SOE Free Realms

[Tmon]

Why hello, 1997. When did you get back? 

Admittedly the report system worked, to a degree. This was always assuming the players -knew- about the command. It always seemed someone would send in a petition, and by the time it got answered, telling them about /report and how it works, the chat was long gone.

What is with the recent trend of having to go through multiple windows to send in a support ticket/petition/what have you? What ever happened to just a simple command like /petition? *sigh*

Far too much work, especially to report a pm received on a forum.  I'm sure someone else with more tolerance for hoop jumping will report them sooner or later.

[Signe]

I know.  That's where they show people who are on different servers.  Sometimes you guys are all on top of each other like one of those weird bean dips.

[Lantyssa]

Oh! Is that why I can't teleport to that chessboard?  I was wondering how to get there, since the one time I made it behind the fence in beta, it was due to the mountains in Snow Hill not having an invisible wall.  Nothing was there then, even the racers and spectators you can see from the other side of the fence.

[Xanthippe]

The server 2 community was really noisy and obnoxious today.  I'm going to try playing server 7 for a while.

I read on the forum that server 2 is the "rp" server, although what would be rp'd I don't know.

[Signe]

Someone named Holla-something or other was spamming things like "who wants to sleep with me"  and "I'm really hot" so I told her she'd probably have better luck at the zoo.  Her reply sort of looked like this:  "#### ##### #### ####### ##### ####!"  Server 2 has turned into the Hell Server from Hell!  7 it is, then.  You know, this means Grimwell wins!

[Xurtan]

Its Barrens Chat 2.0, every time I've been on. Rather horrifying, if somewhat expected.

As to what they would roleplay.. Well, there is some form of lore, somewhere, I suppose? Something about some royalty being poisoned, and the WugaChugs being banished or whatever. *shrug* Perhaps that is the interest, little lore means you can roleplay however you want.

[Signe]

I think the size of the text in my chat box has permantely damaged my eyes.  That purple for whispers makes it especially dangerous.  I agree with what everyone says about chat - it needs work!

[Mrbloodworth]

The chat, the friends list, and whispers need be be reliable. Not sure how SOE (who has it so you can talk cross server AND game) have failed to make those features work. Its really, really bad. BUT, its about the only thing i can complain about.

I need to be able to add, and see friends reliably. I need to be able to warp to them, REGARDLESS of server (See dungeon runners, and wizard 101).

[NiX]

I get the vibe that they made sure the game worked for their core audience and left the rest to be finished up post release and pushed out the most they could.

[Sky]

UI needs to be more customizable ala EQ2. The default is great for kids or whatever, but with the overscan of my tv, I can't play. While overscan is a small issue overall (but big for those dealing with it, it's unplayable), making the UI customizable is a win for everyone.

[Signe]

Yeah.  Fix the UI.  Sucks.

The little things you buy with SC can be cute but be wary.  Some things can only be used once and last a very short amount of time.  VERY VERY VERY GREEDY, SOE!  And disappointing.  I have only bought a couple of weapons and a pet because they aren't restricted by time or number of uses.  Maybe if they were set up like some of the CoH things where you have a certain amount of in-game time to use them or something, it would make more more sense.  I find it completely unreasonable the way it is now, though.

[Mrbloodworth]

I spent most of my play time the other night as a sheep. 

[Signe]

Pervert.

[Xanthippe]

I told you there were furries in this game.

[Grimwell]

Re: Age based filtering on chat.

At this point, this is not something a parent can opt out of. I have validated that in function today. I have not spoken with the dev team about their long term plans for this control (or the platform team, or the marketing team, etc... it's never just one team)... but I'll validate that once we know you are under 13 you just aren't going to see the chat by the current implementation.

So alternative measures would be required.

[Numtini]

My guess is that comes from the legal department because of COPPA.

[Xanthippe]

Re: Age based filtering on chat.

At this point, this is not something a parent can opt out of. I have validated that in function today. I have not spoken with the dev team about their long term plans for this control (or the platform team, or the marketing team, etc... it's never just one team)... but I'll validate that once we know you are under 13 you just aren't going to see the chat by the current implementation.

So alternative measures would be required.

Bummer.

Thanks for checking for me. 

[Xanthippe]

I haven't played much this week but just tried to, and wow - nothing but problems.  Loooooooooooooong loading times, can't use keypad any more during fights, can't seem to get into the game easily, and once in, can't seem to warp.

Is Free Realms a victim of its own success, or did the patch on Friday really screw things up - or maybe both?  Hope it can get sorted out soon.

[Signe]

I haven't played for days, either.  I've been messing with that horribly addicting Sims 3.  The last time I was on, however, I was having problems, too.  Like suddenly I couldn't click on anything.  I re-logged my way out of it but it kept happening.  I'll pick it up again eventually.  Well, if this Sims 3 game doesn't stress me into a massive heart-attack!

Edited because I meant to say couldn't not could!   

[NiX]

Put me into your town, Signe. I'd imagine you'd do terrible things and it would relieve your stress.

[Signe]

Put me into your town, Signe. I'd imagine you'd do terrible things and it would relieve your stress.

I don't know what this means!  I can put you places?  I think Sims 3 has melted my mind. 

[Xanthippe]

My level 3 warrior, ninja, and archer all have matching outfits now, thanks to the angry bear in the Bear Cave.  (So does my lvl 8 wizard).

Matching outfits is  



Oh and my Forest Twig wand that my wizard has drips autumn leaves.  I LOVE THAT.

[Lantyssa]

You did that, too!?

[Xanthippe]

How else would I get matching outfits?

I have a few odd pieces that are different colored, but not enough.  Hats, for example, come in different colors more often, it seems.

I love no inventory limits and matching outfits.

[Venkman]

3 million now, a few weeks after they hit 2 million.

[Yegolev]

When is this coming to PS3?

[NiX]

Most of the success comes from their advertising. I've had friends who poke fun for playing online games actually ask me about FreeRealms. Mostly because they think it looks fun.

Maybe SCEA's marketing department should take note

[Xanthippe]

3million party pack available for claiming now.

More stuff!  Wheeee!

[Tannhauser]

Just started a wizard, pretty neat.  Even enjoyed the herb-collecting mini-game. 

[Xerapis]

So, the 3M party pack is for a pet.

Oh wait! They gave us 200SC a while ago. I'll go buy a pet with that.

There are 2 cats that can be purchased for 200SC. They are both member-only.

Do you want to exit game? YES.

[Numtini]

I'll put in the same 2p i've had since the start, the membership is a mistake, just do it all cash shop and ding people 10 bucks a job or something for the "advanced jobs"

[Tale]

3 million now, a few weeks after they hit 2 million.

The bigger Free Realms grows, the harder it falls. Unless enough people pay. I wonder what the target is, e.g. 15% of customers must be paying customers?

[schild]

3 million now, a few weeks after they hit 2 million.

The bigger Free Realms grows, the harder it falls.

You have no idea how unlikely this is. This is exactly the game SOE needed at exactly the time SOE needed it. You could in fact say "props to them" about the entire thing. They went from having a stable of respected but not really cared for MMOGs to the second largest (in terms of people playing) MMOG in North America. I have absolutely no doubt that Smedley will fashion moneyhats for people at AGC if he shows up and if he's asked nicely.

[Tale]

3 million now, a few weeks after they hit 2 million.

The bigger Free Realms grows, the harder it falls.

You have no idea how unlikely this is. This is exactly the game SOE needed at exactly the time SOE needed it. You could in fact say "props to them" about the entire thing. They went from having a stable of respected but not really cared for MMOGs to the second largest (in terms of people playing) MMOG in North America. I have absolutely no doubt that Smedley will fashion moneyhats for people at AGC if he shows up and if he's asked nicely.

Omitting my next sentence "Unless enough people pay." makes your reply somewhat out-of-context. I sincerely hope enough people are paying.

[schild]

3 million now, a few weeks after they hit 2 million.

The bigger Free Realms grows, the harder it falls.

You have no idea how unlikely this is. This is exactly the game SOE needed at exactly the time SOE needed it. You could in fact say "props to them" about the entire thing. They went from having a stable of respected but not really cared for MMOGs to the second largest (in terms of people playing) MMOG in North America. I have absolutely no doubt that Smedley will fashion moneyhats for people at AGC if he shows up and if he's asked nicely.

Omitting my next sentence "Unless enough people pay." makes your reply somewhat out-of-context. I sincerely hope enough people are paying.

It doesn't make it out of context at all. You're still saying the same thing. Yes, the bigger it gets the harder it falls. Even if enough people pay now, one day there could just be huge dropoff. I'm just letting you know how entirely unlikely that is. In fact, I'd wager it makes as much money as every game SOE put out up to this point, combined, within the next few years. I'm almost willing to throw DCUO and The Agency in there as well.

The only way that won't happen is if something else comes along and beats the pants off of it - which is entirely possible, just not terribly likely. The bigger problem is keeping these kids around between now and the next Blizzard MMOG. I'd wager a healthy number of them will grow up and graduate beyond Free Realms. It'd be neat to watch a game mature with children though - if they can pull it off.

Anyway, I wasn't implying that you hoped for failure. At all.