While there is an actual storyline in Pirates that you can follow, (involving the French attack of an English controlled island, the search for a priceless treasure and more the development team at Akella have taken some lessons from Bethesda’s own Morrowind in making the game very open ended. You can simply be a trader, going from port to port and pushing cargo and goods around. You can become a swashbuckler who lives to rescue the innocent and go after the bad guys. You can also be an evil pirate who kills the innocent and raids ships but the game will make it hard for you to deal with people as a result.