What Puzzle Pirates Means to Me
Apr. 2nd, 2018 06:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cmdr_zoom(reposted from the official forums)
Long post ahead. Those who want to jump off and swim for it, this is your chance.
Right, then.
Back in 2003 (fifteen years ago this summer, can ye believe it?), a friend with a mutual interest in puzzle games mentioned this one that had just gone to beta. It wasn't just one puzzle, but several, welded together with a social/world layer and a fun not-too-serious piratey theme. I checked it out, and soon enough washed ashore on (freshly-colonized) Guava Beach.
A bit of context: I'd played MUDs back in college in the 90s, but sat out MMOs of all sorts. The "big" MMORPGs of the early 00s were all just more of the same Generic Extruded Fantasy Product but with eye candy - either sprites or low-poly 3D. I didn't even get too interested in SW Galaxies, despite being a huge Star Wars fan since '77, because I knew it wouldn't be like the movies; it'd be full of MMO players. :P Also, this was the era where everything "online" was subscription, and I was snobbish about fully owning and not having to pay any more for games I'd bought. (That's... not really a thing anymore.)
But this... this was something new and different from the pack. Something I was willing to pay a subscription fee for. And so it, along with City of Heroes the following year, became my gateway into MMOs.
Like everyone else, I was a n00b at first. In my eagerness to help my new crew, the Mad Mutineers, I eagerly went out and bought some sailcloth to donate... and then discovered that I couldn't access holds unless I was an officer. So I spent a good couple of weeks shuffling around with several bolts of canvas sitting in my inventory. In time, I became more savvy about the game, but I was still woefully naive in many things. Having only played one MMO, and that during a beta phase - where contact with the devs was frequent, both in-game and on the forums, and where players were heavily self-selected for "social" and "co-operative" playstyles due to the lack of many/any serious PvP features ("build up your flag's island fastest" was about all there was), and older players due to the advertising being purely word-of-mouth - I failed to understand that the game and its culture would change after launch, in what ways, and how much.
So after Azure slipped into the sunset and we all migrated to Midnight, I was caught off-guard by the influx of younger, aggressively competitive players who were not here to play nice with the established order, but to kick over everyone's sand castles and build their own. I thought this was terribly rude, and so I got into a forum fight with one of the most visible, notorious, and clever (particularly when it came to deconstructing and finding holes in the rules) pirates of the day. In hindsight, this was a Huge Mistake. I let myself get way too emotionally invested in a doomed cause, ended up alienating many of my in-game friends (who, for one reason or another, didn't or couldn't take such a hardline position), and almost killed my love for the game. Perhaps the saddest part is what I didn't have the context or understanding for, at the time - that the mini-culture I was trying to defend and preserve was a quirk of beta, and could no more survive post-launch than a fishbowl dumped into the ocean could remain freshwater.
And so, broken-hearted, I quit the game. Deleted my pirate and walked away. I thought it would be forever. Turned out to be about a year, I think. When I came back, it was under a new name - a new account, even - on a new ocean, Cobalt. I was determined to stay out of politics and just try to play the game and enjoy myself. But, being a passionate sort, I did eventually get drawn into another fight here on the forums - over the rightness of playing alts and concealing one's identity, go fig - and almost ended up quitting again. Fortunately, in the course of typing up my angry/sobbing goodbye post, I talked myself out of it. :/
Since then, the fire has cooled. For good or ill, I'm not as invested in the game as I once was. I've grown older, found other games to play, and seen the oceans I used to play on merged and the crews I used to sail with become inactive. I still remain subscribed, thanks to my long-term discount - $50 a year is little enough to pay, supports Three Rings and now Grey Havens, and lets me log in whenever I feel the nostalgia upon me. But my active days are done.
I've taken screenshots of all I can, in anticipation of the day when this all goes down for the last time; to be honest, I sometimes wonder that it hasn't already. And for all that it's been something like ten years since this game was a daily part of my life, I'll still be sad when it does... and if at all possible, I'll be here, standing on Guava to watch the final sunset, just as I did when Azure went down.
So - since I'm still not entirely sure I answered it - what does Puzzle Pirates mean to me? Once the answer probably would have been "(almost) everything." Which, I can now say, was probably not healthy... but I was young, or younger at least. Maybe I was also old enough to know better, just this side of 30; but I have the excuse that it was all new to me - a new world to explore, loot to be won, and good mates and hearties to spend time with, sailing and puzzling together or just standing around on the docks. (And sometimes, if we were lucky, a Dev or an OM would join the circle.)
Now? It's something to look back on - fondly, or with regret, and sometimes both. In that, it reminds me of school - which, to those still in it, is everything, but which fades rapidly into the mists once you're out, taking with it all the people and things and drama that once seemed to matter so much. Sometimes we're lucky enough to keep some of the hearties we made there, along with lessons learned (and the scars from the learning).
Whatever happens, and however far I roam, Puzzle Pirates will always be my first. And yet, if I look at it from another angle, I can trace a not-too-twisty path from the docks of Alpha and Guava and Jorvik back to Islandia's West Corner of the Park, or AmberMUSH's Worlds End Bar, or Red Squadron's Fishtank; and forward through Atlas Park and the Pocket D of CoH to STO's Earth Space Dock, SWL's Agartha and beyond. From that perspective, I can see it as both something special and unique, and as one more stop on a long road.
It's happy noseless pirates. It's a bunch of great puzzles I still enjoy (though I'm far from the best) when I remember to play them. It's a few closets and wardrobes full of virtual clothing, from rags to finery. It's a small fleet of brightly-painted ships with names I once thought were clever. It's an eclectic collection of badges, trinkets and trophies, souvenirs of a long piratey life (or two). It's a gallery of precious portraits and screenshots, frozen moments from that life. And it's a handful of more tangible mementos - a boxed edition, a deck of cards, a small stack of brass doubloons.
Mostly, at this point, it's memories. And while there's much in them I now wish I could have done differently, I'd not trade them for anything.
Fair winds, all, and cheers to my old mates - wherever you are.
Long post ahead. Those who want to jump off and swim for it, this is your chance.
Right, then.
Back in 2003 (fifteen years ago this summer, can ye believe it?), a friend with a mutual interest in puzzle games mentioned this one that had just gone to beta. It wasn't just one puzzle, but several, welded together with a social/world layer and a fun not-too-serious piratey theme. I checked it out, and soon enough washed ashore on (freshly-colonized) Guava Beach.
A bit of context: I'd played MUDs back in college in the 90s, but sat out MMOs of all sorts. The "big" MMORPGs of the early 00s were all just more of the same Generic Extruded Fantasy Product but with eye candy - either sprites or low-poly 3D. I didn't even get too interested in SW Galaxies, despite being a huge Star Wars fan since '77, because I knew it wouldn't be like the movies; it'd be full of MMO players. :P Also, this was the era where everything "online" was subscription, and I was snobbish about fully owning and not having to pay any more for games I'd bought. (That's... not really a thing anymore.)
But this... this was something new and different from the pack. Something I was willing to pay a subscription fee for. And so it, along with City of Heroes the following year, became my gateway into MMOs.
Like everyone else, I was a n00b at first. In my eagerness to help my new crew, the Mad Mutineers, I eagerly went out and bought some sailcloth to donate... and then discovered that I couldn't access holds unless I was an officer. So I spent a good couple of weeks shuffling around with several bolts of canvas sitting in my inventory. In time, I became more savvy about the game, but I was still woefully naive in many things. Having only played one MMO, and that during a beta phase - where contact with the devs was frequent, both in-game and on the forums, and where players were heavily self-selected for "social" and "co-operative" playstyles due to the lack of many/any serious PvP features ("build up your flag's island fastest" was about all there was), and older players due to the advertising being purely word-of-mouth - I failed to understand that the game and its culture would change after launch, in what ways, and how much.
So after Azure slipped into the sunset and we all migrated to Midnight, I was caught off-guard by the influx of younger, aggressively competitive players who were not here to play nice with the established order, but to kick over everyone's sand castles and build their own. I thought this was terribly rude, and so I got into a forum fight with one of the most visible, notorious, and clever (particularly when it came to deconstructing and finding holes in the rules) pirates of the day. In hindsight, this was a Huge Mistake. I let myself get way too emotionally invested in a doomed cause, ended up alienating many of my in-game friends (who, for one reason or another, didn't or couldn't take such a hardline position), and almost killed my love for the game. Perhaps the saddest part is what I didn't have the context or understanding for, at the time - that the mini-culture I was trying to defend and preserve was a quirk of beta, and could no more survive post-launch than a fishbowl dumped into the ocean could remain freshwater.
And so, broken-hearted, I quit the game. Deleted my pirate and walked away. I thought it would be forever. Turned out to be about a year, I think. When I came back, it was under a new name - a new account, even - on a new ocean, Cobalt. I was determined to stay out of politics and just try to play the game and enjoy myself. But, being a passionate sort, I did eventually get drawn into another fight here on the forums - over the rightness of playing alts and concealing one's identity, go fig - and almost ended up quitting again. Fortunately, in the course of typing up my angry/sobbing goodbye post, I talked myself out of it. :/
Since then, the fire has cooled. For good or ill, I'm not as invested in the game as I once was. I've grown older, found other games to play, and seen the oceans I used to play on merged and the crews I used to sail with become inactive. I still remain subscribed, thanks to my long-term discount - $50 a year is little enough to pay, supports Three Rings and now Grey Havens, and lets me log in whenever I feel the nostalgia upon me. But my active days are done.
I've taken screenshots of all I can, in anticipation of the day when this all goes down for the last time; to be honest, I sometimes wonder that it hasn't already. And for all that it's been something like ten years since this game was a daily part of my life, I'll still be sad when it does... and if at all possible, I'll be here, standing on Guava to watch the final sunset, just as I did when Azure went down.
So - since I'm still not entirely sure I answered it - what does Puzzle Pirates mean to me? Once the answer probably would have been "(almost) everything." Which, I can now say, was probably not healthy... but I was young, or younger at least. Maybe I was also old enough to know better, just this side of 30; but I have the excuse that it was all new to me - a new world to explore, loot to be won, and good mates and hearties to spend time with, sailing and puzzling together or just standing around on the docks. (And sometimes, if we were lucky, a Dev or an OM would join the circle.)
Now? It's something to look back on - fondly, or with regret, and sometimes both. In that, it reminds me of school - which, to those still in it, is everything, but which fades rapidly into the mists once you're out, taking with it all the people and things and drama that once seemed to matter so much. Sometimes we're lucky enough to keep some of the hearties we made there, along with lessons learned (and the scars from the learning).
Whatever happens, and however far I roam, Puzzle Pirates will always be my first. And yet, if I look at it from another angle, I can trace a not-too-twisty path from the docks of Alpha and Guava and Jorvik back to Islandia's West Corner of the Park, or AmberMUSH's Worlds End Bar, or Red Squadron's Fishtank; and forward through Atlas Park and the Pocket D of CoH to STO's Earth Space Dock, SWL's Agartha and beyond. From that perspective, I can see it as both something special and unique, and as one more stop on a long road.
It's happy noseless pirates. It's a bunch of great puzzles I still enjoy (though I'm far from the best) when I remember to play them. It's a few closets and wardrobes full of virtual clothing, from rags to finery. It's a small fleet of brightly-painted ships with names I once thought were clever. It's an eclectic collection of badges, trinkets and trophies, souvenirs of a long piratey life (or two). It's a gallery of precious portraits and screenshots, frozen moments from that life. And it's a handful of more tangible mementos - a boxed edition, a deck of cards, a small stack of brass doubloons.
Mostly, at this point, it's memories. And while there's much in them I now wish I could have done differently, I'd not trade them for anything.
Fair winds, all, and cheers to my old mates - wherever you are.
