4 posts tagged “etoychest”

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At ComicCon, I spoke with Jess Lebow, the Content Director for Pirates of the Burning Sea, briefly, but didn't get to formally pick his brain until the weekend.  Our conversation netted some neat info about some of Pirates of the Burning Sea's upcoming content.  The PotBS preview will be live at the Snackbar later today.

Flash Fact: During our talk, Jess mentions being a novelist.  It turns out that I've actually read all of his books, but didn't make the connection until after we spoke.

 JS:  I’ve heard that you watch “a lot of pirate movies.”  Lightning round-style, which is best: The Sea Hawk or The Black Swan?

JL: Gotta go with The Sea Hawk: All I have to say is Errol Flynn.

 

JS: When dealing with the early 18th century, there’s a sense of serving two distinct masters - the historical accuracy buff and the swashbuckling fan.  With that in mind, is your intention to make the game more Jack Aubrey or more Jack Sparrow?  Is it possible to find a satisfying synthesis?

JL: I think it is possible to find a satisfying middle ground. The history of that time period hardly needs any fictionalizing. So many amazing things happened. We start with what really happened, take out the scurvy, the doldrums, and those things that just don't translate into fun in a videogame, and we move forward from there. But since the world is so big, it's entirely possible for players to choose how they want to interact with our game. If you want the Hornblower style adventure, it's there for you. If you'd prefer to venture into the dark night, looking for things only found in nightmares, you may find those too. :)

 

JS: I’ve heard through the grapevine that you’re already planning a new class for after the R1 release - grenadier.  What are some other features you’re planning on including in the future?

JL:  The list is huge. To name just a few: We have plans for areas we call "Adventure Sites." These are huge explorable regions of the world that are entirely persistent. You'll find a lot of events here, along with upwards of 200 other players checking out the same space. We also have plans for an officer system. Imagine upgrading your navigator, or your gunnery master. You'll be able to locate different personalities all over the world who can help you out on your adventures. Some will be harder to persuade to join your crew than others. We also plan to expand our conquest system, where nations compete with each other for control of the . This feature will be in at launch, but we'll greatly expand it as time goes on with an eye toward what our current player population really wants.

 

JS: Early reports imply that Pirates of the Burning Sea is one of the most story-driven MMORPGs to date.  Was crafting a story where the player’s avatar served as the main character important to you?  Why?

JL: Yes, it was. The world is very rich in story. No matter where you go, you'll be able to find a new conflict to poke your nose into. Our role-playing story arc is where players get to make choices that actually change the events that unfold. Personally, I came to the game industry via the publishing industry. I was a novelist long before I wrote or designed games. So story is probably the most important thing for me. There is always going to be some give and take between design and story. Most of the time I find myself arguing for the sake of the story.

 

JS:  Here’s a reader question: Swinging on ropes and knife-riding down sails.  Will we see them?

JL:  Not in the first release, (for players at least) but stay tuned :)

 

JS: At launch, the game is already going to have a healthy amount of content, but what kind of delivery method will we see for new additions going forward?  Expansion packs, content patches (a la City of Heroes) or a combination of the two? 

JL:  A combination of both. We'll push out content updates on a regular basis. We already have a post-launch story outlined and ready to implement. When we get to the point where we feel we need to add huge new features or a large new section of the world map, then we'll put out an expansion. Think of the content updates as additional chapters of the first story. The expansion will be more like the next book in the

trilogy.

 

JS:  Is there anything else you’d like to add, or any closing thoughts on the game?

JL:  All ye scurvy lubbers get on over to www.burningsea.com and sign up

for the beta. I need some more targets to shoot at.  

As the weekend begins, so does the editing crunch. Snackbar has fresh installments of Gaming Unplugged, Cardinal Points, The Token Chick, and Devil's Advocate, the Pirates of the Burning Sea preview I promised last week, and a plethora of other goodies!  Between the Pirates preview, my Gaming Unplugged interview with Tenacious Games' Scott Dodson, and reviews of Ar Tonelico and Valhalla Knights, this is my busiest week as a writer at SBG in a long time. 

Speaking of my writing, we should start to see a lot of eToychest's content migrating over to the site within the next few weeks.  I'm personally looking forward to seeing the merger go forward full steam ahead, so I can't wait.

When I get a chance, I'll update this space with a transcript of my interview with Flying Lab's Jess Lebow.  Catch you later.

I would wager that if you are reading this, you know that I'm an Editor at eToychest. After a preview of our new format at Christmastime, we're going full steam ahead as a weekly Webzine starting this week. For me, this is great, because I have a lot more lead time to do my job in virtually every way. On top of that, I feel like a for-real editor almost.

In this week's issue, I review Far Cry Vengeance, a game that made my eyes bleed. On top of that, I answer reader mail, and I can assure you that people complain and that I am a horrible jackass to them.

I've been confronted with far more opportunities to buy a PS3 this holiday season than I have a Wii, and oddly, it's the Wii that I put effort into getting. I've been on the fence about the PS3 quite a few times - our fearless leader at etoychest has very nearly begged me to get one to up our reviewing manpower for the console. Since E3, I've been drawing a line on the price, because, well, I won't buy a console that costs more than my mortgage does each month. But the price doesn't seem as horribly potent as it did when everyone on the internet was mocking 599 real historical enemy riiidge racers. If I gave half a damn about Blu-Ray, I might be swayed.

The real thing keeping me out of the game right now is all of these bundles - not only are they prohibitively priced, but they're full of absolutely useless stuff. They really only serve to drive home the fact that, other than Resistance, and maybe Genji, there's not much worthwhile out there. I can't say for sure if the PS3 launch is less impressive than the PS2's - I was a younger man, and much more interested in having a DVD player, anyway, but I remember enjoying Summoner and Gungriffon Blaze. I think I also had Orphen. In retrospect, those were all terrible games, even Summoner, despite the oh-so-wonderful 'Summoner Geeks' short, but none of them generated the powerful and palpable indifference I have when I look at the PS3 offerings. Yeah, Resistance, but like I say so drolly in the title, it's futile - every other game I might play on the console I already own in another format, and the rest look uninspiring. People might say the same thing about the 360 at launch, but the only launch game that really disappointed me (and everyone else) was Perfect Dark. Kameo was surprising fun, and I'm one of the five people who really loves the ridiculously long-titled Kong game.

I think Sony needs to stop pretending that the consoles themselves are destinations and not vehicles.  And they'd better have that mindset, because it's the only excuse for an underwhelming launch.  The various bells and whistles are nice, but we're still talking about delivery systems for our games. Maybe the Wii comes closest to breaking that mold with its intentional iconoclasm, but I don't know that I'd buy a game that I normally wouldn't just because it has 'waggle'.

Oh dammit, I did buy that Dragon Ball game, didn't I?