Interview Week- Our Pirate101 Community Manager (Tom Purdue)

Ahoy Pirates! I've got a great interview with the one and only Friendly Necromancer, Thomas Lionblood, Tom Purdue, One Eyed Jack or whatever you wish to call him! He's the most epic Wizard/ Pirate in the Spiral! Oh and Ian Stormstaff you won the contest, you guessed right of what person I was going to interview, you get a choice of a Wizard101 or Pirate101 $10 card at the end of the year contest! Congratulations :) Here's the great interview you've been waiting for!

Me:

Hey Tom! Lets start off the interview and ask you how you found out that you made Community Manager for Pirate101?

Tom:

I found out about being a Community Manager one week after being invited to Kingsisle to play in the Pirate101 Alpha! As an active blogger in the Wizard101 Community, it tore me up to keep it all a secret, but since the game had not been announced yet, there really was no way to share my happiness with the community until the time was right, which was May 9th. You can read more about it here: http://thefriendlynecromancer.blogspot.com/2012/05/ding-new-badge-earned.html

Me:

Were you surprised when you found out you would be the new Community Manager for Pirate101?

Tom:

I was completely surprised! You couldn't pick my jaw off the floor for a month! The job offer really did come out of nowhere, and I had no idea it would be offered to me the way it was. Kingsisle had always been a fantastic company in my eyes, and it was just too good of a fit for me to pass up.

Me:

What did you think of Pirate101 when you first had a chance to test (play) it?

Tom:

I thought it was amazing and knew it would be a huge success, but it was also very rough, too easy, unfinished, and I completed MooShu with only casual play in about three weeks. LOL, but that's just how an Alpha of a game goes. When I was playing the game, broadside combat hadn't even been introduced yet. The game now is a rich and complex experience and really like two games in one with a lot of nice touches and an outright hilarious and compelling story. I'm enjoying the game even more now that it's live and my characters won't be deleted for a fourth time. ;)

Me:

Do you think Pirate101 will be as successful as Wizard101? (I know it will be!)

Tom:

Even as lofty as a goal as it is for a game to be as successful as Wizard101, I do! I think we've got something truly amazing here that's going to turn a lot of heads. I'm also excited to see all of the players who try Pirate101 without having ever played Wizard101 before.

Me:

So you've been a Pirate101 community manager for a few months, do you have a favorite day?

Tom:

I'm currently very busy as the community is in full swing and very talkative. The first few days of launch here really are long days full of talking with players and Kingsisle employees alike. This morning in particular I've been on email, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Youtube, Pirate101 Central, our other great fansites, our own Pirate101 forums answering questions, moderating posts, reviewing content, and forwarding hot topics on the right people here at Kingsisle. Someone needs to let everyone know what's going on in our community, and that's just one part of my job!

Me:

(That's a very busy day Tom! Good luck to you all!) Now.. There's a few people that have a favorite Pirate101 school and attack, what's yours? :)

Tom:

I'm a Witchdoctor fan myself; although, all the classes offer something unique. I picked up the "Da Claw" rare drop from Buster Crab a couple weeks ago plus I'm wearing the Tier One Dread Pirate's gear, and it's making me want to play a Swashbuckler. ALso, the AoE attacks like Mojo Strike are a ton of fun, and of course health drains like Jobu's Breath make me feel right at home since I love Necromancers in Wizard101.

Me:

(Same here Tom, my first character is a Witchdoctor! I love the School) What's your favorite Character, Pet, Companion and world?

Tom:

My favorite character is One-Eyed Jack of course! For pets, I'm liking the Skarakeet lately. For worlds, I just love Skull Island. My favorite companion keeps changing, but all the mainline characters are great. Have you seen the cat pirate's dance after he defeats an enemy? Awesome. Kan Po when he's fully promoted? Awesome. Bonnie Anne's bag of tricks? Awesome. I'm sure you feel the same about this... every companion has something different about them that I really like.

Me:

(I'm hoping I see all of those things soon, my favorite Companions are two you just mentioned! Kan Po and Bonnie Anne!) Here's an older question, its okay though! What's one thing you can tell everyone about Pirate101 if they aren't in Beta?

Tom:

I know this question is old now (sorry it took me so long to answer it), but the main thing I would like to tell everyone is simply... "welcome!" I'm glad you're all here playing now and seeing exactly how awesome this world is first hand!

Me:

Do you have anything you could share with everyone that no one knows about Pirate101 yet?

Tom:

Oh there's plenty of surprises in store for players. I would like people to know that we are hearing all the requests for the amazing features that have been added to Wizard101 over the past four years. A lot of those same features (or rather, similar features) are coming to Pirate101, but much like Wizard101, they'll have to be implemented in their own due time. We'll have a bazaar! It's just going to take some time before it happens.

Me:

We heard about the Boochbeard and Gandry bundles, do you think there will be any other bundles in the future for Pirate101 and Wizard101 memberships together?

Tom:

Again, I know this is an older interview question that I'm just answering (and you probably already know this), but the Cutthroat Bundle at Gamestop is super fun, and the Admiral's Bundle from Walmart is a great collection of items you won't be able to find anywhere else! Since the bundles are immensely popular, you can be sure we'll be making more of them in the future.

Me:

Will there best a test realm for Pirate101, when new content is added? Wizard101 Test realm being an example.

Tom:

Yes! Although it isn't available for download yet, we will have a test realm for Pirate101, and you'll see the bug report and Control+C functionality return in that environment. It will operate much like Wizard101's Test Realm.

Me:

Those are all of the questions! Thanks again for accepting the interview :) You're truly the best community manager Pirate101 could have and could ya tell Lydia she's the best community manager Wizard101 could have? :) Thank you!

Tom:

Thanks for the interview and thanks to everyone in the community for being happy and fun to work with.