Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Free Realms: Launch Day Exclusive Interview
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
Free Realms Creative Director Laralyn McWilliams talks to MMORPG.com only hours after the game's launch about how it went and what the game's about.
“Free Realms is really not about the grind to get to max level, but getting into a virtual world and having fun,” said McWilliams. The game, while hard to define is cartoony and full of quirks. “[It’s] very light hearted, lots of pop culture references, having a sense of humor about ourselves as well as MMOs in general.”
The game can be broken down into four distinct kinds of gameplay.
The most obvious is combat and adventure, which should be more familiar to fans of traditional MMOs. Players can explore the world, fight bad guys and level up their toon.
;)
Read the full interview here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
Good interview. I hope this game succeeds and helps other developers realize that games shouldn't be totally focused on grinding and mob killing.
While I was somewhat bothered by the amount of instancing and lack of community based gameplay ( It really feels like a solo based game except that you would be more inclined to play a bit with RL friends. ) But a great game nonetheless for those of younger age.
I'm older and the game is great... don't think it's geared towards just kids... and so far I haven't seen an instance yet... other then the battles.
It's not a bad game at all. I'm thinking of getting my oldest kid to try it. Wizzard 101 is what my kids play, this is way better.
So, what's in the item mall? They basically say you need station cash but won't tell you what you need it for until you're in-game.
pets cost 250 station coins. theres a neat kart racing game and destruction derby in it too!
Though the game felt kinda empty in the beta but then you couldnt just tell your friends and have them join in. Now that its live you can tell your friends to join in since its free to play. I've told my mom to join in with me. After teliing her to stay away from WoW though she loved warcraft series. Just new the people and competative feel the game impses on you to play would not be for her. This is finaly one we can play to gather. And ice told some ofmy opther freinds about it. Most of them play wow so most won't join up but some will cause it doesnt cost anything to check it out.
FYI for parents:
Sony had this game where people spent a lot of time and money taming pets. People got attached to these, were promised new pets in an expansion and were promised improvements to pet taming as a profession. Immediately after purchasing the expansion, people learned that pet-taming would be deleted in less than two weeks time. Sony deleted the profession and those that tamed pets could only stare at pets they could no longer interact with in their inventories. Needless to say, many people were upset.
Now Sony wants to market a game to kids that is free to play, but sells them a chance to have pets. They claim they've learned from their past experiences, but the EULA for the new game suggests otherwise. It seems that they reserve the right to take money from your kids for pets, and then promptly delete them any time they choose, at their sole discretion. Here's a quote from the EULA:
"You further acknowledge that SOE can and will, in its discretion, modify features, functions or abilities of any element of any of its games or any Virtual Goods (which may, among other things, make the Virtual Goods substantially more valuable, effective or functional, or less valuable, effective or functional, more common or less common, or eliminated entirely). You acknowledge and agree that all Virtual Goods represent a limited license right governed by the terms of this Agreement, and are not redeemable for any sum of money or monetary value from SOE at any time." (from the official site, red font added for emphasis)
Why am I posting this? Is it because I hate SOE and want them to disappear? No, absolutely not. I'm posting this so that parents are informed about what SOE may do to your kids if they choose to play this game, purchase pets and get attached to them.
I suggest you actually read the EULA in its entirety before deciding whether or not this is a good investment for your kids. You may want to look at how your child's use of your visa is handled, how information is collected, how much access you're giving SOE to your PC, and how complaints will be handled. This is just a heads up folks.
look sfun, going to give it a try..
I'm incredibly impressed with this game.
I checked it out, and was simply stunned.
There's an incredible amount of content for F2P game, and one that streams over a browser none the less.
I spent six hours playing tonight. Just lost track of the time. It's been a long time since an MMO, or any game for that matter has grabbed me and got me lost.
I had to buy some station cash when I saw that you could get cybor parts for you pet. I had to have a cyborg dog!
Another guy ran over and challenged me to a duel; so I gave it a shot. What a shock when it actually dropped us into a little wilderness instance to fight. Nothing spectacular about the fight itself, mostly just a lot of who could click faster then the other, but it was fun.
Kart racing reminds me of Mariokart. I'm gonna have a lot of fun in the demo derby playing against other people.
I gotta get a second computer now so that my girls 12 year old and I can play together.
My brother who's a year older then me gave it a go; I'm 32. He was having a blast too.
I think I may even be able to get my girl to play. The mini games are just her thing.
I spent the 4.99 to become a member.
Of all the MMO that have released in the past couple years I gotta say, Freeworlds def. gives the most bang for your buck.
Kids game or not, it's a lot fun.
I'm looking forward to wasting the last few days of my vacation in Freeworld.
For the love of god.
Get a life!
No kidding. Worry much?
Now go put on your mask and watch for the swine flu.
Criticize all you like, I'm simply posting accurate information that may be of interest to parents who take an interest in their kids' well-being.
Feel free to go back to recommending this game. It's your right to express your views, just as it's mine to do the same.
P.S. In light of the recent escalation in alert status regarding the possible pandemic, I think your comments are short-sighted and possibly insensitive. I take no offence personally, but that's only because no one close to me has been affected.
Also, I think my chances of catching this flu strain at this time are very low. In contrast, based on past behaviour, I think the chance that SOE will take money from parents and then make unwanted changes to the things they purchased for their children is higher. All I've suggested is that parents carefully read the EULA before making such purchases. I wasn't aware that reading the EULA for a game your children might want to play is a bad idea.
yep. i recommend not getting too attached to your pet because there is a good possibility of you logging in one day and find it gone; just like it happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away; when all pets cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.
Look man, I'm just trying to help when I say this, but realize that EVERYONE in the mmo community is sick of the bitching about the NGE fiasco. That was so long ago that most of the management and developer positions have probably sitched anyway.
Don't we have a forum for you guys?
Look man, I'm just trying to help when I say this, but realize that EVERYONE in the mmo community is sick of the bitching about the NGE fiasco. That was so long ago that most of the management and developer positions have probably sitched anyway.
Don't we have a forum for you guys?
Smed still runs the show, though.
Looks like very very standard EULA boiler-plate. I haven't ever seen a EULA for an MMO without pretty much the same clauses.
Active: D&D Online (alpha,beta,&unlimited)
Retired: Anarchy Online, Archlord (beta), Auto Assault (beta), CoH/CoV, Dark Age of Camelot, Dungeon Runners, Elder Scrolls Online, Everquest, EVE, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online (beta,live), Pathfinder Online (beta), Rift (beta,live), Secret World (beta,live), Star Wars Old Republic, Vanguard (beta), Warhammer (beta,live), World of Warcraft
SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT - WHERE GAMES GO TO DIE
In other issues: Wth are stars for in this game? That's not explained anywhere, they don't exactly make it easy to find help...typical sony...someone needs to go bomb them.
"Life is not judged by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."
You must be kidding me, even my 10 years old nephew figured out that the stars are used to make skills better. He just jump into games and figures things out for himself and he almost never need to read instructions. Maybe he is this way because he started playing games since the age of 4. He couldn't read very well at that age and needed to figure things out for himself or ask adults. I even tried the game for some hours and to tell you the truth if you would just click the icons and read the descriptions and take some time, you will learn how to play it. Btw i'm like my nephew too, i almost never read intructions guides ;p.
Guess Sony left some BAD taste in peoples mouth that they will use the simplest things to bash it.
To the guy who is whining about the EULA, have you never read a EULA before? I assume you didn't, because if you did, you wouldn't have posted this. EULA are basically all the same. The gist of any EULA, wether its World of Warcraft or second life, is "in this game you don't own anything, you don't own any of the virtual items we create, you don't have a right to anything we create, we can ban you or lock your subscription at any point,we are in charge, we are the masters of our own universe, we can do in our game what we like". That's not new to Freerealms, it's how these EULA's work across the board. And it make sense too, because if people would have any rights to virtual items the creators could never change the game or rules as they see fit without getting lawsuits up their ass.
If you don't like that, don't play MMO's. If you want a sense of real ownership of your virtual items, make your own MMO, cause all those other MMO's out there make sure in their EULA's that they can do anything to their game without having to fear customers using legal action to stop them.
I didnt play the beta but I have enjoyed the game too
best new online game I have played in the last 3 years
EQ2 fan sites
Before you go all high and mighty on this issue PLEASE read every other MMO EULA that you may own or have hear of and you will find the same paragraph except change out the $oE for the relevant companies.
Your spouting nonsense for dramatic effect, we get you don't like $oE as a company, not many ppl do, me included, but I like the games they produce, but trying to pass this off as something that ONLY $oE does is utter rubbish.
Criticize all you like, I'm simply posting accurate information that may be of interest to parents who take an interest in their kids' well-being.
Feel free to go back to recommending this game. It's your right to express your views, just as it's mine to do the same.
P.S. In light of the recent escalation in alert status regarding the possible pandemic, I think your comments are short-sighted and possibly insensitive. I take no offence personally, but that's only because no one close to me has been affected.
Also, I think my chances of catching this flu strain at this time are very low. In contrast, based on past behaviour, I think the chance that SOE will take money from parents and then make unwanted changes to the things they purchased for their children is higher. All I've suggested is that parents carefully read the EULA before making such purchases. I wasn't aware that reading the EULA for a game your children might want to play is a bad idea.
Take that same statement and tell it to those ppl who put hours apon hours apon hours of effort blood sweat and tears into grinding out thier PvP ranks in WoW only to find over night that all thier effort went down the drain becuase Blizzard changed it.
Your making assumptions that only $oE makes changes that are detrimental to the community, THEY ALL DO IT, it's nothing new and it will not remain the domain of one developer to change their products, check your cable or satelite agreement, you will find they can and will change any programing, the amount you pay and the equipment on the property at a whim if they so choose.
Fortunately my daughter who is 7 doesn't buy into all this corporate propoganda and hate spewed by ppl, becuase she doesn't read any forums, she just plays a game and from what I can see is thoroughly enjoying the experience.
She had the same experience in Wizard 101 but she got bored and wanted something with a bit more freedom, and so far Freerealms is providing that freedom.
However everyone is entitled to thier opinion, you carry on thinking $oE are the only company out there trying to screw over their customers.
when I joined I bought 2000 Station bucks and payed 499 to be a member. I then bought a couple of booster decks for the TCG, and finally I bought a nice bow for my new Archer. The bow I purchased was worth it (250 station cash). I went from doing 75 damage per shot to over 125 per shot.
All in all a fun addictive game, and definately not just for kids.
I was there and i lost my favourite proffession of all time in any game, however that was like what .... 4 years ago!!! time to let go my friend.
Free Realms is loads of fun and i am enjoying playing it with my kids and on my own. Nice change of pace from most things on the market right now and most of it is free. Well worth giving it a go in my opinion.
I was there and i lost my favourite proffession of all time in any game, however that was like what .... 4 years ago!!! time to let go my friend.
Free Realms is loads of fun and i am enjoying playing it with my kids and on my own. Nice change of pace from most things on the market right now and most of it is free. Well worth giving it a go in my opinion.
Would you guys quit dogging on ArcAngel? It's a good thing he brought that to people's attention. While it isn't uncommon, the wording is VERY suggestive of SOE business practices. While he may have used the pet example on emphasis, it is not the only time SOE has screwed over it's player base in this (or a similar) fasion.
While I do agree that this is another good game brought to us by SOE, they have quite the reputation for ruining games / player experiences as part of their business practice. There are a lot of people who don't play MMOs, and many that are new to the genre.