Pirate101

Pirate101 is a pirate-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by KingsIsle Entertainment and released in 2012. A sister game to Wizard101 set in the same universe, players assume the role of heroic pirates who set out in search of the treasures of the "Spiral".

Pirate101
Developer(s)KingsIsle Entertainment
Publisher(s)KingsIsle Entertainment
Director(s)
Artist(s)Melissa Preston[1]
Writer(s)
  • J. Todd Coleman
  • Sam Johnson
  • David Beau Paul
Composer(s)Nelson Everhart[lower-alpha 1]
EngineGamebryo
Platform(s)Windows
ReleaseOctober 15, 2012[2]
Genre(s)MMORPG
Mode(s)Multiplayer

Players can complete quests, sail ships, befriend companions, and battle enemies in a turn-based combat system similar to that used in board games.[3]

Overview

The fictional universe of the Spiral is divided into several worlds, each consisting of multiple areas. The game's content is divided into numerous "Books", which are further subdivided into individual "Chapters". Players may purchase access to all areas related to a given Chapter using "Crowns", the game's premium currency. Purchasing a membership grants unlimited access to all Chapters for a limited time. Upon character creation, players are given free access to "Introduction" and to "Prologue Part 1", the first Book.

As the player progresses, more areas become available. Currently, the maximum level a character can obtain is Level 70. The main storyline takes the player through Skull Island, Monquista, Valencia, Cool Ranch, MooShu, Marleybone, and Aquila.

Side activities in the Spiral include Practice PvP (player versus player), Ranked PvP, a nautical gauntlet, training pets, pet sparring, and housing.

The game was assigned a rating of E10+ from the Entertainment Software Rating Board for crude humor and cartoon violence.[4]

Characters

Pirate101 has several types of in-game characters. Two non-player characters (NPCs) in the game, Boochbeard and Gandry, serve as the player's guide to controlling the technical aspects of the game. Players can interact with, trade with, fight, and obtain quests from different NPCs located throughout the worlds of the Spiral. Companions can serve the player in combat and also provide comic relief during the story.

Plot

A young pirate orphan was imprisoned by the Clockwork Armada for rebelling against their tyranny. They are rescued by Boochbeard and Mr. Gandry of the Polarian Army. In the process, they also rescue a companion from Mooshu, one of the game's worlds. The companion joins their crew. After escaping from the Armada, they seek refuge from Captain Avery of Skull Island who hires them to recover a Jade Amulet from a mercenary known as Fin Dorsal. Along the way, they vanquish a tribe of Troggies to stop them from blowing up the island. Meanwhile, a Fox known as Bonnie Anne is recruited into the Pirate's crew.

After being rewarded with a ship, Avery tells the pirate the tale of Captain Gunn's treasure. The pirate meets an associate of Avery's in the Kraken Skulls Tavern. Ratbeard steals the treasure map, attacks the pirate, and escapes. After chasing Ratbeard all the way to Blood Shoals, they find Captain Ratbeard's crew's ghosts, killed after they ate poisoned food. Once the crew helps the ghosts find peace, the captain's crew follow Ratbeard to Jonah Town, where they sought the Frogfather. After stealing spices from a prison known as The Presidio, the pirate rescues an inmate at the Presidio, who used to work with the pirates' deceased parents.

The pirate finds Ratbeard in the town of Flotsam. Unfortunately, Ratbeard escapes again after burning Gunn's map. Ratbeard has a shortcut while the crew is forced to followed the instructions on the burned will. Along the way they battled an undead witchdoctor who joins their crew. Once they reached Captain Gunn's tomb, the treasure was missing. Once they discovered that a group of Waponi Watermoles and Ratbeard stole the gold, they followed them to Waponi Wu where the watermoles captured Ratbeard and tossed most of Captain Gunn's treasure into the lava. After stopping the water moles and rescuing Ratbeard, he saw the error of his ways and joins the pirate's crew.

After returning to skull Island, the pirate was sent to Pureto Mico to set up a treaty with Monquista. After a few attempts, they got the governor to sign their treaty. While they wait, they're sent to retrieve the most famous Monquistodor Gortez from the Isle of Doom, while battling carnivorous bees, and savage Troggies, and hearing the voices of their deceased parents, They brought Gortez back to Moniqusta, which in turn, turns out that the Monquista Crown was tyrannical and nearly sent the pirate and Gortez to their deaths.

The hunt for Gortez turns into a rebellion against the tyrannical crown, After a few futile attempts, the pirates' crew heard of the legend of the Monkey's Paw which grants three wishes, but can turn into despair if the possessor's soul is not pure. They make their way to Diablo Cut, and witnessed the horrors of the Monkey Paw's power which turned Monquistodors into un-dead skeletons, and turned demonic with wings, they bring the paw to Gortez and Eleanor who plan to use it for their rebellion.

Later on, the pirate receives a letter claiming that they are in danger because every pirate in Skull Island is out to get them due to them having a piece of the map which is a piece of Marco Pollo's Map of El Dorado, a lost island of solid gold and unimaginable wealth. After hearing the story of how the map was scattered across the spiral, Fin stole the map while they are not looking. After getting the piece back, they are in shock to find that he is in cahoots with the Armada. The Armada's clockwork soldiers were invented to help end the deadly Polarian war years ago, but after the war, they turned tyrannical and corrupt.

The pirate and their crew journey to Valencia, home of the Clockwork Armada to find out more about Marco Pollo and the map, while escaping and battling many Clockwork Soldiers. After a vain search, they traveled to Cool Ranch to find Christopher Clark, who was Marco Pollo's navigator has a piece of the map. They found that Christopher Clark had died not too long ago but his son Merriweather has knowledge about his piece of the map. They freed him from savage Bison tribes.

Later on their hunt for the map piece turns into saving Santo Pollo from financial ruin due the Banditoads and El Guapo's tyranny. They help the famous masked bull El Toro, defeat El Guapo. Later on, they head to a bison, Tonka from the immortal duck of death and learn how to craft silver bullets to defeat him.

Later on, They asked the spirit of the old El Toro Don Rafael to help them rescue Sally, who is the new El Toro (Don Rodrigo)'s fiance. She was being held at Fort Elena. A pirate Catbeard asked them to help start a war between Marleybone and the Armada was a way of sneaking into Fort Elena to retrieve Napoleguin, the one who started the Polarian War, as Gortez wants Napoleguin to help him win the rebellion against tyranny in Monquista. After freeing Napoleguin and rescuing Sally, they bring her back to Cool Ranch. In rumor of the infamous pirate Captain Blood's treasure and a piece of the El Dorado, they head to Tumbleweed, which was blocked and taken over by outlaws called the Wild Bunch. Per Timmy's request, they bring back a famous lawman group called the Magnificent Seven after retirement to bring the Wild Bunch Down. The pirates joins the Magnificent Seven after hearing of their leader's death, and one the members joins the Pirates' crew.

After failing to save Sabatini from an immortal Captain Blood, they heard over to an abandoned church to meet Death, and to discover how to make Captain Blood mortal again, by finding the five cards of his unplayed hand when he cheated in a card game against Death. After asking Don Rodrigo for help as to where Captain Blood's cut-off hand is, he dons the persona as El Toro and joins the captains' crew. After heading to Miranda (the ghost town where Captain Blood played the unfinished game with Death) they found all the cards and placed the hands with the cards on the table finishing the game, and slaying Captain Blood, ending his reign for good. They head down to Motherload mine to discover Captain Blood's treasure and slaying Deacon, the clockwork spymaster who imprisoned the captain and their first companion. Once they got the piece of the map, they discover a photo which has their deceased mother in it. They and Captain Avery determine that each person in the photo has a piece of map.

Companions

Depending on the class chosen for the player's character, as well as the character's origin world, different companions will be assigned to the player. For example, if a player chooses the Witchdoctor class, they will fight alongside Kan Po of the MooShu Five and Mormo of the Kraken Skulls Five. If they choose "shipwrecked" as their parent's death in character creation, the player will be able to fight alongside Lucky Jack Russell of the Presidio Five. Other companions are reserved for one class only. There are currently, however, nine major companions that all players have the capacity to gain access to as they progress through the story. These companions are prominent enough to shape the plot directly, and they even have their own promotion quests. After the completion of these quests, involved companions often gain a new title, outfit, ability, or some combination thereof. Companions have the ability to aid the player in combat.

Payment model

The game offers a choice of either subscription or "free-to-play" with microtransactions. Free-to-play customers can purchase access to different Chapters of content using in-game currency called Crowns. Chapters only need to be purchased once, but other actions in the game may be necessary before gaining access to them. Crowns also can be used to buy in-game exclusive items and to use the Transportaler system to instantly transport to other worlds.

Players who purchase a subscription may adventure through all playable worlds and are also able to gain access to faster Energy regeneration, a larger backpack, a larger friends list, and the ability to reset companion talents. Subscribers can also post on the Pirate101 message board, and receive multiple benefits throughout the month.

Player interaction

Players may duel each other in open arenas known as the "Brawlin' Hall" and the "Spar Chamber", which allows for up to four players on two opposing teams to participate in player-versus-player combat. Most houses in the game also come with duel arenas as well, in which the number of players who can fight at once varies depending on the house.

Players can also participate in a trading system of Doubloons, which are powers that may be used once within a battle. Doubloons can be reorganized in the ability interface and may be discarded during battle in order to draw newer Doubloons. Pirates can trade equipment, housing items, mounts, or pets. A system of pet morphing is also available for players.[5]

Loot drops are provided by chests at the end of battles, all of which are distributed equally among the players in battle.[6]

Online safety features

Due to its young core audience, Pirate101 restricts player interaction more than other games in the massively multiplayer online genre. Parents must activate controls for players under 13, including allowing interaction with other players in the world. There are three different types of chat: menu chat, open chat, and text chat.[7] At the most restricted level, players select from a menu of predefined phrases, and players using this option can only see menu chat from other players. At the next level, players may type what they want, as long as the words are available in the game's dictionary. If a word is not present in the dictionary, or part of a forbidden phrase, such as asking another player's age, it will not be visible. The official game forums are filtered and moderated.

Other features have been designed with a preteen audience in mind; for example, defeated opponents in combat disintegrate or vanish bloodlessly. Character names are restricted to a preselected list from which players must choose. The game does include the use of weapons such as guns and magic; however, the guns shoot electricity rather than bullets.[8] Also, the enemies in player versus enemy combat are not depicted as human: each world has its own type of enemy, i.e. the Bison and Birds of Cool Ranch, or the Dogs and Cats of Marleybone.

Reception

According to a KingsIsle Entertainment press release, Pirate101 had five million registered users in October 2013, matching the first year success of Wizard101.[13] In a review of the game, Suzie Ford of MMORPG noted the game's bright aesthetics and commended its use of strategic turn-based gameplay; however, she considered the micromanagement of units overwhelming for kids, making the combat system too complicated for children.[14] Nick Tylwalk of Gamezebo said that the helpful interface makes combat very clear and is of great assistance to children.[15] Karen Bryan of Massively said that KingsIsle Entertainment had succeeded in making a complex enough system to challenge players without over-complicating it.[16]

Two months after the release of Pirate101, the game won the Player's Choice Award for Game of the Year from MMORPG with 27.8% of the vote, edging out Guild Wars 2 by just 0.5% of the total votes cast.[17]

Notes
  1. Additional music by Bobby Menkedick

References
  1. https://www.engadget.com/2013/07/23/check-out-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-kingsisle-artist/
  2. "IGN". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  3. Fuller, Garret (2012-04-25). "Pirate101 Combat Preview". MMORPG. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  4. "ESRB Rating". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  5. Reahard, Jef (2014-03-24). "Pirate101 Announced New Advanced Pet System". Archived from the original on 2014-10-31. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  6. Tylwalk, Nick. "Gamezebo Pirate101 Review". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  7. "Common Sense Media". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  8. Tylwalk, Nick. "Gamezebo Pirate101 Review". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  9. Ford, Suzie (2012-11-29). "MMORPG Pirate101 Review". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  10. Tylwalk, Nick (2012-10-31). "Gamezebo Pirate101 Review Rating". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  11. "RTSGuru". 2012-06-12. Archived from the original on 2014-10-31. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  12. "MMORPH Game of the Year (2012)". 2012-12-24. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  13. "Pirate101 Turns 1 Press Release". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  14. Ford, Suzie (2012-11-29). "MMORPG Pirate101 Review". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  15. Tylwalk, Nick (2012-10-31). "Gamezebo Pirate101 Review Rating". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  16. Bryan, Karen (2013-12-25). "MMO Family:Setting Sail In Pirate101". Archived from the original on 2014-10-31. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  17. "MMORPG Game of the Year (2012)". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
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