With the launch of Pirates of the Burning Sea earlier this week, I thought it'd be a good time to check in with Jess Lebow, Content Director for PotBS. You'll recall we spoke with him in December 2007 regarding the upcoming release of this title, and so here he is after the event:

Maggie: As with any new title officially launching, there are bound to be issues.  You guys had one on the morning of the launch... which thankfully you were able to catch and correct before it got out of hand.  Do you see any potential issues that players might come across that could affect a smooth roll-out in the coming days?

Jess: The truth is you never see these things coming. The issue on the morning of our launch had to do with an update to the Sony launcher. It worked fine when we took the servers down to prepare them for the influx of new players. There was an update applied to it that was meant to improve performance, but something went wrong, and there was a fair amount of scrambling around to get it fixed. Fortunately Sony managed to get everything up and running in a timely fashion, so we rolled out only an hour late—which, in terms of launch catastrophes, was pretty mild.

Does that mean we're done with problems? Probably not. We did a lot of rigorous testing during open and closed beta, so we feel good about the game as it stands. But one thing I've learned about MMOs is that the best way to find something wrong with your game is to let 100,000 players bash on it for a few days.

To check out more of what's coming for all you pirates out there, read on!

Maggie: PotBS has been in development for quite some time now.  With the product finally released, did it turn out as you had hoped, and does it contain everything you were looking for when you signed on?

Jess: I'm proud of this game. I have fun playing it. When you consider that I've been playing this game nearly every day for the past two years, it's comforting to know that it's still fun for me. That having been said, I don't think I'll ever work on a game that comes out with everything I wanted in it. The trouble is never in having more good ideas or things you want to add, it's in knowing where to draw the line so that the game actually gets released and reaches the players.

The best part about an MMO is that you can stream content. The worst part about an MMO is also that you can stream content. In reality we're never going to be "done" with this game. It's a living breathing world that will continue to get bigger and more involved every few months. It's nice that after launch we can add features, but knowing that sometimes makes it hard to stop working on things. There's always more time, so of course we can add that cool new thing. It's a mild form of torture we put ourselves through every time one of these monstrous games gets launched. Since this is my third MMO, do you think that means I have a sickness?

Maggie: What is your favorite feature of the game overall, and why?

Jess: Favorite feature? Probably the economy. I have to laugh as I tell you that. To be honest, I was never much of an economic player. I've always been more into blowing things up. But there is just something about logging in and getting a string of messages in my chat log telling me how much money I made while I was away from the game. It's like winning the lottery. I find myself sometimes spending entire play sessions doing nothing but buying and selling. Then once I have enough stuff up on the auction house, I go back to the storyline I was pursuing and pick up where I left off. I'm sort of hooked now.

Maggie: Do you plan on creating a character in the world under an alias to go out and play among your community and listen to what they're saying incognito?  Are any of the other team members going to?  Do you think that is a beneficial way of learning what your players are really saying about their experiences?

Jess: Oh, of course. Everyone at Flying Lab is playing. It's very rewarding to just watch the world move under its own power. For so many years it was just us in there. So it's nice to see people enjoying what we worked so hard to build.

One of the things that attracted me to working at Flying Lab was the way in which the developers are encouraged to interact with the community. We take comments from our testers and players very seriously. If there is a problem that people feel strongly about, we want to hear about it. And if we feel the comments warrant changes to the game, we're not above swallowing our pride, admitting we made an error, and fixing things that aren't working.

Maggie: Now that PotBS is live, what's next?  Can you give us any hint as to where the team is turning its attention for the players to look forward to?

Jess: We're all going to Mexico for a much needed vacation. ;)

We've been working on the next content update for more than a month now. In the coming months you can expect to see the first of our high-level group content (sort of like our version of a dungeon). You'll also get: a new category of loot items that will actually send players out on special unique missions; new tutorials for each of the four nations; and a brand new town (complete with new missions) for the French capital, Pointe-a-Pitre. After that, we'll be adding what we're calling the "Skirmish System" that will allow players to schedule their own battles against rival societies, start a free-for-all ship fight with their friends (regardless of nation), or even sponsor practice matches against members of their own guild.

Maggie: I'm sure you guys had an in-office launch party... can you tell us a bit about that?  Any funny stories to share, like... did Aether put a pirate hat on his head and sing "I'm coming for yer booty"?

Jess: We had a release party on the 16^th at the Experience Music Project here in Seattle. It was a blast. Sadly no stories from that. We all behaved quite well.

However, on launch day we bought a huge bottle of beer—I mean like 9 liters huge. There's a picture of me holding it up. It's almost as long as one of my legs. And we proceeded to drink it (along with a mini-keg and several other cases of beer) over the course of the day, starting at 11:00AM. I was hung over before I left work.

Maggie: Haha! Sounds like a blast!

Thanks, Jess, for taking time out of your very busy schedule to answer a few questions for us. Congratulations on the successful launch of Pirates of the Burning Sea, and we'll be looking forward to seeing you in-game!