SOE Free Realms

[Xanthippe]

I think I got squelched by a GM maybe.  I can't talk in the game, other than by using the chat phrases.

I was testing the filter because my friend tried to type "spunky" and it came out #####y.  So then we were testing it out in our chat.  "Stupid bint" made it through ok, but that was the only thing that made it. 

Or maybe it's a coincidence.  I don't know!

[Bunk]

I installed this thing on Thursday I think it was, but only had a few minutes to make a character and run through the intro area. I loaded it up again on Saturday morning (when there were some server troubles) and that charcater had gone poof - had to make a new one. That is not a good sign.

Beyond that though, I have to say I'm impressed so far.

[Xanthippe]

I got my chat back.  I wonder if there's some sort of automatic squelch that happens if someone says bad words.  If so, cool!

I was just checking out the Station Cash deal.  If I pay for my membership online, or buy SC online, that's all I get.  BUT, if I go to 7-11 or Target or something, I can get groovy items for my in-game dog (that I bought for $2.50).  I guess that's to get people to go out to buy the cards?

Brilliant marketing, at any rate.

[tmp]

I got my chat back.  I wonder if there's some sort of automatic squelch that happens if someone says bad words.  If so, cool!

Well if it's automated i hope it's more intelligent than it appears, given at the moment it triggers on lot of dumb things -- e.g. saw someone trying to say "grass"... nuh uh, there's an "ass" in it.

[Xanthippe]

I don't think I've ever been first in anything before.  Wheeee!

[Lantyssa]

More likely it's the flaky chat/friends server.

[Xanthippe]

Well if it's automated i hope it's more intelligent than it appears, given at the moment it triggers on lot of dumb things -- e.g. saw someone trying to say "grass"... nuh uh, there's an "ass" in it.

Try saying something with the phrase "but it's" sometime.  You get "b#######" instead.

Dumb is right. 

[Malakili]

But...but...think of the children! 

[Hindenburg]

The children probably know more about 4chan than you ever will.

[Draegan]

I think I'm going to make the plunge and try this tonight.

[Signe]

It takes forever to even log in to this game now.  Bleh.  I'm too old to start being patient!  Patience is for n00bs!

[Xanthippe]

It takes forever to even log in to this game now.  Bleh.  I'm too old to start being patient!  Patience is for n00bs!

Weird.  I've had no problems logging in at all.

I did have a weird thing happen today earlier in Snowhill.  My computer fan went on, I guess my mb was heating way up.  I went down to Blackspore and it went back to normal.

[Grimwell]

When people surge the game login/registration is slow. It's not about hardware either, we have plenty of that on hand. Needless to say, this is something the FR team is working hard to improve. We like folks being able to register and play after all.

Protip: If you are thinking about getting started, to to Best Buy and get one of their starter cards! Zero cost, and a few neat things involved. Do this *before* you register the account so you can enter the code and then create and get rewards, etc.

[Draegan]

Why are you making me drive to the store?  Why?

[Grimwell]

One month free membership, some station cash, and a trinket? 

[Draegan]

Heh ok.  I just gave this a whirl tonight.  You know this is like crack right?  I mean... fuck you.

Edit to clarify:

This game is ... uh .. fun in the 30 minutes I played.  Good job.

[Grimwell]

Oh I know. Mining/Blacksmithing has made me it's pawn. I love those games.

[pxib]

I made an offhand comment in the Darkfall thread, so I'll expand on it.

BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA INSTANT GRATIFICATION. The longest I've had to run from place to place has taken about five minutes, and if I ever get tired of running during that period, there's a minigame, a monster, a collectible item or a quest within sight range to break up the monotony. Once I had all the warp gates, there wasn't much more than two minute's running anywhere outside of the high-level Briarplace.

It's the MMO equivalent of "one more turn" in Civilization. I imagine the games eventually grow tiresome (I've nearly reached that point with the combat) and there's a finite number of quests. Until then there are five or six other things to do in-game the instant I get bored.

At the same time, you can leave WHENEVER. Don't need to "save", don't need to make sure you're in a safe place, you won't lose anything important by failing whatever game or combat you're currently in the middle of. Exit it and log off.

Total freedom... zero pressure.

[Lantyssa]

Protip: If you are thinking about getting started, to to Best Buy and get one of their starter cards! Zero cost, and a few neat things involved. Do this *before* you register the account so you can enter the code and then create and get rewards, etc.

It can't apply retroactively?

[Draegan]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9322191&st=free+realms&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1218084658753

3.99 for a CCG pack?  Or is it something else you're talking about?

[CaptainNapkin]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9322191&st=free+realms&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1218084658753

3.99 for a CCG pack?  Or is it something else you're talking about?

At my local BB it was hanging on a rack with all the 'game time' cards. I don't think you'll find it on their site since after about 10 minutes of attempting to find any sort of SKU in the system for it without luck, they gave up and just threw the cards in my bag (I grabbed 2 for the wife and myself).
And no, as Grim said it's not retroactive, you'd need to a create a new account. All in all you save yourself $7.50. Not wanting another account somewhere, I just paid and will hand the cards to friends... the first hit is free 

I'll also agree that it's quite a fun little diversion. I've never seen the wife turn off WoW like this before, must be a good thing.

[Xanthippe]

I haven't played WoW much at all since I started this.  I like it.

The little minigames are fun without the dings, even.

I wish I'd gotten the Station Cash cards at 7-11 or Target though instead of using my credit card online.  My dog could be wearing sunglasses right now.

[Yoru]

Oh I know. Mining/Blacksmithing has made me it's pawn. I love those games.

I can't figure out how to break 80k for iron mining. Fuck you, Score 100k At Minigame quest. 

[vex]

Oh I know. Mining/Blacksmithing has made me it's pawn. I love those games.

I can't figure out how to break 80k for iron mining. Fuck you, Score 100k At Minigame quest. 

Don't worry about getting the iron, just keep making combos and when you don't see any hit the randomizer thingy.  This works quite well.

[Cyrrex]

Wow, you all sound like a bunch of lathering frothtards.  About an MMO.  About an SOE MMO.  Very interesting.  I have no idea what this game is about, but I'm suddenly very interested.

[Tmon]

I don't know if it's about anything, except having fun.  There's no storyline that I have noticed.  I myself am hooked on mining and harvesting, with a little tower defense when I bump into one as I travel.

[Grimwell]

This.

There is an actual back story, and if you dig you can find most of it's flow in the game; but really the game is about whatever you happen to want to do with it at the time. The lack of a need to strongly commit to activity is huge for me. I was playing last week and grouped with my son and Rhyssa and then due to bed time my son went to bed, and then Rhyssa crashed out due to time zones. In many games this kills things, your group is gone and now you are kinda stuck.

In FR, I just adjusted as they logged and did other things. Without any effort. For me, corporate shill aside, this is exactly what I want. Something to play where I just do whatever strikes me as interesting.

Also, Tower Defense in Sanctuary is a great way to farm tickets if you repeat that quest...

[Bandit]

Free Realms has been perfect for my gaming needs due to current time constraints.  Non-committal.  Log-in, do anything that meets my fancy at that particular time.  Finally look at the time and 2 hours have blown by (about an hour I didn't have), and by MMO terms I haven't accomplished anything. 

If I had complaints, they are pretty minor at this point..and I could be wrong about any of these - just don't care to look it up:

- Repeatable quests should show as repeatable quests (different colour on minimap), just confuses my OCD on completing everything
- Mining, Harvesting, Artifacts - all too similar, needs more varied puzzly goodness (see puzzle pirates) - but the current puzzle is fun regardless
- Quests aren't always clear (and not all have guide points), especially after you have left that particular area - just not enough information on journal
- Is the racing lobby across the whole server? or specific to the track your at (ie Wildwood)? I want to race human opponents but no games are ever listed, and when I try to host a game, no one joins.  Maybe a system whereby you could flag yourself for racing at anytime across the server (ideally across all servers)? or a little more incentive to race (no leveling for kart driver/kart demo)
- Nothing more annoying than quests that send you between the same two people over and over (and not doing anything in particular except running), especially when they are a fair distance apart.
- inventory management is shite
- TCG is underwhelming

The game is young, so all minor issues and I don't expect to play this for an extended amount of time - but it is very fun for the time being.

[Lantyssa]

Wow, you all sound like a bunch of lathering frothtards.  About an MMO.  About an SOE MMO.  Very interesting.  I have no idea what this game is about, but I'm suddenly very interested.

It's because someone finally listened to all our rants and learned something from all the failures.  Like make things fun.

[schild]

Wow, you all sound like a bunch of lathering frothtards.  About an MMO.  About an SOE MMO.  Very interesting.  I have no idea what this game is about, but I'm suddenly very interested.

It's because someone finally listened to all our rants and learned something from all the failures.  Like make things fun.

Well, let's be completely fair. 90% of the fun comes from the casual game clones thrown into the game. There isn't any solution to the diku dilemma or anything like that present in Free Realms. It *IS* diku, at the corest of levels, but none of that is fixed. They just dumped piles of Better-Than-Puzzle-Pirates on top of it.

[Venkman]

Which is a solution. The problem with the diku feel isn't the XP and levels by themselves. It's how long it takes to get them and what you're being forced to do along the way. WoW and EQ2 "solved" this problem by replacing mob grinds with quest grinds, and that has worked very well for the MMO crowd even though neither "solve" the underlying "problem" (which I put in quotes because there's no actual proof that diku is a problem given the amount of money flowing around iterations of the core).

FR's solution is a new layer: mini-games to solve quests to gain XP/levels.

I only wonder how long a tail it has in this space. Diku works because the system itself is long tail for the specific type of achievement personality attracted to character optimization games. FR is not that type of game though. It's more akin to non-linear browser games, except it can be played as a diku whereas Barbiegirls cannot.

So will it be a fun toy for the moment or will all the various unlockables be enough to compel serious MTX investment?

[Yoru]

Oh I know. Mining/Blacksmithing has made me it's pawn. I love those games.

I can't figure out how to break 80k for iron mining. Fuck you, Score 100k At Minigame quest. 

Don't worry about getting the iron, just keep making combos and when you don't see any hit the randomizer thingy.  This works quite well.

Combos...? Do you mean chains of 4+ blocks? I do that a lot. I'll have another crack at it in the next couple days.

[pxib]

You get the same amount of extra time for every combo you complete, no matter what size it is. Larger combos are worth more points, but the game goes on longer the more small combos you make. It more or less balances out. You also get a lot of bonus points for completing the optional goals, so definitely get the requisite number of gems. Like Vex says, save the bombs and tornados for when you're running out of places to match (but don't save them TOO long, unlike stars the game doesn't count them as potential matches, so if you have no more it'll clear the board of silver and gems when it reconfigures.)

[Lietgardis]

I read on the forum that there's a level 20 run buff for pet trainers.

Yeah, I leveled pet trainer last weekend because I heard about that.  It turns out that finishing the last pet trainer quest does, in fact, grant a speed buff as long as your pet is out and all of its bars are at 100%.  You have to spend an awful lot of time feeding and washing and playing with the pet to keep it at 100%, though.

[Lantyssa]

Well, let's be completely fair. 90% of the fun comes from the casual game clones thrown into the game. There isn't any solution to the diku dilemma or anything like that present in Free Realms. It *IS* diku, at the corest of levels, but none of that is fixed. They just dumped piles of Better-Than-Puzzle-Pirates on top of it.

I have no qualms about ignoring diku for 90% of the game.