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Jason Yeung is one of the lead developers for Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean Online. During a recent Q&A he dishes out some very interesting info on what's coming for this free-to-play piratey good time.

Both Davy Jones and the Kraken will eventually be included in the game, but the when remains locked up as tight as Jones' fabled locker however. Adding pets (such as a parrot, which every pirate must have) is something they want to do in future expansions, but they're more focused on creating end-game content for their hardcore players, which is a sign that they do listen to feedback. In fact, their biggest challenge at the moment is rolling out new content fast enough.

If you've never given PotCO a try you really have nothing to lose -- it's free-to-play. If you like what you see, and over the last few months a great deal of new content has been added, a monthly fee will get you unlimited access to all the game's content (like the poker games).

A treasure chest of booty has just been dumped into the world of Pirates of the Caribbean Online. If you're an Unlimited Access player new weapons have been added that deal more damage, have faster reload times and sparkly new graphics. New quests have been included that can earn players things like a Fine Cutlass, Coltello Dagger, Harrow Voodoo Staff, and the walloping Heavy Tri-Barrel Pistol.

If inking up the bod of your Caribbean Pirate is more important, new Tattoo Quests have also been added. These quests will award players special inkings that can not be bought -- they must be earned.

Plus, some incredibly cool lore regarding who (or what) Jolly Roger actually is has been written up, and a tale of two islands explores the intrigue of a pirate from Spain and a pirate from France.

Not only is the machinima hard in Toontown, but the gameplay is even harder! This free-to-play virtual world for kids doesn't appear to have a way to turn off the User Interface (UI). However, even then, you'd need a buddy code just to communicate with anyone to coordinate movements!

These setbacks don't deter members of the community, though. There are over 4,000 Toontown videos on YouTube! In this music video, Friends Forever, dating back almost two years, ToonTownGeekFangs gives thanks to the world and friends that have kept them safe.

If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.

Stephen King is "the man." He's one of my favorite authors and a very big reason why I'm a writer today. I've followed the ebb and flow of his career, from his meteoric rise (and eventually perpetual stay) on the New York Time's Best Seller list to the the mostly abysmal adaptations of his books to film. Anytime he talks, I tend to listen.

So you can imagine my intrigue when King, a man who has never tested the virtual waters (F13 doesn't count) with his magnificent worlds - how great would an MMO set in the world of The Dark Tower be? - voiced his opinion about the proposed Massachusetts bill to ban the sale of "violent" video games to anyone under the age of 18.

In the wake of the sad news about the Virtual Magic Kingdom... some yaaarfuly good news! Virtual pirates can double their piratey pleasure in Pirates of the Caribbean Online this weekend!

Disney Online is giving Pirates of the Caribbean Online players the chance to earn double experience points and level up their pirate avatars twice as fast during two in-game events. But it's not all weekend so pay attention matey!

Both Basic (free-to-play) and Unlimited Access (pay-to-play) players will be able to earn double reputation points in both land and ship battles this Saturday, April 12th... but only between the hours of 12:00 and 3:00 pm (Pacific Time). Pirating for Unlimited Access members will commence again on Sunday, April 13 during the exact same time frame (12:00 - 3:00 pm Pacific Time).

Bonus bounty: later this month Disney Online will be be announcing details about new content that will include a bevy of new weapons, quests, and more... so stay tuned!

Come April new weapons will be available in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean Online. Expect to see new types of voodoo dolls, daggers, staffs and pistols which will create more damage, load faster, and have some all new special effects.

In addition, recruiting for your piratey guild will get easier with the introduction of multiple (1-100 people) and unlimited use invite codes (instead of having to generate a unique code for each new person).

If you're curious about the "Why Pirates are More Lovable Than Ninjas" contest, be sure to check out the latest newsletter for the whole list, but here are a few of the winning reasons:

Though not many Americans can quite tell you why they are celebrating St. Patrick's Day or wear a bit of green. they do love an excuse to head to an Irish pub and drink a Guinness. And this year is no different with the holiday being observed anywhere from March 15 to March 17 this year.

A few MMOs are getting in on the action as well. EverQuest II is celebrating all week long with their pub-crawl inspired Brew Day Festival which has in turn inspired a video parody. And Pirates of the Caribbean Online has turned the seas green as well as offering shamrock tattoos and green hair to players to customize their avatar.

Even Lord of the Rings Online is slipping in its own St. Paddy's Day celebration with a quest that rewards you with a giant size keg during Spring Festival. Tapping that beast gets you so drunk, your character passes out and wakes up in another part of Middle-earth! Better in-game, than in life, eh?

Finally, if Virtual Worlds are more your style, there are sure to be many player run St. Patrick Day events in Second Life. You may have missed yesterday's float parade, but you can always visit virtual Dublin any time of year.

As previously mentioned, Pirates of the Caribbean Online is the surprisingly fun corporate-giant-backed MMO that could. Refreshingly, the dev team on PotCO isn't resting on their brand name to keep them afloat (no pun intended -- well, okay, you got me), but instead continue to bring new content to their constituents. Currently, this takes the form of new emotes, hairstyles, tattoos, jewelry, and clothing, as well as the new 'Looking For Crew' feature, which lets other players know when you want a PUG.

Additionally, Unlimited Access Members can get their hands on a new skull bandana, available until midnight tonight from any tailor. Disney Online has additional content planned for 2008 including a new Black Pearl Boss Battle as well as the expansion of ship customization, extension of quest story lines, and the addition of more enemies and challenges.

More than ever, this is a great time for new users to jump in and ply the seas in search of tentacular adventure! If you want more information, our hands-on tour is available for your perusal.

Last week, Disney Online merged multiple online divisions into a single entity now called Disney Online Studios. I had a chance to talk to the Senior Vice President in charge of it all, Steve Parkis, about the vision for one of the world's most recognizable brands as it tackles the fast-rising casual online gameplay market.

Before now, Disney's online efforts spanned over many different areas: developing Flash based casual games; acquiring the online community, Club Penguin; and building the successful family-oriented MMORPGs ToonTown Online and Pirates of the Caribbean Online. Steve's mission is to bring all of those together to make Disney.com a dedicated casual games destination.

He believes that casual players are more than just Women 35+ and that there is a large, untapped market of players that Disney's brand can draw in. But how does he plan to do that?

Recently, I sat down with Disney Online to get a tour of their MMO Pirates of the Caribbean Online. To be honest, I didn't go in with high expectations. I mean, the movies were fun and all, but with only Toontown Online to DO's credit, I wasn't expecting something that appealed to me as an adult gamer. Boy, was I wrong.

An adventure set around helping Jack Sparrow retrieve the Black Pearl is just as perilous as it sounds. You wake up in the same jail as the rogue pirate. Together you take advantage of cannon fire assaulting the Caribbean town of your incarceration to escape and begin your exploits. Those include meeting Wil Turner, the voodoo priestess Tia Dalma and a new villain, Jolly Roger among others. Not to mention facing down the Imperial Navy, hungry crocodiles, rampaging zombies, pirate-eating giant plants and cut-throat card players.

There are no classes, servers or banks. This game isn't about inventory management, but is action-based about being a pirate. No tradeskills, either. The scourge of the High Seas don't craft, they take. The number of weapons available is small, but the skill ups for them are numerous. If you are looking for less strategy and more action in your pirate MMO, read on for a tour of the first few levels of the game.

Character customization, sea battles, voodoo magic and cameos galore, plus two videos after the jump.

Onling gaming sites Club Penguin and Webkinz have apparently been doing so well that Disney has decided to invest in a deluge of cute, adorable virtual worlds. They plan on creating up to ten (yeah that's right, we said ten) virtual worlds that will tie into different properties. We already know about the as-of-yet unnamed Cars game Disney is making, that's just the first of many. The brand new virtual world is Pixie's Hollow and this one is based on Tinker Bell. The game is being developed with creative input by the same people responsible for Disney's theme park rides. The game is scheduled for debut this summer, just in time to help build buzz for the upcoming Tinker Bell feature film in the fall. Considering that Disney is a $35.5 billion dollar company, these virtual worlds are definitely a small investment overall at $5 to $10 million each; at least in comparison to a big-budget MMO.

All in all, it would seem that Disney is rather serious about this method of entertainment and rightfully so. With plans to make ten games, an easy prediction is that we'll see plenty of new releases over the coming years. What isn't an easy prediction is guessing just how well this endeavor of theirs will work. Disney is only the latest company to join the likes of Mattel, Nickelodeon and Lego -- just to name a few -- looking for some of that pie. It should be interesting to see how this market expands over the next couple of years, now that it's starting to get crowded.

[Via Virtual Worlds News]

Disney's free to download and play Pirates of the Caribbean Online launched with little to no fanfare; odd given the media-centric world we live in. Apparently, the lack of an advertising blitz was intentional. In an interview with Ten Ton Hammer, Disney Online VP Mike Goslin said they wanted it that way in order to be certain the game was in working order when the masses started pouring in. With the recent release to DVD of Disney's third PotC movie, and the Christmas season now in full swing, expect to see an explosion of ads enticing folks to come live the pirate life.

Mike explained that Disney is devoted to making PotC Online a long term success for all ages, giving parents the peace of mind that their kids won't be exposed to malevolent oddities (the game is rated E10+) while not limiting things for older players. They appear to have succeeded since the game world is always rife with players.

[Via Worlds in Motion]

Disney Online's Mike Goslin (of Toontown Online and Pirates of the Caribbean Online fame) said in an interview with Worlds in Motion that it's important for MMO projects to "support as low a minimum spec PC as possible."

PC gaming is often criticized for being too expensive. You can buy an XBox 360 for $350 or a PlayStation 3 for $400, but a desktop PC equipped with the hardware necessary to smoothly run the very latest games usually costs $1,000 or more. That's a barrier to entry for many would-be PC gamers.

Supporting low-end hardware isn't just important for children's and family games. A while back SOE CEO John Smedley told WarCry that "the biggest thing that hurts [Vanguard] is the high system specs." If the MMO genre is carrying PC gaming on its back, shouldn't MMO developers do everything they can to make their games accessible to a large audience?