Spotlight on an Employee’s Pirate

You know that we have tons of talented people creating Wizard101 and Pirate101, but did you know they enjoy playing the games too?  Today David Beau Paul tells about what it’s like to both work and play your favorite game!

You might think that because I help write the story of Pirate101 and that I always know what’s going to happen next would make playing Pirate a bit of a bore to me. Well, you couldn’t be more wrong. I LOVE playing Pirate! In fact, I may have played more Pirate101 than just about anyone! (It helps that I get to play at work. 🙂 )

When I first started here at KingsIsle Entertainment, a good deal of the Pirate101 story was already written. One of the first tasks I was given was to familiarize myself with the main quests and side quests and to play through them while checking to make sure that all the lines were being spoken and spelled correctly and that the characters and environments looked the way they were supposed to look.

It didn’t take me long to get hooked on the game! To say this was my favorite job ever wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.  Before I knew it I became the very first member of our team to play Pirate straight all the way through from Avery’s office in Skull Island all the way to Marazume Castle in Subata.

My favorite part of the game is getting a new power for myself or a companion and figuring out how best to use it to give myself an edge. Sometimes it can take me a little while to figure out what works best for my character, but it’s always a rush when I figure out the perfect way to employ a new tactic.

Because I love powers so much I gravitated to the Witchdoctor class first. Witchdoctor spells are really visually spectacular and I love that! Over time though, I’ve grown to love certain things about every class, whether it’s the trick shots of a Musketeer, the brute strength of a Buccaneer, the awesome acrobatics of a Swashbuckler or the defensive ploys of a Privateer. I like ‘em all! Not only am I the first person to play through all of Pirate’s available content, I’m the first to do it with every character class as well!

Every time I play it helps me really get a feel on this incredible world that I’ve helped create (and makes me appreciate just how amazing our “crew” of designers, artists and programmers here at KingsIsle really is!). Playing through not only ensures that the visions of our design team are correct, it also inspires me to help make our new content even more spectacular. So being a Pirate 101 player not only makes me really happy, it also makes me better at my job!

I hope you guys like playing Pirate101 as much as I like playing it (and writing it)!

David Beau Paul
Associate Creative Designer II