SOE's Free Realms

[Soygen]

What server is everyone playing this on?

[Gwen Rockpounder]

I believe the way it works is your character is your character no matter which server you are on, choose the least busy server etc and if playing with friends, tell them also to log into server X. Sounds more like each server is an instance than a seperate server in its own right. Not a bad idea, wonder how it will cope if they get the 10 zillion subs.

[Tarrant220]

It will assign you to a server that has the least population, but you can tell it to sign you into a server of your choosing.

I always play on Server 1 because I know a few others here do and figured I would go where other FoH'ers are as well.

[Zarcath]

some of the SC items look really sick. Has anyone seen people running around with them?

and has anyone bought any TCG packs? Wondering if the virtual reward is worth the price tag.

[Hachima]

I think the virtual rewards are all just costume/pet type stuff. So if thats what you are looking for then I guess it is.

[Zarcath]

edit nm

[Havelock]

Originally Posted by Hachima

I think the virtual rewards are all just costume/pet type stuff. So if thats what you are looking for then I guess it is.

Mostly, but there are a few others - a card that unlocks a chain of card duelling quests that give you a few more premium cards, one that ups the amount of money you make over a 2 hour period (not sure how worthwhile this is, but it's there), a giant health potion, and a few others that have effects on things other than appearances.

[Qhue]

and in the middle of levelling up Wizard I got randomly sucked into Mining / Blacksmithing and levelled both of those up to 7/10 before I knew what had hit me.

Its as if people consciously sat down and said "lets look at the most addictive time wasting java games imaginable and pair them with an MMO that makes Puzzle Quest look like pong". And of course that is EXACTLY what they did.

I wonder how successful its been so far?

[Syringed]

I started playing this the other day despite my massive dislike for SoE in general. Putting my hate aside, it's a very well done MMO that's enjoyable to play and very polished. The idea of having a monthly fee, although cheap, and micro transactions still strikes me as kind of lame to do but not enough for me to throw in the towel.

What does piss me off is it seems SoE still hasn't learned their lesson about advertising yet. Free Realms is launched with little fanfaire. I haven't seen a single commercial on TV for it which surprised me because you'd think they'd be blasting advertisements on Cartoon Network or Saturday morning TV given the target audience. All I've seen is Station Cash cards in a Target store and completely by accident while looking for a new Xbox controller. There was no ads or flashy end caps to advertise the Free Realms cards there.

It just blows my mind that SoE is either this fucking stupid or have that much faith in word of mouth. Especially after Smedley made a statement in an interview once about how WoW's commercials make him tear his remaining hair out. Logging into Free Realms in the prime time afternoon shift and seeing the servers all at low population makes me /facepalm.

[Qhue]

I was thinking about that very thing. I stumbled onto it only through this thread and didnt even know it existed until the beta was nearly done (granted it was a very short beta).

Very much a stealth release... But I can see them wanting to make sure things are very stable and that they can handle the server demands cleanly before doing a big push, especially given how all the content is downloaded on-demand.

If things go well I would expect that we'll see a ton of Free Realms themed things come summertime.

[Havelock]

Originally Posted by Qhue

I was thinking about that very thing. I stumbled onto it only through this thread and didnt even know it existed until the beta was nearly done (granted it was a very short beta).

Very much a stealth release... But I can see them wanting to make sure things are very stable and that they can handle the server demands cleanly before doing a big push, especially given how all the content is downloaded on-demand.

If things go well I would expect that we'll see a ton of Free Realms themed things come summertime.

I was thinking of this, too. It's almost like it's a pay-to-play stealth beta. The number of servers has been creeping up, but I expect a flood once word-of-mouth hits the tweens and they all start checking it out.

and in the middle of levelling up Wizard I got randomly sucked into Mining / Blacksmithing and levelled both of those up to 7/10 before I knew what had hit me.

14 mining/12 blacksmithing accidentally here - that shit is the sweetest of sweet sweet crack. Best crafting game ever?

[Qhue]

Given that this is gonna be on PS3 come 3rd quarter I think they are using the PC release as a trial balloon extended Beta and then will hammer home the marketing once the PS3 version is ready.

Given the Cooking Mama nature of some of the minigames it kinda makes me wonder if this isnt gonna be compatible with some form of Sony waggle controller...something even beyond the sixaxis accelerometers. If so this could almost out Wii the Wii.

[Mini_Miik]

huzzah

[Havelock]

Congrats! Are there any endgame quests at 20, or are you laying off ninja for awhile?

[Hachima]

Are the health potions for sell on the store single one time use potions? If so $2 to heal your group for 16% life?

Either they need better descriptions for their items or they need to multiple the number of potions you get by 100.