SOE Free Realms

[AcidCat]

RMT is a successful model for idiots like me, I could not resist.



Nothing screams a complete waste of money like a virtual hot dog suit.

Haha I was sorely tempted to buy this. Kudos to you.

[Xanthippe]

Are the Station Cards they sell at 7-11 only usable by people with new accounts, or can anyone apply them?

I want to buy more SC cash.  I also want my dog to have a pair of sunglasses.  I don't get sunglasses by buying SC in the game itself, although it's way easier than running to 7-11.

[Grimwell]

If the cards do not say "Starter Card" on them somewhere, the funds will go right to your Station Cash balance. You should be good to go Xanthippe.

Also, for more greatness, the hot dog is not the only fun suit...

[Signe]

I have always thought of you as a banana man.  I was just saying to Righ the other day:  That Grimwell, he's quite the banana man, isn't he? 

[Righ]

Why isn't he dancing?

[Bandit]

Also, for more greatness, the hot dog is not the only fun suit...

The big difference being that you probably did not actually pay for yours, I am guessing.

[Modern Angel]

So can you actually group in this or send tells to friends or make little guilds or what? The social options seem surprisingly limited.

[Grimwell]

Also, for more greatness, the hot dog is not the only fun suit...

The big difference being that you probably did not actually pay for yours, I am guessing.

Actually, I don't have the banana suit. I got a pic of it for the sake of showing other options. As things currently stand, I have yet to receive an insider perk. I'll get a sub, that's employee fun; but even that right now was on my bills (so I could see the process).

Angel, you can group, and it's pretty nifty how you can help at long range. Social options are limited right now, but I have great hope for a more robust set of tools as things go forward. They have the basics and I'm happy enough for the moment.

[Modern Angel]

I figured it out. Friends list was messed up briefly last night.

This thing is pretty good. I don't know if it's for ME, mind you, but it's so well put together it's a beauty to behold. And it's pretty fun for essentially a kids/casual game. With impending daughter number one coming soon I guess I've sort of started to keep an eye on this sort of thing in a way I hadn't before and FR doesn't make me crazy. Not making parents crazy is overlooked in most of these all ages family games. This one hits a definite sweet spot.

[AcidCat]

How did I miss the banana suit? That's even better.

I need to make a point to not play after having a few drinks. I already bought some station cash to get a booster pack of virtual cards. Just because I'd never done a microtransaction in any game. It was painfully easy to do.

[Grimwell]

One million accounts!

Pretty cool eh? :)

[Hawkbit]

Very cool.  Gratz ding, I suppose.   

[Xanthippe]

My daughter has seen a lot of TV commercials for Free Realms this past week.  I bet it's paying off!

Grats on the first million, Grimwell.

[Cyrrex]

Does Best Buy still have that free starter pack thingy going on?  I can no longer stand all this positivity.

[Xanthippe]

According to the fansite Zam, (I think it's the Allakhazam people?), they're available at Target, Best Buy and Blockbuster.

http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=18001

[Grimwell]

I've picked them up at Target and Best Buy. Target's costs a dollar, but if it is closer than the other stores... it's a fair trade IMO. Plus, the value of the card is just shy of $10 with all the loots... so even for a buck it's a win.

[Modern Angel]

So what can you do while grouped? Is there a point to it? Is there a party chat?

[Cyrrex]

I've picked them up at Target and Best Buy. Target's costs a dollar, but if it is closer than the other stores... it's a fair trade IMO. Plus, the value of the card is just shy of $10 with all the loots... so even for a buck it's a win.

You really should think about transferring over to the marketing department.  Or maybe Schild can recruit you into the the Nothing for Something thread.

Anyway, I live in the norther suburbs of Chicago.  You're never more than 5 minutes from a Best Buy.  I pass three of them on my drive home from work (and that doesn't count the fourth that is a mile from my office in the other direction).

[Xanthippe]

So what can you do while grouped? Is there a point to it? Is there a party chat?

You can go into dungeons together and chat together.

[Xanthippe]

To celebrate the 1,000,000th registered player in Free Realms™, we are granting a reward to the first 1,000,000 Free Realms players! Log in to Free Realms to redeem your special in-game commemorative T-shirt to mark the milestone (note: it may take a few days for the items to show up in your account). You'll also receive a matching virtual T-shirt for your pet! As an extra benefit, we're kicking in 200 Station Cash™ for you to spend in-game!

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

That's half a bee costume for my dog, right there!  Or maybe a whole bee costume!

[Modern Angel]

So what can you do while grouped? Is there a point to it? Is there a party chat?

You can go into dungeons together and chat together.

What's the command for party chat? I suspect this is something obvious and dumb.

[Xanthippe]

So what can you do while grouped? Is there a point to it? Is there a party chat?

You can go into dungeons together and chat together.

What's the command for party chat? I suspect this is something obvious and dumb.

/g or /group

Here's a list:

http://fr.zam.com/wiki/in-game_commands_(fr)

[Modern Angel]

Excellent, thank you.

[Hawkbit]

I went to Best Buy to get a few of the starter passes for my dad and niece.  Sadly, the cards were printed without the serial numbers on them so they couldn't 'sell' me free passes.  Weak. 

[Grimwell]

You really should think about transferring over to the marketing department.  Or maybe Schild can recruit you into the the Nothing for Something thread.

A curse upon you sir for that vile insinuation! 
Marketing + Grimwell = bad results for the mother ship. It's not what I'm geared to do. Plus, I can do more damage in other places. 

[Modern Angel]

This is very fun and it strikes me that it borrows way more from EQ2 than WoW, interestingly enough. The collections and the minigames as crafting stuff are really core design decisions for FR.

But I was left with the incredibly disheartening question today: why the fuck can the art and polish be so good on this but we can't do this with EQ2? It made me sad because I was playing a free trial of EQ2 (rather than sub again) and it's just so ugly and clunky. And I love EQ2. It was kind of depressing.

[Lantyssa]

I think (or I'm hoping), a lot of games will study Free Realms for some ideas, just like its seemed to do with a lot of others.

[Venkman]

I'd love to know how much this ended up costing to develop. It's certainly more polished than the browser-based variety, but doesn't seem to have the deep/crazy investments of the 40mm-80mm games.

Because I agree, this one has been worth watching for a bit, particularly by IP holders who don't want the tight restrictions in-browser Flash comes with.

[Hawkbit]

I made my 4yr old daughter an account, of course she makes a pink fairy girl. 

Talk about her being cooled out... when she realized my avatar was actually me irl she laughed so hard.  You could almost see the lightbulb form over her head when she made the connection.  So I'm on PC1 following her random clicks while she's on PC2.  Then she keeps yelling from the other room "Dance, dad!"  Emotes are cool stuff to a kid. 

The game is a little over her head, but I pointed her in the right direction on the chef games and she's starting to get it.  She got halfway through the recipe while I was on the phone. 

[Quinton]

I can't seem to login anymore, and the forgot name/password stuff doesn't actually email me anything at the email address I used to register.  Maybe I've been deleted or banned for inactivity?!

[Xanthippe]

Did you play during beta, or after launch?  Beta didn't carry characters over.  Launch was 3 weeks ago, I think?

[Soln]

My gawd.  It's full o' cash. 

SOE sure turned their ship around with this.

[Triforcer]

I hope this continues to do well and gets many people and much cash, just because I want something other than WoW to do well and not be a clownshoes-Titanic level failure. 

[Signe]

From the Official Site:

    * FACEBOOKFANS01 -- Veggie Surprise
    * FACEBOOKFANS02 -- Froggy Fries
    * FACEBOOKFANS03 -- Goat Cheese
    * FACEBOOKFANS04 -- Shadowblade
    * FACEBOOKFANS05 -- Dynamite
    * FACEBOOKFANS06 -- Checker Charged Helmet
    * KN78CH2 -- Striped Shoes
    * JFRE87J -- Doggy Bowling T-Shirt
    * CMNJGGE -- Spider Snack
    * N4PF9R3 -- Crystal Hammer
    * ROSESFORMOM -- Mother's Day Bouquet (Expires May 17th)
    * 6TNBTGH - Charcoal Bermuda Shorts

All the codes came from
http://www.freerealmsinsider.com/codes

Just letting yall know.

Enjoy SMILEY

Also guys CHECK thier site daily, they do have updates... this just in ROBGOBLINBOOTY - Robo Goblin adventure shirt

[Quinton]

After launch.  Forgot that my username and charactername were different (was getting it confused with meatplace where they're not).  Finally got an email from freerealms like 24 hours after I requested a reminder about what my username was.  Prompt!