Puzzle Pirates (2003)

Day #02

I did a bit of research into this game’s endgame and discovered most of the interesting content is geared towards endgame players. A lot of the content is difficult to even complete as well, given some of the ships require quite a large number of people to fill (or at least they did at one point — it’s possible these numbers have changed recently). Perhaps the game should provide a (skip-able, ideally) tutorial where you can actually try out the later game content? It would definitely help show what you can eventually do in the game, providing a reason to grind the early game content.

Regardless, the game still manages to draw quite a few players for being a niche title that’s 18 years old. Quite an impressive feat!

Most of the chat is just trade requests. However, someone did call another player out for being greedy. Out of 100 random chats observed, 97 were related to trading or looking for group, 2 involved players insulting each other or making accusations, and the remaining one seemed to be an accidental chat.

I like my little house and being able to dress up my pirate, but doing anything further will require grinding through the actual puzzles. I tried a few new puzzles and they weren’t necessarily poorly designed but were rather monotonous. Perhaps this game just isn’t for me.

Sail patching. I didn’t read the instructions at first and didn’t realize you could move the squares around. It adds a few interesting mechanics such as wind gusts, knots, etc.

The story I created at some point in time — whenever I initially created this account. Apparently I left this home to Big Chicken the rat to go on a mission to contract scurvy.

This game just really isn’t for me, but there’s a part of me that wants to experience the later game content to see how much it improves. I’m sure if I was established in this community or if it was my first MMO, I’d have fond memories of it and would be having a blast. I’ll definitely play another day or two so Aun Meg can also experience the game, but I think it’s time to move on from this game. I like puzzles and pirates — just not these puzzles or these pirates so far, unfortunately.

If the end game really is as much fun as long-time players report, it’s a shame that it’s gated off behind pay and/or grind walls.