1) There is a burgeoning genre of game - that is, I know of one, called Erenshor - that simulates the experience of playing an MMORPG, but entirely offline, on purpose. I found it to be a very clever idea, likely made in reaction to many Runescape players who essentially treat OSRS as a single-player challenge with a live element.

2) I'm very glad to see some Puzzle Pirates love. I was and still am enthralled by the idea of in-game economies, loosely-narrative-driven cooperative play driven by simple independent tasks; it was such a neat idea in such a simple package, I'm surprised it hasn't really been copied with much success, the casual/puzzle games boom notwithstanding. I've been daydreaming of mixing Puzzle Pirates with FTL as a spiritual successor, but it's a game design exercise beyond my ken.