Puzzle Pirates

Post Date: 20:17 30-05-2010
Rating: 2
Author: BT786
Comment: I liked the graphics, if your the type of person that likes puzzles this game is worth a shot, but I don't like it that much.

Post Date: 23:57 04-05-2010
Rating: 10
Author: Joolikane
Comment: Puzzle Pirates is SO much fun! With challenging yet fun puzzles with other people and card games, this game brigs a happy, helpful community just waiting to make oyur experience the best! Honestly, once you get in a good, active crew, you"ll find that they"re more than pillaging partners, but a second family even! I had some good times on this game and recommend it to anyone.

Post Date: 15:51 21-04-2010
Rating: 5
Author: jared
Comment: I dont like this game at all but it is ok for abit then gets really boring well tahts just me i give it 5/10

Post Date: 11:23 12-01-2010
Rating: 9
Author: Vzionn
Comment: This is a game that really challenges your mind. Yes, it takes a while to earn poe (money), but its well worth it. Clothes, furniture, and badges may dust, but ships, crews, flags, pets, and friendships stay. Some of you may have a problem when things in the game dust, but that just gives you a new challenge to work towards. If you have everything you ever wanted in the game, theres nothing else for you to do.

Post Date: 08:53 09-01-2010
Rating: 10
Author: mmorpggamer815
Comment: I played this game for 2 years and i really enjoyed it.

Graphics : The graphics are not great but the do have details like blades of grass and trees. I also liked the camera angle on the character. The people are simple avatars but they are nice in a habbo sort of way.

Gameplay : A lot of grinding is involved to get to a higher skill level , so much so that i didnt actually bother to play the puzzles much. The puzzles have excellent layout. Making money was slow but you could go into sea monster hunts and flotillas and get 10k in a single session. Once you get a lot of money you can buy big ships and houses such as frigates and mansions.

Community : It was my first MMORPG and i was really impressed by the maturity of the people i encountered on there. Im only 15 mind you but i much prefer a friendly mature person to a kid who yells n00b n00b!!! every time he isnt happy with you. And there was very few cases of name calling on there (compared to runescape) and the majority of the people i met were mature and friendly. I played on hunter for all of my time on there and i recommend that as the ocean you go to play on. As ever , every game has its bad eggs , (wenchwendy , ambur , scarlena and foxynana LOL) but those fade into insignificance on puzzle pirates.

Payment? : You have the option to buy a subcurrency called doubloons with real life money.

Overall : I really recommend the game as it is by far the best i have ever played. Try it out!

Post Date: 13:53 01-01-2010
Rating: 7
Author: EggOrBacon
Comment: I loved playing this game when I was a bit younger, but the mass amount of grinding you have to do to earn a decent living on the game is exceptional.
I played this game for 4hours, and the money I made was so low, I gave up.

However, the puzzles are fun if you're into this sort of thing, and the community is generally okay.

I lost my money playing poker, which was fun. :D

Post Date: 19:49 08-07-2009
Rating: 0
Author: xule
Comment: it is one of the worst games. you are dependant on people for everything and there not enough incentives which basically means the people dump you whenever they want and trust me you will be frustrated. do NOT get taken in by it i played for 3 years and this is my opinion.

Post Date: 13:44 09-06-2009
Rating: 10
Author: farris461
Comment: all u people calling puzzle pirates dumb are dumb ima 3 year player and i love the game if u play a while ye may begin to enjoy the game

Post Date: 20:55 16-05-2009
Rating: 8
Author: xenocide
Comment: The beauty of this game is how complex and strategic the pinnacle of the game is. Blockades are fun for hours especially if you are one of the battle navigators. With enough practice your battle navigation stat will be increased and the king of flags or captain of crews will invite you to participate in a blockade as an officer.

Another great thing about this game is how you can flaunting your cash. You can buy mansions, expensive pets, expensive clothes, ships, stores and many many other things.

The only downside to these things is that it takes an impossibly large amount of time due to the competition for superiority for conrolling islands and the politics in flags can be a total ****ing drama.

And three rings suck.

Post Date: 07:34 15-01-2009
Rating: 3
Author: jared.
Comment: this game isnt really a good game its boring anf graphic and sound bad too i think three rings were lazy when they made this.

Post Date: 05:23 12-01-2009
Rating: 8
Author: Cinder
Comment: THIS IS SO DUMB AND CHILDISH but its allright if your into puzzles and stuff!

Post Date: 05:41 14-09-2008
Rating: 4
Author: loran77772
Comment: Lets see, how can I say this... I played it a while before, but just got plain bored and confused.

Graphics: 7
Sound: 5
Gameplay: 7

Now those stats look like they would rate a 6 at the least in average, don't they? Well heres the last three categories:

Community: 1
Ability to understand things in-game: 1
Ability to keep people playing: 1

I'll give you that the graphics are nice, the sound matches the game, and gameplay is nice, but thats all thats good. First, the community is horrible. If you can't tell, the community seems to be split into 4 categories. Noobs, Stuck-ups, AFKers, and the only good category, normal people. If you take one step in this game, you'll be hit with either a noob begging for PoE or dubloons, or someone calling you a noob. Then theres the fact of the many unreliable people. They sometimes just sit there and do nothing. I'm not saying its bad, but theres some people who over-excess it. Those three categories make it almost impossible to get any real helpful information. Then theres how things work. Stores are just bloody awful. I know its cool having people produce everything in the game, but the fact it can sometimes take up to a week to get one thing is god awful. Then theres economy. Its hard to get money unless you've played the game a LOOONG time.

It still retains some good things but overall, it sucks. And don't you damn puzzle pirate fans come yelling at me saying "OMG NOOB YOU HATE IT CUZ JOO IS TEH SUCKZORZNESS LOLOL". It really, truly is god awful.

Post Date: 14:01 07-07-2008
Rating: 7
Author: Samsta
Comment: i liked this game until you play every puzzle too many times so they become boring. and whithout the puzzles you get no money no money no nothing:p

Post Date: 16:44 04-07-2008
Rating: 2
Author: PrinceTrase
Comment: Nah, this game has too much messages popping up all at once! It's confusing and when you complete one puzzle, the captain offers you about 5 others.

Post Date: 00:21 27-06-2008
Rating: 0
Author: marz777
Comment: all i can say is your better off with runescape (and that game is trash)

Post Date: 00:54 01-06-2008
Rating: 7
Author: Opresser
Comment: Yes.. this is one of my favorite mmoRPGs.. why you ask? The graphics? Hell no.. look at the screen shot. The innovation? No.. its the community. The community is full of fun people that will assist you in as many means as they can. This game cobines fun and friendship and a signifigant amount of team work to make the perfect blend. If only it wasn't formatted in Java T_T...

Graphics 55.5454%
Sound 66.5655%
Community 96.5655%
Innovation 88.6565%
Customer Support 77.5456%

Overall 78.6565% - I reccomend this game.

Post Date: 02:01 21-04-2008
Rating: 8
Author: jjdragon60
Comment: unlike most others, this game is based on pirates.decent grafix, you walk and chat. and even more unique, you do puzzles to past time. you actually need a bran, and its not just fighting. its great fun,make freinds, but can get allitle boring. no download. also, try another game by the same creator, game is bang howdy. both are ok!

Post Date: 02:57 07-04-2008
Rating: 1
Author: Taddybear
Comment: I think this game is bs thats why i give it a 1, you can get reported for anything and if someone is having a bad day at work you just might get everything lost cause they fell like banning you. It is also a game that get addictive, it has poker in it and you can but the fake money with real money i think it is all a fluke they get you addicted to gambling then make it so you buy there fake money with real money.

Post Date: 03:19 03-04-2008
Rating: 6
Author: Falar
Comment: Good fun game, but gets a little repetetive; performing the exact same puzzle for 30 minutes is excruciatingly boring. Yes, you can change statiosn, but that doesnt help much. Viridian is a fun ocean, but inflation has driven the price of the doubloon way up; its been as low as 500 and is now up to abvout 800-900 per. Probably the most fun if you are the battle naver or gunner.

Post Date: 18:09 29-03-2008
Rating: 0
Author: Joel1188
Comment: A sank someones ship come back a day later my account had been becuase the lying nerd who ship sank reported me for no reason lousy sob

Post Date: 04:07 20-03-2008
Rating: 5
Author: mare291
Comment: pros:
>graphics are sortof good
>great community
>great ideas

cons:
>people are so childish
>if u like puzzles/nerd puzzle ull like it
>gets boring

so ill give it a 5

Post Date: 08:54 15-03-2008
Rating: 1
Author: Dakkaza
Comment: Dont play this game it is awful!! I played it for like 1 hour and I almost gaged!! The people are so childysh and It"s really hard to get stuff!
Thats why I give this a one

Post Date: 00:41 15-03-2008
Rating: 7
Author: akiflyer
Comment: Fun game to make friends ^^"

Post Date: 03:13 24-02-2008
Rating: 7
Author: daibar
Comment: Finally a game that rewards you long term for puzzling ability! This is a decent game with about 20 different puzzles to play. The problem is that there is not a lot of variation in these games, it's the same 20 games over and over, so if you're not a puzzle nut, or someone who likes to play cards or bejeweled for hours you may get bored after an hour a day. That said, it's really a lot less repetitive then grinding, and gets you to use your mind, if at least at a low level.

Dubloon servers let you do pretty much everything for free, although you'll have to work a little harder to earn rights, (for lazier people you can buy Dubloons for $$$).

This game is addictive if you like a light social aspect, and plenty of puzzle.


Runs on: Java. Leaks memory, have to restart the client every 3 hours or so.
Music: non-existent. lets me put on my own music in the background, which I prefer anyways.

Personally, I enjoy it a little more then Pirates of the Caribbean Online, in terms of pirate games.

Post Date: 03:23 05-01-2008
Rating: 8
Author: penguin461
Comment: not very good graphics but ok gameplay

Post Date: 03:11 22-12-2007
Rating: 5
Author: Leetreveiwer101
Comment: Well its a good idea. Thats just about it.

It has some good concepts but it just lacks real game play.. as for how well its doing right now its about to get nerfed by pirates of the Caribbean online..

Post Date: 11:40 16-12-2007
Rating: 4
Author: booternerd
Comment: this game is alrite but it fails to entertain me. The idea was good but the puzzles were just to boring.

Post Date: 22:11 15-12-2007
Rating: 9
Author: Alkazzar
Comment: This is a great game, the graphics are pretty good for a java game, and the gameplay isnt like every other MMORPG, and i agree the puzzles are very similar to tetris and bejeweld but its still fun because you can compete against friends, and you have access to all the stuff in the game if you play on a doubloon ocean (you dont need to subscribe but you need to pay doubloons to "deliver" items). Its not very hard to earn money to get a vessel and a crew, just dont poker like a mad man. There are blokades, Atlantis, Pillage runs and more to earn easy money.

Post Date: 17:41 23-11-2007
Rating: 0
Author: Dill1015
Comment: This game was a good idea, butis weighed down by stupid puzzles, and an annoying shopping system. The puzzles are all basically generic pieces of garbage. Most of them are bad rip-offs of tetris, or are really annoying jig-saw puzzle style games. And you have to be a member to have your own ship and crew. Lame. And this will usually happen to you- you will be a part of some guys crew, doing your work and minding your own buissness, then suddenly you have to go take out the trash. In your absensence people in your crew notice you aren"t doing anything and throw you overboard. When you come back you will look at your computer screen and say "WTH?" noticing that you washed up on some un-charted island. Oh and if your ship makes a stop at some island, you better not explore that island for too long, because the captain won"t care.

Post Date: 01:29 13-11-2007
Rating: 2
Author: XRultima
Comment: Good idea, but a bit odd having PUZZLE pirates.. i played this game for 2 days and got bored because its pretty much the same puzzles over and over again with very little variety.

2/10

Post Date: 02:53 04-10-2007
Rating: 6
Author: Sici
Comment: Ok, but too hard to master... Takes awhile to get to the top and own a ship. Just for dedicated players..

Post Date: 00:26 21-09-2007
Rating: 10
Author: irisands
Comment: Definitely not your usual MMORPG, no fighting in the "traditional" sense, gore, blood etc. The community is very strong and well integrated. As has been stated before, the focus of this game is puzzle gaming, which may or may not suit your typical violence-loving gamer, but to me it provides a welcome change. Warning: A good stretch on this game can last for two to three hours, with few breaks. You had better bring music and refreshments.

Post Date: 00:29 11-09-2007
Rating: 0
Author: TrueGamer
Comment: this game is useless... all you do is puzzles.....this is stupid and for people who play this are probably n00bz at everything else.....dont play this useless game.............

Post Date: 02:24 07-09-2007
Rating: 10
Author: Bowers14
Comment: Alright. Just clearing some things up. This game is actuallt pretty good once you get the hang of it. It's one of the few games that you're performance is actually related to your skills, not how long you've been playing. I'll admit the graphics are cartoonish and it could you some background music but I rather have better gameplay then graphics and my iPod has more interesting music then any background music. And for thoses who say how can you like a game without any blood and voilance? Well I played WoW, Guild Wars, And Runescape. And gotta tell ya, Puzzle Pirates is just as good, if not better if you have at least an ounce of working brain power. And the dubloon problem, You chose a dubloon ocean. And you don't have to use real money. You can buy them from other players with In-Game money. For the subscription, Other games charge the same monthly, if not more, with the exception of runescape if you pay with a credit card. The cloths dusting, yeah that gets annoying. But instead of complaining, why not work to get new stuff. And for ppl who say this game is for little kids, I'm the 2nd youngest person I know on my ocean. I'm 15. The other I know is almost 15. Everyone else is 16, 18, 20, 30, and it keeps going and going. And the game is PUZZLE Pirates. If you don't like puzzle games, why did you even try it? Please, if you're gonna rate a game, know all the facts and play it for more then 5 days.

Post Date: 17:31 02-09-2007
Rating: 3
Author: bigbitte
Comment: LMAO this game is funny :D u get bored afta 1 min lmao no fightin NOTHIN and ur stuff expire YES x) this game is gd for lil kids ..!

Post Date: 19:28 31-08-2007
Rating: 0
Author: jeffahrdyfan
Comment: ok this game is very stupid. hohoho ur a duchebag pirate yay!. If you actually enjoy this game get a gun load it cock it back and shoot ur fucking pc. The name basically describes the game . Puzle pirates ... its ment for 10 yearolds!

Post Date: 04:02 21-08-2007
Rating: 9
Author: dragonkpr
Comment: This is a greattttt game!!! If your one of the people who says that this game is dubs and all, then let me be the 1st to say that you people are DUMB and cab't play the puzzles well!!! Great game, 9/10.

Post Date: 15:17 17-08-2007
Rating: 9
Author: blaaagh
Comment: I've played puzle pirates for about a year now and aside from the graphics, its a great game!
There are many tasks and puzzles to do to keep you occupied for a long time.

to the previous poster, dont bother buying clothes then? And no, dubloons don't have to cost real money, you can trade pieces of eight for them.

Post Date: 13:13 14-08-2007
Rating: 4
Author: michelleizkewl
Comment: Eyyy, I remember Puzzle Pirates! I used to play it for like 1 week and then stop because it got boring.

this game is pretty good for people who likes puzzles and cute little midgets, but thats all.

clothes cost alot, and they disenigrate after 30 login days. that is like retarded, why do they turn to dust after 30 days??? all your hard earned POE(pieces of eight) will be wasted just to look good for a few days.

what really ticks me off is that dubloons, cost real money, and its expensive as hell, i seriously would not pay 60 dollars to get 500 or whatever dubloons.

overall i give it a 4

Post Date: 17:01 27-07-2007
Rating: 9
Author: Odaga
Comment: a great game but some of the puzzles where dont compete to get a bit boring otherwise this is an all round great game you should check it out

Post Date: 07:57 27-07-2007
Rating: 9
Author: kusunukri
Comment: u know people... the point of the game isnt really the graphs, the sound or any of that stuff, is about the challenge of the puzzles, and of course my personal favorite, TEXAS AND HOLD EM!, ahem! anyway i really did enjoy this game, the puzzles are awesome and i loved it, buuuut there is one itsy bitsy thing, that if ur not a subscriber u dont get to wear cool clothe, buy a ship, even be able to add friends to your friend list, its based a lot in paying players, but still i believe its a good challenge for ur brain and not ur finger =P, couse i have played a lot of MMORPG's and sadly, they have gotten really boring for me... but anyway, i do recommend it for those who want some challenge, and btw guys, PvP is not the best thing or funest, and PKing is even worse -_-" 9/10 for the original idea and the fun i had with it, but not 10 couse it forces u to become a member >.

Post Date: 07:29 24-07-2007
Rating: 9
Author: burnap
Comment: Like Maple Story, another great original game. Fun game that is funny and lets u use your brain.

Post Date: 05:52 19-07-2007
Rating: 6
Author: gim145
Comment: PLAY the game & decide for your self.:)

Post Date: 13:33 14-07-2007
Rating: 3
Author: namcoo
Comment: Ok... First of All NO FIGHTING!WTH is with that?ME and all my friends played this game when we were 9 lol.Second of all no quests.third of all your stuff disengrates after 30 days.Ok I think thats the first MMORPG that your stuff disengrates.Three Rings MUST be desperate for money.Ok A bit childish graphics and nothing moves so It doesnt feel that your in the game. It sometimes lags but every game does right? 9.99$ US IS well not worth a game like this unless your an addict of this game.Dubloons are OUTRAGEOUS whats the point of spending 30$ then when all your stuff disengrates you WILL regret ever buying these "dubloons". Now for the Good side. I like Most of tyhe puzzles and there quite fun but after doing the same thing over and over...Blockades are fun and they earn you a few POE or DUB.However paying 250K for a Blockade COME ON. Well time for my ratings. Graphics 4/10 Audio/sounds 2/10 Gameplay 5/10 Community 2/10 Thats MY rating so dont be flaming me. I even think Runescape is better then this crap.

Post Date: 04:41 14-07-2007
Rating: 7
Author: billbeap
Comment: I love puzzles so this is right up my alley. PP is also very fun but wish it had more free stuff.

Post Date: 03:54 05-07-2007
Rating: 5
Author: game_cridic
Comment: my mom took it off the computer i cant even play the browser one. but i loved it

Post Date: 21:58 28-06-2007
Rating: 3
Author: kagomefan12
Comment: ok first of all, this game is OK, but you have to be a member to do like, anything. for instance if you want to be the best pirate, u need to be a member. So my point is, if youe gonna play this game, and stick with it, be a member. because it STINKS. so im gonna give this game a 3.

Post Date: 17:10 28-06-2007
Rating: 9
Author: Silleel
Comment: Great game! One of the few MMOs that you actually need a BRAIN for. And for all those people who hate because you can't kill anyone, there's something sort of wrong with your head. It's a game where the best and smartest survive while the button mashers don't get anything. Also, there are free servers with the same stuff, only the in-game items are more expensive and take longer to get. This game is really refreshing and new compared to the legions of FPS clones. The graphics are simple and the point of them is not to look realistic. 3D isn't always the best thing for a game (think the ugly runescape graphics). As you get better and become officer and captain of crews, the game really opens up to you with blockades, flotillas, and war. The people who played 10 minutes probably just couldn't play the puzzles they say 5 year-olds can do. It's a fun game, majority of people, surprisingly, are over 12, and keeps getting updated. There's thousands of people on at any time, and instead of being levels from 1-100, your ranking is decided on how well you do in the puzzles compared to the rest of the world, from able to ultimate. I give it a 9 because if you REALLY hate puzzles and games, you won't like this, but other than that it's a really fun and ingenious game to play.

Post Date: 20:07 23-06-2007
Rating: 7
Author: Lemonized
Comment: I love this game! the graphics are decent, the puzzles are decent, but, the only thing(s) i don't like about it, is that if you haven't played it, its hard to get used to. also, if you have played and quit for a while, its hard to get back on.(well, get used to it again)

Post Date: 23:21 27-05-2007
Rating: 9
Author: mirakuru77
Comment: Amazing game, since it requires actual skill than just the click of a mouse. The puzzles are diverse and varied, meaning there can be many games that people can excel at. My only complaint is that if you don't play it every day, it is pretty hard to get poe and doubloons if you're a n00b. Also, my account got deleted twice because I didn't play for more than a month (I believe that was the reason), which was very annoying. Still, overall, this is a must-try game, very addicting, and very different from your regular RPG game.

Post Date: 04:38 17-05-2007
Rating: 1
Author: Mykai
Comment: omg you cant even wear good clothes if you didnt suscribe... this forces you to be a suscriber just like CP... aand puzzles?!?! graphics stink, how is this 13 and older? it should be 9 and younger you cant even have a friend unless your a suscriber

Post Date: 10:47 28-04-2007
Rating: 8
Author: orasis
Comment: Well it's not my sort of game, but it was still rather amusing. - Perhaps not the sort of game that one would spend months on, but for a few weeks this could very well curb your boredom.

One thing I did like about this game though was the puzzles, you never know when they are going to come - but you need to finish them if you want to advance... So unlike a lot of modern MMORPGS where you click and sit back while your character hacks and slashes some monsters, in Puzzle Pirates you need to use your mind constantly to solve these puzzles and 'coordination' games.

Keeps you on your toes.

Post Date: 15:17 30-03-2007
Rating: 0
Author: gnarkilla2
Comment: gamer i agree with u first the graphics are horrible ok they leave u stranded u on a isalnd what do u do ???????? nothing walk around

Post Date: 04:47 27-03-2007
Rating: 2
Author: GamerZahn
Comment: I see many people have did this review.. Anyways I think this game a is a total BLOW OFF.
HORRIBLE GRAPHICS HORRIBLE GAME PLAY and the other good thing is probably the peeps... This game is ment for 5 year olds eh.. Doesn't anyone agree??? If you gave is a 7+ then play more games eh! Even runescape is more decent with the killing! Even though this game has nice people just look at the world.. Is everyone nice? NO so just find another game with killing or a ACUALLY GOOD GAME PLAY!

Heres my ratings:

Game Community: 7+
Graphics: 4-
Gameplay: 2-

Post Date: 02:16 14-03-2007
Rating: 0
Author: MS-FAN555
Comment: i hate this game for every reason posible oh yeah and stacy no one calls people a noob casue theres no PvP with blood and buying wepons is usless the game is usless theres no PvP just in puzzles...witch are BBBOOORRIINNGG!!!!

Post Date: 00:40 13-03-2007
Rating: 0
Author: cman1651
Comment: a big dumb game for little 3 year olds i mean gosh who wants to play a game whare thiers no killing just puzzles

Post Date: 20:23 10-03-2007
Rating: 10
Author: Stacy
Comment: WAY better than Runescape..the chat is way better for sure...you don't find people calling eachother noobs or saying they "pwned" people..lmao..people are definitely nicer and more mature on YPP.....you gotta give it a chance....meet people and make friends...you obviously aren't gonna have much fun if you only played for 10 minutes

Post Date: 17:05 13-02-2007
Rating: 10
Author: jc2902
Comment: Not bad. Have to give it a little while and talk to other people. Dont expect to click you fingers and your crewing a ship of mangy pirates!

Post Date: 22:56 12-02-2007
Rating: 7
Author: cheesedelux
Comment: I used to play this all the time a few years ago. Then after a month I reilised that if your not a member it is AWFUL. All you can do is play some of the puzzles (Which are quite good in ways), job for crews, be the lowest rank of crewmember forever and get a crummy shack with a crate and bedroll. + it deletes your character after about a week of inactivity.
Well it's fun and quite enjoyable for a while and I'm sure it's exellent if your a member, but its WAY to focused on paying players. Oh and just to go on about it more, blockades are way too much work, like, four hours solid 'good' or better rated doing of the same puzzle.

Post Date: 23:56 26-01-2007
Rating: 0
Author: sith524
Comment: i played this game for 5 mins and thought it was pathetic because...

(1)the graphics are a rip off of maple story.

(2)i hate all the puzzles...

(3)i got bored so fast i wasted 5 mins of my life...

(4)i hate all the items...

(5)i hate the game all together...

0/9... very sad....

Post Date: 05:38 07-01-2007
Rating: 1
Author: Jarrito
Comment: When my brother downloaded and played this game I came up to him and laughed. This game looks scary and like one of those toy pirate ships with the little pirate toys.

Post Date: 03:50 24-11-2006
Rating: 4
Author: Zirotecha
Comment: mmorpg addict and andy.roo are wrong.
RuneScape is a much better game than this though it still has things that RuneScape doesn't making it a normal game but gets kinda boring.
RuneScape VS. Puzzle Pirates
1)RuneScape is better in a reason because it has player owned houses not islands and comes with frequesnt updates with the latest hunter skill.
2)Puzzle pirates has a VERY good chat system making it with speech bubbles instead of text appearing over your character.
I rate this a 4/10 RuneScape is much better because of skills,PVP,and a very large world + much much more and 3-D of course!

Post Date: 22:46 17-11-2006
Rating: 7
Author: mmorpg addict
Comment: i agree with andy.roo this game is actually a good game plus u can have wars and own islands. plus if u think that runescape is better it isnt. u really dont do ne thing in runescape. tho pp does get a litle boring later.

Post Date: 19:53 07-11-2006
Rating: 2
Author: shadowmyre
Comment: I've played this game for a while now,and I'd say it has gone pretty downhill
and WHY exactly are we comparing this to RS?they're 2 totally different types of games:
PP=a world with a crapload of pirates that use puzzles to fight eachother and play other puzzles and cardgames
RS=a massive medeival world where people can be a warrior,mage,archer,merchant,miner,smither,etc. etc. etc.

Post Date: 06:18 01-11-2006
Rating: 8
Author: andy.roo
Comment: look what is with all these runescape nerds coming on here saying runescape is the greatest thing ever. puzzle pirates actuallly has some new ideas, unlike runescape, which is barely better than a japanese hack and slash. the social elements in puzzle pirates walk all over runescape and you dont get random high level players calling you a noob right from the word go. in short runescape is bad, and puzzle pirates is better, even though puzzle pirates is bad aswell.

Post Date: 23:28 29-10-2006
Rating: 3
Author: dominic3456
Comment: Way to confusing and puzzle thing gets old.

For a kids game maybe 5.

For an mmo.....A 3 this game is not very good. Low graphics, sound, and boring games.

Played it for 10 mins and quit...

Post Date: 21:20 12-10-2006
Rating: 0
Author: pppppppppp
Comment: Anyone who thinks this game is better than runescape is pathetic. this game doesnt make new stuff like runescape does. Plus like 100 people play that game. I mean a guees thats alot like the smallest town in the world. Runescape is awsome makes new stuff and has a whole lot more players. Plus it doesnt have terrible graphics.

Post Date: 18:54 24-09-2006
Rating: 4
Author: Golden Soul
Comment: Graphics:not really good
Runescape is better.
I dont play it that much.Its good,but not THat good.

Post Date: 15:05 24-08-2006
Rating: 3
Author: Viewer06
Comment: rubbish graphics id say but its ok gameplaying but not bad id give it a 3..

Post Date: 18:15 17-08-2006
Rating: 10
Author: miffin1
Comment: totally awsome game doesnt take long to download better than runescape utterly awsome. especially if u get up to a officer rank and get to sail and own your own boat. worth downloading!!!!!

Post Date: 15:32 12-07-2006
Rating: 3
Author: darkons_vengance
Comment: better then rune scape for sure...
the game has pretty bad graphics like runescape classic 3d 2d graphics but the community is good until...you get on a ship every1 usaly is a complete idiot some idiot who wastes his or her life away is always barking orders because they have no real life...other than that its an ok game †µÃ†§ ‡†

Post Date: 10:59 08-07-2006
Rating: 3
Author: dlaaa
Comment: VERY FUN!But its more fun if it do not have puzzles.I hate puzzles

Post Date: 01:53 04-07-2006
Rating: 3
Author: blloodstain-boi
Comment: it was kinda cool for awhile, me and my sister played it like a year ago. Basically you wanna start working for a good quality cruise ship. The when they recruit you theylle tell you to do things for their ship: Biliging( Keeping water out of the ship) Patching( Fixing the ships holes n stuff) Its rlly crappy though, cuz subsciption is alot of money, and without subscription you can hardly buy nething, and you cant wear shoes lol haha.... Its pretty cool though how u can attack noob ships and steal there stuff. But if you want to become rlly good at this game you need money...(real moneey) play runescape instead if you want to pay for a game, dont waste your cheddar on this game, but if you want to play a game better than this one and runescape combined play THANG >

Post Date: 20:41 24-06-2006
Rating: 0
Author: ddof5
Comment: this game is thew worst game i have ever senn. id rather eat bleu cheese then play this ( and i h8 every type of cheese ). plus the worst part is i n order to get cool stuff u need doubloons or sub scription. supscription costs 910 bucks a mont and doubloons cost 20 cents ea

Post Date: 23:54 17-06-2006
Rating: 5
Author: jsknight
Comment: i wus a puzzle pirates player........yeah i saw it on miniclip....yeah wus addicted to it.........got a little boring......got very boring..............got so boring i uninstalled it XD. but if you a puzzle person youll love the game!! but 4 me i hate it really boring im not requesting this to any of my freinds!!

Post Date: 23:36 19-04-2006
Rating: 0
Author: Gamegangsta
Comment: it is sooooooo boring, stay away from it, seriously, the puzzles are boring. its so repitive, someons always barking out orders at you, stay away from it. and seriously, i hate the censorship, swears are repalced with - Barnacles- scupper and other stupid stuff

Post Date: 04:03 03-04-2006
Rating: 10
Author: thorin492
Comment: You sank my battle ship.. i really am lame, anywayz for the puzzle players out there this is a great game

Post Date: 01:11 20-01-2006
Rating: 5
Author: runescaperocks
Comment: unfortunatly this must have the same problim rs has right now... MINICLIP casual game noobs who wana ruin the fun for everyrun swarm into every online game they see advertise and screw it up! ide my hole character in rs it has the same n00b problim that rs has right now

Post Date: 00:51 24-11-2005
Rating: 10
Author: Dasiy Duke
Comment: none

Post Date: 02:00 01-11-2005
Rating: 9
Author: info
Comment: i completely love it its good so good im gonna give it a 9 and you can talk to other players online battle them become a sailor and morebut other than that its boring

Post Date: 05:16 16-10-2005
Rating: 9
Author: Dirge
Comment: CONCEPT: cute animation, thrilling andventure and bizzare cumunity abound! Yay! :D Rating: E, some alchohol refrence ANIMATION:7 of 10. GOOD SIDE: offers an aray of options for u to choose. BAD SIDE: Battle can be a bit boring. Sound: 4 of 10

You are stranded on a dessert island. someone saves you. They make idiotic puns and teach how to prevent flood on a boat. afterwards, WA-LA yer a pirate mate!
In Puzzle pirates u can choose to be a fearsome raider, blasting rival ships to bits, slaying all the crew and claiming there loot. Or take more honerable path and job for the military. Or perhaps lead a simple life as a shopkeeper. In this game, u craft vessels, sail, carpent, and even duel and party through a series of innovative puzzles. if your good at tetris, Swordfight will seem easy to u.

As u gain urself a name u can even start ur own crew, including bilgers, carpenders, sailors, gun men, navigators and fighters! earn a fine vessel and custamize the look of it. buy yer own house! Do anything!!!

Post Date: 19:39 04-10-2005
Rating: 8
Author: Zarr
Comment: If u like puzzles and complex community this game is perfect for u. the graphics seem overly cute at first glance, but its easy to fall in love with :D you never have to worry about lag (unless ur cpu is a relic of ten years) and most challenges r easy to learn.
As u progress, u can join a band of fellow pirates and sail across the globe. When traveling u will often be attacked by other pirates, whether NPC or players. when your captain and cannon workers are fighting, do what u can to help by bilging(preventing flood) sailing and, most crucial, reparing the haul. When the ships align, ur enemies board and u must fend them of in my favorite game, swordfight. Needless to say, teamwork is neccesary to survival.
As u earn urself a rank, ur captain will give u more booty at the end of a battle. Or, better yet, why not start ur own band of pirates? a fun game for all ages. (ull love the way the censors work too, hehe)

Post Date: 17:28 18-07-2005
Rating: 9
Author: keybounce
Comment: Yohoho Puzzle Pirates: A Review
By Michael Gersten
(and two keyboard loving kittens)

Yohoho Puzzle Pirates, or YPP, is an MMOG where you play a pirate. Or a trader, sailing goods from place to place. Or, perhaps a master swordsman who wins money from tournaments. Etc.

YPP is a game where ships run around, sometimes attacking other ships to steal money and goods, sometimes avoiding other ships to deliver goods.

Unlike some other games (such as World of Pirates, or Pirates), you do not play a group of pirates. You do not play a crew. You do not play a ship. You play one single person. To sail a large ship, you need to work with other players. This is a very social game.

As a social game, the basic social structure is the crew. A crew is a group of people that enjoy sailing with each other, typically for the conversations, or for the fun of it; in at least one case, a crew may be a group of some of the best swordsmen in the game who are looking for the hardest challenges. Members of a crew will, in general, share access to the crew s ships. Ships can be marked as private. Depending on the rank a pirate has, they may have no permission to sail ships, or limited permission on ships that they do not own, or full permission on all crew ships.

The basic operation for a crew is the pillage. A pillage has a ship sailing around, looking for ships -- either NPC brigands (primary source of "Pieces of Eight", or "poe" -- game money), NPC merchants (supplemental source of raw commodities), or player ships (primary source of a difficult encounters; occasionally, a player merchant with lots of goodies to, err, "assist" in getting to the nearest port :-).

A ship in combat requires three basic tasks to be performed. First, these are leaky wooden ships, that need constant attention. Someone has to perform carpentry work to keep them in shape, to plug the leaks. Second, these leaky boats need the bilge water bailed out, to keep them easy to sail. Third, they need someone to operate their sails, so they can maneuver and avoid taking damage from enemy cannonballs. Fourth, the cannons need to be loaded. Finally, one person has to drive the ship, directing the output of the sailors, and firing the loaded cannons. This first part of combat ends when one ship grapples the other, leading to a boarding and swordfight. The cannonfire during the sea battle determines how much of an advantage one side has over the other.

Now, all those things -- the ships being sailed, the cannonballs being shot, the rum used to fuel the ships, even the clothing and swords the pirates use -- all are made by players. The only thing supplied by NPC s are raw commodities from either merchant ships or harvested at colonized islands. The entire basic economy is both player driven and non-inflationary.

YPP is "Puzzle Pirates". All ship operations are done by playing puzzle games. Bilge, for example, is similar to Bejeweled; carpentry is pentaminoes. SF is similar to super puzzle fighter. Etc. To give a complete review of the game, each of these puzzle subgames must also be reviewed.

Carpentry is played by placing pentamino pieces into "holes". The game board contains 4 holes, of different sizes and shapes, always a multiple of 5 spaces in size. There are always three pieces available for you use to use. The pieces have a "Grain", or alignment, to them; placing all the pieces so that the grains line up horizontally gives a bonus, as does only using a single type of pentamino piece. The less the pieces overlap; the fewer pieces you need to place to fill a hole, the better. A perfect, or "Masterpiece" scores the best. Advanced players control which of the 4 holes they fill; filling two adjacent holes will result in two fresh holes showing up on the game board (making it easier to continue), while two non-adjacent (diagonal) holes will not (making it more difficult to continue a perfect streak). The better your play, the faster you repair damage. Note that all ships that are sailing take damage from time on the water. The scoring emphasis is on steady, consistent play; one person has compared this to a zen-like meditation. A special piece, the "putty bucket", will fill any space of up to 5 pieces, and acts as a wildcard.

Bilging is played on a 6 by 13 board, with between 5 and 7 different types of objects on the screen. By swapping adjacent pairs of objects, you try to line up three in a row of the same type. Clearing a line results in an empty space, which is filled in by moving the objects up and out of the water, and bringing fresh objects on the bottom. A combo -- making more than one line with a single swap -- scores more points, as does a longer line. Equally, a chain -- when one line is cleared, another three in a row is formed as the empty space is collapsed -- also scores bonus points. A good bilger will concentrate on spending two or three moves to clear two lines, or 4 or 5 moves to clear three lines. Additional special pieces -- a crab that is only cleared by bringing it above the water line, a puffer fish that destroys all adjacent pieces, and a jellyfish that destroys all the objects of a given type -- complete the puzzle. The better you score, the faster you empty the bilgewater out of the hold. If the ship is badly damaged, you might not be able to keep the water out. The higher levels have more objects, and score more points for combos. Chains score less than direct swaps -- the emphasis is on clearing large groups (2 or 3 lines) in as few swaps as possible.

Sailing is also on a 6 by 13 board, with only three pieces, representing wind, sails, and water. This time, the board starts empty, or mostly empty, of pieces, but with "target platforms". These targets have 4 or 6 spots, each labeled for one of the 3 types of pieces. A clear is either a completed target, or a four in a row. Although it is possible to get multiple lines simultaneously, scoring is based on clearing chains, as well as bonuses for targets; the best sailors can clear all the platforms with a single chain using approximately 8 to 13 total clears. The initial stationary pieces are obstacles; using them in a four in a row counts for more points than the pieces you drop. Pieces drop from the top as pairs; you can see the next piece to come, as well as the current piece. Because the pieces are linked, and stay linked, placing the pieces where you want them takes skill. Once all the targets are cleared, you get a fresh board, but no additional bonus.

None of these puzzles is twitch based. As long as you make a move (place a piece, or swap pieces) at least once every ten seconds, you have no penalty for time; going 10 seconds without making a move counts as making a move that scores zero points. All of these puzzles are ultimately scored on "average efficiency" -- how well you have scored overall, as an average of your last several moves. The score is also based on a server specific percentile lookup. The testing ocean, for example, is generally only played by the best players, so it is very, very hard to score well on that ocean; at the other end, the Viridian ocean can be played for free (see below), so a large number of people often give it a try, lowering the difficulty for skilled players.

Gunning has a square board, about 13 by 13, to represent the deck of the ship, with 4 guns (which you want to load), and a bunch of obstacles. Around this board, a bunch of objects will wander. These objects will make a turn when they hit an obstacle or wall; turning right if possible, left if not, or a u-turn if both are blocked. You can place directional arrows to steer the pieces where you want them to go.

A gun starts off as empty; you load it by placing three objects into the gun, in order: first the powder, then the wad, then the cannonball. Once all the objects are in place, in order, it is loaded, and can be fired by the navigator in battle. If fired, it will become dirty. A dirty cannon, or a cannon that was misloaded by a piece out of order, must be washed out with a water bucket (the 4th type of object), and then reloaded.

Unlike the other puzzles, gunning is very much a reaction speed and twitch puzzle. The better you do, the faster the pieces move. This both lets you load faster (as the piece you want will come by quicker), and also makes the timing and reflexes needed much tighter. You are scored based on the speed at which you can get a fully loaded cannon ready for firing. If the speed of the pieces is too fast for you, you can "toss them overboard", to slow down the pieces. Controlling the speed -- making sure that you keep them fast enough that you can load quickly, but not so fast that you cannot keep up with them -- is critical.

Putting it all together: Hitting the enemy ship

The "Put it all together" puzzle is the battle navigation. Here, you are navigating your ship on a board that represents the battle field. There are winds that will blow your ship, whirlpools that will rotate it, rocks that will block you and inflict damage, and of course, your enemy that you are fighting. Smaller ships can move 4 spaces per turn, and fire one shot in each direction (left or right) on each of the 4 impulses. Larger ships are slowed, and can only move on 3 of the 4 impulses. They can choose which one to stand still on. Additionally, they have larger cannons. The larger war ships (as opposed to merchant ships), with their larger supply of cannons, can fire two shots per impulse in each direction. This makes larger ships, especially larger war ships, much, much deadlier. Note that although larger warships have more shotpower, larger merchant ships can carry significantly more cargo for trade runs.

Once you have grappled, you have a team brawl -- a sword fight battle between the two teams.

In swordfight, you have a 6 by 13 board, and 4 types of pieces, generally referred to by their color. 75% of them are "normal"; the other 25% are "breakers". Like sails, you get pieces as linked pairs; unlike sails, they do not stay attached, but separate and fall to the bottom of the board. The goal in sword fight is to get blocks or connected chains of a single color, and then connect them to a breaker piece. A block -- a 2x2, a 3x4, etc -- will turn into a large, usually vertical strike that lands on your opponent s board, possibly digging one or two spaces into their board (often destroying their prepared attack). A non-block chain will turn into sprinkles that fall across the top of the enemy s board, without destroying anything. There are about a dozen different sword types, and they have different favored attacks -- a skull dagger, for example, has a real nasty sprinkle patter, but a relatively easy strike pattern; a scimitar is almost the opposite, with a simple sprinkle, and a nasty strike. These two, however, are usually the most expensive swords in the game. In the hands of a master, even the dirt cheap foil or stick can knock out an enemy. Yes, knock out -- you are never actually killed. Just like sails, the important thing here is the combo -- when you clear one color by touching a breaker to a normal piece, another breaker will fall down onto a matching color block, and clear that. And so on.

In a team swordfight, you control which opponent you are fighting; being able to manage your teams well can be the difference between actually knocking someone out, and mearly giving them more blocks to send back at you. When fighting the computer opponents, for example, putting three players on each "bot" is generally the best way to operate. When playing against humans, you can try to fake them out, etc.

If your team has the last person standing in the swordfight, then your team wins. If you were fighting a brigand, you get poe, and possibly either charts (to allow you to access different parts of the ocean), and/or commodities (that were lost by other players when fighting brigands). If you lose, then you lose 10% of any commodities carried (typically rum and shot for pillagers, or other commodities for shippers/traders/merchants), as well as 20% of anything taken from the successful wins. In a player versus player battle, these numbers go to 25% and 50%.

There is one more ship puzzle, not yet mentioned. Duty navigation is used to increase the output of your sailors while outside of battle; it acts to increase your acceleration, getting you to top speed faster. While not necessary in general for pillages, it is very necessary for merchant runs. Duty nav is very different than the other puzzles. Your board is three concentric rings; each ring can be rotated clockwise or counter clockwise. Each ring is 8 spaces. Each turn, a piece (a different colored star) will drop from the outside onto one of the 8 spaces; by rotating the rings around, you can control (to some extent) where the pieces go. Pieces always fall towards the center if possible. There is a target pattern. You clear pieces either by filling in the target, or by making three in a row. Unlike the other puzzles, three in a rows score almost nothing in comparison to targets. The goal is to get the targets; three in a rows are only useful for clearing room to allow you to make your target. There is no emphasis on combos or chains; although chains exist, and do score a bonus, they are not common. A combo (such as a "T") is theoretically possible, but in over a year of play, I ve never heard of anyone actually succeeding in making one. The better you are at aligning the stars, the better your navigation and your sailing speed improvement.

The Economy

All items in the economy, from ships, to the shirt on your back, are made by players. So how does this happen?

Players run shops. Shops come in two types -- bazaar stalls, which are smaller than true shops, but anyone can run, and true shops, which are larger and take up actual space on the island. This limits the number of shops that can be placed on an island. Although the bazaar itself does take up space, the stalls at the bazaar do not.

Raw commodities, such as wood, or sugar cane, are produced at the various islands, and delivered to the shops. Once there, players can place orders for products, and take jobs at the shops to produce the products.

Three of the types of shops -- iron mongers, who make cannon balls and swords; weavers, who make cloth (for clothing and ship sails); and tailors who make clothing -- have no puzzle. If you have signed up for these jobs, you automatically produce work for them as they need it.

The other three -- distilling, to produce rum (ship fuel) and hemp oil (used for paint); apothecary (produces all colorants: paint, dye, and enamel); and shipwrighting (builds ships, and will eventually repair/maintain them) -- all have puzzles associated with them. The quality of the work you perform depends on your ability to play the puzzles. These puzzles will be described below.

Finally, a new shop -- furniture -- was just introduced to the test server this weekend. No details are available yet -- it is too new for me to have analyzed it. (Yes, this means the long awaited player housing finally came out.)

The Shop Puzzles:

Apothecary is played on a hex grid. Each hex contains a tile of pipes that can be rotated. At the top are sources of primary colors; at the bottom are bottles that contain "target colors", both primary and secondary. Your job is to route the colors from the sources to the target bottles, mixing as needed to make the desired secondaries. The more bottles you fill, and the more colors you can mix, the better. A given bottle can have from 1 to 4 colors to fill. On the early levels, you ll have your goal to fill 10 bottles, all of which have a single color; on the later levels, your goal is to fill 6 bottles, and the 4 color bottles will score more. Specials include quicksilver (will fill any color), multifill (will fill more than one band in a bottle at one time), and coins (straight point bonus).

Shipwrightery is a "sliding tile" game. You have a 5 x 5 board with 4 different types of pieces, representing iron, wood, cloth, and rope. At the bottom, you have 6 "targets", ranging from 3 to 6 pieces in size. During the first part of the game, you slide tiles around to make the targets; during the second part, you match targets to the board, removing those pieces and replacing them with new ones. Different pieces slide in different ways; iron only goes left and right, wood only goes up and down, and rope only goes diagonal. Cloth has no movement on its own. Pieces can be moved in a direction as long as either the moving piece, or the destination piece, has the appropriate movement, so although cloth has no movement on its own, it can still move up to swap with wood, and then diagonal to swap with rope, in order to get into the proper place. The more pieces you can match in the second phase without having to stop to swap pieces, the higher you score. Getting past 5 pieces typically requires both luck and "playing the odds" -- the different targets are not uniform in frequency, etc. Once you can no longer match for phase two, you go back to swapping pieces around to set up your next chain. The game ends after matching 25 targets. There is a time limit, but it is fairly slow -- if you have not placed a "matching target" in about 40 seconds, one of your targets will be "washed away". There is plenty of time to set up 5 pieces, and the really skilled can match up all 6 if they have the right pieces on the board. The special piece in shipwrightery is a non-movable wildcard.

Finally, the distilling puzzle. Also on a hex board, you have pieces that can be clear, dark, or neutral. These pieces swap with each other in certain ways; a clear piece, for example, can swap with a dark piece that is above it (to either side), or a neutral piece that is below it (and to either side). Nothing swaps directly left/right, nor directly up/down. Columns will shift to the right, to the brewing point; at that point, they will go up (into the brew), or down (into the waste), depending on the number of whites and darks. Columns that have more (or equal) white than black will be sent up into the brew; columns with more blacks than white will burn and go away. However, burnt whites will recycle back into the puzzle. They still move like whites, and want to go up like whites, but they are major score penalties. When they come back, you need to put them into a columns of blacks and neutrals to get rid of them. Your goal is to arrange columns of pure white, with as little (preferably none) black or neutral pieces. The best score comes from multiple columns of pure white in a row; the best players can consistently get 9 to 12 crystal clears in a row. The game ends when 12 rows have been sent up. The specials in distilling are non-movable spices. They score bonus points, but act as obsticles that can really make things hard at times.

Notice the distribution of puzzles. The duty puzzles range from calm, consistent play (carpentry), to strategic planning and building (sails), with an in-between (bilge). And, you have arcade-like (gunning), tactical board game (battle nav), and the hard to classify duty nav. The crafting puzzles also have calm, non-hurried play (alchemy), arcade-like (distilling), and an in-between (shipwrightery). The wide range of puzzles means that there is something for everyone.

Lack of Inflation

YPP manages to keep the economy non inflationary, despite the traditional "mudflation" factor of increasing money. The primary way of doing this is the dynamic supply factor for raw commodities. For example, sugar cane has a normal price range of (approximately) 4 to 6 poe per unit. When the price of cane at an island goes above 6, then that island increases its production rate; the amount of increase depends on the current price. Eventually, the higher demand is satisfied, and the price goes back down to 6. This effectively limits what the price for raw goods will be; combined with "Anyone can open a stall", and you can always open a competing business if the prices are too high. The result: Availability of finished goods increases directly with the number of pirates (as the active players are the only source of labor to finish the products), with commodity availability increasing directly with demand for those raw commodities. Shops that are pricing their product too high risk being undercut by new shops (so finished goods don t cost too much even as the money supply increases), yet they have to be able to attract workers (by paying for their labor), so the prices don t fall too low. Finally, all items are either consumables (rum, shot) or else wear out (swords and clothing typically last 1 to 3 months). Ship decay, in the form of "drydock repairs", has been planned since day one, but has not yet been implemented.

Now, the one exception to the lack of inflation is the largest ships. Frigate class ships cannot be made in a small stall; you need to build a real ship shop. As a result, the competition for these ships is limited, and the prices charged is enormous. This makes ship shops really valuable in the early days of a server (when these ships are rare and in high demand; see the cobalt and viridian servers), but without ship decay, their demand declines as the server gets old (the midnight server). To build a ship shop, or any shop, you must first take control of the island.

Controlling Islands

Islands are controlled by flags, which are made up of allied crews. Flags themselves can ally with other flags. This is the "guild" and alliance structure typically found in other MMO s.

Control of islands is determined by a blockade battle. Blockades are large, multi-ship battles, sometimes with as many as four opposing forces, played as "capture the flag". You have a battle board, just like a normal sea battle, however a little larger. One side is the island side; attackers may not exit the board on this side (may not port in the middle of battle). The other side is the ocean side. Scattered throughout the board, at random, are flags, from 1 to three points. Ships have an influence range -- a sloop, for example, can only control a flag if it is directly on top of it, while a war frig has about a 6 space range. Points are only scored if only your team has ships influencing a flag; this means that when enemy ships come into the area of your flags, you have to fight them to maintain control of the flags. Typical blockades involve between 300 and 600 people per round, with a "best of 5 rounds" to determine the winner. Blockades can only run on weekends (starting from noon pacific saturday to noon pacific sunday), and the typical weekend has at least one blockade (we ve seen four blockades some weekends). Each round is 45 minutes, with a 15 minute gap between them. Blockades to control an uncolonized islands are always sinking; blockades on colonized islands are sinking or non-sinking at the defender s choice.

Blockades are expensive. Besides the warchest cost (a direct poe sink to declare an attempt on an island), there is a large amount of rum and shot consumed, as well as a need to pay jobbers to join your forces. Between the increased commodity consumption and the warchest cost, blockades act as a major poe sink for rich flags.

Sinking battles. Remember that I earlier mentioned that a PvP loss would only cost you 25% of any carried goods, and 50% of any pillaged goods? Well, that s when flags are not at war with each other. If two flags are at war with each other, then ships can be sunk in a sea battle, and if not sunk, you take ALL the enemy cargo. (Well, be nice. You leave them with 5 rum, so they have a little fuel to get back to safety.) Note that in order for two flags to be at war, BOTH sides must agree to it. If one side decides that they want to end the war, it will end when either the other side agrees to end it, or after one week.

What are the good points of YPP:

1. Very social. There are no "leveled areas" that restrict who can play where. The basic play mechanic -- the pillage -- is inherently a crew-wide activity. Brigands that spawn for your ship will generate based on the skill of the people on your ship. And, some areas are harder than others -- for example, in Ruby you will almost always be attacked by brigand ships with more people on board than you have.

2. No unwanted down time. Looking for a group for pillaging when your crew is not online is as simple as going to the notice board on every colonized island, and selecting from one of the many player run pillages from around the ocean. Similarly, if you want to run a pillage, and your crew isn t around to help, one button will post your request for pillage help on notice boards all over the ocean.

3. Activities during down time. I didn t mention the Inns, which are places on islands where pirates can go to hang out, play card games, hold tournaments, or even play a "Poe-chinko" type of game.

4. A player run economy that doesn t suffer inflationary effects. The combination of items wearing out (keeping the shops in business) and dynamic supply (keeping prices down) keeps the money supply rate and expense rate in balance for most pirates.

5. Accessibility for color blind people. Every piece in the puzzles has both shape, color, and pattern differentiation. Color blind people are able to play with very little handicaps.

What are the bad points of YPP:

1. Blockades and island colonization have been called "Broken" by the developers. The blockade game itself is fun; the time and effort needed to run one, as well as the perceived need to overbuild an island to reduce its desirability to a would-be takeover, has lead to a stagnant end-game where flags have been worn out by repeated takeover attempts.

2. Brigand spawn that is relative to your ship. There is no real "hard" area to avoid. Adding more people onto your ship doesn t actually make you safer. Etc. Note that this is both a good point AND a bad point. It is good for the "crew pillaging" aspect, and bad for the "merchant trying to keep cargo safe" aspect.

3. High end economy still has inflation. Less than in most games, but it is still present.

Special server notes:

There is an experimental server, "Viridian", that does not use the normal $X per month subscription system. Instead, you spend $X to generate Y doubloons. Doubloons are special coins used as a fee to deliver most items (excluded are rum, shot, and intermediate items used by other shops in the construction chain), as well as to hold ranks in a crew. Doubloons act as a "pay as you go" payment system -- instead of one fee for everything you do, you pay about $2 for a month as an officer, or about $5 for a ship, or between $1 and $10 for a set of clothing, etc. Doubloons can be traded in game for poe (there is even an ingame exchange market).

Although people have compared this to "buying your way to success", like IGE, it turns out not to be such a major problem in YPP. Since the game is skill based, not item+level, for the most part this is not a way to purchase a major advantage. It does allow people with time to earn poe to trade that time to people who don t have the time for poe but still want to play with fancy swords or clothing. Since the subscription fee is essentially paid in-game with these, it means that people can play without having to pay money directly; in effect, other people are paying your subscription in exchange for poe. It moves the payment model from "Pay so much to play a month in this world of entertainment" to "Pay so much to play with this item until it wears out".

As an experiment, "Cobalt" and Viridian were opened at the same time, with the same map; all major developer-controlled activities (such as islands being opened for blockades and colonizations) have been kept the same between these two oceans, allowing for direct comparisons between the two oceans for the effect that pay-as-you-go has on the game, the environment, inflation, etc. By far, the biggest difference that I have seen is that since items all cost money to deliver, even items that are normally poe sinks, the server has a higher rate of inflation. This has lead to more people willing to spend that excess poe that s just lying around to purchase extra ships, and then use them in sinking wars with other people. Yes, even with a RL cash cost associated with ships, there are more sinkings on Viridian than on any other server. (the ultimate poe sink).

Post Date: 16:50 09-07-2005
Rating: 9
Author: forgotten
Comment: none

Post Date: 12:49 22-09-2004
Rating: 8
Author: Mr. Peel
Comment: Cute game that can challenge your mind.

Post Date: 09:28 21-09-2004
Rating: 10
Author: visitor
Comment: none