“The beta ends…and the revolution begins.”

By November 1, the Pirates of the Caribbean Online MMORPG will be live for all to play. You can play for free, but paying “premium” members get more (of course). The downloadable client will be available in Mac and PC formats, so sharpen your cutlasses and all that. Get ready for some serious fun.

The pricing scheme for Pirates of the Caribbean Online has been announced. According to the released information, the Premium accounts, which offer more features than their free counterparts, will cost $9.95/month.

According to Disney, Premium accounts will feature “bigger and better ships,” the ability to create guilds, “expanded PVP combat,” and “expanded quests.” Just how much will free player get? What ship classes will be locked to free accounts? What quests won’t be available?

Hopefully Disney won’t be overly-cheap on the freeplay feature set. Too often free users are totally neglected in MMORPGS, rarely seeing anything new, or not having much to do at all.

Aaaarrrg! Pirates of The Caribbean Online be startin’ part two of the beta. Here be a few of the things that be fixed so far:

• Improved interface
• More interesting NPCs
• Quest improvements
• Board ships easier
• No more falling out of ships
• Improved enemy AI
• More music and visual effects

See more in the Release Notes.

After the success of Lego Star Wars The Video Game, Lucas Arts and Traveler’s Tales aren’t about to pass up opportunities for new Lego [Insert Movie Here] The Video Game titles. In addition to your ordinary Indiana Jones games (by Lucas Arts), we’ll be seeing Lego Indiana Jones The Video Game. The release is set for “Summer 2008,” coinciding with the release of the new movie. According to the trailer on the official site, the game will cover the original three Indiana Jones films.

I haven’t seen much about it yet, but there have been rumors about a Lego Batman game as well.

What’s more fun than watching Pirates of the Caribbean? How about playing it? Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean Online, which will be launched in May, fills the Pirate MMORPG niche finally. Originally scheduled to be released at the same time as the Dead Man’s Chest, POTC Online was moved forward a year. It is supposed to be released around the same time as Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End. Excited? Being a beta tester for the game, I can fill you in a bit.

In POTC Online, you create a character by dragging sliders to set your build, height, skin tone, clothes, eye color, nose size, and dozens of other settings. Your avatar is very customizable. Having created your character, you and Jack Sparrow break out of prison. Jack vanishes and directs you to an inn. The innkeeper teaches you a bit of how to get around, and then tells you to go to Port Royale with Captain Bo Beck. You get on the Captain’s ship as he’s about to shove off. Cpt. Beck teaches you the basics of firing canons…just before Jolly Roger shows up. (more…)