We reveal new gameplay content that's coming up and talk about the future of the game in our latest Producer's Letter! Have a look: https://www.pirate101.com/free_game/producers_letter/september2019

More evil versions of our crew, now ye got me attention I look forward to the Brawl!

- Deadeye Jack Morgan
- Deadeye Edward Morgan
- Deadeye Tatiana Morgan
- Deadeye Abigail Morgan

I've been a fan of Pirate101 since the very beginning. I, a fan of Wizard101, eagerly awaited its release. When it did release I loved it. Frankly, I still love it, all these years later (my two favourite worlds are Marleybone and Mooshu).

Seeing this letter makes me sad; it's sad to know that there won't be any more major story updates for the foreseeable future, if ever. More than that though, I'm relieved to have it finally confirmed. I'm relieved to finally hear the truth, though I highly suspect there's some corporatism we're still not being informed of. Whatever. For all my frustrations, I can't blame the wonderful people who worked - who continue to work - on this equally wonderful game. I thank you for your effort and dedication, and I am happy that you will continue to work on this game. As it is, the new update promised in October looks to be great, and the difficulty and particularly the nautical levelling system did need that update, so I'm quite happy that's finally becoming a thing.

And hey; if you're not continuing the story, that just means that I and others like me can make our own. Heck, I've had in my head some sprinklings of ideas for future stories in the Spiral. I notice, for example, that there doesn't appear to be any equivalent to Germany in the Spiral. In my opinion, this is a loss. After all, Germany shaped the second half of the 19th Century, and had quite the impact on the 20th (though I would refrain from having a Spiral equivalent past WW1, for reasons that I suspect I'm not allowed to post on a kid-friendly forum, but I really shouldn't have to explicitly mention it regardless).

...Ok, I think that might've been some shameless self-promoting, in which case I apologize.

In any event, I thank you for your service, hard work, and dedication, and I hope your employers in upper management and the CEO get their heads pulled out from their collective [redacted]s, and finally shift focus to this wonderful, adventure-filled game.

With reyarghs,
Padric Thunderflame/

Dead-eye Pedro Parker.

Bat Masterson on Sep 27, 2019 wrote:

We reveal new gameplay content that's coming up and talk about the future of the game in our latest Producer's Letter! Have a look: https://www.pirate101.com/free_game/producers_letter/september2019

I've started and deleted several versions of a reply to this, hopefully I will be able to come up with something appropriate this time. As a result of this Producer's Letter, I've canceled renewal of my subscription, so my future participation on these boards may be severely curtailed. Like many before me, I've weighed the value of the game against the expense and finally found value to be wanting. I'm very, very sad to say so.

I encourage new players to try the game, but if they do try it and find that enemies are easily defeated throughout Skull Island, and they reach the first paywall without any sort of challenging battle, what is to hold their interest? If your test subjects honestly are finding it TOO DIFFICULT -- so much so that once again early enemies are being adjusted -- that decision just leaves me shaking my head. Are they not even equipping a weapon? Are they Menu Chat only and never, ever ask another player for help? Perhaps the issue on the nautical side is a LACK OF TUTORIAL rather than the battles themselves. I, for one, enjoy nautical battles and see so much potential in them with possibly a few changes to the mechanics of the equipment, but no -- lets just make the battles easier.

You are changing this game that I love into some sort of cake-walk through to a dead end. Cheating boss dungeons to collect barely-collectible equipment and unlock Crown Shop purchases is your only offering for max level pirates, and you forego any mention of addressing bugs that have been reported by many players repeatedly over the past few years? No. I'm sorry, but no.

Willowydream on Sep 30, 2019 wrote:

I've started and deleted several versions of a reply to this, hopefully I will be able to come up with something appropriate this time. As a result of this Producer's Letter, I've canceled renewal of my subscription, so my future participation on these boards may be severely curtailed. Like many before me, I've weighed the value of the game against the expense and finally found value to be wanting. I'm very, very sad to say so.

I encourage new players to try the game, but if they do try it and find that enemies are easily defeated throughout Skull Island, and they reach the first paywall without any sort of challenging battle, what is to hold their interest? If your test subjects honestly are finding it TOO DIFFICULT -- so much so that once again early enemies are being adjusted -- that decision just leaves me shaking my head. Are they not even equipping a weapon? Are they Menu Chat only and never, ever ask another player for help? Perhaps the issue on the nautical side is a LACK OF TUTORIAL rather than the battles themselves. I, for one, enjoy nautical battles and see so much potential in them with possibly a few changes to the mechanics of the equipment, but no -- lets just make the battles easier.

You are changing this game that I love into some sort of cake-walk through to a dead end. Cheating boss dungeons to collect barely-collectible equipment and unlock Crown Shop purchases is your only offering for max level pirates, and you forego any mention of addressing bugs that have been reported by many players repeatedly over the past few years? No. I'm sorry, but no.

I'm sorry that we'll be using your presence from these boards ( & game ), Willowydream. It seems only you & I are left of the "old gang" and the only ones advocating tutorials to make it easier for players to use the excellent system KI already had in place.
I'm also concerned that these new dungeons aren't receiving a test realm. I have never know a test realm or live implementation to be completely without bugs. Now, if we run into bugs with the new dungeons and drops, will they even get the attention they deserve or will we be forced to play a sub-standard game?
Players of this game should now ask themselves - "What are we paying for?" I may just NOT buy crowns to access these boards, if so, this is the last month I'll be able to respond to posts asking for help or putting forth ideas.

I've been a player since the beginning of the game back in 2012 and I am saddened to hear that this game is not going to receive any major updates anytime soon. I remember when there was so much people playing this game and having fun with it, but due to lack of updates, the numbers of players started to decrease. I barely have any friends online anymore and it's just disappointing that there won't be anymore story content in the future.
I have few questions about why this game isn't getting anymore major updates:

1. Is Wizard101 your main priority now?
2. Are you too focused on mobile games to work on a MMO?
3. Do you even care about this game in general?
4. How can you guys go 3 years and have no ideas for any story content for this game?

If you are out of ideas for the main story, I have a perfect plot that I thought of:
We can go sneak into Valencia to go and try to get the rest of Kane's map pieces and we discover that the Queen is still alive. As we almost try to take Kane's pieces, the Queen discovered us and starts attacking us. We win the battle and flee from the Queen's forces and then we start a plan. We decide to head out for Polaris to get a map piece. After we get that map piece, we can head out to Darkmoor (or another world since this is just my best guess) to get our mother's map piece. When we find our mother's map piece, we set out once again to find Kane's pieces, but then the Queen shows up and starts to attack us. We finally defeat the Queen and her final words are "an old enemy of yours has not been truly defeated..." We then go to collect Kane's pieces and then we head out to El Dorado. When we get to El Dorado, the golden robots starts attacking us and we defeat them. When we go through the entrance of El Dorado, a ghost version of Kane appears and reveals that his Golden Brain contains all of his memories and he is able to attain that form after what happened when he died. He then shows us our parents and reveals that they are not are real parents and uses them to attack us. In the middle of the battle, Kane tells them to leave with him, and he tells us that the real battle has just begun. We the learn the secrets of El Dorado and we try to stop Kane from turning the Spiral into his own image. This is all I have so far

Sorry for such a long first post. I hope this game gets enough attention that it deserves in the future and that it has a wonderful birthday.

Sincerely,
Sneaky Fallon - Level 70
Peachy Pilar Ashburn - Level 70
Dark Zenobia Zabra - Level 69
Pretty Melody Noble - Level 21
Fiery Fiona Moone - Level 15

sneaky fallon on Sep 30, 2019 wrote:

I've been a player since the beginning of the game back in 2012 and I am saddened to hear that this game is not going to receive any major updates anytime soon. I remember when there was so much people playing this game and having fun with it, but due to lack of updates, the numbers of players started to decrease. I barely have any friends online anymore and it's just disappointing that there won't be anymore story content in the future.
I have few questions about why this game isn't getting anymore major updates:

1. Is Wizard101 your main priority now?
2. Are you too focused on mobile games to work on a MMO?
3. Do you even care about this game in general?
4. How can you guys go 3 years and have no ideas for any story content for this game?

If you are out of ideas for the main story, I have a perfect plot that I thought of:
We can go sneak into Valencia to go and try to get the rest of Kane's map pieces and we discover that the Queen is still alive. As we almost try to take Kane's pieces, the Queen discovered us and starts attacking us. We win the battle and flee from the Queen's forces and then we start a plan. We decide to head out for Polaris to get a map piece. After we get that map piece, we can head out to Darkmoor (or another world since this is just my best guess) to get our mother's map piece. When we find our mother's map piece, we set out once again to find Kane's pieces, but then the Queen shows up and starts to attack us. We finally defeat the Queen and her final words are "an old enemy of yours has not been truly defeated..." We then go to collect Kane's pieces and then we head out to El Dorado. When we get to El Dorado, the golden robots starts attacking us and we defeat them. When we go through the entrance of El Dorado, a ghost version of Kane appears and reveals that his Golden Brain contains all of his memories and he is able to attain that form after what happened when he died. He then shows us our parents and reveals that they are not are real parents and uses them to attack us. In the middle of the battle, Kane tells them to leave with him, and he tells us that the real battle has just begun. We the learn the secrets of El Dorado and we try to stop Kane from turning the Spiral into his own image. This is all I have so far

Sorry for such a long first post. I hope this game gets enough attention that it deserves in the future and that it has a wonderful birthday.

Sincerely,
Sneaky Fallon - Level 70
Peachy Pilar Ashburn - Level 70
Dark Zenobia Zabra - Level 69
Pretty Melody Noble - Level 21
Fiery Fiona Moone - Level 15

1. Isn't it obvious by now that W101 takes ALL their time? ( Not to mention all the packs and bundles they get every stinkin' month! )
2. Again, the answer is obvious to everyone here.
3. They SAY they care about the game. See the results of their "caring"?
4. We've been told that it's a lack of time and resources. Not writer's block.

I'd be a whole lot happier if they implemented some side content for us instead of more farming dungeons.
Thanks for sharing your plot line, it was nice.

Ratbeard on Oct 1, 2019 wrote:

You are changing this game that I love into some sort of cake-walk through to a dead end.

That's an unfair and hyperbolic way to describe what we're trying to accomplish: making the game more accessible to more players.

There's a gatekeeping reflex at work here; I've seen it (and fell victim to it) many times, in many different games/genres. It's rarely in the best interests of any game. For me, it was the change from 2nd edition Dungeons & Dragons to 3rd edition. I was convinced they were ruining MY game-- an opinion I came to without actually playing any of the 3rd edition changes.

That was more than 20 years ago. Design evolves, D&D is now on it's 5th edition, and it is a cultural juggernaut.

...And you forego any mention of addressing bugs that have been reported by many players repeatedly over the past few years?

Actually, we fixed many... But it's not exactly the most exciting fodder for a producer's letter.

I will miss your voice here on these message boards and look forward to an update in the future that brings you back.

Aha! I KNEW there had to be an AD&D background to this game! I believe this is what made this gave so playable for me - I already had the background to understand it; while those who mainly played card games like YUGYO ( and W101 ) were confused by it.

...
A while back, I went into a sort of waiting phase, waiting for actual news regarding the future of this game. I'm not angry with this lettre, just...disappointed. I guess in a way, I've been seeing this coming for a while, as I sat back and kept a weather eye on these forums. But now, I am sadly admitting that, I'll be leaving this game for good.

I understand KI's interest in adjusting the early portion of the game to help out new players. We older players, have been with this game for a long time, we look back at the early portion with more experience than brand new players, and many of us were older to begin with when we started. KI does need to adjust the game to fit the most inexperienced and youngest players. That makes sense for a family focused game.

What doesn't make sense, to me at least, is abandoning the experienced higher level players in the process. I know many of us would be perfectly happy with smaller more frequent updates that would give us a reason to keep playing, as KI bolsters the early game. But, it doesn't look like we'll be getting that. Which leads to a potential future problem I can see.

What happens when these new players, now rising through the levels faster with easier nautical fights, and an easier early game reach the late game dead end? Will these new players simply now be rushing faster towards a wall? Will they also reach a point where there is simply nothing left to do, faster than we ever did?

Like I said, I understand bolstering the early game to draw in new players. But what about shoring up the longevity of the game as well? Shouldn't that also be important?

Anyways, fair weather, folks.
This pirate is scuttling her ship, and heading in land.

anecorbie on Oct 1, 2019 wrote:

Aha! I KNEW there had to be an AD&D background to this game! I believe this is what made this gave so playable for me - I already had the background to understand it; while those who mainly played card games like YUGYO ( and W101 ) were confused by it.

D&D is all over the P101 design. My resume submission to KI included several D&D RPG books I'd written-- heavy on systems. Certainly more 3e influence in the design than 1e/2e, but at this point extracting one from another would be like trying to unsmush 5 different colors of play-doh.

So, I'm guessing that by this time next year you'll have released two or three small-scale updates..? It's what seems most reasonable to me, if I'm looking from our perspective correctly.

Ratbeard wrote:

The early game changes were extremely low-hanging fruit for us-- just change a few stat curves and kill counts. Those tweaks change a lot of levels of content, but do it in a very efficient and sweeping way. This is just a ball-park guess, but I'd say 90% of the effort we put into this milestone was aimed at you high level/end game players. New art, new bosses, voice over, the encounters, etc.

Our strategy is to focus our efforts on things that can positively affect new players, while also providing content for end game players.

From CdeWinter: "What doesn't make sense, to me at least, is abandoning the experienced higher level players in the process. I know many of us would be perfectly happy with smaller more frequent updates that would give us a reason to keep playing, as KI bolsters the early game. But, it doesn't look like we'll be getting that."

As I stated above, that's exactly what we intend to do-- unless, obviously, your definition of update only includes "new books."

We'll update as often as we can, as ambitiously as we can.

We also love this game!

To tell you the truth, Ratbeard -- over the past five years, communication has seemed more and more one-sided on these forums. Players like me ask questions, or point out bugs, or make suggestions, and yet there has been almost no frank responses like yours from official sources. I totally expected to see only other players' comments -- it had been so long since seeing you post last time.

YOU make sense, when you have the time to. No offense to Bat Masterson as our community manager, but the best he can do is say he'll pass information on, or check with someone. Professor Falmea is not a straight-shooter, and has been floating hints about something coming someday until she finally had to admit no new book-size content is even planned right now or for the foreseeable future.

WE don't know what is going on behind the scenes there, even though we have asked and asked. No news is NOT good news when the rumor mill and data miners are doing what they do. We all thank you, and the rest of those assigned to Pirate101, for just keeping us informed. We may moan and groan about it not being what we want, but the silence we have endured (and which I am dreading will return once we get through the holidays) is what conditions us to respond the way we do when we have your ear.

anecorbie on Oct 3, 2019 wrote:

They did give promotions to the Spirits of Yuletide.

THEY DID?!? I must check this out!