So I got some booster and they contained, besides cards, various goodies, one special item per booster. These are somewhat complicated to claim, you first need to release them in the card game, then claim them in Free Realms itself. But I did find a dog in one booster, so I didn't need to buy a pet. And I also found a special card players club card, which allowed me to play through a short series of extra trading card quests, which aren't available to players without the club card. The other items were things like clothing, or items with temporary special show effects. I think these will be very popular as it is a way to get certain items in game. Knowing Sony, they will be some very cool and rare items on these cards forcing kids to go out and buy them in store, or on eBay for Bouku Bucks.
It's a shame really that they do this, but from their trial run in EQ and EQ II with the
Legends of Norrath CCG, they have seen that this is a very successful way of making people purchase boosters.
Blizzard is doing the same thing with their
World of Warcraft CCG, and some item cards,
Spectral Tiger, are selling on eBay for over
$1000.00. The demand is there for them to add even more rare useful items on these cards forcing people to purchase.
Hopefully Sony will not push the envelope too far with Free Realms.
Sony Free Realms announced today it hit 1,000,000 users in 17 days. This has got to be a record for an online game. I don't think WoW has this type of subscription activity. Although this game is free-to-play, a million subs in 17 days is HUGE. I expect on the heels of Sony's success we may see more companies with this type of game model in the future.
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