Pirates! is an aimless, repetitive, mini-game-ridden mess that should not work. And yet, it is one of the most loved and enduring computer games of all-time, with dozens of ports and remakes released over the span of nearly two decades. Why? Because it is all so expertly held together by a way-deeper-than-it-has-to-be meta-game that manages to give meaning to the way its gameplay elements come together. The back-and-forth between the wide variety of the player's possible actions and playstyles on one hand and the crunchy reactiveness of its living open world and its well-researched historical background on the other allows the imagination to go wild, resulting in a very personal emergent swashbuckling story full of action, drama, adventure and romance. (Or you could just, you know, trade sugar and stuff, if that's your thing.)