Pirates of the Caribbean MMO?

(I basically copied this from another site, which didn't have the link).

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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" opens Friday (July 7), but the Walt Disney Co. also has high hopes for the property in the strikingly different media of massively multiplayer online games.

"Pirates of the Caribbean Online" will become a reality next year when Disney Online reveals an original story set within the mythology of the "Pirates" film trilogy.

Disney Online Virtual Reality Studio vice president Mike Goslin knew he wanted to create an MMOG based on the theme park ride even before 2003's "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" grossed nearly $654 million worldwide. He brought with him an intimate knowledge of the attraction from his work on an award-winning virtual reality ride for the Disney Quest zone in 1998, which gave him hours of access to Disney World.

Goslin said that after the success of "Black Pearl," Disney took a step back and developed the two new films from even more of a long-term franchise perspective. A core team went back and created a mythology around the world of the films, in addition to the stories of the two sequels, from which the books, video games and other manifestations of the intellectual property could be drawn.

WORLD OF RICHES

"When you start to look at this mythology, we were able to realize just how rich this world is," Goslin said. "There's a lot going on with the characters and enemies in this world. We became familiar with the direction that the two films were going and embarked on an original, parallel story that will encompass hundreds of hours rather than the two to three hours each film takes up."

There will be plenty of elements from "Dead Man's Chest" in the game, including the Kraken, Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and his crew of undead aquatic creatures, Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) and, of course, the anchoring trio of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley). Goslin said he hopes to get the likenesses of all of the principal characters from the films. Discussions are under way with key actors to provide voice acting for the game.

"We'll allow gamers to interact with the main characters from the films through frequent, staged interactions," Goslin said. "The linear story line allows for cut scenes that set up the game's chapters."

Depp already lent his voice to "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow," which was released June 28. The title was developed by Seven Studios and Bethesda Softworks and distributed under license from Buena Vista Games.

The "Pirates" MMOG will have an original villain named Jolly Roger, who was inspired by the Disney theme park attraction. (He's the pirate who warns people to turn back before the ride ushers visitors into its subterranean world with a waterfall plunge.) Players also will interact with villains from the films, but the game is set in a parallel universe that won't track with the linear films.

A release date has not been set, but the game is expected to launch at least by the time the third film, "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," hits theaters in May.

Goslin is working closely not only with producer Jerry Bruckheimer's core film team but also other divisions within Disney Interactive. While there will be no overlap between the "Pirates" MMOG and the recently released "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" PSP and GBA games from Buena Vista Games, Goslin meets regularly with the creative teams behind the next-generation "Pirates" games (also due next year from BVG), as well as the people working on the "Pirates" cell phone games. That opens the door for some potential crossover, especially in the mobile gaming space.

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Personally, I liked the first Pirates movie. Johnny Depp was pretty good in it, and the script was pretty strong overall (minus some plot holes, which apparently the 2nd movie will fill, like what happened exactly to Will's dad). I'll probably also go see this in theaters, just cause Depp was so dang hiliarious in the first one (maybe unintentionally at times, but I can't forget his intro, where his little rowboat gradually sinks before he reaches the shore lol).

However, I strongly believe "POTC" will fail as an MMO. There are a lot of pirated-themed games already (and I think there's one pirate based MMO coming out too), but mostly, my argument is, historically, MMO's based on movies haven't done very well. Here are two examples, Matrix Online (MxO), and Star Wars Galaxies (SWG).

I don't mind it being a single player game, with multi-player online features, but as an MMO, it probably won't work. The reason is, when people start playing it, they're gonna want to start pretending that they're Captain Jack Sparrow, or Will Turner, or even Elizabeth (and to a lesser extent, that female pirate, but I forget her name atm).

But this being an MMO, even if you see them in the game, they're not going to be anything more than an NPC who'll give you some silly quests to do.

I think part of the problem with MxO and SWG is that, for the most part, anything you do in the game doesn't matter. I remember when I played SWG (back when it first launched, for about 4 months), I would blow up imperial outposts left and right, and other than gaining some faction points, it didn't do anything. I wasn't Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie, or even Boba Fett (but no doubt there were a ton of wannabe Boba's).

To quote something about SWG (just slightly out of context, cause I don't remember where I heard it, but it was just before SWG came out with NGE which apparently pissed off quite a few players), 'In SWG, you're not Luke or Han, you're the guy that says "Your tauntaun will freeze before you get to the first marker". (there was some other stuff, but you can see what was being implied, and from stuff I've read, it's still pretty true).

I got tired of being "Rebel Trooper #23,342", and killing cannonfodder, er, I mean "Imperial Stormtrooper THX-1138" (yes, I'm aware of what I just typed lol) for the umpteenth time, and my contributions not doing anything for the Rebellion (Didn't play long enough to make an Imperial character, and with that "one character per server" limit, I didn't want to reroll just for that purpose).

I haven't played MxO, but I'm sure it's a similiar situation there. You're not Neo, Morpheous, or even Trinity, you're the guy that got on the phone right before that one dude that Smith enters, or at best, the guy that drove the car to pick up Neo for the first time, lol.

I think that's what's gonna hurt the Pirates MMO in the long run. Players will probably get tired of being "British soldier #12367", or "The pirate that loaded the cannon with forks and spoons!" after a while, and I doubt Disney will do anything to make it as complex and rewarding as WoW (well, the 1-59 stuff, lvl 60 raids get kind of dull after a while, and the PvP sucks).

I probably already used up anything you guys might add, but feel free to say something, good or bad, but make sure you support your argument (posts that say "OMG this game is going to be teh Suq" by itself doesn't add much).

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Actually there is official site from Disney.

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