Free Realms Character Prints

I guess this is kind of cool...
Sony Online Entertainment (SoE) and HP are teaming up to offer an in game service to purchase a quality print of your character. I wonder if it is just a screenshot of your toon. If so, then I'll just print my own and save myself $19.99 or whatver the cost will be. Thank you very much tho... And besides, I can take my screen, bring it into photoshop and spiffy it up ALOT so that it looks really cool. I used to do this for my EQ rogue Maximo Ceasar to make sigs, avatars, etc. I'm curious if this service will offer any type of design above and beyond just a simple screenshot. Anyways, here is the press release...

Following the Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) Fan Faire event June 25-28, HP today launched an innovative print-on-demand service for Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) gamers. The HP print-on-demand technology will allow players to view, create and purchase custom prints of classic characters, imagery and scenes from SOE’s various fantasy worlds, games and artists. The service, which will be accessed directly from the online games, is scheduled to launch later this year in EverQuest, EverQuest II and Free Realms.

“There is a significant opportunity among SOE’s gamers to provide personalized and customized offline souvenirs from the games and fantasy worlds they love,” said Rohit de Souza, Vice President and General Manager, Retail Publishing Solutions, Imaging and Printing Group. “We believe this program is a first of its kind in the MMO gaming segment and demonstrates the wide range of opportunities available for delivering custom print-on-demand services.”“This unique service allows players to create their cards during an online play session then, though HP’s state-of-the-art print-on-demand service, we’re able to provide ‘offline’ access to online content to create a whole new interactive experience,” said Christopher Sturr, Director of Corporate Strategy Sony Online Entertainment. “We’ve been impressed with the customization and personalization capabilities offered by HP and are excited about the value this service will bring to gamers.”

How it WorksThrough the in-game Station Cash® commerce system in SOE’s games, players will access the Marketplace and choose from a list of select art images and sizes. A simple in-game and/or web-based interface will walk players through the entire process from the initial order to purchase confirmation, without ever closing the game world and/or current game session.

For the initial launch of the service, SOE will debut 10 art images from the Legends of Norrath™ series. The companies plan to feature and debut new prints, limited edition collector’s prints and select prints from top game artists throughout the year. Ultimately, SOE and HP plan to offer players the ability to personalize and customize their own art prints, posters, and other merchandise using their avatar, screen shots and artwork.


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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.


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Free Realms Fan Faire Picts.

Sony's Fan Faire started yesterday and folks were out in costume showing pride in their favorite game. As the weekend goes on, I'm sure we'll be seeing tons more photos and reports surrounding the Fain Faire in Vegas, which goes until Sunday.

Here are some photos we as Free Realms fans will appreciate...







They look so cute!!



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Free Realms News - Gold Nerf !!

Free Realms and the 6/22 patch. My, My, My. What a can of worms they opened up with that patch. On one hand they implemented guilds into the game which was awesome and well received by all. But, very sneaky and on the sly, they completely nerfed the gold rate drops and by back prices merchants pay for items. They did this totally unannounced, which is sooo Sony (Hello EQ nerfs) and left it for the players to find this out on their own. If this wasn't enough, the longest thread over at the Free Realms community boards has been going on for 3 days now with no word from Pex, the community manager, or any Dev at all. In other words, again so typical of Sony, they are aware of the outrage from the player base, but do not care and are not communicating anything to us, the PAYING Customer. It seems they only care about these World Records Free Realms and SOE are receiving, players be damned. Here's a new record for you, World Fastest decline in an MMORPG...

So, I was reading through the posts over on the MSG Boards and came across a very good post of how this effects the players in game...posted by stefferweffer.

Just something real quick on the math, cause I'm a number cruncher at work I saw someone earlier say they dropped what you get by 40%. This would be bad enough, but the drop was TWICE that amount. They dropped how much you get by 80 PERCENT!

Let's make it simple. A level 20 piece of armor, in this example, costs 10,000 gold (in game they are actually around 9500) from the vendor. Before this change the vendor would give me 5000 if I were selling him one of these - half the cost. In other words, I could sell him 2 level 20 pieces I had acquired and have enough to purchase 1 of my choice. Not too bad.

Now, after these changes, instead of giving me 5000 gold the vendor gives me 1000 gold!? Now I would have to acquire and then sell him TEN of these just to purchase ONE that I want. I'd also have to sell TWELVE of them to have enough money to purchase my level 20 weapon (which I feel I should get for free by the way - just for getting that far).
It's like taking your used DVDs to a guy in town who gives you $5 a piece, and sells them for $10. Good for him. Now imagine that the next time you bring him a video he says he now gives only $1 per video, but still sells them for $10 each. Wouldn't you be ticked off?

There can be one, and only ONE reason I can think of to make it harder for players to get money, and that is so they will pay REAL money for Station Cash items (that always have even better stats, have you noticed, than level 20 gear). I did it myself almost immediately when I started playing, but I can afford it. MANY CAN'T, and that is what bugs me about this the most.
So just know that if you say "Forget this 'grinding' stuff, I'm spending $5 or $10 for the BEST stuff, and be able to use it at level ONE!", you are doing exactly what you are "supposed" to do.
Just my humble opinion.

Now you may ask yourself why am I making a big deal about this change in the game?
It is because I really like and enjoy playing Free Realms on a casual basis. I think Sony has struck gold with this game and how the implemented it. As a long time gamer and old EQ player from '99, I really want this game to succeed because it was fresh, fun, cutting edge, and has tons of potential to change the genre. We expect changes to be made to the game along the way, like the Bruno nerf. This is expected.
But as paying customers, we do NOT expect a change so drastic it changes the way the game is played. It went from a nice casual game experience to a Grind Fest. Which is not what we signed up for.

Dev's. Did you know this changed your game?
From casual to Grind...

Yes the world is the same, dungeons the same , and quests are the same, but the game is now not a fun casual game. To gain any progress as a character in trade skills or certain job professions, one must now Grind to do this.
If the amount of gold in the game was too much, then implement a way for people to spend there gold. Introduce new weapons and items. Introduce the player housing, which I imagine noone will be able to afford now as I'm sure houses will cost an astronomical amoutn of gold. How are we going to be able to purchase a house when we can't even afford the upkeep of our pet??

In short, this change was too drastic and changes the style of play. And, for the sanity of your players, announce the changes you are making to the game. This has been stated many times in the past.

Oh, and thanks for introducing the tier 1 story line to the game. That was much needed.


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Free Realms Gold Nerf !!

Free Realms is now starting to follow EverQuest in that they are stealth nerfing things for no reason and not telling the players about it.
The patch update on 6/22 ushered in guilds to the game, much to the cheers of the palyers. But, updated unannounced, was some very sneaky and game changing nerfs that lowered the price of everything the players sold to merchants and lowered the coinage drop rate from mobs. However, the price to buy stuff from the merchants remained the same.

This is not a small change. It is a HUGE nerf. Prices were reduced up to 75% on items sold back to merchants. Any new players are starting with a hinderance in Gold which is required to buy healing and energy potions, trade-skill items, and weapons and armor. So, the gap between newer and older players are going to increase dramatically.

This nerf basically puts the game in an unenjoyable fasion. To go through fights we need to buy heal potions. The price for these before the nerf was fine with the amount of gold the player received. After the nerf, one cannot even afford these to go fight anymore.

And to add insult to injury, tickets received were also nerfed. They made tickets almost non existant. The vault rewards were an added bonus for completing different mini games, thus making playing them at least somewhat rewardable for your time. Now, with tickets rewarded nerfed, why would I waste my time doing these things?

Why would I go do an instance when the potions costs me more then I receive in rewards?
Why would I be a smithy when the item I make sells for LESS then the items I have to buy to make them??

Honestly, this breaks a game that was once fun and rewarding for the time invested into it. Sony wanted to make a game that was fun to log in for a few hours and still feel like you advanced your character without having to GRIND. They had this game before the 6/22 patch. Now they have steaming pile. Sony. Do you know people who play this game do not want to Grind...Do you know what that word means? Do you understand Risk vs. Reward?!?

Devs. WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?? Was this nerf intentional? Many on the boards think it is a mistake. It is that huge of a nerf, that players are thinking it is a joke or a mistake. If it is not, then you really do not know your game and what it is that makes a game enjoyable as a casual experience.
I suggest you take a hard look at these nerfs and change them back. Or, that 3 million registered record, will be 3 million customers LOST. Another new record for Free Realms !!

Sony, listen to your players who are in an uproar over this...If you have trouble finding the thread, I'll point it out for you here...UPROAR THREAD!!

The Sony Fanfaire is this weekend. I encourage anyone going to ask the Devs about this nerf and illicit their views on this and the reasoning for it.




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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!!




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Free Realms Guilds Update !!

Posted by Pex over at the Free Realms Message Board is the Patch Notes for the latest update...

We've got a lot of great stuff today! In addition to the normal bug fixes and behind the scenes updates we have Guilds and more. Here are the update notes for today:



Mysterious incidents are happening across the land. Help out any of these people, and jump in the middle of the adventure:

*A Royal Courier is in trouble in Greenwood Forest.
*Impress Sal Monella at Blackspore, and see where the next adventure takes you.
*Henry Farnum has trouble with the local hooligans
*If you rescue Starshine's child, she will have another task for a hero like you.
*Help Sorin out near the Bat Caves, and see where he'll send you to, or
*Complete Ceard Bauchlog's task for further instructions.
(If you have already helped them out, return to them for another task!)

Quests & Collections & New Content
Guilds! Gather your friends and be one of the first to start a guild! Talk to players in your guild using /gu

Pets
Watch how your Pets react to wandering encounters differently based on their disposition

Marketplace
When viewing Pets in the Marketplace you'll be able to read about their personality before you purchase them

Check out the new tool tips in the Claim Window of the Marketplace.


Also, Pex was kind enough to post a help page FAQ about how to set up a guild and various other guild commands and funtions complete with screenshots.

To set up a guild, you need to be at least 15 in 1 of your jobs, guild names will need approval, you need only yourself to set up a guild (most games require 10+ people to sign a petition to create a guild), and guilds are free to create. So, I can guarantee we are going to see TONS of guild created. Hopefully the guild creation server will not blow up int he first 24-48 hours :)

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