By John "Boomjack" Hoskin

High seas meet high-tech in Bounty Bay, a pirate-themed massively multiplayer online game (MMOG). Konstantin Drewitz walked Garrett Fuller and myself through a demonstration of a title that rather surprisingly neither of us had seen before. We often find that because we attend nearly every event we are sitting down with the same people writing regularly about the same things. We have seen many of the MMOG developers so many times that we are all on a first-name basis. It makes access to the content that our readers wish to see much easier, but it also makes it difficult to choose what to write about. Do we cover the game from scratch for a new reader or do we assume that they have read our previous articles? It is never an easy choice which made our first appointment of Day 2 at Leipzig all the better.

It was refreshing to sit in and learn about a game that I didn't even know existed. If like myself you have been keeping track of the progress of games like Pirates of the Burning Sea or Pirates of the Caribbean Online then this title should be added to your release date radar. Like its competitors, Bounty Bay will allow for both ship-to-ship and character versus character battles. Those of you who prefer to live by the rule of law can play as nobles, while those of you with a more swashbuckling side can opt to play as a pirate.

The game and the environment which you will explore is based on the known world of the 14th and 15th centuries. The NPCs and environments will lean toward realism with the exception of a special few mythical creatures that will appear as you explore.

Whether you choose to be a good guy or a pirate, you will have a choice of three ship classes; Adventurer, Trader or Warship. The Adventurer class will be swift, but frail. The Warship is slow, but powerful, and the Trader will come equipped with a larger than average hold. When played in a group the Adventurer becomes much like a scout, the Warship a defender and the Trader acts as a supply ship, allowing the rest of the convoy to use its stores of food to survive long journeys.

Our appointment time was very short, but one of the more interesting topics we touched upon was how guilds and cities would interact. Guilds will be able to control cities. If a city is not under the control of a guild it will be defended by NPCs. Once per week, guilds will be required to defend their cities versus rival guilds. Siege battles of 150-200 people will take place with the victor coming away with control of the city for the following week. Owning a city will allow access to special unlocked items within the game.

There are currently 60 ports and cities available to players in the open beta. Unfortunately, our time with Konstantin was very short so we could not discuss the intricacies of the game. Fortunately, we don't have to. You can grab a key at the official website (http://bbo.yusho.de/en/Startpage/) and give it a run.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Bounty Bay Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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