After the box-office success of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie in 2003, Disney wanted to move forward with a Pirates MMO. At that time, it seemed a bold move and, truth be told, an unnecessary one as the franchise was earning a lot from the sale of movie-related merchandise. But Disney believed in the idea of building a world that could stand on its own with new stories, characters, and environments - things that could inspire fans of the movies to live their own pirate adventures online.

The success of the Disney MMO Toontown Online gave Pirates of the Caribbean Online a further boost. Disney wasted no time and quickly assembled a team to take on the challenge of making an MMO out of a popular movie.

At this point, the development team headed by Lead Game Designer Joe Shochet is busy making our pirate dreams come true. The team will keep us updated on the more sordid details of the game in the coming days. In the meantime, check out the new screens and images for Pirates of the Caribbean Online. Yarrr!

     
 

Ultima Online (UO) currently holds the distinction of having survived the treacherous world of MMORPGs for almost a decade and this feat has been achieved even with the onslaught of new MMOs. Not many games have that much staying power, hence UO has been the poster boy for longevity in the MMO scene.

But with such achievements come criticisms, one of which is the outdated gaming engine being used by UO. With an aging game engine, a lot of players have jump-shipped to other MMOs, but all that should change once Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn is released in 2007.

In an interview with MMORPG.com, UO producer Aaron Cohen answered many questions about the game's future and the role of EA Mythic in re-inventing the game.

Cohen thinks that UO is "still quite a healthy game with a very passionate community". It has outlived its contemporaries as well as newer games which offered better graphics and features. He gave props to the passionate UO community that has kept the game alive. He admitted that the game's subscriber base have decreased over the years, but still managed to be part of the top 10 MMOs in North America (top 3 in Japan, FYI).

The new expansion, Kingdom Reborn, will thrill the faithfuls for sure, but more than that, the new game engine will convince ex-players to return to the game and give it another shot. If the overhauled features couldn't do the trick, then perhaps the non-consensual PvP features will. Nothing like a "no holds barred" match to keep the blood boiling.

Cohen also talked about the UO team being absorbed by EA Mythic studio, and he notes that he is thrilled to work with a team that "understands the importance of bringing new people into the game and keeping existing players happy". With EA Mythic gearing up for the release of Kingdom Reborn, the grand-daddy of MMOs will most likely be alive and kicking for the next decade or so.

If we were to assess Ryzom's current situation, we'd say its future isn't as bad as we thought it would be weeks ago. There have been efforts to save the game through the Free Ryzom Campaign, wherein a community of Ryzom faithfuls hopes to acquire the rights to the game for €100,000. But as it stands, there are quite a number of take over offers for the ill-fated developer Nevrax. The said offers have been officially presented and the court ruled that Nevrax is to continue normal operations until Ryzom gets a new owner.

The names of the prospective buyers are kept in secrecy, but Nevrax hopes to reveal some pertinent information between December 12 and 19. This is the first confirmation that a company (or companies) will be picking the game up.

This time, the waiting is sweet, knowing that Ryzom is here to stay. We're one with the Ryzom community in hoping that the game falls into the hand of a worthy company.

NCSoft has released the third update of Auto Assault which features new weapons to use, new challenges to undertake, and new bosses to defeat. Since the game's launch in April, players have been getting new content free of charge - a good enough reason to keep playing the game, as well as enticing gamers who are shopping around for their second or third MMO.

If smashing through virtually everything doesn't register a high enough number in the mayhem meter, perhaps you'd find better use for that pent-up aggression by facing Momma Bite and The Tower. If and when you successfully defeat these two bosses, you'd end up with a unique loot. If you're lucky, you'll get a new set of weapons or equipment deemed the most powerful in the game.

Mid-level players will also be given the chance to beat the hell out of two other bosses, Pike Kingpin and Mammon. To get to these menacing bosses, players would have to race through new areas: Scav Uprising (Human), The Temple of La Leche Madre (Mutant) and The Malachite Detention Center (Biomek).

Aside from the new content, players will be given tokens for holding outposts for their race as well as PvP kills. These tokens can be used to buy items from the newly-added Warmonger weapon set.

Dark Age of Camelot players turn to the Grab Bag to find answers to questions that remain unanswered in forums and message boards. For this week's Grab Bag, DAoC's Sanya Thomas enlightened us on issues about Vista OS, effects of bonuses and resists, recall stone requests, and even customer service.

The more interesting question is on the game's compatibility with the Microsoft Vista. Mythic Entertainment is working with Microsoft to ensure that there will be no issues once players switch to Vista OS. The dev team hasn't finished testing the OS yet. As such, Vista hasn't been declared as an approved OS. This means you have to wait a little longer before you make the OS switch.

On game-specific issues, the dev team has received numerous requests to change the personal house recall stone to a hearth bind recall stone. Though it is a very popular request, technical reasons are keeping the dev team from doing the change.

Those who are mulling over the idea of deleting all your characters from the Merlin/Hibernia and create Merlin/Midgard on the same server, should heed the warning from the dev team: "If you change your mind, we may not be able to restore the deleted characters."

The development team of Final Fantasy XI Online: Treasures of Aht Urhgan has released the job adjustments planned for Paladins, Dark Knights, Blue Mages, Corsairs, and Puppetmasters. In general, the changes improve the abilities and skills of the aforementioned classes. Affected players should get a big boost in their gaming experience.

Here are the planned job adjustments:

Paladin Adjustments

• As a high-defensive ability for Paladin, the Sentinel's effect will be changed from an increase in defense to straight damage mitigation. As an enhancement, all actions taken will generate additional enmity while the Sentinel is in effect.
• Another job ability, Rampart, will now provide players a "Magic Shield" that dodges a certain amount of magic damage. On a related matter, the Shield Master job trait will boost spell casting abilities. No more interruptions while casting a spell when an enemy's attack is shielded.

Dark Knight Adjustments

• Quicker casting time for Absorb spells from four seconds to two seconds.

Blue Mage Adjustments

• More monsters to teach players some Blue Magic tricks
• New spells with healing and dispelling effects await mid-level players
• As with Dark Knight, the recast time will be reduced for enfeebling Blue Magic spells (e.g. Chaotic Eye, Frightful Roar)
  

Corsair Adjustments

• Addition of the Rapid Shot job trait,which makes ranged attacks an even more appealing combat tool for the Corsair
• Improved Quick Draw accuracy as well as reduced recast time from three minutes to one minute.
  

Puppetmaster Adjustments

• Introduction of new automaton weapon skills: Melee Type, Ranged Type, Magic Type/Standard Type. All of these will inflict a good amount of damage with additional effects.

There will also be a new text command that lets you ignore other players' pets: /ignorepet. However, in PvP, players will still be able to target these pets even when the ignorepet command is used.

The wait is over. EVE Online: Revelations has been deployed on November 29, much to the delight of faithful fans who've been clamoring for new content and features. This is the first of three installments in the game's second major game expansion.

In Revelations, new space regions will open up for pilots to explore. These new regions yield untapped resources which will be needed to keep the war machines in fighting form. Furthermore, new weapons technology will power up pilots in their quest for supremacy in the EVE Online Universe.

Some of the new features include: The Contracts System, Combat Organization, Exploration, Invention, Combat Boosters, Rigs, New Battleships, New Battlecruisers, Salvaging, Eight New Regions, Voice Communication, and Optimizations.

Highlights and details can be found here.

Kids whose parents are certified Mac-aholics would be pleased with this bit of info. Disney Online finally made the kid-friendly PC-based MMO Disney's Toontown Online available to Macintosh computers. Disney must have realized that everyone should get in on the fun and welcome Mac players into the wacky world of Toontown.

Mac users will now join the 15 million Toon characters created in the game. What's more, Disney is adding new "gags to keep players on their toon-toes". It's a little something for Mac players who got left behind for a good three years.

The gag bag includes the Wedding Cake throw gag, an Ocean liner drop gag, an Opera Voice sound gag, and more gags waiting to be unlocked once you reach the highest level on each of their gag tracks. These gags are fun to use especially when you go battling the Cogs. If you're not up to some Cog-nuking, you can always plant these gags using the recently added Estate Gardening feature.

Toontown Online for Mac and PC is available via digital download for US$ 9.95 per month. Extended membership packages are also available at special rates, so the the whole family can create their own characters.

A few days ago, Dark Age of Camelot kicked off its "Come Back To Camelot" campaign, wherein all inactive accounts (in good standing) have been reactivated for 10 days. What's more, all current players got some double Realm points and double Bounty points on Agramon Island.

While the DAoC faithfuls celebrate, some players are wondering why their inactive accounts remain inactive. The reason? Their accounts may have been inactive for more than a year. DAoC clarified that that only inactive accounts as of last year have been activated. This might have disappointed some of you, but there's still a chance that your dormant accounts would be resurrected as Mythic Entertainment "would still be processing" them.

Now, if you're banned from the game, please don't expect to be reactivated.

There has been a bit of confusion about the transition that Ryzom has been undergoing for the past weeks. Players are wondering what this transition is all about. Apparently, French developer Nevrax will enter into receivership next month. This means that the company is placed in the hands of court-appointed receiver who might start liquidating the company's assets to pay back loans. It's one of the first steps in throwing in the MMO towel.

While this is a sad news for Ryzom faithfuls, Nevrax assured players that the game "will continue to run and be supported". So, there's really nothing to be alarmed about. In fact, there's a lot going on behind the scenes, but the developers can't say much about it. In the meantime, it's business as usual.

But while Nevrax is going through the receivership process, players are advised to take note of the following changes in the billing system:

• All existing subscribed accounts created before 3 p.m. GMT will be turned into free account with 1 month of free access.
• It will not be possible to pay to subscribe to a full Ryzom account anymore.
• You will still be able to create a Free Trial account, but at the moment there will be no possibility to upgrade your account and go to mainland. As a result we've removed the level cap for the Free Trial to give players in the Ruins of Silan much more to achieve in the meantime.