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Free Realms: The 2011 Re-Review
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
It's been almost two years since our last look at Free Realms, the family-friendly MMO from Sony Online Entertainment. In our latest re-review here at MMORPG.com, Lori May look at Free Realms from an adult perspective. Check it out!
Free Realms is an MMORPG offered by Sony, which offers both a highly limited free version and a pay-to-play (P2P) monthly subscription. With an ESRB rating of “Everyone,” it's easy to guess that this MMO is very kid-friendly and fairly simple to both understand and navigate. But what does it offer for older players, who expect adult-level entertainment and enjoyment out of their free-to-play (F2P) and P2P MMOs?
Read more of Lori May's Free Realms Re-Review.
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Comments
It wasnt that bad.......
Which FF Character Are You?
kinda looks like WoW lol.
i really enjoyed playing with my ninja character xD
For adult MMO gamers, I'd say the review was spot on. This game doesn't have much to keep adults hooked persay, unless you have the option to play it with your kids or just enjoy another method of playing a few minigames.
For it's intended audience, though, I'd definitely say it's a great game. Do 8 year olds care about a level cap? Very doubtful. It's nice to see that SOE has continued to create a safe, fun game world for children that doesn't require a purchase or letting them use an internet browser.
I've tried it, its not a bad game at all for what it is.
The game is for kids, why rate it for adults? That is like comparing the card games Go Fish with Poker.
Like everyone already said, were you expecting permadeath when going in to play that game? Review the game for what it is please.
We are announcing a brand new system for our reviews in July that will hopefully help us all clarify our thoughts in a numerical fashion easier.
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That's all well and good, but that doesn't change the fact that, according to her review, it should have been 7.5-8.5 and she graded it a 6.5. Now, I've read many reviews where a game gets a higher score then the review itself suggests, but to outright say she'd grade it 7.5-8.5 for kids, and then post a different score is just sloppy, on the editor's end as well.
Would also like to add, I think this is the first time this site has re-reviewed a game and given it a much lower score.
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Besides having a cartoon look, IT HAS NOTHING THAT "KINDA LOOKS LIKE WOW".... /sigh
Its funny that Free realms i probably the best MMO SOE has
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
...Wait are you kidding me?
It's been two years and they still haven't added any of the new maps that say "coming soon"?
Or did they remove those already and are just never going to make any new zones because they're lazy/cheap and kids are stupid?
I had a lot of fun in Free Realms but I used it as a totally casual change of pace game. It is a very relaxing game with fun lil quests and mini-games all over.
Why oh why do Professional writers use the word "an" in front of "MMO"? "An" is used in front of a word that begins with a vowel, last I checked, "m" was not a vowel, (I even checked with Vanna White, she does not sell m's).
That was lame, come on, really? If that's the case, then there would never ever be a use for "a", ever. Sorry, that doesnt cut the mustard.
It's not wrong, actually. The Modern Language Association is pretty clear on the subject. For a common acronym such as "MMO", the decisive criteria for the use of 'an' rather than 'a' is pronounciation, not spelling. And in terms of pronounciation "MMO" does indead begin with a vowel (em-em-oh). A great example is the use of 'an historic (fill in the blank)'. For example, "It was an historic occasion" is completely correct. But don't feel bad, English is my business and I had to look it up just now to be sure. The article determines how the writer wants to reader to say it in his mind. I've often wondered about this and never bothered to get an answer until now, so for that I thank you. Additionally, don't look to professional journalists as though they are grammarists. They aren't. Journalism ruins language for speed and flash. Everytime they use the word "quote" instead of quotation it makes me go crazy!
I think maybe you're confusing the pronunciation of words with the pronunciation of letters. It's a different thing. Take the example of the acronym FOB. In medicine it means fecal occult blood, but in usuage it's said "eff -oh -bee". In military terms FOB means forward operating base but it's pronounced as a word "fob". So for the first one you would say an F.O.B. and for the second you would say "I was at 'a' FOB last night. As I said before it's based on how it is used. Check out MLAhandbook.org if you have any more questions.
i played for about a yr got a lifetime subscription in the hopes new areas would be available to explore however as with most sony products that isn't the aim. the cash shop gets more frequent updates than the world does and the introduction of farming/gardening is pointless unless they allow you to do it on the lots with your house......frankly i've been disapointed and the games port to ps3 hasn't changed my opinion
so say we all
I was just contemplating this the other day and reached the same conclusion. It sounds like 'em', a vowel, so it needs "an" in front of it. " A MMO" sounds so wrong and awkward.
The game was about perfect for kids and was even fun for adults, at launch. Health Potions were essential for completing many of the quests with out dying, but the vendor prices for loot drops were high enough that you could self fund your potion needs and have a small amount of currency left.
However, a few months in, Sony got greedy. They cut the vendor payouts for drops by 90% (yes, you only got 10% of what vendors used to pay for drops), which then forced players to buy potions with real money, if they wanted to continue to get perfect completions on level appropriate quests.
It was right after this change that FRs previously mindboggling momentum at signing up new users crashed and burned. (I think they had hit four or five million in short order, before the game maiming change to the economy).
The game offered good incentives for paying the $5/month fee. It also offered weapons and armor in the cash shop that were worth buying and with weapons being class specific, it was likely that people willing to pay for one weapon would by others as they added and leveled additional classes.
I don't know what the in game economy looks like now, but at the time, SOE, in typical SOE fashion, killed the goose that laid the golden egg with idiotic, short term greed.
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fiontar is right, the game was much better before the drastic NGEesque changes to the game. It used to be a pretty good family MMO, now it just okay.
an MMO
an heir
an honour
a year
a unicorn
pronounciation wins.
The review on this would be above a 5.0 (so-so) if it bothered to mention the Cash Shop and the fact that some of the jobs (professions) are unable to be advanced without Cash Shop purchases.
That is the reason I quit playing Free Realms. There should not be a subscription, or at least it should be very low, for example $1 a month since players wanting to play certain jobs MUST upgrade to advance thru the Cash Shop.
The above is what I remember, oh yes, gifting other people what they need from the Cash Shop is missing from Free Realms as well.
Greedy, but then it's Sony. No real surprise on the greed there, eh?