[Puzzle Pirates] MMO available free-to-play on Steam. Includes Puzzles and Pirates!

Victory63

Just made available on Steam, the MMO Puzzle Pirates has been made available free-to-play on Steam.
Like the name suggests, it includes puzzles and pirates. What more could you ask for!?
The game is developed by Three Rings Design who developed the popular Spiral Knights MMO and the
upcoming Doctor Who: Worlds in Time MMO http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=25562&storypage=1

Additionally anyone who plays the game on Steam before September 7th will recieve a free Pirate Badge and Magic Amulet.
http://store.steampowered.com/news/6176/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/99910/

So then PAers, download and discuss.

Mike Danger

I killed a lot of time with Puzzle Pirates, but I remember getting frustrated when I hit the limits of what they allowed free-to-play players to do (and also whenever I had to play the sailing puzzle).

I'm surprised to see the Doctor Who game is still on track, as I haven't heard anything about it in ages.

TolerantZero

The game was a lot more fun back when I first played it in '06-'07. There might not have been as many puzzles and not as much content, but the player base was much, much bigger, which was what made it enjoyable. When I tried it again a few months ago, it seemed so....empty. I dropped out of it the first time because the puzzles just lost its appeal over time; there was little to no variation between sessions (it gets harder, sure, but it doesn't exactly change much), and it seemed more of a chore than it was worth. When it was fun it was great, but as I kept playing, it felt more goal-orientated rather than about having fun; you got on a ship with a crew, you had to basically choose one puzzle and stick to it for the entire voyage, whether you liked it or not, with the occasional swapping of posts between players if someone wanted X instead of Y, and then the sword-fighting/brawling during sea battles. After the voyage was over, you got your share of whatever loot you got at the end, and you either repeated the process until you had enough of it, or went on to do some other puzzle on land (parlor games like poker, labor games such as distilling, etc.).

It might sound like I'm making the whole thing trivial: it's all how you perceive the game. Some might see it that way, others might not. If you enjoy it, that's great, but it wasn't something I stuck with for very long. A few months at a time, sure, but nothing to keep me going for long periods of time.

Kadoken

I used to love puzzle pirates, but then I realized I don't like puzzles, and when I was younger I'd do homework while sailing and people would kick me off their ships for idling .

One thing I think every pirate game needs is the ability to work on other people's ships and work your way up to having a crew and ship. It's just more fun and more gratifying to finally get that ship. Also POTBS would be more fun if other people could be on your ship, and if you could actually customize it, walk on and in it, and see your crewmembers doing their jobs.