Comments on: Oz Does Free Realms Beta

By: Free Realms Unleashed Today « The Ancient Gaming Noob

Free Realms Unleashed Today « The Ancient Gaming Noob — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:55:10 +0000

[...] the dropping of the NDA on the Free Realms beta, a few MMO players have put up their views and impressions of the [...]

By: Ethic

Ethic — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:59:11 +0000

Sony seems to have a real need to add card games to all of their online games these days. I don’t find these card games fun at all and mostly see them as a pure money grab. Obviously, many people enjoy that added part of the game but it holds no appeal to me. Different strokes I guess.

This coming from a guy that spent a few hours last night playing WoW in the form of a rabbit. Racing 20 other people to collect over 200 eggs. So my wife could have bunny ears on her character.

By: West Karana » Daily Blogroll 4/28 — Hug & Squeeze Edition

West Karana » Daily Blogroll 4/28 — Hug & Squeeze Edition — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:45:16 +0000

[...] Ten Rats has somehow become the point person for negative comments about Free Realms, even though his beta review wasn’t really all that negative. Nonetheless, he found himself explaining his position in a second post and was even contacted [...]

By: (My)Last Word on Free Realms Launch | Kill Ten Rats

(My)Last Word on Free Realms Launch | Kill Ten Rats — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:32:52 +0000

[...] planned to post more on the subject, I was contacted earlier today by SOE in regards to my post. We talked through the elements I raised like rational people and I came out of it feeling like [...]

By: TheDeadEye

TheDeadEye — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:25:21 +0000

Free Realms Booster packs have always been 10 cards (same as the retail off-line version), and if you played the card game in the last two weeks, you would have known that as they were giving each player two packs a day to test with. The cost was just announced a few days ago, but it’s the same as the retail packs ($4). I have no idea where you got the 4 cards for $10 unless you got it backwards and forgot.

By: saylah

saylah — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:36:08 +0000

@Ethic – I’m with you. I didn’t like it much at all. I couldn’t get passed the instancing of every flippin thing you did. I just can’t call that a MMO experience. It put the instancing in PotBS that drove me nuts to shame. It’s more like theme park of mini games which is fine for people who enjoy that option.

I guess if I was on a business call or sitting somewhere only half-paying attention to something and had internet access I *might* log into FRs and so something as long as it’s free. There’s no way I’d pay for anything I’ve seen so far. I’m sad that I dislike this game so much since it was my Hail Mary prayer to play some sort of MMO game with my girlfriends.

By: Ravious

Ravious — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:45:02 +0000

I liked your comment, Bri, and good post Oz, especially from a parent point of view…

By: openedge1

openedge1 — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:43:55 +0000

I don’t understand all the praise for the high polish on this game, not seeing it myself.

Think “New Smell”…

Smells new, feels new, looks new…GOTTA PLAY IT and LOVE IT!

Games in this category
WAR, LOTRO, AoC, Tabula Rasa, Darkfall…etc.

By: Ethic

Ethic — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:38:02 +0000

I really have almost nothing good to say about Free Realms. I didn’t enjoy it, the mini games I found boring beyond boring. The racing was dull and uninspiring. My kids tried it for a few days and went back to ToonTown. There are a lot of graphical glitches on my computer as well, with an 8800GTS gxf card – go figure. I really was hoping for a fun game out of this, was really disappointed. Oh well, it is not really for me anyway. Shocked it is releasing so soon, I don’t understand all the praise for the high polish on this game, not seeing it myself.

That said, give it a try and see if it is for you. It is free and easy to try at least.

By: Oz

Oz — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:41:09 +0000

Ok, I’ve actually done some quick checking with Sony and here’s how the card structure will work.

Like Tobold says, the current price is $4 for 10 cards. This was not the case last week, and was apparently “officially” changed on Friday the 25th, according to one of the devs (referees). Since the game was in beta, they certainly have the right to have different tryouts up there, and apparently the massive thread complaining about it got their attention.

I still feel $4 for 10 is a bit high (since other Sony games sell 15 for $3 as even one example), and if I was the marketing guy I’d drop it to $3 at least to start to make sure I got my product out in the marketplace quick.

Summary: we were both right, just at different stages. Like I posted initially, my review was written earlier on Friday, before the change, as I had a weekend without work that I spent with the family.