Yo-Ho! Pirate101 Launch Date!!

Ahoy pirates! Do I have some good news from you! Here is a post taken from Pirate101 Central;
Shiver Me Timbers!

Put on your eye patch, sharpen your cutlass and wake up your parrot. You can play Pirate101, the highly anticipated follow-up to KingsIsle Entertainment’s family-friendly online game Wizard101, as soon as next week. 

On Monday October 8, anyone that purchased a Pirate101 pre-launch bundle or participated in the game’s beta test will be able to log in and enjoy a one week head start in the game, according to KingsIsle. You can also get early access if you purchase certain membership types or buy a Pirate101 retail game card –they’ll be in stores on October 8th as well. Everyone else gets their chance to play the game when general availability begins on Monday, October 15.
Pirate101 is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game where players become swashbuckling pirates, assemble a crew, captain a ship, and explore exotic worlds in search of for plunder and glory. When it is released to the general public on October 15, the game will be free to download and play, but users will have to purchase a monthly subscription or spend “crowns,” KingsIsle’s virtual currency, to access certain locations.
Pirate101 is set in The Spiral, the same universe as Wizard101, though the two games feature different locations: Players can sail their sky ships between five new worlds, Skull Island, Monquista, Valencia, Cool Ranch and MooShu. When they run into trouble, Pirate101 also handles combat differently; instead of a card-game mechanic, it uses a turn-based strategy system. Generally, the game feels more “adult.” It’s still family-friendly, but the action and humor should appeal more to older players.
Wizard101 was targeted at children between the ages of 8 and 12, but also proved popular with adults, particularly parents who play with their kids. It currently has over 30 million registered players in the US alone. The game competes with other kid-friendly MMOs like Sony’s Free Realms, Jagex Games Studio’s RuneScape and Disney’s Club Penguin. Pirate101 is meant to skew slightly older, for kids who have grown out of Wizard101, but aren’t yet old enough for adult MMOs like Activision Blizzard‘s World of Warcraft.

This is some very good news, and I can't wait to finally sail the skyways with all you pirates! I will be playing from day one of the pre-launch, so hopefully by the official launch I can start helping some of the novice pirates! With the official release of Pirate101, I'd also like to announce a new project I'll be starting; The Journal of a Dead-Eye Pirate.


 The Journal of a Dead-Eye Pirate will be a a regularly updated (one to three times each week) blog section that will be based completely off of my journeys through Pirate101! This will help those Pirates who don't have the opportunity to play or are unable to subscribe the change to look into the world of Pirate101! The Journal of a Dead-Eye Pirate will feature gettogethers and contests, and will be a good source for those who are stuck in a part of the game, as I will feature some step-by-step guides.

Well, until next time Pirates!