Pirates of the Burning Sea at PAX: On Avatar Combats and Audience Rapport

We have all been treated to screens of Pirates of the Burning Sea. In fact, onlookers of the game have been taking sneak peeks – mostly two at a time – at how the game will look like. And though these previews were pretty amazing, it was the game’s promise of epic-scale naval battles and exciting treasure hunts that lured the pirate in most of us. But the Flying Lab offering’s wonders do not end there. In fact, it has much more to offer than just the regular pirate lootings and scrimmages.

Gracing the Penny Arcade Expo 2006, Pirates of the Burning Sea‘s producer John Scott Tynes let slip that the MMO’s feature list will now include avatar combat. The extremely tactical new feature will come in the following forms:

• Musketry. Master the good ol’ art of gun – risk being an easy target while trying to be an accurate shooter by standing still.
• Fencing. Classic swordplay is all about getting the upper hand – and that’s what you need to perfect in this initiative-based form.
• Brawling. Hand-to-hand combat style: here’s your chance to do that smash-a-beer-bottle-in-the-enemy’s-head move that looked oh-so-cool in the movies.

This avatar battles will be character and player skill-based, with movement, positioning, and facing being the major factors in determining one’s defensive and offensive abilities. With land missions acting as the “avatar combat-arama”, players can count on more variety for Pirates’ land activities.

Currently, the game is suffering from a good audience rapport- even the developers will admit this. Dana Massey of MMORPG.com, however, says that although the game on a demo screen projects a non-exciting energy, a shot at the demo might actually overcome the first impression. As Massey shares, “I saw hosts of gamers dismiss it out of hand, and then change their mind after a turn at the demo station. They seem to have achieved a good pace to sailing and simplified it enough to make it easy to use.”

Well, the game is fully funded and those who are convinced that the game is a worthy wait will surely have a Flying Lab treasure sailing their way June of next year. For those who have yet to be convinced, you still have lots of months to marvel at what Pirates of the Burning Sea has to offer…who knows, nine months from now you might actually be one of those waiting for the game’s release.

Via MMORPG.com

We have all been treated to screens of Pirates of the Burning Sea. In fact, onlookers of the game have been taking sneak peeks – mostly two at a time – at how the game will look like. And though these previews were pretty amazing, it was the game’s promise of epic-scale naval battles and exciting treasure hunts that lured the pirate in most of us. But the Flying Lab offering’s wonders do not end there. In fact, it has much more to offer than just the regular pirate lootings and scrimmages.

Gracing the Penny Arcade Expo 2006, Pirates of the Burning Sea‘s producer John Scott Tynes let slip that the MMO’s feature list will now include avatar combat. The extremely tactical new feature will come in the following forms:

• Musketry. Master the good ol’ art of gun – risk being an easy target while trying to be an accurate shooter by standing still.
• Fencing. Classic swordplay is all about getting the upper hand – and that’s what you need to perfect in this initiative-based form.
• Brawling. Hand-to-hand combat style: here’s your chance to do that smash-a-beer-bottle-in-the-enemy’s-head move that looked oh-so-cool in the movies.

This avatar battles will be character and player skill-based, with movement, positioning, and facing being the major factors in determining one’s defensive and offensive abilities. With land missions acting as the “avatar combat-arama”, players can count on more variety for Pirates’ land activities.

Currently, the game is suffering from a good audience rapport- even the developers will admit this. Dana Massey of MMORPG.com, however, says that although the game on a demo screen projects a non-exciting energy, a shot at the demo might actually overcome the first impression. As Massey shares, “I saw hosts of gamers dismiss it out of hand, and then change their mind after a turn at the demo station. They seem to have achieved a good pace to sailing and simplified it enough to make it easy to use.”

Well, the game is fully funded and those who are convinced that the game is a worthy wait will surely have a Flying Lab treasure sailing their way June of next year. For those who have yet to be convinced, you still have lots of months to marvel at what Pirates of the Burning Sea has to offer…who knows, nine months from now you might actually be one of those waiting for the game’s release.

Via MMORPG.com