Ten years — was there even an internet ten years ago? Computers? The wheel? Cars? It is literally too long ago for anyone alive today to remember, a time lost to myth, and internet access that was charged on an hourly basis. We don’t know what it was like back then in the Long Before, but we do know one thing.

There were boats.

Not just any boats, mind. Boats governed by pirates — pirates with predilections for puzzles.

Precisely.

“Yarrr”, you might say. “Get to the point or taste the steel o’me cutlass!” And right you’d be to say that, even though the blog headline … I mean, it’s right up there!

Okay, here we go: Congratulations to our partners at Three Rings for celebrating the 10-year Anniversary of ‘Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates‘!

As a feat of magnificent derring-do, this probably can’t be understated. How many games — particularly an online game created by an independent start-up right at the crush of the dot-com boom – can say they’ve made it ten years? And yet here we are, talking with piratey swagger about an online game that has existed since — and I haven’t researched this but I am sure I’m right — before telephones.

It helps that the game is infectiously fun — the appeal of both puzzles and pirates, after all, is forever. It helps that a dedicated team of workers effectively said “yes, let’s stake our livelihood on the success of this video game about ships and puzzles.” Puzzle Pirates: I beam with pride at you, and raise a glass of hearty grog in your direction:

If you can coax an MMORPG through a decade of ups and downs, including a shift from subscription to free-to-play way before that was something all the cool kids started doing, then I think that’s some significant booty.

But don’t take my word for it. Here — er, I mean, Avast! Click here to read the official Puzzle Pirates blog, where Daniel James, co-founder/Captain of Three Rings, shares some of his thoughts on this milestone.

Finally, let’s close with a video taken from a recent party at the Three Rings headquarters — a pirate-themed party, naturally (it is possible they dress this way normally, I’m not sure, it’s a pretty awesome office, which, yes, that’s a model of the TARDIS. I think it is fully functional, too).

Anyway, this was to celebrate the decade anniversary of the game — what else is there to say after ten years? Well, why don’t you watch and see …