Puzzle Pirates' Social Metaphor
The social metaphor in Puzzle Pirates is a school yard at recess. This is because the emphasis is on cooperative and competitive multiplayer games that can be played in teams or in a free for all.
Wall ball, four square, tether ball and hop scotch are all games I remember playing when I was in grade school. Though the game play in each of these is varied, they all have one factor in common. You can’t play them anywhere on the playground. They’re not like Magic: The Gathering or POGS. If you want to play wall ball you have to find a good wall, if four square’s your game you have to head over the court outlined on the asphalt.
Puzzle pirates contains a similar dynamic. The card games, Spades and Hearts, and The Drinking Game can only be played in an Inn. If you want to work in a distillery or a tailoring shop, you have to move your character into those shops to do the job. And players can only practice seafaring skills, like sailing or navigation, while on a ship. The only game that you can play pretty much anywhere is sword fighting, and for that you need at least one other person to challenge to a duel. Consequently the topography of the game world and your location in it has a real effect upon game play. Unfortunately the integrity of this construct is muddled slightly by the ability of any character to teleport anywhere within an island or from a sailing ship to their home island, where many of the shops and inns required for the games are located. But like in Traveler, certain concessions have to be made for the sake of keeping the game fun.
Another game play element that reflects the school yard metaphor is the way chatting is set up. In some MMOs like World of Warcraft a player type a message into their chat box and everyone in their area or zone of game will be able to read it. In Puzzle Pirates, however, your character must be physically close to the people they want to chat with. In fact there’s a little circle around each player and in order to talk to that player, your character must be within that circle. The exception to this is chatting with people whom you have designated your friends. Friends still whisper each other from across the game world.