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International Talk Like a Pirate Day was started by the irascible pair of rapscallions - John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur and Mark "Capt'n Slappy" Summers - as a bit of a joke. It became reality on September 19, 2002 when Dave Barry wrote about it in his column. Five years after the momentous occasion, Pirates of the Burning Sea was selected as the official game of International Talk like a Pirate Day.

The honor was bestowed upon them at Flying Labs Software's celebration of the holiday event held for fans, friends and family at the Seattle Aquarium. Among shouts "Yarr" and downing swigs of "grog", pirate aficionados thronged the newly renovated Seattle Aquarium. The Seattle Seafair Pirates lent color, their singing voices and pirate camaraderie to the festivities while music from Pirates of the Burning Sea was piped in.

The party ran through most of the Aquarium with events such as the Sea Otter feeding and the Seafair pirates giving rides around the city on Moby Duck - their amphibious vehicle that was retrofitted to look like a pirate ship. Flying Labs brought in a lady to do face painting and swag was handed all around. The highlight of the evening was when the pirates shanghaied Rusty Williams, CEO of Flying Labs, holding him ransom to the promise of an in-game appearance of the Seattle Seafair Pirates!

Two computers were available for hands-on demos, but it was mainly the kids that wanted to play - and by that, I mean the twelve year olds, not the eighteen year olds. Developers were also on hand to talk to fans and did so by joining them at the tables or standing around, chatting. Rusty provided a little insight into the development of Pirates of the Burning Sea.

"If we had twice or three times the amount of money, we wouldn't be done yet. Our constraints actually helped us focus," he said. "The next MMO we do, I'll start the team with a development team of… eight!"

The pre-order date Pirates was announced - October 23rd! Then a new trailer shown and a video of the founders of International Talk like a Pirate Day sending their best wishes. Much of the buzz then turned to the parrot in the pre-order. I had to ask, after all the jokes about monkeys... How did monkeys get into the game?

"We had a focus group after all the renewed interest in pirates after Pirates of the Caribbean came out, and what came out of that was that people wanted monkeys!" exclaimed Rusty. "So, we ended up putting monkeys into the game."

Snippets of information and fan comments were heard just about everywhere as I mingled, strolling the venue, talking to fans and Flying Labs personnel alike.

"Have you seen this build? We've improved the UI with new fonts for better clarity."

"Avatar combat looks fantastic!"

"Mom! I beat the game! I just won the zombie quest!"

"Pre-order has just been announced. We should be firming the launch date in a couple of weeks."

"That's a great costume!"

"Did the avatars look this good before?"

"Nice boots."

"Yaaarrrr!"

Tales of real pirates were exchanged. "Gasparilla wrapped himself up in his anchor chain and threw himself overboard, declaring that Gasparilla would die by no man's hand but his own. It's so cheesy! But it's real!"

"There were female pirates. Anne Bonny and, and… that… ummm…"
"Mary Read."
"Anne Bonny made up for the lack of female pirates. She's equal to 40 pirates!"
"If you had fought like a man," she reportedly told Calico Jack Rackham in prison, "You wouldn't be dying like a dog."
"There were more female pirates! There was Lady Killigrew and Madam Ching, Grace O'Malley and Charlotte de Berry!"
Someone knew her female pirates indeed.

Throughout the commotion and celebration servers discreetly offered finger foods while pirates romped through waving their fearsome cutlasses, singing snippets of pirate ditties and sea shanties, posing for photographs and chatting with attendees who had also shown up in costume. I might just have to make up my own costume to party!