Puzzle Pirates

[Sylvian]

Anyone remember that game? I logged back on earlier this year and was surprised that my account from the 2000s had the same password I originally set (which ofc I changed, lol). Sadly, my characters were all gone. But I'm impressed that they've managed to keep that game running virtually untouched for two decades, and that my account still existed. I hadn't logged in for probably a decade. It's more than you can say for most MMOs, even WoW.

It has interesting aesthetics. They aren't quite as nostalgic (IMO) as the typical 90s and 2000s neocities aesthetic. It doesn't look dated per se.

Gameplay isn't dated. But it has a strange and sort of uncanny feeling. Also I'm too old now to lead a pillage and be able to sit at the computer for hours on end without taking a break, going outside, etc lmao.

[Melooon]

Oooooooooooo! I loved Puzzle Pirates! I used to play it with a friend who was in some major crew (I used to just operate the bilge pumps). I even asked my parents to get my birthday present in doubloons one year

I had a cool all black outfit and my own lil sloop, and I even had a house in the slum that I converted into like a fancy speakeasy/poker club! But then there was this kid who was pestering me for stuff, so I was gonna troll him and pretend to trade my stuff and then cancel, but I accidentality clicked accept and he stole all my stuff

I really liked the group chats where everyone would stand in a circle to talk and the circle would get bigger and smaller as people joined, that was a great big of game design; you really felt POWER when your circle grew to be the biggest

[Sylvian]

Oooooooooooo! I loved Puzzle Pirates! I used to play it with a friend who was in some major crew (I used to just operate the bilge pumps). I even asked my parents to get my birthday present in doubloons one year

I had a cool all black outfit and my own lil sloop, and I even had a house in the slum that I converted into like a fancy speakeasy/poker club! But then there was this kid who was pestering me for stuff, so I was gonna troll him and pretend to trade my stuff and then cancel, but I accidentality clicked accept and he stole all my stuff

I really liked the group chats where everyone would stand in a circle to talk and the circle would get bigger and smaller as people joined, that was a great big of game design; you really felt POWER when your circle grew to be the biggest

It was a good game, same with dubloons I think lol.

Yeah, I remember my sloop also. I had my own crew at one point and it wasn't too bad. I remember really enjoying leading gunning, and being a senior officer in a fairly large crew. Unfortunately, that crew got sold like in a merger with a larger crew, and because I hadn't grinded a certain amount of reputation I was demoted to a general pirate, not even an officer. I was fairly pissed and eventually quit after that.

Back in the day crews were pretty polite and friendly. Same thing I remember with guilds in other MMOs. At some point all groups became kinda toxic and nowadays if I ever play games (I don't), I'll basically just ignore any requests to join groups / guilds etc. Only exception is I'll join whatever group exists for communities I'm already a member of. Still, you get spammed constantly to join people's stuff when you login now if you aren't affiliated with anything (on most games I've visited recently). It's really a hostile landscape. I think things were better when not everyone in the world was on these things and there weren't so many tryhards.

LOL, sorry you lost your gear. That greenie must have been really happy. Yeah, the circle mechanic was good. One thing that was unique about this game was that there were (and still are) a lot of (biologically) female players (at least, who were open about their gender), which I remember being pretty rare compared to other MMO style games at the time. I liked that it was something different than your stereotypical violence game and I enjoyed that the game culture wasn't sexist.

Your average puzzle pirates player

Additionally, something quite interesting about this game is that it is the only one I know of that is managed as a nonprofit, and it still returns a profit every year.

[Melooon]

I found my account! Its still here!!!