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Community Spotlight: Paul Kingtiger
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| Paul Kingtiger |
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This month's Community Spotlight recipient is Paul Kingtiger! Paul is known throughout community because he's quick to speak his mind, and he comes across as a voice of reason in even the most unruly discussions.
Paul is a founder of one of our game's oldest and most famous Societies: the Saint George Squadron. This is a role-playing Society with a strong emphasis on PvP. As a member, Paul uses his wiki expertise to manage the SGS wiki, which is a valuable resource to new and old players alike.
Recently, Paul has also volunteered his expertise to help on the new Encyclopædia Piratica. So far the team is certainly impressed with the contributions he has made, which include several guides as well as some useful contributions to usability and design.
Paul consented to an interview (found below), where he explained his opinions on the past, present, and future of the game (to name a few of points).
What drew you to Pirates of the Burning Sea originally?
Like many others, I was a fan of Sid Meier's Pirates, the first version, which I played to death on my Atari ST. I can't say I was a big naval history fan. I'd watched Master and Commander and Hornblower but that was about it. But being able to play a Royal Navy officer in a persistent MMO was what really interested me, and of course the player skill-based combat system.
I was also really impressed with the interaction between FLS and their customers. Especially when Rusty took time out of his schedule to demo the pre-beta to a group of SGS in London. That interaction shrank after release, but I'm glad to say it's improving once more.
What is your favorite aspect of Pirates of the Burning Sea now?
The people I play with. I've been playing solidly since release, which is a long time to play the same game play over and over. What keeps me coming back is the people, within SGS and outside of it.
We have an excellent community here with people willing to work together to make the game more fun and bring victory to their nation. It's something which isn't always reflected in the forums, but that's no different to any other MMO.
What is your favorite nation & career combination?
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| Joseph James Abraham Isaac Fletcher Lord Edgcume |
I'm a Brit for life, but out of the classes I'd have to say playing a Freetrader was the biggest surprise. I hate the idea of crafting, but I love the way this game handles it. There's essentially zero craft grind and you can spend all your time doing the fun stuff of buying and selling. I just wish more people used the auction houses.
Overall though, Port Battles are where find my fun, and for those you can't beat a good Naval Officer in an SOL.
Tell me about The Saint George Squadron.
We call ourselves a role-play squadron, but in some ways that's misleading. We are after all role-playing Naval Officers and their job is to sink the kings enemies not hang around in a tavern! A better description would be historically based Society.
Our inspiration are the Hornblower and Jack Aubrey books and films, along with Nelson and the tradition of the Royal Navy. Outside of the game mechanics we offer a rank and peer nominated medal system, a captains log (blog) system, and of course the wiki. You can even buy SGS branded mugs and mouse mats!
Like any guild, we have our rules. These rules include role-play elements like Uniform, Medals, and Ranks. We also ask our members to respect all players, even our enemies. Finally, we have a squadron wide surrender policy that allows us to stop smuggling, but be kind to lower-level players.
My goal with the squadron has been to create a sense of camaraderie where members are more than just a guild mate, I take great pride in being part of SGS and I hope that's true of all our members. If it is, then I'm doing my job right.
SGS are always recruiting and can offer all play styles, including PvP for players who want a bit more from the game. Come and visit us at www.st-george-squadron.co.uk.
SGS has an amazing wiki. What kinds of contributions have you made to this wiki?
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| The logo of the Saint George Squadron |
A group of SGS officers created a wiki on a free site http://sgswiki.wetpaint.com/. I loved the idea, but I hated the lack of options and the advertising. So I started looking into self-hosting systems and went with MediaWiki.
Our website and forums is one of the things that makes SGS unique, and I'm very proud of it. While it's true that I got the ball rolling and work on the back end of things (including a new skin for P&P), the content itself is very much a group effort. Which is good because I work full time, and there's no way I could keep the wiki interesting and up to date by myself.
As a spin off from the SGS wiki, we've created a home for the British nation on Antigua with www.potbs-british.info (shameless plug). Our hope is this will improve cooperation in the nation and help us rise to glory once more!
You are also a member of the Encyclopædia Piratica team. Where do you see Piratica a year from now?
For me the Encyclopaedia is the best part of P&P. PotBS finally has the manual it badly needed and I'm very happy with the way it's going. In a year's time I'd like to see mission guides for every mission in the game, advanced tutorials for new players, PvP guides, and an item database.
I'd also like to see more dynamic contact fed by the game API, so that ship stats and the like were automatically kept up to date.
There is a massive amount of good information out there, and it's now up to us lot to compile it and put it in one location. PvP guides, example builds, and ship fittings can all help educate the players and improve everyone's game.
What is your opinion about Pirates of the Burning Sea becoming free to play?
Like many others I was nervous, and I hated having to wait 24 hours for more detailed information. My two main worries are (1) that buying gear will become a necessity to get a competitive edge and (2) that players will create multiple free-accounts to run one-man economies, destroying the Auction House system.
But having had a little play with D&D Online and having listened to what Rusty and co. have said, I'm actually looking forward to F2P very much. This is a good game and deserves more players. I do have my worries of course, but from what I've read, I think that FLS are going to do this the right way and, bar a few teething troubles, F2P will be a massive success.
Having said all that, I'd love more information as to how it's going to work more devlogs please!
Anything else you'd like to say to the community?
The devs have given us a set of rules and a field to play on, but what really makes the game in an MMO are the players and community. With F2P around the corner, there's never been a better time to help make this game the big success it deserves to be. Content for the Encyclopaedia, welcoming new players, teaching PvP and Eco skills, there are so many ways we can help make it happen.Strength in Unity and God save the king!
Joseph J Fletcher Sea Lord, the Saint George Squadron of the White.
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| Character Sheet of Joseph Fletcher |
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