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Recently, Disney and VR Studios announced Pirates of the Caribbean Online, an MMORPG from the markers
of ToonTown Online that lets you be a pirate in a game based on the famous movie and theme park ride.
MMORPG.com took the opportunity to learn a little more in during a discussion with Steve Parkis, the VP
of Premium Products for Disney Online, and Mike Goslin, the VP of VR Studios who are developing the title.
Recently announced, the game is in its absolute infancy, and will not even be at E3 2005. This, however,
did not stop us from gleaning some interesting nuggets of information.
Due to launch simultaneously with the second film in 2006, Pirates of the Caribbean Online will place you
in the role of an individual pirate, not a boat, whose primary goal is to become the most famous pirate
in the land. My first thought, given the kid-oriented resume of VR Studios, was to wonder for what
demographic they would target the title. Disney expects the game to receive an "E 10+" rating, and made
it clear that their target demographic is the same as that of the film. They will not target the game at
young children. Instead, they strike for the more traditional market that MMORPGs seek: young adults,
and teenagers.
The original announcement mentions that players can "organize with other players to form a pirate crew",
which led me to ask where VR Studios stands on the eternal balance between single-player-esque instanced
content and cooperative, social experiences. In their estimation, the strength of the genre is the fact
that it is online. They will thus design the game to be a social and group-oriented experience, with the
caveat that at the most basic level, your character strives to be the most famous, or infamous, pirate in
the Caribbean.
VR Studios has a proven record of accomplishment with ToonTown Online, and experience in the development
of theme park attractions. More details on this exciting title should be available in the fall of this
year, but they promise that the game will capture the spirit that made the film and theme park so
widely popular.
For now, information on this upcoming title is limited - but you might want to keep a close eye on their
official website at http://disney.go.com/pirates/online/index.html
for more updates as well as here at MMORPG.com!
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