Pirates Throw Pillows: Aftermath and Reflection of Pirate101's Pillow Fight

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Pillows. 

If you've been a Pirate101 player for more than 10 levels or so, you either love or hate them. (And if you love them, I want to see your cabin or house.) I fit into the latter category, complaining of too much inventory space taken for such a little thing that few will probably ever notice in my house. 

Over this weekend, I'm starting to wonder if KI tapped onto my mentality. Last week, it was announced that a brand new function for these pillows of multiple shapes, sizes, and colors would be implemented for one day only, and the exact reason was a pleasant surprise.

Besides, when you're not sleeping or sitting on them, the only logical thing to do with pillows is throw them.

Overview

Disclaimer: There was no pillow-throwing on Saturday. However, the premise launched by KingsIsle was something truly unique for what I've seen.

The site reads:

"On the surface, Skull Island may be notorious for its armies of troggies, shivers of sharks, and Aztecan ruins full of peril, but our plundering pirates really know what’s in abundance in the treasure chests of Skull Island . . . pillows! In fact the pillow stockpile has grown so huge, there’s only one thing to do . . . PILLOW FIGHT!! 

"...That’s right, we’re tracking all the pillows received as rewards from combat in Skull Island by our players on January 31st. We’ll total up the numbers here at KingsIsle, and on February 2nd, we’ll award the player who got the most pillows 60,000 Crowns! The next top ten pillow fighters will receive 10,000 Crowns each! Who will rise to the top of the pile of pillows victorious? How many pillows will they collect?" (Source: Pirate101 Official Website)

Being the highly-responsive and dedicated community they are, the Pirate101 players immediately took up the challenge! #Twirate Calamity PixieShade reports that for 16 hours of continuous gameplay, she was able to have 78 pillows dropped (source)! Contests for 60,000 crowns - the highest available tier for purchase in single in both of KI's MMORPGs - come up rarely, and players like Calamity were right on it, prolific farmers as well reaching the 50s and 60s across the Twitterverse. In terms of turnout, usage, and playtime by the community, I'd call the Pillow Fight a success.

Evan Silver before a few Troggies, common Skull Island enemies
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Reflection 

For a long time, Pirate101 has been well-enjoyed for several faming events, but only those hosted and run by the players themselves. Community icon Autumn Dreamwalker became incredibly well-known for her Nautical Experience Farming parties, and entire parties of players have been set up around a particular instance to farm for items or experience. KingsIsle at last setting up something like this - and this time for very real rewards - was a pleasant tone to the ears of the community.

I had intended to pop up for this, but my Saturday proved to be very busy as I grappled some early-on site tasks since the Friday launch. However, the Twitter commentary proved that a fun Saturday event was just what KI needed to get play up in a time of historically little storyline content. Will this approach work again? Probably. It's really time that KI gets Book XV out, though, and I don't see this kind of thing lasting much longer in light of the storyline drought. (Then again, that's just me - any long-time readers will understand how much of a story obsessive I can be.)

With Duncan Freeman, one of Saturday's avid farmers

Aftermath

The results are in! Of the top 10 winners, I immediately recognized eight of the listed names. Congratulations, everyone, especially Two-Faced Anne, Clumsy Calamity, and Lazy Keelan, the top three winners.

It's truly fascinating just how many of the names were those active on Twitter and around the hub fan-sites like Pirate101 Central and even blogs like this one. It really goes to show just how powerful a community is. Two-Faced Anne mentioned in her short interview that she owed a lot to several other winners and placeholders on the list for the support and companionship. 

Thanks for reading, everyone!