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After 11 years of operation and only one member of the team left, how was this old game saved twice by players?

A story about an old and unpopular game that turns danger into safety.

Text/Andrew & Ajing

If an MMO has been operating for more than ten years, the number of players has gradually shrunk to the point where it can no longer make ends meet, and the operation team is also unable to cope with it. Waiting for its Destiny seems to be the only possibility of closure.

But sometimes, some games can break the industry convention and become an exception.

"Pirates of the Burning Sea" is such a game. It struggled twice and was in danger of being shut down, but both times it survived with the support of its loyal fans. This ill-fated game experienced the publisher withdrawing, the team changed hands, and in the end there was only one staff member left to maintain operations, but there is still a small group of die-hard players who are doing their best to maintain the game they love.

PC Gamer recently reported its story. The original title was "How fans helped this 11-year-old pirate MMO outlive 2 studio closures". The following is the content compiled by Putaojun.

"Did you like Firefly?" asked Brian Taney, the last member of the Pirates of the Burning Sea development team. "If you look closely at Out of Gas, One episode, you will find that this game is very similar to "Serenity" (the sequel movie of "Firefly")"

This is a somewhat cruel metaphor. "Pirates of the Burning Sea" is an 11-year-old MMO that has been barely supported by a small group of loyal players. But now, it is like a broken spacecraft, floating in space, and the crew inside is in extreme danger due to lack of oxygen.

In August 2018, Taney wrote an emotional and sincere blog, telling players of "Pirates of the Burning Sea" that Portalus Games, the game's micro-development team, lost its only programmer. Taney's blog is like a desperate signal sent by Serenity, a desperate cry for help.

After this article was published, news from players flooded in, and Taney still keeps a list of these players. Players have expressed their willingness to help, such as being QA testers, game administrators or novice guides, and one player can even do 3D modeling. They are all willing to support the game for free. On the forum, players excitedly discussed how to save the game and spontaneously organized crowdfunding for the game. All this community activity proves that Pirates of the Burning Sea is a game worth saving. And this is not the first time.

"Pirates of the Burning Sea" is like all MMO games around 2000. There are nagging NPCs giving you quests, there are guilds, there are players chattering about PvP and PvE modes, and there are Rough modeling with very low polygon count (so rough that it may have caught up with the low poly trend again). Now, most of the other MMO games of the era are dead, only Pirates of the Burning Sea is still alive. Diehard pirates supported the game because they saw something special in it that they couldn't find in other games.

"There are many characters in the game." An old player (let's call him "Blackbeard") said to me when we were drinking in a tavern in Charlie Ford, "For example, I can examine Take a look at the environment of this tavern, and then go up and say "I never noticed there was a leopard head in the tavern" to trigger a gunfight. At this time, the fire lit up and the candles flickered on and off. There are many similar elements in the game. , they are all very beautiful."

For an outsider like me, I only see the old texture maps and stiff animations of the game. This is just a game that triggered the MMO craze many years ago with "World of Warcraft". One, combined with the legendary pirate adventure story.

But players like Blackbeard can still see some elements he likes in it.

Although the game has been in operation for more than ten years, many old players can still find new things in this "burning ocean". Some players discovered new rare fish, some found unique swords in the auction house, and one player (I call him "Cotton Jack") even discovered that there is a character in the game named Raúl Capablanca (an international player in history). Chess Champion), this NPC is hidden in a series of chess-related quests and will quote what Raúl Capablanca actually said. Calico Jack said that this NPC gave him chills down his spine, but most players didn't know that this NPC existed.

After knowing what "Pirates of the Burning Sea" has been operating for 11 years, people will not only be moved by the fact that there are still new discoveries in the game, but also by the existence of this game.

This blog post in August 2018 is not the first time that "Pirates of the Burning Sea" has encountered a crisis. In 2010, two years after the game was launched, Brian Taney joined Flying Lab Software, the original developer of the game, to be responsible for quality assurance and customer service. He described Flying Lab as "a mature and sound team." The company had about 25 developers at the time, and another 25 employees were responsible for QA and customer service. Portalus Games, which he now runs, has almost no members. In comparison, the team configuration at that time was undoubtedly luxurious.

“Flying Lab has the largest and most loyal community operations team I have ever seen. The team includes event planners, forum administrators, and an IRC channel full-time online staff dedicated to chatting with players. . In addition, the game's GM will work in shifts to maintain interaction with players 24 hours a day.

Cotton Jack remembers how lively and fun the game was in its early days, when in-game guilds would even function like a real navy. "In the game, you can have military ranks such as recruits, first mates, and generals just like real conscription. Players are really role-playing," he recalled.

However, the golden age of pirates did not last long. In 2012, the game's publisher, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), decided to no longer support the game. Although the development team Flying Lab still holds the copyright, they have decided not to continue operating "Pirates of the Burning Sea". Another veteran player, Richard Salois, said the news hit players hard at the time. "After SOE and Flying Lab gave up on "Pirates of the Burning Sea", we were all worried about losing this game and had no idea what to do at the time."

Before joining Flying Lab, Taney had played Having played many MMO games, I am no stranger to layoffs, closures, and server suspensions. He and several other developers took a risk and tried a different approach - setting up a new studio, Portalus Games, to continue operating the game. "For other people, it's a time when they're young people planning their careers, and they see it as an opportunity to revamp their resumes. For me, I just love the game. In the beginning I was there for Joined Flying Lab and gave up some higher-paying jobs. I thought, 'Okay, I'll give it a try and see what happens next?'"

But after SOE pulled out, the game needed it. A new server. But Portalus was lucky. Darrell Benvenuto, CEO of the server rental company Vision Online, was already familiar with Flying Lab at the time. "Pirates of the Burning Sea" was successfully transferred to Vision's server. Just like that, "Pirates of the Burning Sea" 》Overcame the first difficulty. Like breaking out of Davy Jones' cage in Pirates of the Caribbean.

In order to reduce costs, Portalus does not rent offices and all employees work from home.

After 2010, "Pirates of the Burning Sea" became free to download and survived through payment for props. "Players have been supporting us in continuing to operate the game. Although it is a bit reluctant, it is enough for us to support it." Taney said. As the game becomes "older", it is difficult for the Portalus team to continue to maintain the operation of the game, let alone update content.

Over the years, the number of players has become smaller and smaller, and the size of the studio has also shrunk.

Taney guessed that many players did not realize that "Pirates of the Burning Sea" had experienced a crisis of changing servers. This guess was confirmed in Salois' gaming experience: "Many people have gone to play other games. We old players have come back, but there are no new players in this game."

Six years have passed. With fewer and fewer manpower, it is increasingly difficult for Portalus to maintain game operations. "Our team dropped from 25 people to 12 people, then to 8 people, and finally only 3 people were left. In the end, the time every day was extremely limited, and it became very difficult to maintain this kind of work progress." Taney said. At one point he went without a salary for six months to keep the game afloat.

Whenever Pirates of the Burning Sea is in danger, its most loyal players step up and fight to prevent the game from shutting down. "When the game is about to die, there will be players who will stand up and say, 'I want to buy $200, $300 of game currency to keep the game running.'" Calico Jack said, "Some of them haven't even played in years. Passed."

Blackbeard also worked hard to support "Pirates of the Burning Sea". "I sell ships in the game and try to get people to buy in-app purchases. I also build ships specifically for people to pay for them. If the game doesn't have enough revenue, it will stop serving. This is unacceptable to me. After the game was shut down I might be bored to death because I have nothing to do.” What he said may be an exaggeration, but people who invest a lot of time and build relationships in online games should understand this feeling.

Blackbeard and Cotton Jack have been friends for many years, and they met because of this long-running MMO game. Over the years they played games together late into the night, and now they knew each other's ins and outs, often making fun of each other. And this relationship in turn encourages them to stay in the game. "I've spent thousands on this game over the years, but I have no regrets," Blackbeard added.

Salois tried AFK more than once, but every time in the end he would come back to the game. "My first AFK was when I played "Darkfall", and I have had several AFKs later, but this game is the most complete pirate-themed game I have ever played. Although it is 11 years old, it has its own unique side."

In August 2018, "Pirates of the Burning Sea" once again fell into the center of the storm. This time, Taney's only colleague, the game's only programmer, decided to leave the company. Taney has several years of experience as a game designer. But it was difficult for him to keep the game running without programmers. Unable to do anything about it all, Taney turned to his only remaining hope.

"This time, I encourage players in the community to stand up, seize this opportunity, and decide the future of this game together." He wrote on the official blog, "It is precisely because of the community Only through the power of players can this game operate for a long time. It has proven itself that its vitality is far longer than that of the company it once operated."

Taney proposed a possible solution: let the players of the game To decide (whether to stay or leave the game), this is a true democratic self-determination, just like the self-determination of pirates in history. “I think this might make Flying Lab a little nervous, but to me, it’s just the way pirates do things! It fits the pirate theme [of the game] very well. The players in the community are what really sustain the game. people, they spend real money on the game, so let them decide.

While the game copyright owner weighed this decision, the Portalus Games blog was silent for several months. The only thing Taney is sure of is that Portalus is completely finished this time, and he is fully mentally prepared for this. But even though the company can no longer maintain operations, he still hopes that "Pirates of the Burning Sea" can continue. "If the game is handed over to other companies, I don't know if I will still need to be involved after the handover. But if keeping the game means saying goodbye to it, I'll be happy to say goodbye. "

For players like Blackbeard, "Pirates of the Burning Sea" seems to be difficult to sustain this time. "To be honest, at first we were desperate. When Portalus made an announcement that it would not continue to operate, we all thought that the game was going to be discontinued. This makes the game soundless.

During those months, "Pirates of the Burning Sea" was like being drowned by the waves. However, the enthusiastic and spontaneous assistance of players still keeps the game running. At the same time, the copyright owner also provided a grace period to facilitate the intervention of subsequent companies. ""Pirates of the Burning Sea" has support from copyright holders, operators and the community. If it had been any other game, it might have been discontinued long ago." Taney said, "Purely from a business perspective, this game is It should have been shut down a long time ago."

In January of this year, five months after announcing that Portalus Games would be disbanded, Taney updated his blog to celebrate the 11th anniversary of "Pirates of the Burning Sea." At the same time, Taney also announced that Vision Online, the game server provider, will become the new operator, take over the game, and take over Taney after he officially dissolves the company. "After Vision announced that it would take over the game, old players came back in droves." Blackbeard said that he still logs in to the game frequently.

"Old games like Pirates of the Burning Sea are complex and I know exactly what it takes to coordinate a game like this. This is pretty much the case with any MMO - not just game developers. A lot of effort has been put into it, and so have the players who have been active in the game for many years, so if I can do something for them to prevent the game from being shut down, I feel like I have an obligation to do it," said Darrell Benvenuto, CEO of Vision. .

According to Taney, as early as 2008, Vision replaced a batch of physical servers for the game. This change reduces the operating costs of the game by approximately 50%. With this money saved, they were able to reintroduce Game Master Red Jaq, a community manager and customer support feature built into the game. Calico Jack and Blackbeard said that the existence of Red Jaq is a spiritual symbol for the player base. Players asked her about Vision's plans at every opportunity, and she didn't reveal much, but assured players that Taney knew what game updates players wanted.

Benvenuto also has some ideas, but he doesn't agree with my use of "support" to describe it (he hopes to revitalize the game, not just provide support for existing games).

He does have some ideas about what kind of community the game needs - "We need to attract several thousand more players." He said, "The biggest single cost comes from manpower, 2,000 to 3,000 more players." The expenses incurred by players are enough to cover the cost of engineers."

Before "Pirates of the Burning Sea" is launched on the classic server, or other content that requires program support, the game community must continue to grow and develop. Prove its worth, because as long as subsequent players don't spend enough to cover the cost, the game remains potentially risky.

"Old games like Pirates of the Burning Sea, they need some warriors, some people who are willing to bleed for them." Taney said. That's what he's been doing for the past nine years, and Taney is far from alone.

As for how to maintain loyal players, Cotton Jack’s appeal is not easy for taking over the company, “We must be worthy of those players, worthy of those players who spend a lot of time and care about the game. Work hard to do so. That's it."

I discovered Pirates of the Burning Sea back in January while looking for "some funny, fun stuff in a weird, old MMO community." matter".

From an outside perspective, this game is loved by players but is about to die, and no one is willing to give a clear death date. I went to investigate out of curiosity, determined to at least find a good story in it. What I eventually found was a beloved old ship whose crew was willing to go down with it.

Taney said the game is best compared to Serenity.

"Pirates of the Burning Sea is like Serenity, it's an old ship, old and shabby. To a lot of people it looks like a dangerous building, but we wanted to Leave it." He sounded a little choked when he said this on the phone, "We want to keep it sailing."