ThinkertonSociety.com

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Looks like I'll be back on the 5th of February or so to transfer my character and play.  Everyone that cancelled an account in the past two years gets a month to transfer and play for free.  Here's what I got in my e-mail today....



Ahoy, Pirates of the Burning Sea Captains!

Population density has been the topic of much debate in the community over the last few months. What we're hearing is that Pirates is an awesome game that you really enjoy playing, but that it's a lot more fun when there's a critical mass of other players around to play alongside or against. Through feedback from the players and evaluation of server populations, it has become clear that key game features require higher density in order to function at optimum levels.

To push things in the right direction, we've decided to condense the current population onto two servers. On March 5, 2010 at approximately 12:01 AM PST, we will close the following servers: Blackbeard, Defiant, and Rackham. Beginning on February 5, 2010 at approximately 12:01 AM PST, you can transfer your characters from the affected servers onto one of the two remaining servers, Antigua or Roberts. At this time, character creation will be disabled on the Blackbeard, Defiant, and Rackham servers. We hope these changes will provide you with an even more enjoyable Pirates experience.

Important Dates

• 2/2/2010 05:00AM Patch 1.22 Goes live
• 2/5/2010 12:01AM Character transfers open.
• 3/5/2010 12:01AM Blackbeard, Defiant and Rackham servers are closed.

When can I start transferring my characters?

You can transfer your characters beginning at approximately 12:01 AM PST on February 5, 2010 using our character transfer service at: http://www.burningsea.com/pages/transfer/.

What if my Pirates of the Burning Sea subscription isn't currently active?

Between February 5, 2010 at 12:01 AM PST and March 5, 2010 at 11:59 PM PST, accounts of former players that were closed between January 22, 2008 and January 15, 2010 will be reactivated for up to twenty-nine (29) days of free play*, which will allow you to transfer your characters to the Roberts or Antigua server and try out new features that we have implemented since you last set sail.

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Anyone looking to make an alt, Steam has made it a lot cheaper.  You can now download the game for $14.99, as well as other SOE games...


GROUNDBREAKING MMO LIBRARY FROM SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT ARRIVES ON STEAM

EverQuest®, EverQuest® II, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes® and Pirates of the Burning Sea™ Available Now

Jan. 16, 2009 -- Valve Corporation and Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) today announce the availability of some of SOE's extensive library of Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) titles on Steam, a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC games and digital content with over 15 million accounts around the world.

The SOE developed and/or published titles now available include the complete EverQuest® (EQ) and EverQuest® II (EQII) collections, as well as Vanguard: Saga of Heroes® and Pirates of the Burning Sea™. To kick off this monumental event, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, EQ Secrets of Faydwer and EQII Rise of Kunark are being offered by Valve at a special introductory price for the first 10 days the games are available for purchase on Steam. New SOE game accounts for the game purchased will also receive 30 days of gameplay included with purchase (this offer excludes existing game and Station Access accounts).

In addition, the recently released expansions EverQuest® Seeds of Destruction™ and EverQuest® II The Shadow Odyssey™ are available for purchase.

"Sony Online Entertainment propelled the MMO genre and PC gaming into new era with the launch of EverQuest," said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve. "SOE continues to evolve the genre and PC gaming with new universes such as Vanguard and Pirates of the Burning Sea, while continuously expanding the EverQuest and EverQuest II worlds with over 20 total expansions delivered electronically since the first EQ was released in March 1999."

"We are always looking for additional ways to introduce our great catalog of games to new audiences. It's hard to think of a larger group of PC gamers interested in multiplayer games than those connecting to Steam," said John Smedley, president of SOE. "We've long been a leader in MMOs and this agreement will help bring our exciting content to millions of additional online gamers around the world."

For more information, please visit steamgames.com

About Sony Online Entertainment LLC
Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) is a recognized worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online games, with hundreds of thousands of subscribers around the globe. SOE creates, develops and provides compelling entertainment for the personal computer, online, game console and wireless markets. Known for its blockbuster franchises and hit titles including EverQuest®, EverQuest® II, Champions of Norrath®, Untold Legends™, and PlanetSide®, as well as for developing Star Wars Galaxies, SOE continues to redefine the business of online gaming and the creation of active player communities while introducing new genres on various entertainment platforms. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, with additional development studios in Austin, TX, Seattle, WA, Denver, CO, and Taiwan, SOE has an array of cutting-edge games in development.

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First of all, just wanted to congratulate Levi, Tess, and Wiliam Murderface on getting to level 50 over the past week.  Now maybe some of you can help me with my missions.

Made a few updates to the website.  There's a few more profile options that you can set if you want to.  I also put the Rackham Map status link up in the menu bar.  You can see what's in the red and what isn't while you're at work or out of the game.  The arcade is back online, as well.  Most of the games are a little crappy, but there are a few addictive little buggers on there.

I may be adding more little mods to the site as they come along.  If there is anything special you would like to see, whether it's in your forum profile or just some neat little feature on the front of the website, post it in the forums.  Eventually I'm going to get some links to other Societies and trade them back and forth so we can see what everyone else is up to, as well.

RK

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The Clash of Steel patch is finally live with the new avcom changes.  Here's some of the other content changes... Every AvCom mission in the game has been updated to work with the new system. We've increased the number of levels the difficulty slider adds to NPCs. This means each difficulty setting from the Port Captain should increase the difficulty of Avatar missions more than it used to. We've substantially changed the way boarding works. Instead of having 6 or 9 boarding members, you have 4 or 5. Boarding party members are also 1 level lower than their respective captains, and you have more waves of reinforcements than before. New group daily mission:  The Guns of Del Morro! The Confrérie Libre have taken over an old fort overlooking a vital shipping lane and are sinking any ships that pass! You must fight through the enemy pirates, spike the cannons, and escape! Visit Santiago to try it out. New daily mission: Pit Fight! We've added a new daily mission in Tortuga that allows you to fight characters from every faction in the game, mano-a-mano. Completing the mission gives you a token that you can spend in a special shop with some new items and rewards. See Pit Boss Roy in Tortuga for more information. New solo mission: Bloodsport!   This mission allows you to battle various factions in the game at no cost. Dying in the Bloodsport mission does not consume smelling salts, and there is no loot or XP awarded. This mission exists purely as a "Sandbox" for you to test out skills and combat. Visit your friendly neighborhood Fighting Master in Rosignol, Fort Caroline, Morgan's Bluff, Barilla, Belize, Biloxi, Spanish Town, Roseau, Golden Lake, Matthew Town, Maracaibo, and Santo Domingo. Old Fighting Master missions have been removed. Bey's Retreat and Fortaleza da Luz are temporarily hidden as we update to work with the new system. Lots of bug fixes for encounters.

You can read about all of the changes by clicking the above picture or right here.

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Fileplanet is promoting Pirates of the Burning Sea with a 21 day free trial for all Fileplanet members.  They're also promoting the 14 day free trial for non-members, which is a good thing.  Hopefully we'll see a few new pirates on the Rack in the coming weeks.  Click the picture above for more info.