I am someone who never played Sid Meier's original Pirates! I come into the game judging it not on what it was, but what it is today. The first thing that struck me about the game is that it is next to impossible to classify it. It has a multitude of quests, but that doesn't make it an RPG. It has tactical, turn based ground battles, but does that make it a war game? How about a dancing game? Maybe you can call it an RTS? This is the bread and butter of Pirates. It is extremely open ended, in that you can play it however you choose, and as a result the individual player can play it the way they like.