SAN FRANCISCO—Fans of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films have more than just a third film, “At World’s End,” to be excited about. Around the time of the film’s May 25 launch, “Pirates of the Caribbean Online” will go live. And it’s free to download and play. Disney Online is offering this massively multiplayer game to all of its fans with no charge—you won’t even have to buy a boxed copy. In fact, there will be no retail boxed copy of the game. It’s available by download only through www.piratesonline.com.

The game will span hundreds of hours of entertainment and gamers will interact with characters from the film, including Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow, Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner and Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Swann. All of the actors have approved their likenesses for the game, which will blend these characters with the custom avatar that players can create. The options in customization will allow you to create a character that looks very close to yourself, which will literally put you into the Pirates world.

Rather than retelling the stories from the films, this online game will introduce a new adventure that will grow over time. Set in a parallel universe that’s inhabited by the characters of the films, your goal will be to stop a new nemesis, Jolly Roger, and his skeleton army, from destroying the balance of the Caribbean.

The game opens with your character in jail with Jack Sparrow and within the first hour of gameplay, you’ll interact with most of the main characters from the films. The adventure will span the first two films and every two to three months, Disney Online will offer expansions to the game. The first expansion will incorporate characters and settings from the third film, “At World’s End.”

Players will have two options when exploring this world. The free game will be ad-supported and will take place inside of a wrap-around banner. One-third of the massive game world will be open to anyone to play in this mode for as long as they like, and they’ll interact with other players who are paying to play. The subscription gameplay will cost $9.95 per month and will open up the entire world, as well as deeper customization and gameplay options. There will be no ads in this version.

I had a chance to play a nicely polished version of this game at a San Francisco Fencing Club. The gameplay’s very intuitive, allowing the targeted mainstream and tween to teen fans of the films easy access to sword-play, weapons combat and voodoo spells. The adventure takes place on land and on the high seas. Players will be able to buy and customize ships to do battle with the British navy and pirate ships. And on land, there’s treasure to find, skeletons to battle and quests to fulfill. This is shaping up to be a great online experience, especially for a free MMO. This game has the potential to open up the MMO game space to the masses.