There's no substitute for experience. But there are many times in player vs. player combat -- especially in MMOs -- when the stakes are simply too high, the risks to great to engage in PvP. To remedy that, some massively-multiplayer games host a skirmish mode; a way to engage in PvP combat without the often hefty penalties that accompany death.
So on that note, MMO developer Flying Lab Software announced that a skirmish mode has been added to
Pirates of the Burning Sea. I stole a hodgpodge of none-too-beautiful screenshots from
Burning Sea's official site, but they'd be better observed
in context. (Don't worry:
the game is lovely. That's just not translated in the shots below.) Skirmish mode provides risk-free ship and avatar battles, neither with national or career restrictions, a host of customizable battle options, up to 48 players in a battle, and does them on new maps and environments.
This announcement also invites (unfounded) speculation as to whether or not skirmish mode is being trumpeted to help appease the Sony Online Entertainment gods and to attract a larger subscriber base. Well,
of course. The point is always to attract a larger subscriber base. But with today's announcement that
The Matrix Online has
found an exit (both
PotBS and
MxO fall under the SOE umbrella), it would certainly behoove
Burning Sea to keep itself in the news and in advertising more often. Heck, I hadn't heard anything from the
MxO camp for ...
years. That amount of stagnation and avoidance of the limelight obviously didn't bode well for Neo and company, so I'm wondering if SOE wants
all of its properties to step their game up.