"Critics" of [POTCO]

[Shamus The Brute]

I ran across this thread below and debated for awhile as to whether I should share it or not.
However, being a firm believer that the more you know the greater you are able to understand the "bigger" picture of everything, I have decided to post it here with the intention that ye mates might reflect upon the challenges POTCO had to overcome within those very young years of it's development.

In retrospect, the game very well had some tough "critics" from the beginning. Today (now 5 years older from the time this article was initially written), POTCO is STILL operational which only proves to show to such critics that us pirates are a stubborn bunch of misfits and scallywags.

Below is the thread I had found. I encourage everyone to take stock into what is being said as whenever ye keep an open mind about something ye care about, the more you begin to understand the dynamics which arrrr being played out (which in-turn help ye to understand that specific challenges have always affected the livelihood of POTCO, not just the immediate challenges of today).

:arrrrr:​

WHY IS PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN MMO NOT POPULAR? ​

(2008 thread post; mmorpg.com; 2 pages) ​

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/251/view/forums/thread/207878/page/1​

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In your 2013 opinion, are these non-POTCO "critics" from ^ above correct in what they had said about POTCO back in 2008? Can the same be said today on the game? ​

​

Please provide yer opinion and give an explanation as to why ye feel this way.​

 

[El Corsario]

I've read some of the posts several people made on that forum thread.
I agree with them at the point in which they say its kid themed ( considering that the movies were sometimes rated for young teens instead of children... ).
But most of what is said there seems a bit narrow-minded if I may say. The game might have not-so-good graphics as SWTOR or any Assassin's Creed game, but it has good graphics considering the target audience.
We must not forget that this game was targeted for children, tho some movie fans ( its from this movie fans from which the first adult players started to play Potco I guess..) just played it for the mere enthusiasm of being able to play an online game with their favorite heroes and villains from a most successful and fun movie series. I think that many of the posts are pretty criticizing because most of the beta testers or computer game addicts are mostly teens and young adults : some parents don't find it nice for their 9 or 10 year old kid to play an MMO so its hard to find a kid who can be considered a savvy enough in MMO to ask him to test a computer game . I myself have talked to several young-lings and they find POTCO awesome. And its their opinion which I think should count.
Take this for example : if we took a ten year old, we sat him in front of a computer and made him play idk, the gta vice city or any other teen orientated video game, he would probably like it, but he wouldn't understand much.
Another example : if we took another 8 or 9 year old, and we asked him "Hey dude what do you think of Star Wars the Old Republic?" and he answered "Oh um, its kinda complicated you know, all those quickbars and so many things to do... I really got messed up plus the people on the chat are really rude... so I kinda don't like it...".
This is what happens when something targeted for a certain age customers and audience is tested and discussed by people from another age range.
I give you an example with cars : if you give a 17 year old nowadays teen a Rolls-Royce or a Bentley to drive he will probably strangle you because he says that the car will make him look like a 70 year old grandpa.... (its not my intention to offend anyone, just giving an example said by many people...)
Its the terrible cliche which POTCo suffered because there wasn't a testing audience of 7 to 9 year old children capable of testing the game and discussing it correctly!
Now I say to the ones in the linked thread, and to the teenagers who try to complain like some crazy and enraged mother in law, that sadly your destructive opinions are out of place, because its not a game made for you but for your younger brothers. If we want really constructive critics, then we should look for younger children, and see what they think and say about POTCO. In other words I really don't think that the comments on that thread should be taken much into consideration.

Then the 2013 opinion : The game has changed alot since it was first launched : many new things, new islands, different player-game interface if i may say and many other new features.
It is true that the last time we had what can be considered a decent update was like a year ago, and that if you notice the news have slowed down at the pirates online website. It is true that lag stinks and that it makes us all mad, and that Potco has always had technical problems.
But we must notice that there have been changes at Disney : staff were fired, the company suffered a "restructure", the Disney ltd bought Lucasfilm at 4000 million dollars from George Lucas and is currently taking care of adapting the big Star Wars universe to the huge Disney universe or at least is handling a new type of movies which are the Star Wars movies and other things ( as you can see the Pirates of The Caribbean department is no longer the "diva" or the high priority world ) .
Either for good or for bad the Disney Company is changing and we can only wait and have patience to see what the future will bring to us, the people from Potco.
I myself would like the game to be more adult-orientated too, and to be somehow more related to the movies and to have more and new content.

Once again I'm sorry to write such a long book which some people may find boring and tedious to read, but as long as there is freedom of speech in most democratic countries you will have to suffer me....


And ty Shamus for making this thread. It was really necessary since there are many opinions to express about POTCO and many things to discuss and to analyze, and this thread gives us the possibility to do so.

 

[Bobby Flat Foot]

I will always treasure the past. No matter what, nothing can take away the many amazing memories I've made playing this game. All the wonderful friends, and even some people I feel like I can call family, are what made me love this game so much. Without all these wonderful people we play with, this game would be nothing. While the future may not always be the brightest, the past will always be in our memories to cherish. As for the present state of the game its not a very preferable one, but one we can live with until hopefully we get that amazing future we all have planned out in our heads.

 

[James Birkshaw]

From an objective standpoint, I think they're mostly right. For the amount of GPU power needed to play the game, graphics are certainly sub-par and it has always bothered me how there's no end-game difference between different pirates.

However, I've played a lot more (and better) games than just POTCO, so I have a different comparison standard than, let's say, an 8-year-old who is new to the gaming community and has just started his first pirate. I'm sure this is the same for gamers who have joined a strict gaming forum such as MMORPG - they probably have a clearer idea of "good" graphics, storylines, and general playability. Of course, this shows that POTCO wasn't intended to appeal to that specific audience.

That being said, I think POTCO does well for the demographics that it's targeting, and the fact that it's pulled so many people into the game who don't fit in the targeted demographics makes me call it a success.

 

[Bart Gunshot]

I will start by saying this, Potco has tons of potential. Now, does the game live up to the potential? Sadly, No and it never has lived up to it's full potential I belief. As time goes by, my feelings are that so far that that Potco has slowly declined for game content, and has stayed the same as far as performance goes. Now the performance of the game has always been laggy, and people have always crashed often when playing. How DIMG trys to fix a problem is the worst way you can. DIMG likes to get rid of game content that is laggy, glitchy and/or poorly thought out. And replace it with something new and no one likes.

The main problem Potco faces right now is... the game engine. Panda3D is old and has some major "holes" that alow people to modify the game as they please. There are many many more problems with it that I will not go into because to explain everything would take way to much time. DIMG needs to either fix Panda3D which I think would create more problems... (DIMG failed to create a good quaility engine in the first place) Or completly recode the game with a better business-quailty engine. Which I know Disney won't alow that.

There are many other problems with Potco that I will not adress here because I'm a little off topic as is, and it would take far to long.

After saying that I believe Potco had a better Past solely because of it's game content. But I, you, and hopefully Disney looks the what the future holds for Potco.

 

[Ben Cabingrin]

Well, I read some of the posts on that thread, and based on what I saw and read those people were the ones, as it was even said in that thread, that were teenagers and adults that played some of the more serious games. While I agree that it is obviously aimed at the younger generations (i.e. 9-up), with the correct mindset, the older generations can have fun as well (besides which, nowadays it is an adult's game due to the way people talk. It's amazing how people take shortcuts around Disney's censor to say crude, rude, and/or embarrassing things). One just has to accept that the older generations weren't exactly kept in mind when this game was made and/or updated.

That being said, while I certainly treasure the past, I'm putting Disney's future ahead of it, at least at the moment. I still believe this game will be fixed and things will be headed in the correct direction, and I know for a fact that there are some people who either do believe in this or want to believe in it (otherwise, why does the Revive Pirates of the Caribbean Online Petition exist?).

And that, my friends, is me own opinion on this subject/s

Ben Cabingrin

 

[Shamus The Brute]

That being said, I think POTCO does well for the demographics that it's targeting, and the fact that it's pulled so many people into the game who don't fit in the targeted demographics makes me call it a success.

In my humble but honest opinion, if DIMG truly wanted to develop a PIRATE game solely targeted towards a younger demographic then they should have modeled this game after the "Jack and the Neverland Pirates" cartoon show or something.

Look...from the beginning...there is a lot at stake for Disney when they decided to promote and model a game after the "Pirates of the Caribbean" brand.

*For a moment, let's leave the entire movie franchise altogether out of the equation on this. What do we have left? But of course, there remains the infamous POTC ride attraction Walt Disney himself had visualized for both of his theme parks just shortly before he had died.

With that being said, I feel that both Disney and DIMG dropped the ball when they developed POTCO because they truly had a good thing going (game wise) as the POTC brand itself - in my opinion - captures the imagination and demographic of ALL ages (i.e., 'adults') and not just strictly children, tweens, and teens. *To think as such is a huge mistake (not to mention, 'narrow' minded).

Avast! If what I said above does not make sense, just know that the brand name of "Pirates of the Caribbean" attached to POTCO assumes the virtues of quality, high standard, and the very expectation of what a Disney brand product ought to be perceived by consumers. *The last time I checked, the buying power remains the greatest if ALL demographics are purposefully being represented (and not just a 'few').

It's a huge marketing flop!

 

[James Birkshaw]

In my humble but honest opinion, if DIMG truly wanted to develop a PIRATE game solely targeted towards a younger demographic then they should have modeled this game after the "Jack and the Neverland Pirates" cartoon show or something.

I meant that it appeals to more casual gamers than hardcore gamers, so it makes sense to me that those people on the forum you posted are complaining about graphics, gameplay, storyline, etc. Either way, I think the game could use improvement in its current state but I'm fine being patient until such updates arrive.

 

[Blade1]

Well, I was the only person to choose Present I see. The reason I chose Present is because I feel there has never been as strong as a unity of pirates than I see now. Yes, we have a lot of issues as a game to work on, but the fact that it is needed for us all to ban together as a community in this time of uncertainty makes it a good thing. We all have good or bad memories of the Past. The game was newer, and we we're still learning. But now, We know what we must strive for, and in the present, we embrace it, to improve the future.

 

[Jason O'Connell]

I agree with the people on that forum that say that the F2P part of the game is not worth playing. This is the most restrictive F2P MMO I've ever played; I mean, you can't even level up past level 14, and you can only use the trash known as Crude Weapons.

Also, I agree about the graphics. Too much like a cartoon, and honestly, they remind me of the graphics on my old PlayStation2 games.

That aside, I still like the game, but it needs a major revamp in many areas.

 

[Shamus The Brute]

I meant that it appeals to more casual gamers than hardcore gamers, so it makes sense to me that those people on the forum you posted are complaining about graphics, gameplay, storyline, etc. Either way, I think the game could use improvement in its current state but I'm fine being patient until such updates arrive.

I wanted to bold your first sentence because it actually does reveal quite a bit about POTCO's fate, in my opinion.

*Friends, if POTCO was developed within the beginning to appeal towards these "hardcore gamers," then perhaps the lack of funding which is now plaguing POTCO would have never been an issue.

I know probably 1% total on the economics on how to develop a video game myself but, I can tell you if a company is serious about providing a product inorder to reap the financial rewards from it...they must be willing to make it appeal to ALL audiences, and not just a selective few.

"There is power in numbers."