strategy all come together in punishing broadsides as you rake your enemy from stem to stern - shattering their hull, destroying their guns, and bringing their masts crashing down in a splintered heap.

What nationalities can a user play? Are there certain advantages that one nation has over another?

Spain, Britain and France were the three major powers in the Caribbean in 1720. Fundamentally, we take what balance we can from history, and we tweak it - exaggerating and downplaying where we need to - to achieve a fun and reasonable game world. So the three powers all have their advantages and disadvantages, and the initial balance of power will shift as the game progresses.

For instance, in the early 18th century Britain was the naval might of the western world, having recently crushed the navies of both France and Spain nearly into oblivion. By 1720, France was experiencing a quick and vigorous recovery. Spurred by several masters of naval architecture their ships became the envy of Europe. Britain's navy, though still the largest on the seas, was still sailing the same ships that had won the last war, and their vast empire stretched the resources of this antiquated navy across the entire world.

Spain, largely overlooked in this era, still had the most expansive empire on Earth, and though its navy had recently been decimated, it was about to experience an unprecedented resurgence in ship design and construction. Its navy, built upon the sturdy timbers of the West Indies, and borrowing heavily from French designs, carried the wealth of the New World back to Europe in its cavernous holds.

Stay Tuned for Part 3!