Free Realms & Everquest News from the Fain Faire

Sony had its annual Fan Faire held in Vegas this past weekend. This is where most of their announcements come from in regards to expansions and features they plan on releasing in their online games like EverQuest, EverQuest II, Star Wars Galaxy, and Free Realms. This was year was no different as they have announced some EQ expansions and updates planned for Free Realms. So, let's jump right into the announcements...

Free Realms

* Very close to 4 Million subscribers - (maybe a new party pack :)
* Demo Derby and Race Car driver will be able to advance to level 20!
* Each job will have 40 missions along the progression path.
* Players will be able to customize thier cars in a garage
* Soccer Star will be a new job! - Coming this Summer!!
* Guilds will be able to have matching uniforms for soccer.
* We showed a new desert region that will be the home of the dwarves.
* A new Druid job will come will be part of this region.
* TCG - There will be a feature where you can have your character portrait added to a physical card. You can buy a bunch of cards and give them to friends who can use a digital code to add your card to their digital deck.
* New Desert area to be released - Dwarven Homeland
* Methods to gain Levels beyond 20 for some jobs - Late Summer
* Sony is teaming up with HP to offer high quality art prints of YOUR CHARACTER for station cash.

So, all in all, lots of good info for Free Realms coming out of the Fan Faire.
Here are some newsletters recapping the daily events of the Fan Faire.

Thursday Night Recap
Fun Friday

Also, in further news Sony has announced new expansions from EQ and EQII.

EverQuest II’s next expansion is not Velious, as widely assumed based on the (now known to be) red herrings seen in Kunark. EQ2’s next expansion, Sentinel’s Fate, will bring the island of Odus back to Norrath.
At the same time (but not as part of the expansion), good races will be able to start in the frozen city of Halas, a move widely expected as it brings the number of good/evil starting cities to three each — Freeport, Neriak and Gorowyn vs Qeynos, Kelethin and now Halas.
Sentinel’s Fate also carries with it ten new levels — raising the bar for endgame activities to level 90.

Back in old EverQuest, their sixteenth expansion will be Underfoot, as in the Plane of, and Brell makes an appearance. Looks great for such an old game. All new underground content for EQ players to experience.
Expansion is scheduled to be released in November with small additional game updates every other month or so up until April of next year. EQ will be seeing no new levels which has some players happy and other upset...

From an EQ Game Designer: Doug Cronkhite: aka Elidroth

It's strange.. so many of you said the level increase only added about a week's worth of grind time to the game, yet now no level increase has got some people in an uproar.
No level increase means I need to work extra hard to make sure the AA's are worthwhile. It means Raramor has to work extra hard to come up with new and unique spell ideas. It means Ngreth and Aristo have to work that much harder to give you quality tradeskills and items. We're well aware of the task we've taken on.. and not one of us thinks it's going to be easy.
BUT.. it also means that come tuning time, we'll have a much better reference point for raid tuning, rares, basic population, etc. We know SoD was too easy in the end, for whatever reason. There were several raids in SoD that nobody in beta came ANYWHERE CLOSE to beating, yet who blew through them come live release. Why that is nobody is really sure, but it is the way it happened.
You guys have been asking for more challenge.. and I believe the new raids we're making are going to give you exactly that.


Thanks you for viewing my Blog, and check back daily for updates on Free Realms and Everquest.

Free Realms Item Codes

Today over at FreeRealmsInsider they posted new directions to receive by email a Free Realms item code to claim on your account in the Station Store. Basically you go to the website HardCoreGamer and enter in some contact info and they will email you an exclusive in game item code.


Every code will be for a 1 time use and is for the same item, but different codes for each person who signs up.

Basically, it is a way for them to capture your email address and add you to a newsletter mailing list, which, I imagine, you can then opt out of once you receive it.

The item you receive is the Hot-To-Trot-Tots which make your feet on fire!! Pretty cool!!




Thanks you for viewing my Blog, and check back daily for updates on Free Realms and Everquest.

Free Realms Story Line ??

Those of us playing Free Realms currently are enjoying because of the vast open space to explore, the mini-games, and character advancement. We do NOT play for socialization, as there is none in the game, nor do we play for the storyline. Basically, this game has no lore. No back story as to how this world exists, why we as players are in this world, and how we can change the course of future events. There are no quests that play into the lore at all. To most of us, it is just a free game to play with alot of different options to choose from on how to spend our free time. If this were any other gaming company who produced this game it would be fine I guess. but it isn't. It is Sony. the owners of the Everquest franchise which basically screams lore. Well, this is all going to change with Son'y announcement of a story line coming into the game. I guess it is better late then never.
Free-Realms-Gamer posted an article where a Free Realms Community Manager answers this question...Where is the Storyline??

Free-Realms-Gamer.com recently received a reply to our article about the lack of larger plotlines from someone who signed of as a Free Realms Community Manager. Here is an excerpt from their comment:

“We do have overarching storylines coming to Free Realms in the next update or two. Such plots are definitely more interesting to our older audience and not as much to the target audience, but it is still something we want to include. We will continue to add more big story arc stuff over time.”

This is exciting news indeed, but it does lead to questions:
How will they fold these larger storylines back into the earlier levels? With over three million subscribers already hooked in, and our concern that the story must begin at the early stages as the necessary Call To Adventure – we are curious to see how they handle this retroactively.
Second – at what point did storytelling become a part of an older demographic? Isn’t storytelling what youth is all about? Or has the art of the campfire tale, the bedtime story now just too old fashioned?

Thanks you for viewing my Blog, and check back daily for updates on Free Realms and Everquest.

Free Realms E3 Update

This years E3 has seen alot of new games and announcements from major players in the gaming market. However, not too much has come out regarding Free Realms except a few snippets of info that we mostly already knew of, but was essentially reconfirmed. Which I guess is better then nothing. So without further ado, I bring you a compilation of the things we can expect to be seeing changed in the near future of our beloved game :)

*Soccer - Finally all those soccer fields will be used when this new job is implemented instead of being the empty pixels that they currently are.
*New Job Progression - Most games today go the route of new levels and AA's to keep players interested in logging in and grinding. I'm sure this is not out of Free Realms future. But for now, instead of getting higher levels for the current jobs we have, we get more jobs to level up to the current levels we have.
*Racing Beyond LV 1 :) - I'm glad to see this is going in as currently racing is fun, but without progression, it's pointless.
*Player Housing - I guess it's ok. But for me is just fluff unless they add something really really cool, like a Monopoly game where I can win other people houses, rent them out, make tons of cash, and open a Resort casino on an island :) The Landlord profession anyone?
*PS3 Compatibility - Cross server compatible is always a good thing for a game that is growing in leaps and bounds. And I think certain jobs would be perfect for the PS3. (word on the street is possibly this fall)
*Login Page Notes - I was always a huge fan of login page notes. I guess this goes back to my EQ days. Now if they just add server population back again :)

Also, we need some more FREE Codes !! It's been like forever since a free code has been found.

And for your reading enjoyment I found a booklet that Sony put out back in April regarding gaming and how it is beneficial for kids to play video games. Also there are some very very interesting facts in it. Example, video gaming is an 18 billion dollar bussiness. That's right BILLION !!
(also it has a picture of Smed at the end)

http://www.soe.com/docs/LTKG_Booklet.pdf

Thanks you for viewing my Blog, and check back daily for updates on Free Realms.

One Lucky Winner in Free Realms

According to the press release from sony, all users will receive a limited edition in-game T-Shirt, matching shirt for your pet, and 200 Station Ca$h. And the One Millionth subscriber will receive a life time free membership, a 1 of a kind astronaut suit, and 10k Station Ca$h!! Wow thats a nice bonus !!




Free Realms(TM) Soars Past one Million Registrants in 17 days, an Unprecedented Achievement for a new IP

Sony Online Entertainment Celebrates Accomplishment with Lifetime Subscription for Game's Millionth Registrant and Limited Edition In-Game Item for All Other Players

SAN DIEGO, May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) today announced that more than one million unique users have registered for Free Realms(TM), the free, family-friendly online video game that launched on April 28.
To mark this milestone, SOE is rewarding all current Free Realms players with limited edition, in-game T-shirt featuring special graphics. The one-millionth player will also receive a lifetime membership to the game, a one-of-a-kind in-game astronaut suit, and 10,000 Station Cash(TM).

"The excitement surrounding Free Realms, and the positive response the game has already received, is overwhelming," said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. "To achieve this milestone so rapidly speaks to the quality and the fun gameplay experience Free Realms offers to players of all ages."

Along with the limited edition Free Realms T-shirt for their character to wear, 999,999 players will receive a matching pet T-shirt for their four-legged friends, and 200 Station Cash to use toward the purchase of in-game items.

In Free Realms, players can customize their characters, explore, quest, battle monsters, and play a wide variety of minigames in a safe, online environment, packed with stunning visuals, distinctive environments, and social networking capabilities. Players are free to do or be anything: Fight like a ninja, cook a tasty meal, raise a pet, battle goblins, set out on epic quests or connect with friends through a safe, social networking site. Also available is the Free Realms Trading Card Game: a full-featured trading card game, playable both digitally within the Free Realms online game and offline via physical card decks available wherever you buy trading cards.
The Free Realms game starter cards and Station Cash cards, which can be used to purchase a membership, in-game items and more, are available at such stores as Target, Best Buy and 7-11.





Thanks you for viewing my Blog, and check back daily for updates on Free Realms and Everquest.