Wednesday 23 January 2008

pirates of the burning sea

No, not for me - see previous notes on 3d and multiplayer and MMORPGs being boring.

However, other family members wax eloquent about various interesting details in the systems - systems that go beyond just hitting rats until you level up. For instance, getting the hang of using the wind in your sails is apparently helpful for naval combat - I expect that just pointing in the right direction will get you there eventually, but tacking correctly makes you move faster, and fighting smart is useful. There's also complicated trading and resource-creation... the gang is forever chattering about who's got how much sugar and where did you put that rum and how many cows does that take...

(It's not just family, they're gathering together a small gang of friends to work together.)

There's also a combat system which is trying to get some of the feeling of actual fencing instead of just whacking mindlessly... you worry about keeping your balance and knocking your opponent off-balance in order to get in a hit. The fellow who's done a little bit of rubber-sword fighting points out that even in the amateur combat larps, it's not likely that your every blow will connect and do 10 HP damage - and fights in movies are definitely not like that. You press each other and try to find an *opening*. Most of your blows are deflected.

Naturally, some people who love standard boring MMORPGs find this irritating and will probably whine and demand something more like Warcraft.

Anyway, remember that this is all third-hand, I'm not playing the game even if they did desperately try to drag me into the beta and even if some of the quest writing was actually amusing. I still don't like MMORPGs. But rather like EVE, this game seems to lend itself to at least being able to tell more interesting stories about it to people who aren't playing.

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