Free Realms ~ Free Item Codes

Today I have found some new Free Codes to redeem in Free Realms. And also, don't forget that Free Realms Comic #2 by Wildstorm has been released and also has a free item code in it to redeem.

EMD73DK - Jagged Scythe (ninja only blade)
MMMDONUT - Heavenly Donut - Matchers Advantage
BERRYCUPCAKE - Berry Cake - Matchers Skill
G3TACPCH - Wild Winger Shin Guards

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Free Realms ~ Goal Time Update !!

Pex has announced over on the Free Realms message boards the Goal Time Update !! Yay !!

Here are the patch notes...




Goal Time is here!
Head to the Soccer field in Snowhill to try out the new quests
Highlights of today's update are listed below...

Marketplace
Check out the Marketplace or Merchants in Sanctuary & Seaside to purchase Style Cards! Use them to change up your eye color, hair color, hair style, face paint & wing patterns!

General
Free Realms introduces Soccer! Start a game with friends or compete against one of the teams waiting to play you at the Soccer field in Snowhill!
Try Player Inspect on players near you – click on someone to see their jobs & levels and what they’re wearing!
Now, when you move towards a quest giver, a merchant, combat gates, collections and more you’ll notice a pop-up asking if you’d like to check it out!
The skies have cleared! Meatballs, fruits and vegetables will no longer fall from the sky. If you have already earned a Spaghetti with Meatballs recipe, you may purchase ingredients from Helga Humbleloaf or the “FFA Reps” for a limited time only.
Many “no sale” items that were earned from quests can now be sold.

Pets
Pet trainers will now receive a coin reward whenever they score “Good” or “Awesome” on all pet tricks




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Free Realms ~ New Free Codes

Today we have 4 new free codes for you to redeem in Free Realms. These codes are from the fella's over at FreeRealmsInsider. The codes seem to have a theme to them...Milk, it does the body good :)

Crash Crunch Helmet - 6FG8ZT7
Cow Apron - MILKRULES
Cow Hat - MILKROCKS
Bullhorn Ninja Cowl - DRINKMILK



Crash Crunch Helmet - 6FG8ZT7



Cow Apron - MILKRULES



Cow Hat - MILKROCKS



Bullhorn Ninja Cowl - DRINKMILK


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Free Realms ~ Goal Time Update !!

Free Realms Game Designer Chris Molina has posted an update concernign the Goal Time Update which will introduce the new soccer job profession to the game...

Well, we’re just about in the final stretch here at Free Realms headquarters, polishing the final touches of the new Soccer Star job and arcade style mini game. It’s been both an insightful and genuinely fun experience contributing to the new game update. As is the case with creating any new game, soccer has gone through an iterative process that began to really take shape in the last couple months. The biggest challenge was creating accessible soccer gameplay using a mouse and keyboard! Typically this control mapping is found on an arcade or a console style controller which forced us to really focus on how to make Free Realms soccer just as intuitive and fun on a PC.



Thankfully we were able to identify a solid control scheme midway through the development process by gathering data from our in house Usability Lab testing. Watching the different groups of kids get hands on with the game gave us immediate feedback on how to make the soccer controls more user friendly. The A.I. (artificial intelligence) balance was achieved by viewing these play sessions as well.



Overall kids in the focus test groups had a blast playing as a Soccer Star once they got a grasp on the functionality, not to mention the punctuating particle effects really pushed the squash and stretch principals for a nice layer of novelty. This also has a suggestive nature to the Stephen Chow – Shaolin Soccer film; fans of that movie will be sure to get a kick out of Free Realms Soccer. I’ll never forget the nine to twelve age group who were yelling in sheer excitement every time they executed a goal or slide tackle! There was hardly a moment of silence throughout that particular session but, it was reassuring to see the fun factor was in fact present at that point in development.



As a designer coming over from the combat team, the soccer quest line was my first quest progression implementation for the over world. This presented many challenges as I had to learn how the flow and dependencies of the tools affected the many aspects of the core game. Whereas the framework in combat is very much self contained in a bubble or instance which doesn’t have an overlapping presence on Free Realms proper. This was one those sink or swim moments, but luckily my development teammates were always on hand to provide support during any moments of uncertainty.



I’m really looking forward to reading and seeing the reactions of players once soccer launches. I actually found myself getting a bit carried away while fixing a bug the other night. The game got so competitive and came down to the wire that I actually yelled at the opposing team “Ha! I Knocked you down and scored! What are you gonna about it, huh?” Enjoy…

Chris Molina
Game Designer
Free Realms


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Free Realms : Computer Virus !!

This latest post has nothing to do directly with Free Realms, but instead has to do with all PC game players and computer users in general.

There is a new nasty computer virus going around that is infecting Windows rootKit and installing itself in system restore data via Zer-Day flaws. It is particularly hard to remove and is targeting PC Gamers to gain access to their account so they can steal the passwords and seel them on auction sites.

Gamers of EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and other MMORPG should be aware of this virus. Here is the official post on it...

Windows system restore targeted by virtual identity thieves
Thursday, September 24, 2009

The dogrobot virus that plagues Chinese internet cafes is being used to hijack online gaming account credentials, which can then be re-sold online.

The technique used to infect computers with the virus offers a unique advantage to cyber criminals: it infiltrates Windows' system restore functionality, so that computers remain infected even after complete reversion to a previously defined system restore point. This is accomplished via a combination of rootkits and zero-day flaws, which makes dogrobot difficult to clean from infected systems.

Experts say that the malware is a sophisticated delivery system for the dogrobot virus, which has been heavily modified to skirt security software and remain invisible on affected systems. This, in addition to its resistance to removal, makes the malware exceptionally suited to the theft of virtual identities for games like EverQuest and World of Warcraft.

Some online avatars can fetch hundreds of dollars at auction and sales websites, and an extensive market for virtual items and in-game money exists as well. Microsoft anti-virus researcher Chun Feng told ZDnet that the dogrobot group of viruses has cost Chinese internet cafes over $1.2 billion in losses.

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GENEVA -- Cyber crime gangs in China are penetrating the hard disk recovery cards on computers in Internet cafes and using a combination of zero-day flaws, rootkits and ARP spoofing techniques to steal billions of dollars worth of online gaming credentials.

According to Microsoft anti-virus researcher Chun Feng, five generations of the Win32/Dogrobot malware family have perfected the novel rootkit technique to hijack System Restore on Windows — effectively allowing the malicious file to survive even after the compromised machine is reverted to its previous clean state.

At the Virus Bulletin 2009 conference here, Feng (left) provided a fascinating look at the techniques used by Dogrobot, which is directly linked to the lucrative underground trading of online gaming assets like passwords and virtual property.

According to data presented by Feng, the Dogrobot family has caused more than USD$1.2 billion in losses to Chinese Internet cafes.

He explained that earlier Dogrobot used disk-level I/O file manipulation to penetrate System Restore but, as the malware evolved, it started using a “backdoor” that already exists in the System Restore functionality. A third generation introduced extensive unhooking code to thwart the protection offered by security programs and avoid removal.

Along the way, Feng discovered that newer variants were tweaked to get around security software and strengthen the code’s ability to maintain persistent stealth on compromised Windows computers.

In China, Internet cafes are very popular among the online gaming crowd where the use of USB sticks with account credentials is the norm. Dogrobot takes advantage of this, abusing the USB AutoRun functionality on older machines to propagate.

He explained that the malware author has found success exploiting zero-day ActiveX vulnerabilities and other flaws in Windows OS and third-party software — especially RealPlayer and WebThunder.

The attackers also use ARP cache poisoning to send malicious ARP packets to instruct other machines within the same LAN to download Dogrobot samples.




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Free Realms ~ Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Pex has announced on the Free Realms message boards that the event 'Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs' is coming to an end soon. Here is his message...

I wanted to give everyone a heads up that the Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs quests will be going away on or slightly after September 30th.

I am waiting to see if Helga will remain to give out ingredients or if she is going away as well. I'll let you know as soon as I know.
Pex

So on Sept. 30th, this event will be no more. If you haven's finished it yet, you have a week to do so.

Also, the stealth updates will hopefully end with this announcement...

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Free Realms ~ Goal Time Update !!

Free Realms is getting ready to release the highly anticipated Goal Time update which will introduce the new profession for the Soccer Job called Soccer Star which will have 20 levels.

We are getting various tidbits of info on how the job will actually work. Free Realms Game Designer Margaret Krohn has an article on MMORPG.com that explains alot about this new exciting job.

There will be a quest line of tiers that you and your team will progress through and challenge harder and harder teams. Also, throughout the quest line you will have acess to 2 outfits complete with shorts, jersey, cleats, shin guards, and a bandana. Also you can purchase upgrades through the SC Store. Also, you can spend tickets to get some gear in the vaults.

All your stats will come via the gear and shards. So the choice of gear for your position is definately important. So, you may have multiple sets of gear for the various positions you could play, which makes this job more interactive in nature.

The stats come in 5 different powers: kick power (for strikers), footwork (for speed with the ball), speed (for speed without the ball), toughness (for defensive), and tackle power (for defensive). Also there are dodge and charge abilities. Dodging lets you avoid getting tackled and charge will let you kick the ball hard and do some fancy cool kick animations like Tornado Kicks, Headers, etc.

Here are some of the highlights:

Different uniforms will be available, along with upgrades like special effects "snow frosted particles".

Single player vs computer generated players OR guild vs friends.

It will be a top-down view, always looking at opponents goal, backing up to see your goal.

Some moves are: Slide tackle, Tornado kicks and Headers (these will become available as you level up)

Power boost and speed boosts will be on the field for you to run and grab

Each half will be 4 or 5 minutes long

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