Disney wants your child online: MMOs for tweens (and below)

Pirates of the Caribbean Online: the MMO grows up

Pirates of the Caribbean was a movie based on a ride, and it featured Johnny Depp acting like Keith Richards. In no rational universe is that a successful formula, but the film went on to gross over $300 million in the US alone, not counting its two massively successful sequels. It also contained a world that seemed ripe for an MMORPG, and in October 2007, the game was launched.

The title stuck with many of the things that made Toontown a success while refining the formula. The game is actually based on the Toontown engine, meaning developers could use many of the same tools the studio was familiar with from that title. This also allowed Disney to keep the minimum requirements low; it would be hard to find a computer that can't handle the game's modest needs.

Gamers can play for free, albeit in windowed form, surrounded by advertisements and with some restrictions on content. The monthly fee for a full account is $9.95, and this allows full-screen play. Still, gamers enjoying the free content are an important part of the game. Disney isn't just interested in the short-term profits; it wants to keep the Pirates brand viable.

"We don't expect everyone to pay," we're told. "They're valuable to us if they're playing: they love the franchise, they're living in the world. It's good for the Disney company to keep this brand on the radar."

The game makes liberal use of the "name" characters from the movie in cutscenes and when being given missions; the game even begins with Jack Sparrow busting you out of jail.

There isn't much variety in the characters you can play; you're only allowed to be a pirate. Then again, do you really want to be a member of the East India Trading Company? It's also obvious that the game is designed with a younger gamer in mind. An arrow points to the next objective, rays of light from the heavens illuminate where you need to go next, and details on how to play the game are given out at a slow pace through the obligatory first few tutorial missions. In many ways, this is MMO-lite, which could be a fun way to get inexperienced gamers interested in the concept of online gaming. Still, what's to keep me from hitting on little boys as I play?

"At Disney our number one focus is safety," Goslin explains as he walks me through the safety measures. "We employ a sophisticated hybrid approach that blends technology and people working together in concert. This includes a software system as well as human monitors that look for bad behavior, filter out inappropriate language in our chat systems before it can be seen by others, and prevent children from inadvertently exchanging personal information that could allow them to be identified in the real world, such as name, address, phone numbers, etc. When we find people breaking our rules, we apply levels of progressive discipline."

"Do you have Chris Hansen working behind the scenes?" I ask. I receive blank stares. "I'm going to need you to take a seat over there," I say. Still no looks of recognition. It doesn't look like I'm in a room of Dateline fans. 

Pirates does away with the friend-code system of ToonTown, but it still employs built-in messages and parent-configurable tools to limit communication to the prebuilt messages and emotes as well. It also has the ability to limit communication to words found in the game's dictionary. So if I try to tell a preteen I like her "b00bs," the game would notice that the word doesn't mean anything or could potentially be offensive, and not allow the message to be sent. 

Combat is more real-time than most MMOs, and swordfighting employs a timing-based mechanic to keep your combos going. The only PvP is consensual and occurs in instanced areas to make sure the fighting doesn't annoy other gamers. You can also use something called the "Lookout System" to easily find PvP fights and even card games across all the servers; you won't have to wait long to do whatever you'd like.

Amazingly for a game aimed at children, the included card games allow you to gamble with in-game gold. "We have a few descriptors on the ESRB rating," I'm told. "We have 'simulated gambling,' which is different from real gambling, in that we encourage you to cheat. It makes it not a gambling training system, it's more fun and light. We also have alcohol references and violence. It turns out that still falls under E10+." I find this surprising, and say so.

"We try to handle the violence the same way the movies do, the context is important... We kind of modified the pirate code to say it's not okay to shoot people with guns... we have a cut scene where Barbossa tells you why that is, he didn't like being shot. So you can steal, cheat, just no shooting... we're still Disney; we wanted this to be a mass property."