E3 07: Pirates Of The Burning Sea (With Gay Romance)
As much as we could, Tiny and I tried to stick together over E3 so that between the two of us we could remember the details of all we saw, but sometimes it just wasn't possible. One such time involved Sony Online Entertainment and when Tiny returned to the room telling me that Flying Lab Software's upcoming MMO Pirates of the Burning Sea included same-sex romances, I hurried down to their booth to see it for myself. I mean pirates and gay romance, how could I say no?
First let me just tell you how absolutely gorgeous this game looks. Truly lovely graphics with a highly detailed character creation system based on the City of Heroes model. Lead Designer Kevin Maginn, who was demoing the game for me, and I agreed that CoH has the best character customization around, so modeling it after them was a wise decision indeed. You can choose to be male or female and the assortment of costumes and features are astounding. You can be anything from a well dressed dandy to a raggedy Jack Sparrow type. There is also a randomizer you can click through and see all sorts of fantastic combinations.
Every pirate starts out with his or her own ship, which makes it much easier to get around without having to try and hijack something. It also opens up a whole separate type of battle system. You of course have the regular melee combat system but also an additional ocean/ship battle system that is just as fun as the hand to hand stuff. Additionally you can join up with other players to create a whole pirate armada if you will.
And speaking of joining up... I mentioned earlier that PotBS includes gay romance, and indeed it does. The game mechanic allows for you to form a romantic relationship with either sex regardless of your characters gender. I was quite pleased to see this in place and when I asked Kevin about how it came about and if there was any resistance, he said that there was never any question in their minds about its inclusion. This was fantastic to hear and Kevin then went on to say that there was some resistance on the player end (beta testers I assume) about the inclusion of female pirates and their historical inaccuracy. What was eventually decide though, was that this was Flying Lab's pirate world and absolutely wasn't based in solid historical accuracy. He explained that if they were to go completely accurate, that slavery would have to be included and that was something they absolutely didn't want to touch and with good reason. I never really understood the whole obsession with historical accuracy by game players. I mean, we play games to go into a world of fantasy and let's face it, some of history is just damned ugly.
Hopefully, I'll be joining the Pirates of the Burning Sea online beta soon so I can experience it for myself and when it does come out, I think a GayGamer pirate clan will definitely be in order. We'll band together and show all those other pirates what a burning sea is really all about.
Fruit Brute
Posted to E3, Hot Stuff, Video Games on 17 July 2007
· Comments (8)
Other stuff like this: e3, flying lab sfotware, pirates of the burning sea, sony online
Will creating so many new pirates alter the earth's temperature?
/ramen.
I'm resisting so many inappropriate jokes right now.
You shall call the clan 'Ass Pirates of the Caribbean'. The flagship can be the 'Tight Quarters'. It would be hysterical.
Gay pirates forever! Yarrr!
If I can pull myself away from WoW, maybe I'll check it out. ;P
Has no one heard of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two famous and very real female pirates ?
They weren't the only ones either, I wouldn't say female pirates were common but they're hardly unheard of.
Hmm...I'm thinking maybe a lithe, willowy drag queen pirate, or maybe a big, daddy, muscle-bear pirate.
Aletta, there's always Grace O'Malley, AKA Grainne Mhaol, the Sea Queen of Connemara, who stared down Elizabeth I to win the release of her sons and brother. THAT's a lady pirate!