Gaming Signal: Casual MMOs

Casual MMOs

I've been messing around this weekend looking at the MMOs oriented toward the casual gamer from Three Rings Design. The first you've probably heard of, its called Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates.

Puzzle Pirates is, as the name suggests, a game oriented around solving puzzles. Everything you do has a puzzle involved. Sailing, swordfighting, bilging, just about everything. And they are all different, although they can be somewhat similar. They are 'guilds' which revolve around operating a ship, which is done by different people performing different puzzles at the same time to keep the ship moving. It seems interesting. I haven't really done much, but there is a large community here and it seems like a good way to spend a few minutes and earn some 'doubloons' for use in the meta game. PP is free to play, but you can spend real world money to purchase doubloons for use in game to upgrade you pirate and his equipment. If you do play, you can add me to your 'Mates' list. My pirate's name is 'Parrottop'. Now I just need to find a parrot.

The other game I've been playing is called Bang! Howdy. It's a western themed, isometric, squad-based, tactical strategy game, similar to Xcom. You get to purchase different units, and then battle it out in the field in a variety of game scenarios. So far there are three different game types: Cattle Rustling (where you brand cattle, most brands wins), Claim Jumping (finite amount of gold on the board, whoever has the most gold at the end wins) and Gold Rush (gold keeps popping up, most gold wins). You earn money which you then can use to upgrade your guy, but equipment, cards (for use in game) or other units. You start out with one 'Big Shot' unit, I chose a cavalry unit, but there are two other types. The community here is much smaller as B!H is in beta. Again, if you play, look for 'Sam Houston' and add me to your friends list! I also named my big shot unit the 'Texas Rangers' and I don't mean the baseball team...

Ahoy there!

I've become addicted to this game, too.
Nick: Mewoko
Ocean: Sage

My new Y!PP blog: http://ypplife.blogspot.com/

Maybe I'll see you on it sometime, matey.

Posted by Officer Mewoko on Sunday June 04, 2006 at 2:00 AM