MMOABC: Can you give us an overview about Tales of Pirates?

Frank: Tales of Pirates (http://top.igg.com) has an easier 3D control system compared with other massive online games. As a leisure game, it is a good choice for players who are in favor of enjoying recreation. In addition, we also have the fan favorite PVP element in Sieges, Guild wars, and sea battles. Players who love the challenge of PVP will love this game.

Our players are mainly teenagers ranging from 15-23 years, 40% of them are females. The players come from all over the world; about half of them are from European and American countries.

And we have more than 2 million users in 14 servers since the Alpha test released in March of 2007, until now the peak concurrent online is 16,000.

MMOABC: What differentiates Tales of Pirates from other MMORPGs, especially those with seemingly similar themes?

Frank: Well, Tales of Pirates (http://top.igg.com) is an easier control 3D designed multiplayer online game; it is comical in nature and has humorous looking characters and creatures. The game is painted in bright and beautiful colors. The exaggerated movements and actions of characters as well as objects, topped with an atmosphere that is overall relaxed, the game makes it always interesting and fresh for new and old players alike. There are also different styles, themes and architecture for the different towns, islands and dungeons. The multitude of elements designed captivates players and keeps them immersed while they explore all different possibilities available in game.

MMOABC: Since Tales of Pirates is a pirate-themed online game with sea battles, will players expect more emphasis on the land or sea aspects?

Frank: Sea battle and land battle is both impotent for “pirates”, in Guild War and Sacred War it requires players using both battle system.

MMOABC: Can players expect to see many friendly and/or neutral NPCs in Tales of Pirates? How important will these NPCs help players and what roles will they play?

Frank: These NPCs are playing an important part in Tales of Pirates (http://top.igg.com) world; they are the elements of the whole story, they are telling the tales of pirates. And some of them are special, they will ask players to do some task and quest, players can obtain rewards from finishing the quest – we can this kind of NPCs as Event NPCs or Functional NPCs.

MMOABC: Character customization is one of the most important aspects for an MMORPG, can you tell us the selection of weapons, armor and other items that players can expect to see in Tales of Pirates and how they will benefit the player?

Frank: There is lots of Fashionable Dress in Tales of Pirates (http://top.igg.com) players just simply call them Appearance Sets -Players can customize their characters with many different items. They can have different hairstyles and change their appearance with all kinds of decorations. All of these will make players’ characters unique just like people in the real life.

MMOABC: Online hacking and gold sellers are widely evident in the MMORPG realm, how does Tales of Pirates handle these disruptions?

Frank: The game has the anti-hacking systems of itself - The Security Code: this code is for protecting players’ accounts, characters, and properties. Besides the code, to increasing player’s self-protection consciousness is more important than anything we’ve done. Teaching players how to avoid being hacked, how to protect themselves from scam. The illegal gold trade will break the economy of game, so we will trace the gold sellers’ account and ban them to stop them before they did any damage to the economy.

MMOABC: Like many other free MMORPGs, Tales of Pirates is a free-to-play online game. Can you tell us why Tales of Pirates is free-to-play rather than having a monthly fee?

Frank: As a free online game, the advantage is that players have no limitation to join the game. Players have a choice to decide whether to pursue the extra service and experience or not.

MMOABC: For the next coming weeks or months, will there be any contests and events for Tales of Pirates?

Frank: Yeah, our GMs are holding many events everyday for players, players can get surprised via the events everyday, and we will also hold events cooperate with media groups, like the Advanced Package Giveaway event in MMOABC.

MMOABC: Will the Tales of Pirates development team be attending any Video/MMORPG gaming events for 2008?

Frank: Actually, we have received a lot of exhibition invitations. However, due to our schedule, we’ve only attended some of the larger ones. We attended the Media & Business Summit 08 in L.A. in July 2008. We will maintain our good relationship with various media groups and attend more exhibitions in the future, to promote the popularity of IGG games and let more people know about Tales of Pirates Online (http://top.igg.com).

MMOABC: Is there anything else about Tales of Pirates that you’d like to tell our readers?

Frank: Yes, we have exciting news for all players, we've begun developing TOP 2.0 version, as planned we'll have the Demo of version 2.0 ready in Oct 2008. Player will see a totally new Tales of Pirates (http://top.igg.com) in V2.0.

And we would like to present the Pirates Club (http://top.igg.com/event/pirate_club/) to all the new arrivals, the club is the cradle for super pirates and a heaven for newbie players, it’s not just simply an event, it’s a system we provide to help new player get into the world of Tales of Pirates with quickly and easy way. Welcome to join in!

MMOABC: Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to talk with us. We wish the best of luck to Tales of Pirates!

You can check out and play Tales of Pirates here:

http://top.igg.com