My Deleted Post on the Main Message Boards

[HelpfulAuroraParker]

Hey there, Pirate101 Central community. I'm pretty much angered at this point due to KingsIsle deleting my post on the main Message Boards that had no problem or inappropriate/offensive language or violation of the guidelines.

Thankfully, I copied it and kept it on a note, but KingsIsle also deleted/unapproved my post of explaining how my first post was deleted. Really?! WOW, KingsIsle.

Here's the post.

---

"Hmm, 'unexpectedly busy'? I wonder....."

To @anecorbie : Heh, should we even dare to hope...?

"I would say that this post alone is proof of a future; otherwise, why bother?"

To Anecorbie: Yeah, I guess. I'd say that's pretty much wishful thinking at this point.

"Let's not keep submitting 'when are we getting a new world, let's cut to the chase here Ratbeard' questions. These are not answerable at this time and will only scare away Ratbeard from interacting with you all when he can't respond at this time.

Please ask and discuss questions that do not directly ask about getting a new world or why Wizard101 is getting pack and Pirate101 is not, etc."

To Bat Masterson: Okay? Why should we not submit questions? All of us here are paying members since we're even here on the Message Boards, and we are not getting anything new. Why are these questions "not answerable at the time?" Why would it scare away Ratbeard - shouldn't he be answering one of the most important questions of all?

Bat, I wouldn't be this loud about Pirate101's updates (or the lack thereof) if I didn't have to. But Wizard101 is clearly more important to KingsIsle due to the many updates it has been receiving - and we Pirates haven't had a new update in years. Bat, you're talking about us "scaring Ratbeard away" due to our questions, but have you considered how much you're pushing us away from this game? Why pay for a game that is being neglected?

I'm afraid your answer of, "These are not answerable at this time," to your concerned customers' questions makes things terribly worse for us as a community. I'd at least like to know why they aren't answerable.

I'm frankly losing a lot of faith in this game and in KingsIsle. It's truly such a shame how much this game is being neglected and put on the back burner.

---

So that was a post of a concerned customer, and that was DELETED by KingsIsle. Not. Cool. That deletion did not help the situation AT ALL.

Also, that point about all of us being paid members is not true here on Central since Central is free, but you do have to be a paying member to be on the Message Boards.

[Tomas]

I have a 12 month membership on Pirate101. I enjoy this game.
It does annoy me though. We don't get many updates, I spend a lot of time just farming badges at this point. I have made a new Pirate, and badge farming will keep me busy for a while along with questing.

I don't think that KI understand how, kind of unethical it is, to not provide your customers with products. I do not play their other games.
And while I know what I was paying for, and while I still get play time from it and I feel I'm getting my money worth, I am not being given anything new.
And eventually, after my year long membership, I may not have anything more to give.

I just don't feel that they are giving us anything. I want new companions to buy, mounts that seem to have more effort put into them and be more relevant to this game, and a new world to look forward to exploring.

I've almost "seen it all", and I'm sure a lot of members HAVE seen it all. Where do they expect to get their money from, when they are not providing their customers with anything new?

I've been playing since release. And I have taken breaks. And sadly, I've come back years later (I stopped around 2014), and there's just not much new. There ARE new things, I'm not blind to that. BUT there's just not a significant amount of new things for it being 5 years.

I think it was wrong of him to tell you not to ask questions about new worlds. I understand why your post being deleted would upset you. You had a valid question, and it wasn't being answered.

I love this game. I was watching a YouTube video by @Stephanie about what improvements could be made, and you could tell that they were passionate about this game. And that they enjoy it a lot. I love their guides and their videos and everything else. But rightly so, it seems like they are also getting a bit fed up. We can only be positive for so long.

[Willowdreamer]

So that was a post of a concerned customer, and that was DELETED by KingsIsle. Not. Cool. That deletion did not help the situation AT ALL.

Also, that point about all of us being paid members is not true here on Central since Central is free, but you do have to be a paying member to be on the Message Boards.

I know exactly how you feel, @HelpfulAuroraParker -- even I have had a couple of posts not make it through moderation on the main message boards when trying to pin them down on things, or criticizing certain aspects of management.

It IS very hard to maintain a positive, hopeful tone when we are as frustrated as we are, but stop and think for a minute. What is the alternative? If they actually spelled out what we are feeling to be true -- there is nothing planned, no new worlds to visit, no more levels to gain -- we would all stop playing, stop paying and the end of the game would come fairly swiftly.

I don't think @Ratbeard would have posted on the main message boards at all if the worst was coming. Would they bring him back over to manage the end of things? I just don't think so. Is he the guy who can turn things around? I definitely hope so.

[Varys]

They cannot comment on what is to come because nothing is. If they confirm it, they give us all the reason to leave forever. The current state of affairs is continue breeding animosity between Pirate101 players and KingsIsle. Should we continue to hate, we will continue to have a presence. They do not want it snuffed out so long as it provides some return. I think that the best thing to do would be to let this game die. Stop buying anything for this game and instead focus our efforts on preserving it, seeing if the world data can be salvaged into private servers for once this game is no more.

[DarkFire054]

Yeah honestly i find that reply insulting, does he not realise this community has been waitign 3-6 years with near comple radio silence, with the only "updates" we get are spins in the face via the crown shop?

[Bluebeard]

It comes down to economics. Those of us that have been around for awhile remember this particular article..

"This coincides with a couple of unreleased mobile games being cancelled. The strategy is to refocus our efforts on our MMO games and polish our more promising mobile projects, many of which are still slated for a 2016 release. Fans of our MMOs should know that Pirate101 is soon to receive an update and will be going to Test Realm most likely next week. Wizard101 has new content updates in the works for both Summer and Fall 2016."

Wizard101 makes money, Apps make money, Pirate101 for a fact had a fraction of the player base of Wizard101 at the time. Talent required for the mobile projects had to come from somewhere..

Play because you like the game, understand that you may never see another update for the game. It literally costs them nothing to keep running a virtual server for a few thousand players? that play the game and are willing to pay a sub. Maybe someday they'll make the entire game free-to-play or they'll just sunset the game. Until then, Hoist your colors, fire your cannons and be the scourge of the skyway while you can

Happy Sailing Pirates

[Varys]

It comes down to economics. Those of us that have been around for awhile remember this particular article..

"This coincides with a couple of unreleased mobile games being cancelled. The strategy is to refocus our efforts on our MMO games and polish our more promising mobile projects, many of which are still slated for a 2016 release. Fans of our MMOs should know that Pirate101 is soon to receive an update and will be going to Test Realm most likely next week. Wizard101 has new content updates in the works for both Summer and Fall 2016."

Wizard101 makes money, Apps make money, Pirate101 for a fact had a fraction of the player base of Wizard101 at the time. Talent required for the mobile projects had to come from somewhere..

Play because you like the game, understand that you may never see another update for the game. It literally costs them nothing to keep running a virtual server for a few thousand players? that play the game and are willing to pay a sub. Maybe someday they'll make the entire game free-to-play or they'll just sunset the game. Until then, Hoist your colors, fire your cannons and be the scourge of the skyway while you can

Happy Sailing Pirates

It is most certainly not free to host servers for an MMO, even a dead one like P101.

[Kingurz]

I know exactly how you feel, @HelpfulAuroraParker -- even I have had a couple of posts not make it through moderation on the main message boards when trying to pin them down on things, or criticizing certain aspects of management.

It IS very hard to maintain a positive, hopeful tone when we are as frustrated as we are, but stop and think for a minute. What is the alternative? If they actually spelled out what we are feeling to be true -- there is nothing planned, no new worlds to visit, no more levels to gain -- we would all stop playing, stop paying and the end of the game would come fairly swiftly.

I don't think @Ratbeard would have posted on the main message boards at all if the worst was coming. Would they bring him back over to manage the end of things? I just don't think so. Is he the guy who can turn things around? I definitely hope so.

My guess is that Ratbeard was brought over from the mobile team to manage Wizard101 (since there clearly isn't an MMO team anymore, since Pirate101 has been neglected for 3 years). Ratbeard's return is more of negative sign in decline of their mobile department than a positive sign of Pirate101. (if you monitor the KI mobile forums, none of the players there are happy either that they haven't received any new content in years)

[GoldenGuardian]

With respect to your reply, the rules of the official message boards forum do not allow:

-inappropriate posts
-posting negative rants with no constructive point
-derogatory statements towards KingsIsle, our partners or other players

Clearly your statement is is critical, but it is extremely constructive. Your statement is not derogatory as well. I think the problem here is the word "inappropriate", for here KI can be subjective- they classified your post as inappropriate simply because they deem it so. They censored you because your comment was harmful to the state of the game. Such a comment would deter new players browsing the forums from joining, or may force some to reconsider financially supporting the game through memberships, crown and bundle purchases.

Do I agree with them censoring you? No.

In fact, I don't think censoring would solve anything. Most of the top comments of their Facebook posts are frustrated rants and players seeking to know about potential new worlds, new bundles and the lot. I would presume such criticism is present in their other social media platforms as well. Even here on central its a pretty big topic.

------------------------------

But, as some others have said, from a business angle what should KI do to players questioning about new worlds and new content? I think there are 3 options:

1.) Silence / Useless replies

Do not reply to anything- simply let players rant and try to not to escalate the situation. This is what they have done for quite some time until recently. However remaining silent is not a sufficient long term strategy. Many players have deemed it disrespectful, inconsiderate and rude. Eventually, players want communication with the developers.

Yet replies such as "we can not answer this question at the moment" add nothing to the discussion. Clearly they CAN answer it, they just choose not to. What they actually mean is "we choose not to answer this question at the moment". This reply is no different to silence.

2.) Tell the painful truth and give us clarity

I personally think they should do this. Yes, it will likely make some players quit for good. Yes it will generate losses. But it is respectful, and allows us to not waste time discussing such issues. This is what players want to know.

3.) Censorship

Rubbish. It has only created more problems for KI. They should not have done this. Aurora's post here on central made it worse for them, and rightfully so. Trying to make the issue go away by censorship is ludicrous.

We are however reaching a socially critical point and as others mentioned, tensions and hostility are on the rise between p101 players and KI. I think they should tell the truth now, and not employ strategies like silence and censorship.

[Khione]

Why I discontinued my membership(s) and don't even make videos anymore. Tried to do it for Wizard101 but I just can't seem to find a reason to log in anymore. KI as a company just has begun to do bad business practice over the last 3-4 years. I thought things would change when we started to get some changes with the (at the very least, even though it was rushed and massively rewritten to fit the faster than anticipated original plotline) finale of the first arc then in a short (at least Pirate101's version of short) 6ish months later the dreadnaught that it was the beginning of a new update cycle for Pirates. 1 5 level increase and Valencia Part 2 size update and 1 Dreadnaught update size update in a year though may seem small compared to Wizard101's cycle, I would've taken that happily. However, they continue to promise with no follow up.

What was the last straw was when we got the party ship update where we were promised in the news letter that every update would give a small fraction to continuing the "main story" yet it was just a side quest for not even a side world or area... Literally just a single new ship in the sky with nothing worth farming for, no new content in any way besides re-using old scraps they could've copy+pasted from their resource folders. Even the Avery battle animations were already in the folder at that time (leaked from the files) for around 2 years.

The thing that is the most frustrating out of all of this is, KI can make entirely new assets, new characters, new storyline, new world, new concepts, etc for Wizard101 once a year. Yet it took them 3-4 years to re-use/remodel assets already in their resource files to create Valencia Part 2. Then another 6 months to do the same but with absolutely no new models for the dreadnaught/party updates.... Now its at the point where it has been over 7 months since the last update which was a quality of life one with again, no new assets or models used when even making the skeleton key battles. Just re-use or remodelled ones.

Like at some point, KI should just be ashamed of themselves as a game developer. Look at the update note page. 2018 had 1 update total and it was quality of life. It's half way through 2019 and not even news or teasers to anything they have planned (if there is anything, honestly) for the game. There is no reasonable excuse to why they haven't even given a minor quality of life update to the game in almost 8 months...

But I could type all day about KI's shortcomings with Pirate101 and how it's a grade A+ example of what not to do if you ever develop and want to run any sort of game. You think with KI and all their mobile dreams would instead focus on figuring out how to create a mobile version of Wizard/Pirate101 instead of trying to create new games entirely... If anything, KI's crown system and subscription service is already the most common on the mobile market, just look at any character collection games which are the top grossing ones on the market... KI clearly is going into the market to strike gold (I don't blame them). But they could've instead just focussed on taking their favorite kid (Wizard101) to that market instead of having another... I hate to say it but whoever is in charge of attempting to move KI forward should be replaced ASAP because they're driving the company into the ground, maybe not financially yet but definitely their trust with the community for their games.