Pirates of the Caribbean Online

Pirates of the Caribbean Online is a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) based on the series of movies and the Disney theme park attraction of the same name.

Plot
The game allows each player to create his/her own customized pirate character, battle other online pirates, and complete pirate-themed quests both on ship and on land.

Disney's Mike Goslin said the game will feature interactions with the main characters from the "Pirates" feature films, both heroes and villains. Disney is in negotiations for the key actors to lend their voice talents to the game.

Common MMORPG features such as player guilds and a virtual economy have also been announced.

History
The game is being developed by the VR Studio, a group of technologists and artists that are part of the Walt Disney Internet Group. It will be the second MMORPG developed by the VR Studio, the first being Toontown Online, which was launched in 2003.

The game was first announced by The Walt Disney Company on April 26, 2005. It was originally scheduled to be released in summer 2006 to coincide with the release of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. But in April 2006, the company announced that the release date would be pushed back. Disney's Mike Goslin says the game will be available well before the third "Pirates" movie is released in May 2007. News about the game has been released via a couple of email newsletter updates from Disney. The most recent newsletter and website update occurred on December 11 2006. It provided more information about the game but did not announce a Beta testing schedule or a release date.

An early demo of the game was shown at the E3 trade show in May 2006. The game's official website was also redesigned at that time to include a trailer, some screenshots and some concept art.

On January 8, 2007, Paul Yanover of Disney Online showed video footage of the upcoming game during Disney CEO Robert Iger's keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show. He also announced that "we’re going to let you play this massively multiplayer online game for free for as long as you want." Also, several press accounts of the event state that the game will debut during the second quarter of 2007.

The game went through two beta testing phases during 2007 and was officially launched on October 31, 2007.[3]

Gameplay
In Pirates Online, players are able to create a customizable pirate, captain a ship, assemble acrew and play the role of a pirate in the 18th century Caribbean.

Player interaction takes place in and around Port Royal, Tortuga, Cuba and Padres del Fuego with characters from the film series (including Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann) as major NPCs. Gameplay also involves encounters with new characters and enemies unique to the game, such as the Jolly Roger. In order to become a notorious pirate (the game's experience system), player's are required to forge alliances, complete quests for reputation and gold coins, hunt for buried treasures, battle evil forces and outsmart enemies.

The Level cap for the game is level 50, and there is a maximum skill level of 30.

In-game combat consists of pressing F1-F6 on the keyboard to switch weapons, and clicking the mouse or pressing Ctrl multiple times to create combinations, resulting in more damage. The game has a limited list of weapons available — sword, pistol, voodoo doll, dagger (and throwing knives), grenades, and voodoo staff — with each upgradeable.

Players can play Poker and Blackjack in taverns, with the ability to bet gold on each game. These games are be played against NPCs or other online players. Currently, the maximum amount of gold that can be carried is 65,000.

Ships are very important; providing a way to travel and to fight. Players assemble crews to run the ships while in battle. However, crews only last while logged in. If a player remains logged-out for more than five minutes, the crew is lost.

Leaderboards enable players to compare scores with other pirates and guilds. The ranking criteria of Top 25 players and guilds include overall notoriety, enemies defeated, ships sunk, Pirate vs. Pirate battles and blackjack hands won.

Based on player feedback, extensive revisions were implemented in 2009 to optimize Pirates Online [1]. Developers expanded the game by introducing new enemies and adding the ability to retrain weapons skills and revive fellow players. Also added were a stowaway transportation system, and the chance to defend Port Royal and Tortuga against invading armies of "undead" pirates ultimately ending in a fight with Jolly Roger (the game's nemesis). Other Pirates Online changes concentrated on improving the website, adding weekly community events and improving customer service and player-to-player interaction.

Plot
The basic story of the character begins in the island of Rambleshack, where the character is set free by pirate Jack Sparrow. As the player leaved the jailed he started in, he finds the small island being attacked from nowhere by cannon fire. As he enters a warehouse, he meets William Turner who trains him with the Cutlass. As the player readies to leave, skeletons appear and take on William. As the player escapes the warehouse through the back door, he takes on the Skeletons that block him. He then enters a ship captained by Bo Beck who takes the player with him. After confronting an undead warship, the game's main villain Jolly Roger appears on the ship. It is revealed that Beck was to bring Jack in a deal with Roger, but double crossed Roger for Jack. Jolly Roger then turns him into a skeleton. Jolly Roger lets the player live as a warning to Sparrow. In Port Royal, voodoo mistress Tia Dalma warns of dark forces of the EITC and Jolly Roger rising in the Caribbean, and that only the Black Pearl is needed to keep alive Pirates; but unfortunately the Pearl has been captured by the Navy. As Elizabeth Swann is approached for help she tells the player that the release of the Pearl would not be easy, but instead gives the player a ship. Captain Hector Barbossa then hands over the player a pistol as he is met in his Grotto in Devil's Anvil. Then the player has to land up in the Faithful Bride to meet Jack Sparrow. He then tells him of the list of people to recruit for the Pearl's crew. From then on the pirate has to do innumerable amounts of quests for the recruits, and this First chapter of the story ends with the Black Pearl boss battle, in which players have to team up to sail the Black Pearl out of the fort it was kept in by blowing up enemy forts and the main boss ship the Goliath....

The whole game's story, which is its role playing part, occurs between the first and second Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It began with the war of Garcia and Pierre le Porc for claiming the sea for their Spanish and French motherlands respectively. Players have to launch from either one of the islands to take on their enemies. This is known as privateering which continues till today. With this, Spanish and French undead were found on wild islands. Then for Halloween Jolly Roger launched a Curse of the Moon in which pirates turned to undead and began battling each other. As Jolly's plan failed he began to think of a new plan. The islands of Port Royal, Tortuga and Padres Del Fuego were immediately destroyed and rebuilt ( redesigned ). The causes vary from East India Trading Company attacks to Gunpowder explosions and volcanic eruption. The EITC and Jolly Roger were somehow involved in this, and the Marceline GMs ( Game masters / the Game developers of POTCO ) took pirates to take on EITC fleets. Role playing events of Black Guard ( EITC's thug group ) looking for the protagonist GMs and even interrogating pirates, leading to more battles. Soon afterwards, a mysterious guild known as Casa de Muertos arrived on the shores of Port Royal and gave quests to Pirates to bring them artifacts and defense plans of the Royal Navy, after which they left. After sometime, Port Royal faced an attack from Jolly Roger's undead armies, who came in brigades to capture the Governor's Mansion. The final brigade was Jolly Roger himself who killed pirates with a single attack. Invasions of Tortuga began soon, followed by the last main island Padres Del Fuego. Now, the Invasions of Padres was to find a cache of weapons. Once the Invasions are done with, the next new story would be about the Players getting new weapons, and will ultimately be the basis for the Second story chapter every player has been waiting for!

System requirements
According to the official website, the target system requirements are:
 * Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista
 * Pentium 3 800Mhz processor (P4 1Ghz rec.)
 * 256 MB RAM (512 recommended)
 * 400 MB disk space available
 * 32MB graphics card (64 MB recommended)
 * DirectX 9 or better
 * Broadband internet connection

There is also a client for Mac OS X