Sneaky Hunter Radc... on Feb 22, 2019 wrote:

Now, before I start, I know you've probably read this many, many times, but I just wanna voice my opinion.
For starters, I've been playing this game for around 5 years now and, just like most people, have gotten really invested in the game. When I started out, Pirate101 stood out to me because of the fighting style; I had never played a game like this one. Eventually, I played until I was max, which was level 65 at the time; I felt pretty accomplished. I kept doing pvp and farming, because I still wanted the fun experience.
As time went by, I noticed I had already farmed for the things I wanted and the pvp had gotten stagnant. I ended up leaving the game for around a few months to a year. After a while, I started to remember the fun times I had, the joy that the game had gave me, so returned for another pirate play through. I ended up repeating the cycle with the new character and, yet again, I left the game.
After a while, I heard that the game had an update (the last update); I was very ecstatic. I began to wonder what new world they had added. Thereafter, I found out that there were no new worlds, just an addition to Valencia. I was still very happy to have an update, even though with years of waiting we could have gotten more than five levels. I will have to admit, in my opinion, the story reached its peak with the update, even though it did feel a bit rushed.
I got to level 70 on both my accounts and started 2 more pirates, even though I focused on one of them more than the other. Halfway through the play through, I left the game again. Just a few months ago, I returned. This time, I wish to "finish" the game, just in case it ever was to close. So far, I have 3 max level pirates, one at level 45 and the other at 20. When I get every pirate class at max, I will feel that I completed the game and got the full experience.
I am hoping that Pirate101 will never close, which may happen; but I fear that we may never get another important update again. To me, that's pretty much the same thing.
I have to thank you for reading up until this point, but I just had to give my honest opinion to this situation. I hope that KI or Bat Masterson has something to say regarding this, but I fear it will be the same response as all the others. I'd like to hear all of your opinions about this; do you think we will ever get an update?

We're over-due for an update. Will we get one? I'm not sure of that anymore; and I feel that it may be a case of "too little, too late".
KI focuses too much on W101 and not enough is done for P101; a Spring update is already planned for that game, and we have NO news about our game. And whenever we ask about an update, our posts get locked.

I'm truly disgusted by the attitudes exhibited by KI management toward their customers of this game. If I didn't like this game so much and believe in it's potential to surpass other MMO's, I'd be long gone. Even so, I may leave if we don't get news of an update soon.


I've been a loyal customer of Pirate101 since the beginning. I've supported KingsIsle on these boards against those who said P101 was washed-up and dying during the 3 year wait before the VA2 update. I NEVER thought I would be waiting through ANOTHER 3 year hiatus of the game, with the "gimcrack" up-dates thrown at us to silence the complainers, yet were without substance.

Can KI afford to lose more customers to this game? If this trend doesn't stop, I predict that P101 will only be a fond memory of my past.

Transparency is all I would like.

I'm also a player from the beginning. I enjoy this game like no other, and find even the thought of it shutting down to be unacceptable! We are a persistent bunch here, and I say keep it coming! We'll for certain get it at some point, and especially if we keep asking for it.

It's definitely pretty rough right now. I just wish we got more filler in between bigger updates, like I wanna see more small patches that fix issues like the Obsidian Deathdealers doing no damage and stuff like that, it's frustrating to have to wait around hoping it gets fixed in a major update, which only seems to come by once a year at this point. Right now we just get mounts and pets between updates and its not particularly impressive. I'd like to see more filler like PvP balance changes and maybe changes to useless boss items like Obsidian Scratch's, the wait between updates is painful and we really need something. I don't get why they can't seem to throw us some occasional low effort changes to the game.The new seasonal PvP weapons are a step into the right direction at least a little bit, but with the current state of ranked (long queues and time warps) I don't even wanna participate. Feels like the real downfall for playing Pirate101 right now is just that nothing ever gets changes they desperately need unless there is a big update coming around, (which is almost never) and if they don't get fixed in that update well tough luck I guess, maybe next year.

My conclusion with the current state of the game is this: The developers do not play the game anymore. (Now they have played it, I will give them that. Several well known Kingsisle employees have level 65+ pirates) If you do not make a big stink on the forums (and it has to be big, I make a lot of bug posts in the message boards and a lot of them still aren't addressed, years later. Not to mention I have been pushing for bundle tiers to be updated for three years straight with no results), minor issues and bugs are never, ever going to get fixed. This is why the Obsidian Deathdealers have had level 30 damage for 5 months, this is why the Crown Shop counterparts of the Presido companions have had stretching textures in their final promotions since 2016 (I did report this twice, but it never got noticed.) Morphing with another player still has that occasional infinite loading screen bug (prolly been around forever.) This is why combat is getting bugger and buggier (Yep, I am plugging my PvP bug post) This is why bundle and holiday ship tiers still aren't updated after 3 years. And there's still that cabin exploit that makes all major gauntlet boss fights repeatable without doing the dungeon over, which has been around for so long its probably killing the game even more at this point now that's its been well known for over a year, since pve players are effortlessly getting rare end game gear, getting bored, and quitting. Seriously, if a Kingsisle dev plays the game, this would be fixed, literally everyone knows about it.

Guess I got ranty there, but you get my point. Pirate101 desperately needs at least one dedicated full time developer, since I am pretty confident anyone who works on Pirate spends the vast majority of their time working on Wizard (Prove me wrong KI and I will gift a pirate of your choosing 10k crowns worth of packs). This clearly isn't working out for Pirate right now.

Also I want to bring this up since its kinda on topic. What was with those level 75 pictures in the September 2018 update notes? (Link and Link). It seriously feels like those pictures were taken in a different universe or something. They didn't even say we had anything to look forward to this year in the December producer's letter yet these images exist??? Guess things are looking good for Pirate101 in the Berenstein universe.

As someone who has played the game for around half of my life, it pains me to say it, but I think that if we don't get an update by the end of this year...I've lost hope. It pains me to say it but it's the way it is. I really wish it wasn't this way as I have VERY many fond memories... but it is. It just might shut down soon and if it does, I'm very upset. No game can replace it, not even me replaying Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright for the 10th time can fill in the hole where Pirate101 was for me. So yeah, I hope it doesn't die, there's just no other game like it.

anecorbie on Mar 1, 2019 wrote:

Why should we have to ask for a service we pay for? We've been told that KI has limited time and resources for our game, yet they seem to have plenty of time and resources for W101!
IF W101 gets a bundle, we ought to get a bundle; if W101 gets a pack, then we ought to get a pack; AND if W101 gets an up-date, then definitely we should get one, also!
Now, that may cut into the amount of bundles, packs and up-dates that wizards get, but it's more fair to all of us if KI stops focusing on just one game and commits to both games equally!

Exactly!

CdeWinter on Feb 28, 2019 wrote:

I started playing Wizard101, years ago. It was a great way for me to have fun with my sisters, while I was away in university. I loved Wizard101 for that. But, honestly, Wiz stopped being fun, and turned into work, right around Avalon. Too many cheating bosses, not real strategy in the battles, and way too many defeat and collect quests.

Really, a sheep villager, standing next to piles of straw, asking me to go fight goblins and return with 5 pieces of straw? That's just poor writing.

But then, Pirate101 came out. I was intrigued by the newer design of the game, and by the different style of battles. No more depending on the luck of what cards happened to appear in hand. So, I tried Pirate101, I even payed a bit extra and to start in the prerelease week. And I fell in love with the story. It was deep, it was meaningful, it didn't have the pointless defeat/collect quests just tossed in for filler. And, it had a great, robust, friendly community. I still miss the parties we had back then, I miss heading off into the skyway, and finding a world filled with what seemed like hundreds of player ships sailing and fighting together.

But, then came the 3 year hiatus, the player base shrank, the parties grew quiet, the skyways became empty. But, I hung on, waiting for the inevitable update that would continue the story, and lead us closer to defeating Kane, and reaching El Dorado.

Instead, we got a rushed, slapped together update that felt like the novel we had been a part of, just got literally cut off half way through. Kane was gone, in a most unexciting and uninspiring way. And out goal of reaching El Dorado, finding our parent's grave, having even a bit of closure...gone, just gone.

Now, it seems like we're starting into yet another hiatus. Another period of lacklustre life/pet/mount updates. But nothing of depth, nothing really new being added.

I could put up with that, if KI actually communicated with the playerbase. If there was more transparency into what was happening. I am a paying customer, I've been subscribed since the prerelease week.

I NEED to know that it is worth my while to continue putting my money into this game.

But, KI stays mum.

I don't like doing this, I've always had the opinion that the more players that leave, the smaller the playerbase gets, and therefore, the fewer resources KI will put towards Pirate101. Because that's the real problem, not a lack of resources, but a lack of ability, or an unwillingness to reasign resources.

I hope KI can fix this in the future. I hope at sometime, that the player base grows again.
But, it's too late for me. I'm not spending more time and money here, waiting for words from a brick wall.

Maybe someday I'll be back. I kinda hope to see this game reach a point, where I feel it's time to return, but for now, Goodbye.

Goodbye to what was, and is, an awesome player base, and an amazing community, I dearly hope that you all have more patience than I currently do.

Going to miss your presence on these boards, Milady DeWinter. In the game also, though I haven't played on my main account in months. Hopefully, we'll be back sometime this Summer ( ? ).

Sneaky Hunter Radc... on Mar 1, 2019 wrote:

I know many people started out on Wizard, but I started out on Pirate; and for me, I feel that they are throwing the game in the dirt. I don't know if I'm allowed to mention other games or not, but this situation reminded me of another game called Toontown.

Just like Wizard and Pirate, Toontown was an MMORPG. It was owned by Disney, who also owned Club Penguin. The game went on for 10 years, until they decided to close it in 2013, just so they could put more time and effort into club penguin. Eventually, 4 years later, they ended up closing Club Penguin as well.

I feel this will be Pirate101 in the next few years. KI will close Pirate for the excuse to put the work into Wizard; and, eventually, Wizard will end up with the same fate.

I really hope that KI will see how much people care about pirate, and give us something else than just "I know you guys have been waiting for a long time."

Bat Masterson! Could we have some answers? Why aren't we getting the attention we deserve?

I've been playing this game for years at this point and it makes me sad at the state its in right now. I think it shows how much effort and care they put in when the newsletter for February isn't even out yet and it's already decently into March, not to mention the lack of anything actually going on besides the occasional mount or pet brought over. I truly do wish that the game can come back to life for its dedicated fan base who still stick around and attract the players they lost.

I've been playing since beta and bought the Boochbeard Bundle... we can only hope that the game will get a real update sometime soon.

Trimond297 on Mar 2, 2019 wrote:

I already know that story about Toontown's closing. Yes, it was very sad to see such a cherished dream like that go, but, we should remember, Disney's only a company. The corporate mind changes in the years that go by, and the market changes, too, and when anything new pops up that they haven't tried for the children marketplace, they delve into it that'll bring in new generations, so by doing that, they have to divert focus, cut down plans short to dwindling products.

In the case of Disney Infinity, it was their attempt to keep the Toys-to-Life marketplace going, but never lasted long. Rather pointless in my perspective.

In short, the singular subscription model for Toontown dwindled thanks to the well-favored Free-to-Play model, though, in W101's & P101's cases, both coincided with each other, which is still good.

Before I say about P101's well being, let me say that while Disney's trying to bring Toontown into mobile devices, I really don't think it's worth it.

Well, because, the 1st reason, there's no RPG in the mobile marketplace that updates like MMOs for that working business model alone, that I'm saying. The 2nd reason, too, is really this, mobile devices' hardware rapidly change in such very short spans through the years, & past hardware gets obsolete very easily, and rapidly, the moment the latest hardware is available, which leaves past games in said marketplace incompatible with the latest, only the freshest games for the latest hardware.

Honestly, mobile MMOs won't last long, anyway, so it wouldn't work. It's just reality, only saying. In the mobile world, you gotta cut ties to dead weight just to keep going. And, many mobile games do crash very easily because there's always problems that cannot be solved, despite their best efforts trying to fix them. Think about that.

Now, I really feel that P101's at a standstill lately, because KI was centering their work on W101 lately, because arc 3's ending was their goal, but now that's been done, KI's trying to focus a bit more on P101. I asked such a question on the W101 boards, which The Curator replied that they're working on it. We've got nothing to worry about P101's state.

Granted, I still really feel Valencia II did leave us pretty much unsatisfied with the outcome that we're supposed to have with Kane's final battle at El Dorado, but I'd really feel better if Book 15 had a reboot to regain what we had a while ago, ambition, and excitement. I do like that we still get Contessa, but, the storyline, needs to be redone, and not rushed to the point where the ending is here too soon.

Overall, I really have confidence that KI's gonna do everything to keep P101 going, and they'll keep focusing on it more. All that waiting without update's really gonna age us severely, anyway.

Rebooting Book 15 would be a waste of time, they had their chance and failed in the delivery. That comment from the Curator ( Blind Mew ) is the same old placebo used to placate the players. We've heard it many times before - it means nothing.
We have every reason to be concerned about the state of this game. I no longer trust or have confidence in KI.

anecorbie on Mar 8, 2019 wrote:

Rebooting Book 15 would be a waste of time, they had their chance and failed in the delivery. That comment from the Curator ( Blind Mew ) is the same old placebo used to placate the players. We've heard it many times before - it means nothing.
We have every reason to be concerned about the state of this game. I no longer trust or have confidence in KI.

I agree that trying to go back and fix what once went wrong (a la Quantum Leap!) would be a waste of any available resources, I still have a faint hope that we will visit another world.

Willowydream on Mar 9, 2019 wrote:

I agree that trying to go back and fix what once went wrong (a la Quantum Leap!) would be a waste of any available resources, I still have a faint hope that we will visit another world.

I'm not even sure which world we would go now.