Lifetime Free Realms Membership

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Free Realms from Sony Online Entertainment. As you can imagine, I was pretty thrilled when I found out that they were going to be offering a lifetime membership to the game for only $29.99.

Membership gives you access to member only items, marketplace discounts, access to all job classes, and upgraded home, monthly membership packages, and more! It's a great deal, so don't miss it if you're a Free Realms fan.


Unfortunately, I haven't had much time lately to spend in world. At least now when I return, I'll still be a member and will have accumulated all of the monthly membership goodies. And for only $30. Woot!

More info here:
http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2010/07/soe-offers-lifetime-memberships-for-free-realms.html

Free Realms Mounts

Free Realms has just added two mounts to the game - a dragon and a dinosaur. Members can purchase these beasts and ride them around the game. Best of all, they travel at a much faster speed than players will be used to moving.

They're pretty awesome looking. Nice addition to the game! I'm logging in to buy one now....

Free Realms Reaches 8 Million

Impressive. Sony Online Entertainment has just announced that Free Realms has reached an impressive 8 million unique users. Here's a little snippet from the press release:

“Free Realms is more than just a virtual world for our players; it is a portal for imagination. A place where players transform their house into a jumping maze for friends to compete or a petting zoo that boasts all their pets,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. “Our job as developers is to listen to and predict what they want and give them the tools that inspire and compel them to share their experiences with eight million others.”

And of course, some hints at what they have planned. Sounds fun!:

Later this week, Free Realms is scheduled to kick off the Festival of Hearts, a special month long event that celebrates love, friendship and kindness. All players will be able to participate in themed events, daily social activities and storyline quests that incorporate traditional items and rewards which embody the holiday: hearts, candies, forget-me-not cards, flowers, love potions and more. Heart Breakers are invited too, as even the Stone Hearted can participate in the world events that ensue. New Hippo, Tiger, Beetle, Groundhog and Owl pets will also be available in the Marketplace.

To play Free Realms, visit: http://www.FreeRealms.com.

Free Realms Rant

So after finally getting some time to play around with Free Realms after the BIG update last month, I don't think I care for most of the combat changes.

It's much more fast paced, now, which is nice. However, battles are so easy there really isn't any challenge or strategy in it anymore. The additional powerups are neat in theory, but with battles being such a breeze, I never really need them. I miss all my cool, old abilities as well. Attaching abilities to weapons is a nice touch, but unless you really look close, it seems there isn't much difference from one ability to another.

Who knows, maybe I just need to go explore some harder battles.

Chat Filter Fail

So I ran into a bug while playing Free Realms today. I contacted a staff member called a referee and got a prompt response. Below is them TRYING to help me out (I blocked out the name of the specific referee to be nice). All of the ### are words being hit by the filter.

If anyone can tell what he's saying behind the chat filter, that would be great. I guess they need to do some work on their filter!

For what it's worth, he later elaborated and helped me through the issue. But it gave me a really good laugh! :)

Free Realms Holiday Updates

Wow, a whole bunch of changes and improvements to Free Realms. It's definitely worth logging in and checking it out. Here's a rundown of some of the big changes:

• Houses! Members get a free house and everyone gets an apartment
• Furniture to buy for your homes
• Tons of new pets (dragons, dinosaurs, unicorns, etc.)
• New Snow Days daily wheel to spin for prizes
• Lots of new holiday items up for sale
• Snowball fighting
• Holiday decorations and events in Snowhill
• Changes to the game's interface
• New fishing game
• And more!

Impressive update. Now it's time for me to go explore and have fun!

Update: So I've had a chance to play around with some of the additions and I have to admit it's a lot of fun. You can collect a daily gift from the Christmas Tree in Snowhill, have snowball fights with your friends, seek out rare fish through the new fishing game, and more! Obviously, if you liked pets in Free Realms, you'll really like the new pets too. One of my favorite changes is the interface. I think it's going to make the game a lot more chat friendly since your chat bar now stays in position at all times instead of disappearing. I still haven't checked out the homes, but I'll be back tomorrow (at the very least, so I can gather my daily gift from under the tree).

Free Realms Dino Pets

Just came across this pic of some upcoming new pets in Free Realms. I knew they were coming out with some new pets, but I didn't know there would be a little T-Rex. How cool!

New Just-RPG Issue

Just-RPG has posted their latest issue. This one includes my Q&A with the Free Realms Creative Director.

http://www.just-rpg.com

• Borderlands Review
• Free Realms Q&A
• Gyromancer Videos
• And More!

Habbo & SOE Promotions

Just a few quick virtual world deals I've noticed lately...

If you grab a Habbo Hotel card at GameStop by December 13th @ 11:59pm PT, you'll get a free rare Arcade Cabinet furni. I bought my $10 card (worth 50 coins) last weekend and have already received my reward. As long as I'm talking about Habbo, make sure to log-in and check out the awesome improvements made to pets! Your pet can now earn experience and badges.

Sony Online Entertainment is also holding a 25% more station cash promotion for station cash cards sold at participating retailers. Free Realms, EverQuest and EverQuest II cards must be redeemed this week by November 29th to receive the bonus Station Cash reward. I picked up my Free Realms card at Walmart today.

The Dares Concert

The Dares, the band that sings the Free Realms theme song, is going to be in town in a few weeks. Hmm... thinking of going to see them.

I saw their in-game concert a while back. It was pretty mediocre, but I do like the theme song. See it below:




Edit: Downloaded their song from iTunes today. Still thinking of going to the concert...

Free Realms Sneak Peeks

A ton of sneak peeks at upcoming Free Realms features over on their official blog. The big addition is that players will soon be able to have their own homes within Free Realms.

Other changes include new pet types (like a dragon, pegasus, etc.), easier shopping features, a new fishing mini-game, and the ability to dye your clothing. There's a whole ton of new things coming. Check out the following link to read it all...

http://freerealms.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/november-december-updates/

This is Halloween

Picked this video up from http://www.freerealmsinsider.com/. It'll get you into the Halloween spirit! And show off some of the cool Halloween goodies in Free Realms.




Must admit, nicely done video. :)

FR Halloween Dance

Looks like tonight Free Realms is looking to host the biggest virtual Halloween dance party ever. It will even be certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. Unfortunately I'm busy tonight, but I'll try and stop in for a peek. (Edit: I was wrong, this event starts Wednesday, October 21st. I showed up today and was the only one there!)

Here's the full event details.

Dance your way to a world record with SOE and Free Realms as we attempt to host the Biggest Virtual Halloween Dance Party!

Just in time for the Halloween season, everyone is encouraged to log on
to htpp://www.freerealms.com at 4pm PDT - 6pm PDT (11pm - 1am UTC) this Wednesday, October 21st to show off their new Halloween costumes and get down to with the "Chiller" Boom box dance!

Scheduled to be certified by the Guinness Book of World Records, this Super
Spooktacular celebration will be offset by well-known dance moves and a notable tune that promises for a thrilling good time.

Log on to: http://www.freerealms.com/ Wednesday, October, 21st, 20094pm PDT - 6pm PDT (11pm - 1am UTC)Server 1BLACKSPORE (Teleport to Bone Bog Cemetery)

New Free Realms Comic

Just picked up the latest issue of the Free Realms comic, which comes with a code for a cool in-game item. The item in this issue is a re-usable healing item, so it's pretty handy... and better than the sword in the previous issue in my opinion.

I still haven't read the previous issue. Maybe I'll do that today...

On a side note, the I mentioned the Free Realms updates as of late. The game seems to be running really poorly for me lately and I've run into a few bugs. Although, the updates are awsome so I guess I can live with it.

Free Realms Updates

A ton of changes to Free Realms along with the latest update (and a few previous updates that I never mentioned...). I unfortunately haven't had a lot of time to play lately, so I may have missed out on a few recent changes. The second Free Realms comic has also recently been released, so I'll have to make sure to run out and buy that. Here's a rundown of some recent additions:

• Style cards - You can now purchase style cards to change your face paint, wings, and hair style! Very nice addition. See my new wings and facepaint in the pic? You can buy some cards from ships in Sanctuary and purchase more using Station Cash.


• Tons of new freebie codes - try these out: mmmdonut, berrycupcake, drinkmilk, EMD73DK, MILKRULES


• 5 million pack celebrating Free Realms reaching 5 million players, includes a party hat and other goodies. Just waiting for you to claim it if you haven't yet!


• New Soccer Game and new soccer job class - new job is for members only, but everyone can trial up to level 5


• Inspect feature - click another player to see their jobs, levels, and equipment


• You now earn coins as a pet trainer from perfect tricks


• Halloween decorations in Sanctuary. In the pic above you can get a sneak peek. A few pumpkins and spiderwebs in the background.


• Take Me There feature - during a Quest, click 'Take me there' to go straight to your destination
• Whenever you move towards a Quest goal or enemy, you'll be asked if you want to check it out

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs promo is now officially over. Gotta hand it to Sony Online Entertainment and Free Realms. I'm thoroughly impressed, not only by the quality of the game, but also by the consistent updates that keep things fresh and interesting.

Free Realms Milkshake

Just came across this Free Realms video. It gave me a pretty good laugh, so I wanted to share. Enjoy!

DOUBLE Station Cash

Redeem a Free Realms station cash card from any participating retailer between Spetember 18th and September 20th and you get double the station cash!

Cards must be redeemed between 7am PDT Friday and Sunday befor 10pm PDT for the bonus. Participating retailers include 7-11, Best Buy, Blockbuster, Rite Aid and Target.

I actually think I have enough station cash for now, but that's too tempting of a deal to pass up!

Attention Span for Gaming Kids

Interesting article on Gamasutra.com about what Free Realms has taught SOE about the attention span of young gamers, and how they're doing to adapt.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25281

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs & Free Realms

Some wacky weather has struck the world of Free Realms today. Storms are popping up all over and pouring food across the landscape! Of course, this is all part of a promo with the upcoming film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.


To participate in the special events, visit one of the three FFA Reps (Farnum's Farm, Lakeshore and Seaside) to start one of the three Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Quests. One quest will require you to gather up meatballs that fall from the sky, another will have you gathering fruit, and the final will require you to find veggies.


Weather reports are being announced every 15 minutes or so, letting you know where you need to go to catch the next storm of food. The rain will begin around a minute after the announcement, and will continue for about 3 minutes. Be sure to hurry, though, because everyone is fighting over the same falling food!


Each of these Quests you complete will reward you with a Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs t-shirt (there are 3 different colors). After you've finished all 3 quests, you'll learn the special Spaghetti and Meatballs recipe by visiting Helga in Sanctuary, which will transform you into a meatball if consumed.


Lots of fun! I'd better run, the next storm of food should be coming up any time now...

Update: Looks like after you have all of the food collected and learn the recipe for Spaghetti and Meatballs, you then have to gather MORE fruits, veggies, and meatballs to exchange for the recipe ingredients. This is a neat promo, but it sure is time consuming. :(

Free Realms Create a Card

I get the impression this is a fairly new feature to Free Realms because it's the first I've seen of it, but I may be wrong. I just jumped in and started exploring it for the first time today either way. Anyway...

So in the Free Realms online card game, you can create a card of your character. Yep, your character. Your picture. Your name. Your selected job class. Everything! You get to choose between all of the job classes and equipment that you have in Free Realms and then you can choose the abilities for your card. Each job class has unique abilities associated with it, and the higher level you are, the more powerful your card will be.

The fact that they have this feature open for players is pretty cool, but the most interesting part is that you can order real-world print versions of your card. Then you can play with YOUR character in the real world. And on top of that, you'll get a code to redeem a virtual version of your card in the online card game, so you can battle your friends with your own unique card.

The first thing that probably comes to mind is "aren't players going to just make their characters really, really strong, which will destroy the balance of the game?". That's a valid concern, but because the player can only choose from a list of pre-selected stats and abilities for their cards, it's a non-issue.

Very, very cool feature if you ask me. I went ahead and created a card of my character (as a Wizard) and ordered a real world card. While I am starting to build up a decent sized collection of the physical cards, I don't really play it. But I do play the virtual card game enough that I'm excited to add my personal character to my collection. And most exciting of all, I can't wait to have a real-world collectible card of myself to show off!