In a sea of massive multiplayer games awash with dungeons, dragons and magic wielding mages, any game that dares to walk the plank of ingenuity should get toasted with a mug (or three) of grog. Pirates of the Burning Sea (PotBS), an MMO now several years in the making, hopes to bring something decidedly different to a genre full of the same ole fantasy fodder.

Set in the Caribbean circa 1720 (the same year the real Pirate "Calico Jack" Rackham was tried in St. Jago de la Vega, Jamaica) players serve as the captains of their own ship. Flying the flag of Britain, Spain, France or the Jolly Roger, they battle it out on the high seas for all the power and glory of the 18th century world.

Flying Labs aimed for historical accuracy, but it did take certain "liberties" because "fun will always trump history." Still, the game lacks magic or fire-breathing dragons, and controversial elements like slavery, rape and disease are missing. Wars break out, however, and a nation's fortunes directly affect what players do within the game.
Creating swashbuckling avatars includes more than a dozen customizable slots. Hair, faces, footwear, hands, coats, hats, belts, jewelry, eye patches, hooks and peg legs barely scratch the surface. Players elect to be pirates, naval captains or adventurers. In addition, each player gets a personal supporting cast of non-playable characters (NPCs) like old enemies, friends, lost loves and treacherous allies. Flying Labs claims, "no two players have the same cast, and their stories will take them to different places and fight different battles" in the game. Additionally, each NPC plays multiple roles, so one player's "piratey" arch-nemesis might be another's ally.

At launch, PotBS plans to provide over 1,000 missions (including Player versus Player and Player versus Environment) between land and sea. The game world includes over 100 ports scattered throughout the Caribbean and portions of the Americas (North, Central and South). As players amass their fortunes, they can dry-dock multiple ships in many of these ports: which belong to one of the three great nations and are full of goods, equipment and patrons. A series of interesting game play mechanics occur when players partake in missions to destabilize them. First, conquest mode causes a port (and waters around it) to become an open PvP environment. This in turn unlocks new PvE missions that let players smuggle in supplies, destroy fortifications and cause unrest. Over time, the unrest culminates in a PvP battle between the warring factions to determine if the port gets saved or conquered.

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