I posted earlier in the thread but now i would like to expand. Some stuff may have been mentioned by others as well. I will separate this in different categories. I also might refer to the developers or those who make the decisions as Disney.
Funds/Economy. A big misconception by many players. Most of the game developing is supposed to be done prior to release for the open public. This is also the time that the game gets funds from the owner. All additions to a game after the release are to maintain the game and progress. All this however has to be done with money profited from the game or else the owner would be losing money therefore close the game. Everyone has a good idea of today's economy. But using this as an excuse is pretty much a false statement because if POTCO's(or any game's) satisfaction remains high than no one would cease to pay for it. The big problem with POTCO that i think has had the long term effect and led to the games man downs is the budget prior to public release. Due to the lack of enough funds in the early days might have resulted in using a very basic software and weak servers that make it difficult to maintain good gaming environment.
Content. Check at the release notes and plug in the results over the years in a chart. You will notice that it is at a dropping rate. A lot saw 2011 as a great year but that was mainly due to Ship customization, an update that belonged to 2011 for less than a month. A lot also say that POTCO added something that players really wanted that also being ship customization. But players asked for this as early as 2008. This was also mentioned years ago in the developers interviews. So was it because we wanted it so much or was it because it was: one, on their to do list for the future already late; and two, something necessary for a pirate game? I have seen players thank Disney as if this was a just asked and it was added like a quick response to POTCO. No! this came so late, most of the players that probably asked first and wanted to experience this quit years ago. i have also noticed that the content plan is to focus in one specific thing per year. Example: 2010 was almost all land update. 2011 was almost all sea updates. Whats wrong with this? Different players might be attracted more to either one therefore one side of players has to wait a year to enjoy the game. In my opinion the game should spread content throughout the year equally in all aspects of the game.
Lag/Servers/software/Bugs. Everyone has been at least one time part of the notorious lag in POTCO. POTCO is a mmo game however trying to do any massive multiplayer event and you will suffer more than feel comfort. The whole point of these types of games are to get together with friends and have fun together. The servers are so weak in POTCO that one can claim to crash it. One aspect of the game is able to crash it(as it happened recently on test and live). Small capacity and unable to hold too many(enough) players in it. Linked to this is also the very well compatible software/engine however a very basic software that lacks much development in it. This is also a software at no cost for Disney. The high graphics are more for show than play with them. Even at high graphics, the graphic quality cannot be compared to other 'good' mmo games. This game is compatible with windows 2000, requires 700 mb disc space and 512 mb RAM. What modern computer lacks these? The minimum requirements show how good the game software/engine is. Bugs have always been a problem. Yes, some will claim to never have been interrupted by a bug/glitch but that's very rare and doubtful. The worst issues with this is that players send bug reports however many problems do not make it to the known issues list. That shows us that our feedback is not even acknowledged. So if that's happening, how are we supposed to trust them to fix what needs to be fixed?
Potential/Patience. I can easily say that this game is blessed by being a realistic as well as a fantasy MMO. The game is also backed up with the movies. So I and i think no one can disagree that this game has perhaps more potential than any other game. There can be so much stuff added yet production lacks. Pirates is a very attractive idea for gamers if it would be well developed to it's 'full' potential. Again, there are those who argue that Patience is the answer. Years of patience lack in real life. How can years of patience be excepted in a game. Saying that be patience for the second story quest will come is probably the most ridiculous statement. A second story quest should have been added at least 2 years ago. So, is 2 years not enough patience taking in consideration that you have been playing since near the game release? Was ship customization and achievement of patience or a very delayed addition? If it takes more than a year for POTCO to fix the Swift foot glitch which has been around for at least 1 year, than that shows that patience is out of the door. But lest say patience is not a problem and the players are telling Disney to be patient with the Update. This happened a lot while Ship Customization was on Test. A lot tried to say be patient and finish the Job Disney. What happened? The update was added...crashed game for a few days, added new [known] bugs and fixed no old ones. So in this case who should be patient, the players or Disney?
Expectations. Another thing i find absurd is how many keep the lowest of the low expectation from Disney. Lets use a different scenario for this. This also connects with Patience. So lets say there was a kid doing bad as in just passing in school but to his parents he acts like he is failing. When this kid just passes the class with minimum grades, the parents will cheer him because they expected less and find passing good enough . Disney is doing fairly to poor as a game industry however so many players have lowered their expectations that when they are moving at a very slow rate similar to a just passing the class, a good amount of players will act satisfied and cheer them up and disregard all other matters. If we the customers lower our expectations for the developers and the game we pay to play, than why would they try to do a good job when when they just get payed to work and still find the majority satisfied by this manipulative, fair to poor work...
Every story has two side mates. One side however will have more truth than the other. All aspects must be acknowledged in a situation like this. In my opinion, POTCO's past has enough proof to say which side contains more truth in it and even foretell some of the future. POTCO is the first and last MMO that i think i will ever play. I wish that eventually it will become better as a game and that there will be a time where players will actually enjoy POTCO for a good game that it can be whether i will be playing or not.
With that, i conclude this long story.
Leo.
(the money part)
You have said a lot of insightful things within the past & this recent effort you have made, is no exception...my friend. Thank Ye, mate!