I've played all the nations and really don't have a preference. If there's going to be a GWJ contingent we may need to decide which one we'll choose so we can all work together.

I'm all for a GWJ alliance/clan/guild/armada or whatever you want to call it in the game.
From what I know we are all allowed two characters so.. there is freedom to choose a little.

I vote for English or Spanish but that's just me. Only because I have two names picked out already.

While it's quite fun playing solo you're at the complete mercy of the economy. The way they have crafting set up it's hard to create a complete item all by yourself. Then if one of the ports where you have items being made flip(get captured by another nation) then you're chain is broken. There are some things you can make, but to upgrade your ship or even to get a new ship you'll have to pay market prices. You make ok money from your missions and fighting in the open sea, but it'll take longer than it would in a guild.

Also leveling is much more easier when done in groups. You can take on a ship/ships 10-15 levels higher than you if you have help.

Plus anyone can help in fighting against an invading country. Ports flip after a certain point and if you notice a port in trouble you can combat against this by going to the port and fighting the invading country npc ships. If enough people do this you can prevent a port from blowing up into a PVP zone. Once a port is open up to pvp then you may want to get out if you're not a big dog.

Edit: The Pirate nation(Brotherhood) requires just as much team work as the others. The trick there is that they dont really have different classes to choose from. The other nations are split up into Freetraders, Privateers, Naval. Each class including Pirates as a whole get specialized skills to enhance their functions. Pirates big boon is not being restricted to a certain class and able to capture any ship they want. (within their level range)

The beta was sufficient, I need not bother with this in retail. Unless they've drastically retooled their combat model and controls (which, by reading the beta forum, I see they haven't) it isn't what I wanted: an Age of Sail mmo.

An mmo with the gameplay of the Age of Sail type games (more of a naval combat sim). Instead it's literally just EVE (though not as deep) set in the Caribbean on a 2d plane.

I wanted to be Dutch!

The game used to be a true naval simulator. But they have since dumbed it down and turned it into Sid Meier's Pirates! clone. In fact it plays almost exactly like Pirates! Except with other people on the map, and a few extra rules. And you can't dance with governer's daughters, but if you follow your epic story missions you do end up getting hitched to a nubian princess. BTW, that epic quest chain is worthy of single player games up into the high teens (haven't had a chance to play it past level 20). It was trully enjoyable and fun quest to persue, and it actually made me want to level to progress it. Which is something no MMO quest could ever claim for me.

Personally I may get this if ever there is a PC game drought and I don't feel like playing Pirates! Otherwise I'll be passing on it. There is just not enough there to hold me beyond few weeks of play time. Quests are somewhat interesting, but they repeat across nations. Economy is designed for true capitalists, where ripping people off is the most cherished mode of operation. BTW, there is no crafting, per se, in the game. Your "factories" accumulate real time debt and then you use that real time debt to "purchase" goods from the factory. In other words, you can make 20 wood from the lumberjack every 1h. If you don't log in for a day, you will find you have 24h accumulated and can therefore make 480 wood. This is a great economic equalizer between casual and hardcore.

As a pirate you get to capture and sometimes keep enemy ships. Not all ships are available, and only ships of your, or lower level are available. So even if you solo a ship 10 levels above you, you cannot capture it. Drawback is that captured ships have only 1 "life", while player crafted ships have something like 5 "lives". Pirates also do not have dedicated economy sub-class, but they can scavenge defeted ships and will get ship building parts. Over time this accumulates and can replace production facilities necessary to build those parts. Especially if you have a pirate based society (i.e. guild) where all the members pool their loot together.

I might get int during the winter lull, but that really depends on the goodjer following, and it looks like not enough for me to bother.

open beta will be starting monday so you can have a chance to check it out yourself.

Alright, somebody show me where to sign up for the open beta.

Yes, fileplanet is hosting the beta downloads but it looks like they're only allowing paying subscribers to download it for now.

See? I can be taught eventually

Better be. I will have no part of fileplanet.

I just got an invite to the beta a few minutes ago. No idea if I'm going to take it up or not, but very likely not.

Same. I downloaded the install file, but just haven't moved forward. I might get to it this weekend who knows.

Alright I'm starting to d/l the updates and what nots. So what faction did you all decide on?