PotBS: Preview @ GameSpy

Flying Labs' Pirates of the Burning Sea has been previewed at GameSpy with input from CEO Russel Williams from GenCon:

"City of Heroes showed us a couple of things," Williams says. "First, an MMO doesn't have to be based in fantasy to be successful. Second, an MMO can be a great game just by selecting one or two aspects of gameplay and doing them really, really well." Williams cites City of Heroes' combat and costume creation system. He then described the brainstorming process that eventually resulted in Pirates of the Burning Sea. "We wanted to do something that hadn't been done in an MMO before. Vehicular -- that is, ship-to-ship -- combat, along with a really fun merchant-based economy." The selection of the Caribbean in the 17th century seemed to follow logically from that. The historical "golden age" of piracy was all about fighting, mercantilism and money.