1 Doubloon Oceans

Doubloon Oceans

About Doubloons

What are Doubloons?

Doubloons can be considered 'credits' or 'tokens'. They are used on a Doubloon Ocean to deliver purchases and to pay for certain aspects of gameplay. Doubloons are essentially a 'micropayment' currency to enable specific aspects of a Puzzle Pirates character, as an 'a la carte' alternative to the traditional 'all you can eat' subscription model.

Doubloons are owned by a particular account. They are available on all of your pirates across all Doubloon servers. They are not available on Subscription servers.

What are the Doubloon Oceans?

Currently Viridian, Sage, Hunter and Opal are Doubloon Oceans. We may be introducing new Doubloon Oceans in due course. See the Payments FAQ for more information about Oceans.

Buying Doubloons

How do I get Doubloons?

Doubloons may be purchased from the Puzzle Pirates billing system with a credit card, or traded with other players on the Doubloon Exchange at the bank for pieces of eight.

Doubloons may also be purchased with Check, PayByCash, Text Message (for participating phone providers in certain countries) or Paypal. More details and specific pricing can be found on the billing page. Follow these guidelines for manual Paypal payment.

How much do Doubloons cost?

Doubloons are available in the following packages:

$2.95 for 12 Doubloons (~$0.25c per Doubloon)
$9.95 for 42 Doubloons (~$0.24c per Doubloon)
$19.95 for 90 Doubloons (~$0.22c per Doubloon)
$49.95 for 240 Doubloons (~$0.21c per Doubloon)
$99.95 for 500 Doubloons (~$0.20c per Doubloon)

These prices are subject to change. See the Doubloon sign-up page for latest prices and to purchase!

Spending Doubloons

How do I spend Doubloons?

Doubloons are mostly spent when finished goods are delivered. Thus when you order an item, for example a new sword, you will be quoted the Pieces of Eight price to begin the order, and a Doubloon price to collect the finished product.

In addition some special Doubloon-only items are sold, mostly from the Palace, such as an Officers Badge that allows a Pirate to use Officer commands when they have that rank, or a Labour Badge that allows a Pirate to take a shoppe job.

What costs Doubloons?

On a Doubloon Server, Doubloons are presently charged to deliver most clothing items, paint, swords, potions and ships. Doubloons are currently levied on the completion of buildings and building upgrades. Doubloons are charged for Badges, available at the Doubloon Shoppe in the Palace, that allow for privileges such as Officer rank and working at a shop. In addition there is a small charge in Doubloons for opening a Stall, or starting a Crew or Flag.

Doubloons are not charged for Rum, Cannonballs, Dyes, Cloth, and some basic clothes.

Doubloons are not used on Subscription servers.

The Philosophy behind the Doubloons Experiment

Why are you implementing Doubloons?

Doubloons are an experiment with a different business model to flat-rate subscriptions. Our hope with Doubloons is to accomplish the following;

To be able to offer a free play of the basic Puzzle Pirates game.
To allow mates to pay incrementally for the parts of the game that they use.
To allow mates to easily gift other pirates.
To facilitate exchange between mates who have the time to play a lot, and those who lack time but have financial resources.
For the Doubloon Oceans to generate enough revenue such that Three Rings can operate said servers and stay in business.
To preserve and foster our existing Subscription business.

Is this just a ploy to extract more money from subscribers?

No. We do not anticipate that subscribers will want to spend more money on Doubloons, as Doubloons are intended to appeal to a different type of player to the majority of our existing subscribers, and be used on entirely different oceans.

A good analogy is between a high-end restuarant that offers a 'prix fixe' set menu, containing all the most delicious things on offer for a set price, vs. 'a la carte' where each item is ordered separately. We suspect that most of our existing subscribers will prefer to continue with their delicious prix fixe.

Outrageous! You can buy your way to success on a Doubloon Ocean?!

Not really. Puzzle Pirates is a game with many objectives. For most players the game is about the success of their Pirate in terms of their puzzling skills and the community that they create with their crew and flagmates. Neither of these are amenable to being purchased with Doubloons. It is one of the great strengths of Puzzle Pirates that 'material' items are not the pivotal judge of success.

The failure of major massively multi-player games to limit trading in their currencies and items on third-party sites such as IGE.com is indicative of two things; that the demand exists for such trades, and that it is largely futile to attempt to prevent them.

Three Rings are not ones to stand in the sand getting our feet wet, hoping that we can persuade the tide to turn back. If people are going to engage in such transactions, we will provide a sensible platform for them to do so, and keep a hand on that platform for the good of the ocean.

The great advantage of this approach is that we believe that it will allow many players to play Puzzle Pirates entirely for free, and have a great experience doing so. We obviously hope to sell enough Doubloons to make it possible to continue to offer such a service, but on average we do not expect to make more money per player. We are quite happy with our subscription prices, but we are unhappy that the vast majority of potential players are not willing or able to commit to a subscription. Doubloons is an attempt to overcome that problem.

Trading, Wagering, Gifting, Tipping and Selling Doubloons

Can I transfer or trade between Oceans?

Absolutely not; the Oceans must be considered distinct and separate. There will be no way to transfer your Pirate between Oceans, and no approved means of trade between Oceans.

Three Rings explictly forbids players from making trades between Oceans and will enforce the updated Terms of Service in this respect.

Can Doubloons be wagered?

Not at present. Although we believe that we could offer such wagering legally, we are wary of skilled players fleecing others.

Can Doubloons be the prize in a Tournament?

Doubloons can be a part of the prize pot in a tournament, but cannot be part of the entry fee. In addition the Doubloons in a tourney are always 'winner takes all' i.e. the winner of tthe tournament takes the entire Doubloon prize as with item prizes, even if pieces of eight are distributed by a cascading rule.

Can I give Doubloons to other players?

Yes. We expect that players will often give mates a few Doubloons for this, that, or the other. They can be traded in the normal trade interface.

Can I 'tip' an event organiser with Doubloons?

Yes! Simply /tip and the Doubloons will be transferred across.

Do you buy back Doubloons?

No. Aside from in cases of fraud, Doubloons are a non-refundable purchase and Three Rings will not re-purchase them.

Can I sell Doubloons on eBay or Gaming Open Market?

No. Doubloons are intended as an in-game credit to be used within the game to purchase goods and enable aspects of gameplay. They are not to be resold as a source of revenue. Unfortunately we will have to ban players who attempt to execute such trades.

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