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2 Million Pirates Shanghai'd
The Escapist's news feed reports that 2 Million characters have been made in Puzzle Pirates since the launch of the game. From the article: "Three Rings' CEO Daniel James sees 2 million users as confirmation of the micro-currency model. 'We believe that this model represents the future for online entertainment. Our inspiration continues to be the Korean market, where 'free to play, pay for item' is the ubiquitous business model for online games. As the US market matures to meet Korea, we intend to keep leading the way.' In addition, the company recently released the beta version of a new game, Bang! Howdy, a multiplayer online tactical strategy game for the PC, which uses the same payment structure and online distribution model."
When I saw just the headline "2 Million Pirates Shanghai'd", I was expecting it to be a story about some busted counterfeiters or something. I can understand the "2 Million Pirates" part, being about YHHPP, but what's Shanghai got to do with it? This suggests the users of that MMO are induced into doing something against their will, or something. A less confusing headline would be appreciated.
But attacking weaker players isn't much of a challenge. You won't rise in the game by being a bully, and besides, all newbies are weak and they wouldn't hang around to make those micropayments if they kept being the victims of uneven battles.
To repeat, you can attack ships who are your equals or you can attack stronger ships with stronger crews. If you whoop a weakling who was dumb enough to attack a stronger crew, then you do get to take all there stuff and you aren't a bully.
If you must moderate, please moderate as irrelevent, not something bad, because I'm sure someone will find this interest
The client is Windows only and not supported by WineX. Your complete lack of windows hints at a religious reason for it's absence, so I doubt you'd buy it just for this game and thus, no, they haven't lost a potential customer. Of course, you could always do the preferred thing and search for actual players screenshots rather than cherry picked publisher ones, or heck, maybe even look for gameplay videos. Just a thought. HIBT? :).
Koreans don't have to purchase a copy of the game or expansions. They pay about $25US a month to play and usually play at net cafes.