Community Spotlight: Dpi209 
You’ve been involved with Pirates of the Burning Sea for some time now, what drew you to the community in the first place?
Well, I was getting bored playing Sid Meier’s Pirates! (the remake), and when somebody mentioned that there was a pirate game in development, I searched around and found Pirates of the Burning Sea and signed up on the forums. Then I made the mistake to join the IRC channel on Coldfront, and one lead to another. There are some awesome people in there, and awesome people can be really addictive, you know?
What is your favorite PotBS feature?
Phew! That’s actually a hard one. Probably the economy. I really like dabbling around with it, because it’s complicated, challenging and rewarding. Closely followed by PvP ship combat – yeah, I know, that doesn’t fit to the “classical” model of “griefer vs. carebear”, but….*shrugs* It’s fun :)
Many of our fans get to know the Flying Lab Staff from the forums, but you’ve had the unique opportunity of meeting some staffers in person. Tell us something about that meeting!
It was chaotic, it was loud, it was full and it was so much fun! I really had a blast!
I met Fraxl, Rhaegar, Robespierre and Rusty at the Games Convention Germany in Leipzig. Those of you who know “old” E3: Leipzig is probably even worse. It’s a convention with over 180000 visitors and five exhibision halls full of booths with loud music and demo stations.
Unfortunately, German regulations (USK, the German version of ESRB, didn’t give them a teen rating at first) hindered FLS to demo PotBS in public – they had to “hide” behind a booth wall. With PAX at the same time, they didn’t even have a banner, so they were virtually invisible.
Rhaegar, knowing that I intended to be there, did an awesome job at directing me to a meeting point, because I wouldn’t have managed to find the booth without any help.
On Saturday, the third day of GC Germany, we had an ad hoc encounter – ehrm – meetup that was a bit intimidating at first (I was the only non-dev there), but later on two other fans – LiMuBei of “Steering Committee Ships” fame and Centurion, another veteran beta tester, managed to find the booth, so we had an awesome chat about PotBS, Rails Across America, plans, hopes and (Rusty’s favourite) what we dislike about the game. Really, if you ever chat with Rusty, make sure you have something negative to say, because that’s what he’ll ask first ;)
The FLS crew is really devoted to create a great game. You probably notice that best when meeting them in person. If you ever saw a Rusty interview: He’s exactly the same in real life, whether he speaks about PotBS or something else he’s passionate about. And he’s (along with many others of the FLS crew) probably an even bigger gaming nerd than many of the fans ;)
You’ve got your fingers in a lot of projects related to PotBS – what are you working on now, and what’s in store for the future?
Currently, I’m creating content for IGN’s Pirates of the Burning Sea Vault, which keeps me busy when I’m not ingame. Besides of that, I don’t really have any specific plans for the future yet, but there are a few ideas I might pursue.
We heard you had some technical difficulties that prevented you from playing PotBS for a bit, how did you survive?
Barely! laughs Joking aside, the hiatus had good and bad sides. The downside was that I missed a pretty cool beta event. On the other hand, I did manage to get some work done for the vault site. A fellow staffer and our awesome site manager, Trinity Devine, helped me out with some screenshots during the time, so I was not completely cut off. Another plus was that I had quite a lot of time to hang out on IRC.
Is there any advice you would give aspiring community members who want to get involved with Pirates of the Burning Sea in a meaningful way?
Be friendly. Be helpful. Share your knowledge. Use your talents.
I believe, getting involved with the community starts with basic communication, be it in game, on IRC or on the forums. Answering questions or pointing people to existing resources is a good start to get involved. If you want to do more, help out with or start a fansite.
Create resources that the community can use.
And, of course, there’s also the Boarding Party you can sign up to :)
