The Age of Sail and Piracy '101' Project

[Brit.Privateer]

Hello all,

Brit.Privateer here. Some of you may know me from the Pirates of the Burning Sea online game forums. I would like to introduce you all to my little project I have started there:

The Age of Sail and Piracy '101' Project

www.asp101project.com

The main purpose of this project is to help educate the Pirates of the Burning Sea online game community (while it is also around to help others too) by writing articles on historical topics, primarily requested by people in the huge community of literally thousands of people. Not only will these articles help teach the community about history, but it will help by providing them valuable information that could be used in role-playing. The time period that this project primarily covers is 1625-1825.

Right now, our team consists of 10 writers/researchers, Cindy Vallar as our Editor, and Cpt. DarkFrost as our Webpage designer. We are always looking for new people to be on the team. If you are interested in joining, go to our "joining information" section (and maybe some of the other parts of the site to get an idea of what we are all about). We are also about to release our first article (plus other content) very soon, it is just going through the final part of the editing process. I hope to find many willing historians around here. I hope you historians post here so I can get an idea who the historians are. I also hope to have some good time with this community.

[Gentleman of Fortune]

................good luck.

GoF

[blackjohn]

Being of a piratical nature, there's one burning question in my mind... what's in it for me?!?!

$$$$$$

[Cire]

Most likely a pat on the head and a cookie.

[blackjohn]

Dang...

What kind of cookie?

[Capn_Enigma]

Enigma wants a cracker! Squaawk!

[blackjohn]

LOL!!! Well said Cap'n E!

[JoshuaRed]

We'd love to share our acccumulated knowledge stemming from decades of study...for free copies of the game and a permanent letter of marque on the monthly fee....

[Gentleman of Fortune]

I don't think that the average Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Gamer (MMORPG) will give a hoot about historical accuracy or knowledge.

I am guessing that, fairly quickly, POTBS will devolve into a huge debacle that most online games decend into.

I have no idea what the number of pirate ships vs the number of Navy and Merchant ships was during the GAoP, but can you imagine what its going to be like when you have 5000 pirate ships (some swarming in "Clans" of hundreds) plying the caribbean at the same time?

I am curious as to how having an in-depth knowledge of:

* The Age of Saila

* The Age of Fighting Sail

* The Age of Buccaneers

* The Golden Age of Piracy

* The English Reformation

* The Age of Louis XIV

* The Age of Colonization

* The Industrial Revolution

* The Age of Revolution

* The French Revolution

* The American Revolution

* The Napoleonic Age

* The Agricultural Revolution

or

* War

* Politics

* Culture

* The Social World

* Economics

* Science

* Technology

* Agriculture

* Industry

* Philosophy

* Literature

will help anyone sucessfully sail a ship in an MMORPG type of game.

I am not so sure that the 13 year old Korean kids with T1 lines are going to give a crap about Agriculture in 1703.

I hate to pee in the cherios, but, except for possibly giving you a better shot at getting a beta key, I feel that this will be an excercise in futility.

Better yet, you might just include links on the 101 site to other sites on the net that already have the information.

GoF

[Brit.Privateer]

I think that all of you are mis-understanding a few things here:

1) My project is all effort donated from individuals, and I am not actually part of the Flying Lab Softwares company that is making POTBS.

2) You under estimate how good this game will be. While it is still in development, it is not far off from release. It has won several awards in the category of most promising online game out there (check them out for yourself for more specific detail). On a historical level, POTBS is probably the most historically accurate game out there. While not everything is not historically correct, as much as can be done without creating game play that isn't fun has been added in. The ships that are in the game and being RESEARCHED AND MADE BY PEOPLE OUTSIDE THE DEVELOPERS are all very accurate. TThe game is even set in the Caribbean with the historically correct ports of the period being represented. he huge fan base is also very interested in history, with many wanting to know things so as they can develop their characters and many other needs. http://www.burningsea.com/

I think you all need to check out the game yourself before giving it such negative comments like the ones I have read above.

3) This project is not just for the POTBS community. While a key target is the POTBS community, it is open to anyone, and I have begun spreading the work everywhere I can think of. I have hit a few forums outside POTBS, not only spreading word of my project, but of the POTBS game. I first concentrated on the POTBS community to get a good base of people supporting the proejct, and now am spreading out.

4) I hope that I do get some volunteers here to be part of the team, at least maybe for a little bit. I believe a well known person around here is already a member. If I am not mistaken, Ed Foxe is a member here I thought I saw posted that is also a writer on my project.

I cannot post a detailed reply like I wanted to, especially to specific people above, but I must be going for the weekend, besides Age of Sail and Piracy history, I am also a American Civil War historian and reenactor, and am hitting the road this weekend for an event. See you all when I get back.

[blackjohn]

I think you all need to check out the game yourself before giving it such negative comments like the ones I have read above.

"Always with the negative waves, Moriarity, always with the negative waves!"

Eh... I believe the comments above fall into two categories... joking, and a realistic question about the fan base of the game.

If I am not mistaken, Ed Foxe is a member here I thought I saw posted that is also a writer on my project.

I hope he's getting a bigger cookie than everyone else! The guy knows his shit.

I cannot post a detailed reply like I wanted to, especially to specific people above, but I must be going for the weekend, besides Age of Sail and Piracy history, I am also a American Civil War historian and reenactor, and am hitting the road this weekend for an event. See you all when I get back.

Keep you head down!

[Cire]

Ed is doing it? How does he have the time for all this stuff? He ought to get a really, really big cookie.

[blackjohn]

That's exactly what I thought when I saw his name on the list (yes, of course I took a look!).

[Rumba Rue]

A game winning award as 'most promising'? uh I think that's putting the cart waaaaayyyyy ahead of the horse. I've heard this before from people, and the games turned out to be awful.

[blackjohn]

A game winning award as 'most promising'? uh I think that's putting the cart waaaaayyyyy ahead of the horse. I've heard this before from people, and the games turned out to be awful.

There goes your cookie...

[Cire]

I think, regardless of whether the main audience is a game or not, another factual resource isn't so bad. Still, the cookies would have to be really good.

[JohnnyTarr]

Just what would constitute a historian?

[blackjohn]

I think, regardless of whether the main audience is a game or not, another factual resource isn't so bad. Still, the cookies would have to be really good.

Honestly/seriously, being a gamer (albeit of the pencil and paper variety), I know many gamers take their history VERY seriously. I can only assume the percentage of historically minded individuals there is at least the same as here, maybe even slightly higher.

One can only hope someone with baking skill is also in residence there, and is willing to whip up a batch of snickerdoodles for those who participate.

[Monterey Jack]

"Always with the negative waves, Moriarity, always with the negative waves!"

Ha!

An' here I thought I was the only one who ever paid attention to /even remebered Oddball!

Woof !Woof!

[Monterey Jack]

Just what would constitute a historian?

I would think any serious student of history would qualify to some degree; but then, I read books on car repair and it doesn't make me a mechanic.....

[Cire]

I think, regardless of whether the main audience is a game or not, another factual resource isn't so bad. Still, the cookies would have to be really good.

Honestly/seriously, being a gamer (albeit of the pencil and paper variety), I know many gamers take their history VERY seriously. I can only assume the percentage of historically minded individuals there is at least the same as here, maybe even slightly higher.

One can only hope someone with baking skill is also in residence there, and is willing to whip up a batch of snickerdoodles for those who participate.

Okay, I'll believe you. I've not known many gamers seriously into their history, but I probably look in the wrong places. Afterall, any that did hide under my bed would get pretty squished, it being a futon on the floor and all...

And if they don't have a willing baker around?

[Brit.Privateer]

Hi all, I am back.

To answer "what makes a historian,"...

...well that is a hard question to answer. To look at is several ways, many people see historians as someone who has either published accepted books or has gained degrees in history, or both. But then you have those "history buff" historians who have not written books or gotten degrees, but after a long period of reading and studying the topics they want are considered by many of the people around them as "history buffs." I think that my project so far has a few modern "qualified" historians, and many "history buffs." We have a "historian" (Cindy Vallar) as our editor, so if anyone is wondering about if these articles are accurate, I think a combination of our expert editor, having several other history buffs and historians as peers, and writing articles properly so as to reveal the amount and source of our resources will result in very accurate articles.

[Rabbitz]

I haven't played many (read that as any) RPG's (multi-player or otherwise) so could you explain how a computer game could maintain its historic correctness and be exciting.

I just don't see a group of kids sitting down and waiting for the time it takes to spot and chase down a target ship... in reality it took hours and sometimes days.

I am honestly curious... do they just speed up time? Or are the ships doing a little more than five or six knots?

Rabz

[Cire]

Rabbitz, I think you'll find that kids are not necessarily the target audience. Most of the people I know who play online rpgs are older teens and adults, although there are always several kids who play them. It amuses me how often my sister gets asked "aren't you too old to be playing games" on one of the rpgs she plays.

[Rabbitz]

Rabbitz, I think you'll find that kids are not necessarily the target audience. Most of the people I know who play online rpgs are older teens and adults, ...

So would these players sit for hours waiting to catch up with a target?

I mean other than virtually sailing the ship, thats what would have to be done to be historically correct....