Pirates of the Burning Sea Goes Free

[Something Amyss]

I guess a pirate really is free.

 

[unacomn]

Yarrrr, shiver me timbers, shiver my sails. I not be havin' enough pieces of eight to be playin' yonder MMO until now. This be great news for an old salty sea dog! Hoist the anchor an raise the sails, we be plunderin' soon me hearties.

 

[maturin]

The best part is the sail and flag system. You can design your own flags and as long as they are something plausible for the time period, they are approved. My avatar is a flag I designed after using their tutorials and some players provided textures.

It's a nice feature, but the complete absence of actual white sails in the game completely destroys any sense of immersion in multiplayer. The gaudiest of modern yacht races with nylon and fiberglass everywhere doesn't get nearly that bad.

Lime green, pink, teal, purple... *shivers*

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

I never considered DDO worthwhile until it became free...I tried it totally free for 3 months, then I liked it so I subbed for 3 months, then spent $100 on turbine points.

So yeah free to start sucked me in, but I'm an adult with a job so I have money to pay if the game is compelling enough.

 

[viciouspen]

Awesome, I'd been wanting to play this game.

 

[L-J-F]

Eeeeeww ..... eeeeeeeewwwwww.... another "Free-to-Pay" MMO with microtransactions, eeeeeeeewwwww.

 

[tombman888]

Is it bad that i have never heard of this?

anyway, since it's going free i might just go play it.

 

[Nivag the Owl]

I've been staring at my dusty box for at least a couple of years now, thinking how much I'd love to go back to it but never having that final push. THAT TIME IS NOW!!!

 

[Doomdiver]

I won a copy in a competition a couple of years ago. Might finally take it out of the cellophane!

 

[Albino Boo]

Here's the thing, I'd pay full price for a boxed or digital copy of an MMO without fees to begin with. I don't really understand why a game like Guild Wars is unique in this regard, but, wouldn't it make more sense to work with that kind of model from the get go rather than scrabbling to get people to play later on when the game starts failing?

Guildwars overhead isn't as high as you average MMO. A guildwars PVE instance has max of 8 players and PVP instance 32 players, so you don't have to spend so much on hardware. Also guildwars used to bring a new full priced campaign every 6 months or so and currently has mirco transactions.

 

[Nunny]

Already been playing a "F2P Pirate MMO" for 5 years, got to love Puzzle Pirates.

Will have to give Pirates of a Burning Sea a try, looks interesting.

 

[8-Bit Grin]

I've always enjoyed the pirate genre, so I'm likely give this a whirl.

I wonder what the incentive is to make these though, without any income?

 

[DTWolfwood]

OMG YES YES! been wanting to go back to this game since i have an INVINCIBLE 1st Rate. But didnt want to pay! now i get to go back and have me some fun yay.

 

[cerebus23]

i played at launch and i liked it alot other than the nationals were so op that pirates were really a joke in port battles. played the free month when they offered subbers a free look and the game seemed much more balanced on the pvp side.

 

[PecosBill]

I'm sorry to say that when I see an MMO go F2P I can't help but receive the message "This is our last ditch effort to not go bankrupt".

That's definitely a stigma the industry will have to deal with.

Games like EVE and World War II Online have proven that a game can survive forever with a niche fanbase. There's no NEED to go F2P. The Pirates devs stated that they could have continued on with the current model for the foreseeable future.

But there may actually be more money in going "F2P". Because we all know that F2P is actually just another income model. Free players boost population levels, which can make the game more fun overall. Free players will be constantly tempted to buy in either to some subscription model or to expansion packs or other upgrades. The games are going F2P not to avoid bankruptcy, but because it actually looks more profitable -- they'll be getting $5/month average from 300,000 people rather than $15/month from 30,000 people.


Kinda funny to watch the model keep changing, really. In the 80s and 90s, games like this (on the big dial-up networks) were $/hr and could get obscenely expensive. UO really blew those games out of the water by charging a flat $/month rate for unlimited play. It ramped up the industry as EQ, then WOW and a slew of others hopped on the bandwagon.

Now $/month is out and "F2P" is in, with upgrades and expansions. We can possibly thank Guild Wars for this -- I think they were the first big MMORPG-style game that was F2P, based instead on selling expansions.

Could be the new wave.

 

[maturin]

OMG YES YES! been wanting to go back to this game since i have an INVINCIBLE 1st Rate. But didnt want to pay! now i get to go back and have me some fun yay.

Be VERY careful with that thing. Treat it like a helpless infant made of glass with a peanut allergy because recent patches removed all battleship recipes from the game. It's just frigates and galleons from now on.

 

[Spacewolf]

looks like we will have a big group of F2P MMO escapists what with LOTRO and now this

 

[DTWolfwood]

OMG YES YES! been wanting to go back to this game since i have an INVINCIBLE 1st Rate. But didnt want to pay! now i get to go back and have me some fun yay.

Be VERY careful with that thing. Treat it like a helpless infant made of glass with a peanut allergy because recent patches removed all battleship recipes from the game. It's just frigates and galleons from now on.

O i know man i even check the towns im about to sail pass to see if any of them are about to 'pop' and stay the hell away! Being a pirate even in the light red they can gank me! XD (yes im a pirate with an invincible

So how exactly are you suppose to get First and Second Rates? :O They still had them when i played.