Tobold's Blog
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
 
PotBS open beta

Flying Lab software announced the open beta for Pirates of the Burning Sea starting on Friday for people who weren't in the closed beta. Note how I didn't divulge that fact, although I knew that for a while, because the devs asked us beta testers not to leak this before.

I did apparently break the PotBS NDA by posting my review 12 hours before the NDA drop was officially announced, but I thought the devs saying on the beta boards that the NDA dropped on the 3rd was sufficient. Now Keen is pissed at me. Not quite sure whether that is because he has a much more strict legal interpretation of "click to accept" contracts (which aren't necessarily legally binding in every country) than me, or whether he just felt I cheated in some imaginary "who gets the review out first" game. You should read his review anyway, it is quite good. Keen was one of the prime sources of PotBS information over the last months, and now he is writing on the IGN PotBS Vault. Sorry, Keen, I just wanted to get this out as fast as possible. I would say that our purpose here to spread the good word about PotBS is the same, and it wasn't my purpose to "beat" you or anyone.

In the spirit of this I should also mention another good PotBS review, this one from Potshot. I totally agree with his recommendation of: "Its fun but not in a MMO crack sort of way to me. I could see that it could really be a hoot with a decent Society (aka guild) of friends and I could see where it becomes one of those games that sneaks up and starts stealing all your time. My recommendation would be to get in the open beta and see if its your cup of tea." So go to Fileplanet on Friday and get into the open PotBS beta!
Comments:
That guy sounds like a bitch. He's just got his panties in a twist because he wanted to be first.
 
I don't hate you Tobold nor was what I said at all aimed @ you specifically, but thanks for the kind words. For the record, I don't care about who gets their posts up first.

If I have taken the agreement made with developers to not disclose anything too seriously for some that I will be labeled a bitch forever - then so be it. I'm just that damn good at keeping my word.

Besides, it's impossible to beat you Euros to the punch unless I stay up all night. ;)
 
People can be so petty. You weren't deliberately breaking the NDA, so just ignore him.
 
I'd like to chime in and say that I know Keen, I've worked with him at the Vault Network, and petty or "bitch" he is not. More than likely he had his review written long before the NDA, much as I'm sure Tobold did, and he just held his until the NDA was actually lifted.

Aether, CM of the PotBS community even posted on their boards that the NDA hadn't lifted yet. It didn't until what 1130am PST?

I'm not taking sides here, as I'm sure FLS doesn't really mind Tobold or Potshot putting their reviews out a few hours early, especially given that they were high marks overall.

Keen was merely stating that he takes the NDA very seriously, and I note that we all should. I'm sure Tobold and Potshot do as well. But the notion of the NDA lifting at a certain time on the 3rd was not clear enough.

Now let's all go back to playing the damn games and less worrying about who upped who in the blogosphere eh?
 
I'm a bit confused here. I don't see how you got from Keen's comments that he is pissed at you or mad you got your bit out first.

And people calling him a bitch? That's a little extreme, isn't it?

There's nothing wrong with sticking to NDAs. It shows you are a person of your word.
 
No insults please! Keep the language civil!

I'm a bit confused here. I don't see how you got from Keen's comments that he is pissed at you or mad you got your bit out first.

The "but that doesn’t mean people should jump the gun and get their reviews of the beta up at the stroke of midnight" at the start of his post is bold pretty much let me assume he wasn't happy with anyone who did that, which wasn't necessarily directly aimed at me, but certainly included me.

I do take NDAs seriously. Not because I think anyone could successfully sue me for breaking one, but as gentleman's agreement. And as such a post by the devs on the official beta blog saying "NDA ends on the 3rd" is totally sufficient for me to lift the obligation. After all, everybody who signed the NDA has access to that board. The "the NDA has lifted" post on the main site, where the people who never signed it can read it is more of a marketing thing than a legal thing. The NDA didn't specify that this was the only legal way to lift it.

The purpose of an NDA is to prevent people from reporting details on the game that could either be stolen by the competition, or be substantially changed and thus not true any more by the time the NDA is lifted. Neither of which is likely to happen in 12 hours.
 
And I thought drama only happened in guilds. =)
 
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