Assignment 2: Puzzle Pirates
For this weeks assignment, I chose to play Puzzle Pirates. As far as social metaphor's go, it felt like playing on a professional sports team where you were always free to choose to play a different position or on a different team . Just like in real life, you were paid to play a position on the team. The better you performed in your position (as part of a crew), the more money you were paid. The better your team as a whole played, the more money everyone would earn.
From my perspective, the broader goal of the game is to make money and buy clothing or ships. The best way to do that is to get a job on a ship. You choose a position (bilge pumper, carpenter, gunner...) and play a mini game associated with that position. The better you perform, the more money you make. At first, you take jobs on the public ships that are provided by the game. This in essence is the minor leagues. You do not make much money and get little fame, but there is no difficulty getting a job.
Getting a job on a player owned ship is usually the next step. This in essence is the major leagues. The money earned is many times the amount made on a public ship, but the risks involved make getting the job more difficult. The players who own the ships will want a good crew manning it because more money is made with a good overall crew. At first, your skills with all the associated attributes will be low, so no good captain is likely to hire you aboard. As you become better in the various positions, your rank with the associated skill will go up making you desirable for the good captains.
Another social metaphor that I noticed while playing the game is found in the various islands where people chatted. It felt like being in a medieval aristocracy. Everyone tries to show off how much money they have by buying expensive articles of clothing. I almost felt intimidated trying to chat because of how poor I looked compared to the other players around me. This fact was the driving goal for me to earn money at first. The mini games on the ship encouraged me to continue mking money.