Avast, ye dogs

Telstra wants to encourage online piracy, giving away 100,000 free copies of Pirates of the Burning Sea to Australian gamers.

By registering at pirates.gamearena.com.au, PC owners can download the game or secure a DVD version, which includes a seven-day trial subscription. Ongoing play costs from $15.95 a month.

Set in the Caribbean in 1720, Pirates of the Burning Sea is a massive multiplayer online (MMO) role-playing game like the phenomenally successful World of Warcraft, which now has 10 million subscribers. But instead of slaying dragons, players can captain their own ships, have sword fights and work together with thousands of other players around the globe.

The game has been in development at Flying Lab Software since 2002. Chief executive Russell Williams says the company wanted to produce something unique.

"When we started the project we saw a whole lot of fantasy and a little bit of science fiction but we really didn't see anything off the beaten track," he says. "So we thought that as long as we're doing something different, what is the right environment for an MMO?"

Flying Lab decided there was no richer environment than the Caribbean. "There's nothing that you want to do in a game that's not in a pirate period game," he says. "Cool real-world naval tactics, real-world economics, a fantastic player-driven economic system, all the great legends and tales of the pirates. And there's also the supernatural because they were a superstitious lot."

Players can choose to be a pirate and plunder riches or join the Spanish, French or British nations choosing roles such as naval officers, privateers or free traders.

The game features 1000 missions and your choices affect the story as you progress.

"It is endlessly fun to watch those cannons fire off and smash into other ships," Mr Williams says. "It's fun to sail around and it's very skill-based. It's not just click, click, click, waiting for the other player to die."

Every three days a giant fleet battle for control of valuable ports ensures that the map changes and teamwork is rewarded.

Review by The Sydney Morning Herald | View product details at Amazon