Avian Gamers Network

Finally, I got a quick look at the faction and reputation system. This is something I hadn't heard about before, but was seriously impressed by once it was explained to me. Unlike other MMOs, PotBS' rep system isn't a disguised form of experience grind. Instead it's a real reputation system designed to encourage player interaction and betrayal. Each nationality (including the pirates) has a variety of groups that either like or loathe each other. Depending on which groups they choose to perform tasks for, their reputation will rise and fall with both.

This can have a variety of strategic benefits. A French player (or guild) that's in solid with the British East India Company, for example, may find that they don't have to pay the same 25% tax on goods other French players do when a particular port is taken over by the British. Using established trade routes, such a player can get very rich while the rest of the player base is scrambling to re-order their trade routes. Such a player might even use that advantage to gain a French foothold in the area by flooding a nearby Spanish port with cheap goods in order to set it up for a takeover. Heady possibilities abound.

Hehe... the WoWers seem to like the no grinding part, experience, eh?