Ubisoft to Publish Puzzle Pirates 151
Ubisoft announced this morning that they have come to an agreement with 3 Rings Design to publish Puzzle Pirates in retail stores. This exciting news couldn't come for a better game, winner of the IGF 2004 Technical Excellence and Audience Awards for Online games. From the Puzzle Pirates site: "Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates is an online game in which you play a Pirate character in an ocean world. Hundreds of your fellow player Pirates swarm these Isles and Sea-lanes. For Pirates who love acronyms, Puzzle Pirates is an massively multi-player online roleplaying game, or mmoarrrrpg." Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates is available for Demo on PC/Mac/Linux.
Great Game (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway, I highly recommend it if anyone's looking for a change of pace from MMORPG grinding. And, if any Marine Knights are reading, Rhodes didn't die, he just put his fleet into drydock for a while.
Re:Great Game (Score:5, Informative)
Give it a try, you can download the client [puzzlepirates.com] and play it for a week free.
- Spoom
Captain of the Monkey Hunters
Prince of Angels and Demons
Evil-Eyed Peglegged Monkey Pirate
Re:Great Game (Score:4, Funny)
"You fight like a dairy farmer!"
"How appropriate. You fight like a cow."
Re:Great Game (Score:3, Informative)
As for character develop
Puzzle Pirates Community (Score:5, Insightful)
Because the game is so socially focused, you find that the most socially and politically adept people become the Captains, Kings, and Governors of the game. It's not at all like a traditional MMORPG where your guildmaster is the guy who logs in the most often and has the items with the highest numbers. Teamwork and community are the foundation of the game, so it naturally attracts those people most interested in those things.
Older Community? (Score:3, Funny)
Now I feel REALLY old.
Re:Great Game (Score:2)
[tt] And in other news (Score:2)
Must be a SLOW news day.
It's a multiplayer online game (Score:1)
PiratesBay to pirate Puzzle Pirates.
Is an infringing copy of EverQuest worth much? Without a paid-up account key, you can't log on to EverQuest or Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates.
[tt]:It's a multiplayer online game (Score:2)
Nowadays, about the same as an uninfringing copy ... evercrack ain't all it's cracked up to be anymore.
I haven't heard a story in waht 6 months, about parents having to lock up their kids or get them to deprogrammers because of evercrack addiction.
I can see it now "Little Johnny won't stop going "Arr, matey, pass the bloody ketchup." at the supper table".
Maybe they should let Valve handle it - they've got technology that is notorious for getting people all
Yes, but... (Score:4, Funny)
This has been popular... (Score:2)
on P2P networks for quite a while.
The network IS the game...
Age groups (Score:5, Funny)
In other News... (Score:5, Funny)
James Blackbeard, president of the APA declined to say which deserted island he would deposit the booty at.
It is not clear how this deal affects software pirates.
Pirate Talk (Score:2)
Part of the fun is talking like a pirate to everyone for a few hours a week.
Ahoy, mateys. I see ye be quaffing a pint o' grog. Mind if I sit in with ye? Arrrrr!
Re:Age groups (Score:2)
Re:Age groups (Score:2, Funny)
Multi-platform, eh? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Multi-platform, eh? (Score:5, Informative)
Its great to see people using the right tools for the job.
Re:Multi-platform, eh? (Score:2, Funny)
Ohwait, it's actual fun ? Damn ;)
Re:Multi-platform, eh? (Score:2)
It running natively on linux is the only reason I started playing in the first place. I'm glad I did though, it's a fun game.
Cross-platform via Java (Score:5, Informative)
Puzzle Pirates has been developed in Java. This has given Three Rings a lot of advantages, in particular being able to run on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Disclaimer: I'm not saying this makes it awesome, or that Java rules, or that it couldn't be done another way, or that cross-platform Java doesn't have its problems, etc. etc. etc. I'm just shedding some light on how it was "published at the same time for PC, Mac and Linux," by quoting directly from the FAQ.
10 dollars a month (Score:1, Troll)
Re:10 dollars a month (Score:1)
I'm sure that many geeks here have paid hundreds of dollars for an hour of personal entertainment
So
Re:10 dollars a month (Score:3, Informative)
I do agree that they should (a) make the game free to download if they're going to charge monthly, and (b) do some scaling on the price, so if you play less than 1 hour/month for example, you get the month free...
Re:10 dollars a month (Score:2, Informative)
Re:10 dollars a month (Score:4, Insightful)
I usually have one online game that I pay for at a time. The ~$15 I pay is by far cheaper than other types of entertainment.
Been to the movies lately? Played a round of golf? Bowling? A bar?
Re:10 dollars a month (Score:1, Funny)
Re:10 dollars a month (Score:2)
Re:10 dollars a month (Score:2, Informative)
-Liz
Re:10 dollars a month (Score:1)
Well this is what the world is coming to my friend... Monthly costs for entertainment is has been proven to be something customers are willing to endure... and the developers are showing that they will meet with demand: Microsoft making streaming games for its new system... Monthly fees for video/game renting services... etc etc. Either jump on board or get left at shore (no pun intended with the puzzle pirates theme). Also, with the advances
Re:10 dollars a month (Score:2)
Re:10 dollars a month (Score:2)
$10 for a months entertainment is good value, whichever way you cut the cake. Kudos to these guys for making it that low.
Re:10 dollars a month (Score:1)
All for Wolfenstein 3d.
Not saying you did that, but many people did.
I have to admit that when I got busy I couldn't justify paying that much either. Especially since there is no real leveling and I lost very little. Not saying no leveling is bad, I prefered it, it just made the game a lot easier to walk away from.
Re:10 dollars a month (Score:2)
when I cancelled my account recently I sent an email saying I didn't have time to go out on raids that last a while to get into them ans if you are captaining the ship you really need to get somewhere to logoff. So I was paying for what to me was internet spades (I love spades, but wouldn't pay for it). I suggested and hourly fee, or 10 day pass that could work on any 10 24 hour periods over as long a time as wanted. Cleaver emailed me back saying they had something new in the works and to look out f
Re:10 dollars a month (Score:1)
Especially for such an awesome game!
Re:10 dollars a month (Score:2)
Re:10 dollars a month (Score:2)
Re:10 dollars a month (Score:2)
Puzzle Ninjas is better (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Puzzle Ninjas is better (Score:3, Funny)
Arr, ye wish to say that again there, sonny Jim?
Re:Puzzle Ninjas is better (Score:1, Informative)
http://www.realultimatepower.net/index4.htm [realultimatepower.net]
Re:Puzzle Ninjas is better (Score:2)
Re:Puzzle Ninjas is better (Score:3)
Re:Puzzle Ninjas is better (Score:1)
Dave
Re:Puzzle Ninjas is better (Score:1)
Re:Why not both? (Score:1)
Please Click the Advertisement (Score:1)
What a terrible idea (Score:5, Informative)
Plus the PC game market is falling prey to the console market with its teenage-type games, and the only people look for is graphics.
I've seen far too many 'really good' games die off because they thought they'd play well sitting next to the latest fad game (ie - grand theft auto).
Re:What a terrible idea (Score:2, Insightful)
Cleaver wrote:
Your play experience will be unchanged save that you might see the odd person with something that you can't normally buy.
People have no obligation to buy the box over the download in order to play on the servers, but offline puzzling is an awfully handy idea IMHO.
-Liz
Re:What a terrible idea (Score:2)
b) Packaging a game differently from other games can turn off those who only pay attention to the "big box" titles. I'm a game addict from way back who doesn't have to have the "latest, greatest" and I still only look at the cheap jewel cases when I'm either hunting for a specific older title or shopping for someone else (my mom likes casino and pinball and dad likes card games, so many
Great for dial-up users (Score:1)
I put on my robe and wizard hat (Score:5, Funny)
Fresh on the heels of the Wired [wired.com] sex columnist who recommends MMORPGs as the place to cyber, we now have a pirate-themed MMORPG.
I guess it's time to put on my robe and wizard hat and, umm... HARRRRRRRRRR! [sreality.org]
Re:I put on my robe and wizard hat (Score:1)
Perfect solution for the MMORPG problem! (Score:5, Interesting)
I played this game for a while. It has a lot of depth and it solves the BIGGEST problem in MMORPG - namely idiots with a lot of time can dominate you. With this game, intelligence counts for a lot - namely your ability to do tetris-style puzzles.
It also has a lot of teamwork - you need to work together to get a ship from port to port. It also has a big time element - it takes time to build new swords, to buy a new ship, etc.
Or if you want, you can just stand in the town center and duel people for money.
Re:Perfect solution for the MMORPG problem! (Score:1)
Re:Perfect solution for the MMORPG problem! (Score:2)
Seriously, this game is driven by creative thinking. There are differnet kinds of puzzles though they mostly all involve arranging shapes and colors. The point is if you are good at this, you will win against others who are not as good.
However, time invested does not count for nothing - you can invest in better tools with your credits ("swords") that give you a
Re:Perfect solution for the MMORPG problem! (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, if you loved Puzzle Fighter you will LOVE sword fighting. And the team sword fights on the high seas are awesome. I totally agree with the parent poster -- Puzzle Pirates is to fun because it's not about you being 'level awesome' and me being 'level suck' because it's really about wits and spatial relationships. It's kinda the same thing that makes (forgive me) Counter-Strike fun, because it's not about how great your character is, or your +39 Swor
Re:Perfect solution for the MMORPG problem! (Score:1)
Re:Perfect solution for the MMORPG problem! (Score:2)
Haha! (Score:2)
Puzzle Pirates is an massively multi-player online roleplaying game, or mmoarrrrpg.
I just want to say that that line made my day!Serious fun, Win or Mac (Score:4, Informative)
I'm really happy for the guys at Three Rings.
If it's not mentioned somewhere else, the Mac performance is weird (graphic trails, messed up transparency), but it's not Three Rings' fault, the JVM in Panther (so far) doesn't completely support the image object they use. I forget the name. I talked to the java-dev mailing list about it and a forth coming JVM will fix it. I don't know anything about when
(Caveat, never tried running it under Linux)
With this in mind... (Score:3, Interesting)
They're assitants for Puzzle Pirates that are Terms-of-use friendly with the game.
Anyone want to help?
~D
... All the avatars look like ... (Score:2)
Are all of the puzzles tetris-ish? Is it possible to play the game without doing any puzzles?
Can anyone offer some of their experience with it?
Re:... All the avatars look like ... (Score:3, Informative)
You really can't play if you don't like puzzle games. Each of the games is different though, so its possible to play if you don't like any one particular game. You can choose which role to play on a crew based on which puzzles you prefer. But the one puzzle that you really can't avoid is the sea battle
Re:... All the avatars look like ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Can anyone offer some of their experience with it?
while there are a few dropping blocks puzzles, I would hesitate to call them tetris-ish. The main puzzle for swabbies, sailing, is very reminiscent of Dr. Mario, however.
I've found the puzzles to be quite varied and engaging.
It is not possible to play the game without doing any puzzles. Practically any task you want to do is based on a puzzle. And how well you do on the puzzle is reflected, both in how productive you were at the task, and in your personal reputation in the game.
Though you can freelance, a lot of people join a crew. Whether you've joined a crew or not, there are temporary crew positions open pretty much all the time. However if you are not in a permanent crew, you can't become an officer, which means no ships for you.
A ship needs a crew of from 6 to about 30 to operate. Any spots not filled by a person can be filled by a (generally average) AI bot, at the discretion of the captain. There are three main duties on a ship, sailing, bilging, and carpentry. In addition, you have the more advanced duties of gunning and navigation. I would highly recommend going on a naval ship to practice gunning as that's a skill that's in high demand, especially since if you need someone to gun on a ship, you need them to do it well. Kind of a chicken and egg problem.
Landside there are plenty of crafting type puzzles to do. Most pirates have a few landside jobs as well as their piratical duties. In fact, the economy is based on it. I personally love distilling.
There are a few versus mode puzzles, swordfighting and the drinking game can be played for a wager (swordfighting is also played between two ships when one intercepts the other) plus there's some in-game card games.
I've been a subscriber for a few months, logging on maybe twice a week. Every time I go in it seems like they've improved a part of the game. Updates are frequent, but relatively speedy over my broadband connection.
P.S. I'm Mrln in the game if anyone wants to say hi real quick.
Re:... All the avatars look like ... (Score:1)
Every action except chat involves a puzzle of some sort. Otherwise Mrln is basically correct. There are many many different puzzles and you can usually find yourself to be very good and like a few of them. I have been playing now for about 9 months. I log on every day,
Re:... All the avatars look like ... (Score:1)
Especially the Pirate Playmobil [playmobilusa.com]
A positive sign for all independent developers (Score:3, Insightful)
Without a giant corporate bankroll and without any notice from the retail distribution "trust," they succeeded in launching really distinct and fun proprietary content, creating a thriving community, and finally just being so plain good that the majors were forced to notice.
I wish them all the success in the world, not only because they've clearly earned it, but because their story is a potential wind shift for smaller independent developers everywhere. Maybe the publishing system is finally seeing the costs of its hubris about budgets, "3dism," genre-lock and dealing with little guys, and realizing the value in doing smaller more unconventional deals.
There is an enormous untapped talent pool out there on the internet; Three Rings is one of many little guys who are doing great things way outside the norms of video game "Hollywood." Recognizing them, and fitting them into the distribution system in some meaningful way, would be a good thing for the industry, a great thing for gamers.
Re:A positive sign for all independent developers (Score:2)
They did. The term "progressive" is the one preferred by most leading-edge liberals any more. If anything, it is considered to be a little to the left of "liberal".
"You tried to use the dictionary to use weasel propaganda..."
The weaseling was on your side alone. You were using the term "propaganda!" in a fairly meaningless fashion in order to incite emotion in your support for massive censorship of political opinion you do not like. You su
Re:A positive sign for all independent developers (Score:2)
You can say they did, but you never gave any reason to believe you, and you gave dozens of reasons to know you are lying.
I deflated your appeal to emotion by pointing out what the word actually meant.
Do you mind if I say I kind of liked this line? "Appeal to emotion." I think you really were trying to end strong.
I'm surprised your singled out appealing to emotion, though. You are one of the least rational people I've met on slashdot, and that's saying something. I figured you would know that
Re:A positive sign for all independent developers (Score:2)
Yes, I am an apologist for people being able to advocate their political causes in media. However, I have never called for censorship of such advocacy or other expression of political opinion. You have.
"You know what's great about our time together, AtariAmarok? Our conversation provides convenient, unimpeachable evidence that you are lying about this, and that you also probably know it
I provided analysis of a few of
Re:A positive sign for all independent developers (Score:2)
How fitting - he flip-flops on this too.
Look at how he thinks. It's not "propaganda" - it's people being able to advocate their political causes in media.
And really, let's not forget - without fairness, its some people being able to advocate their political causes in media. And others, not.
I have never called for censorship of such advocacy or other expression of political opinion.
Sure you have. I have carefully explained
Re:A positive sign for all independent developers (Score:2)
I said that they were proud that they were left-wing, and it is found in this quote (from their own web site). If they were not happy with it, they would hide it. I never said they they were part of a conspiracy I don't even believe in. So, no, it is not evidence of this. You keep creating this "left wing conspiracy" stuff. If I say Ralph Nader is left wing, your response would be that I said he was part of a vast conspiracy
Re:A positive sign for all independent developers (Score:2)
I said that they were proud that they were left-wing, and it is found in this quote (from their own web site). If they were not happy with it, they would hide it.
Note: not actually found in the quote
I never said they they were part of a conspiracy I don't even believe in. So, no, it is not evidence of this. You keep creating this "left wing conspiracy" stuff.
You don't have to admit to it.
If I say Ralph Nader i
Spades (Score:1)
Fantastic Game (Score:5, Interesting)
the community is mature, not the content. There is a default chat filter that turns most online and d00d speak into more pleasant piratey versions. 12 year olds find that they don't fit in well at all, unless they act more mature than kids their age usually do.
there is no level grind. While there is a wide range of levels (as in any RPG), it's all skill, not artificial experience points. You go up in levels by simply getting better at the puzzles.
there are no predefined classes of players, but there are many different ways to play. You can make money pillaging, trading, being a merchant, or even just winning swordfighting or drinking competitions. If one form of play gets boring, you can move on to other ones.
teamwork is a fundamental design goal, and all of the duty puzzles come together to make ships sail in a fun and intuitive way.
once you've gotten sick of just puzzling and pillaging, there is a vast political game to play. Players fight for control of islands in blockades that require weeks of planning and involve hundreds of people.
most importantly for the slashdot crowd, there is a good dialogue between the designers and the community. Developers have even been recruited from the player base, adding some valuable perspective. A few months ago they released the island editor for designing landscapes, and ran a design competition. The winners were invited to finalize the entries to make up one of the archipelagoes in the new ocean.
So give it a try if you are looking for something fresh. There has been quite a flood of new players with some new ad placements, but the players will still go out of their way to help you get aquainted with things.
Best Feature! (Score:2)
Fun game, but ... (Score:2)
Re:Fun game, but ... (Score:2)
Also, most of the games aren't anything like tetris.
Re:Fun game, but ... (Score:2)
Re:Fun game, but ... (Score:2)
I mean if you're stylistically opposed to the whole notion of a game in the style of puzzle pirates, then yeah, obviously it's not your game. However, i'm not a fan of FPSs such as the one you described. My general opinion of Halo, Quake, etc, is that they suck, and that I can have a lot more fun at a firing range and/or with a paintball gun. Plus the term you are looking for is "scupper that."
Yes, it uses "tetris" to determine the outcome. This is the main draw o
Re:Fun game, but ... (Score:2)
Wow a MMORGP for my wife (Score:1)
Game has multiple levels (Score:3, Informative)
One of the things that keeps me coming back is the way this game has so many levels. When you first start playing the game, it is all about mastering different puzzles. After a while, you realize that their are ships to run. And you move to the level where you are not only doing a puzzle, but managing a ship and other pirates. You then spend your next chunk of time learning to do this well. It is often an exercise is multitasking combined with a bit of being social. After a while, you realize there are things to do and places to go with your ship. You start exploring the ocean and investigating how the economy works. This leads you in to investigating running a shop. At this point you start playing the economy game -- running a shop, managing labor and raw materials, and selling goods. Puzzle Pirates has a real, working, complex economy. Evenutally, you'll realize that your crew is in a flag and that your flag is involved in politics. And these politics can be fascinating.
And that's the level I'm at. And I suspect there is something more out there, but I'm still looking. At this point, I sometimes log in and just play the economy game - no puzzling involved. At other times I log in and puzzle for a couple hours. And sometimes I just log in to chat with all the interesting people I've met in game.
Pirates Logic Puzzle (Score:3, Interesting)
(to be clear on what 50% means, 3 pirates must vote for the proposal when there are 5 for it to pass. 2 if there are 4. 2 if there are 3. etc... )
Solution [techinterview.org]
Deja who? (Score:3, Interesting)
I like the Monte Hall puzzle better, because it's less broken.
In real (pirate) life, if I was a low-ranking pirate in this logic game, I'd walk away with 25 gold and leave behind one dead senior pirate because I know how to make a side-deal which includes, "And after we kill the blighter, we stop messing around with this stupid voting nonsense. It's this way, or we all get screwed by so-called, 'logic'."
Game theory only works in control
Re:Deja who? (Score:2)
At which point three of the remaining pirates decide to kill you and split the gold into 3rds. Then two of the three that are left kill the 3rd and split the gold
Dude. . , (Score:2)
They're pirates. Back-stabbing was the rule. But so, I believe, was the concept of 'fairly shared booty'. --What kind of retard pirate would set sail knowing they weren't going to get fairly compensated for risking their lives? (Well, other than U.S. soldiers who are not getting paid $1000 an hour like the corporate mercenaries doing the same job in the next oil-field over.) --Feed a
The one true bling (Score:3, Interesting)
The idea of the hero. There is no other game where a player can realistically hope to achieve heroic type fame. Granted, it is similar to hoping to become the best basketball player around, or the best chess player on earth, but the fact remains that you are not as hindered by a mixture of luck and hardcoded statistics as in everquest, world of warcraft, or any other MMORPG that has come out, ever. Puzzle pirates remains the only game out where this is an achievable dream.
Re:The one true bling (Score:2)
Fantastic game... (Score:1)
This reminds me of 'One Piece' (Score:2)
Another ultra-fluffy pirate world drawn in simple cartoon faces which is nonetheless broad and popular.
I can't figure out the life metaphor here. --Though, 'One Piece' (the manga series) was peopled with endless reams of charismatic sociopaths in search of treasure who were hard-wired to back-stab friends or stand up for comrades only when it could better their own lot. The whole thing traded on a very primitive understanding of morality.
Perhaps the metaphor here is as follows: The cur
Re:This reminds me of 'One Piece' (Score:1)
Re:This reminds me of 'One Piece' (Score:2)
puzzles are hard... (Score:1)
Re:I wonder... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I hate windows apps (Score:2)
I hate to agree with a troll, but... (Score:2, Interesting)