I just found out you have to pay to play free realms.. WHAT THE FUDGE!

Edit: According to an article. It will be $5 for a single account and $10 for a family account which will allow 5 logins at the same time.

"It will be $5 a month for a single account or $10 a month for a family account that allows five logins at the same time. Also, micro-transactions will be available for players who are interested in purchasing in-game items for their characters."

I'm not going to lie. I knew they were going to have a micro-transaction system in the game. That's obvious, as they did this with EQ and EQ2 and now they're doing it with Vanguard. But I was NOT expecting a monthly fee.

I guess it should be Cheap2play - but not free - Realms

I thought it was their free to play game? Hense the name, FREE Realms.

Pretty stupid idea to charge a sub for that.

That seems unlikely because freerealms is supposed to be SOE's response Runescape.

I just read an article. $5/mo for a single account and $10/mo for a family account. A family account will allow 5 logins at the same time. So essentially 5 accounts for $10.

They also hinted at the idea of adding buy to use features. Like items and such.

That is for a premium account. works the same way as games such as Tibia and Runescape.

Article link or it didn't happen.

After playing in the closed beta for about 12 or so hours so far, I'm more inclined to think that Free is short for Freedom, to basically do whatever you want with tons of different options.  Cause FreedomRealms just doesn't sound as good...  Overall its rather fun, but I dunno yet about long-term enjoyment.

There are a few things that are blah, but I can't say what those are yet!

Originally posted by Gameloading

That is for a premium account. works the same way as games such as Tibia and Runescape.

Ya but I thought it was going to be completely free. Plus the article didn't mention it was for a premium account. i guess that makes sense. But originally it was supposed to be 100% free no matter what. Then of course theres the micro-transaction to enhance your character with the use of real money. I don't recall ever reading anything where SOE stated they would charge for a premium account. i remember it was just supposed to be free.

Now it's $5/mo for a single account and $10/mo for a family account. But it makes no mention of that being for a premium.

Originally posted by Khrymson

After playing in the closed beta for about 12 or so hours so far, I'm more inclined to think that Free is short for Freedom, to basically do whatever you want with tons of different options.  Cause FreedomRealms just doesn't sound as good...  Overall its rather fun, but I dunno yet about long-term enjoyment.

There are a few things that are blah, but I can't say what those are yet!

Ya that would make sense. From what I've read. you can do anything you want. You don't have to do ANY combat at all if you don't want to. You can just explore, build and such. But it's definitely not free.

I mean, if it is $5/mo for a premium you know you will end up paying that. Look at Runescape. The "free" aspect of the game is crap. There's almost NOTHING to do, it's only 10% of the overall land mass that you can explore. If you want to actually play the game you have to pay the $8/mo. So even if it's for a premium account, you still have to pay as they will obviously devote their time to paying customers and not free customers.

Basically, you will have to pay if you want to get into the game. Think of the free port of Runescape as a free trial. You are very limited to what you can do. It's like if WAR opened the game and made it free but to only tier 1 and if you want to go to tier 4 u need a premium account. Well guess what, you will HAVE to pay if you want to play. There's almost nothing to do in T1 and all the fun is in T2, T3 and T4. So I think this is very lame of SOE.

Plus Free Realms looks A LOT like WoW. It's almost as if SOE is mad at blizzard so they're trying to copy them or something lol.

If you've been following this game you would know right from the start it was a micro-transaction/almost free and if you want premium items $$$$.......enough with the SoE bashing if ya dont like it dont play it, go play one of the many free POS games

Originally posted by SirBongsAlot

If you've been following this game you would know right from the start it was a micro-transaction/almost free and if you want premium items $$$$.......enough with the SoE bashing if ya dont like it dont play it, go play one of the many free POS games

Dude I always knew they would have the micro-transaction system. It's SOE, obviously they will. They have this in EQ, EQ2 and Vanguard now. But what I didn't expect was for there to also be a MONTHLY fee.

Besides, this is made by SOE... I bet it will be worse than a f2p game since Free Realms is no longer free. It's actually $5/mo + microtransaction fees.

When you join it is free to play you just dont get half the enjoyment that is why it has a premium, or why would thay call it premium if you pay from start.

As I understand it freerealms will have several avenues of payment models.

• There is a portion of the game that is entirely free.  Limited content, classes, etc (no idea about levels)
• There will be a subscription portion of the game that allows access to the full game.
• There will be a cash shop for purchasing items, potions, etc.
• There will be a virtual card game and I suspect it too will have loot cards.
• There will be a real world card game, that again I suspect will have in game loot items. (I've only heard a small snippit about this from a dev interview)
• It was mentioned some time ago that the game will also have advertising based revenue, but no details about that have been announced so it may be in or out.
• I have not heard any details about if/how player to player RMT sales will be in game or not (via livegamer), but the trend in SOE games suggests that it will at some point.  NOTE:  Speculation, personal opinion.  

At the end of the day this game has more money grabs than any game currently on the market that I can think of. 

I suspect this will be just another soe game that has its developement roots based on revenue models first and not gameplay.

Originally posted by Daffid011

As I understand it freerealms will have several avenues of payment models.

• There is a portion of the game that is entirely free.  Limited content, classes, etc (no idea about levels)
• There will be a subscription portion of the game that allows access to the full game.
• There will be a cash shop for purchasing items, potions, etc.
• There will be a virtual card game and I suspect it too will have loot cards.
• There will be a real world card game, that again I suspect will have in game loot items. (I've only heard a small snippit about this from a dev interview)
• It was mentioned some time ago that the game will also have advertising based revenue, but no details about that have been announced so it may be in or out.
• I have not heard any details about if/how player to player RMT sales will be in game or not (via livegamer), but the trend in SOE games suggests that it will at some point.  NOTE:  Speculation, personal opinion.  

At the end of the day this game has more money grabs than any game currently on the market that I can think of. 

 

I suspect this will be just another soe game that has its developement roots based on revenue models first and not gameplay.

That's crazy man.  You know right off the bat that you will be required to subscribe. You just won't be able to do much if anything on free status. I know this from Runescape where you were VERY limited to what you could do if you weren't a paying member.

Seriously, I think I'm gonna pass on this game. It has more ways of getting money out of you then the IRS. It's crazy, in-game items, mini-games that probably result in money. In-game advertisements. It seems like SOE is trying to make a cashcow because the work they put into free realms is very little if any. Looking at the game it looks like a dumbed down version of WoW. Most of buildings look exactly like that in WoW. It's not like they spent a lot of money on this game so they shouldn't need to have so many cash grabs.

Meh, they have to fund the other 3 MMO's they're making I guess, right? :P Hopefully they don't mess up DC Universe Online.

Originally posted by Servase

Besides, this is made by SOE... I bet it will be worse than a f2p game since Free Realms is no longer free. It's actually $5/mo + microtransaction fees.

{Actually, well I don't really care if someone tries to reports me to SOE for breaking NDA if this constitutes as such.} but I've played over 100 F2P MMOs, and FreeRealms has more options than any I've ever played, and most of them are a just a ton of fun.  They're all really in-depth mini-game style, but highly entertaining.

Like someone mentioned before that you can do many differnt things and never fight...that is very true.  {I believe the NDA says its ok to discuss tings that are mentioned already on the website of which what I say next all is even in videos too...}  Anywho, I'm greatly enjoying playing the Kart Demolition Derby and Racing tracks....and you get XP and level up the Kart Racing Job just for doing that.  You can buy new racing clothes and Karts too. 

The harvesting & crafting is more than just clicking a button and watching a bar fill.  You actually prepare and cut up or craft each individule piece of whatever you're making and then assemble it all in short mini-events that last a few sec to several min each.  Its quite fun!

Personally from what I've seen $5 is tempting, but I'm still waiting to see long term how I like it during beta!  Though from what I'm seeing you'll be able to do all of it for only the $5, and the microtransactions are all optional to make thing even better or look different if you so choose...

Originally posted by Khrymson 

The harvesting & crafting is more than just clicking a button and watching a bar fill.  You actually prepare and cut up or craft each individule piece of whatever you're making and then assemble it all in short mini-events that last a few sec to several min each.  Its quite fun!

It reminds me a bit of Cooking Mama.

I think the most irritating thing about the Premium system is how they've carefully selected the bits that are Premium only so you get into a job and get working at it, then go to find out how to use the materials you've collected (sometimes even led there by a quest chain) only to have the guy say you have to be premium to do the follow-up skill.

A good bit of the game is free, yes, but all the really interesting bits are Premium. It's disappointing. I'm not even "out of the gate" yet (so to speak) and they're already slapping me with their Premium advertisements around every corner. So far the game has been just lots and lots of mini-games and not much else, which is fun, but very little actual substance. It's nothing like Runescape at all (which could arguably be good, since Runescape is 100% substance and 0% fun).

Originally posted by Khrymson

Originally posted by Servase

Besides, this is made by SOE... I bet it will be worse than a f2p game since Free Realms is no longer free. It's actually $5/mo + microtransaction fees.

 

{Actually, well I don't really care if someone tries to reports me to SOE for breaking NDA if this constitutes as such.} but I've played over 100 F2P MMOs, and FreeRealms has more options than any I've ever played, and most of them are a just a ton of fun.  They're all really in-depth mini-game style, but highly entertaining.

Like someone mentioned before that you can do many differnt things and never fight...that is very true.  {I believe the NDA says its ok to discuss tings that are mentioned already on the website of which what I say next all is even in videos too...}  Anywho, I'm greatly enjoying playing the Kart Demolition Derby and Racing tracks....and you get XP and level up the Kart Racing Job just for doing that.  You can buy new racing clothes and Karts too. 

The harvesting & crafting is more than just clicking a button and watching a bar fill.  You actually prepare and cut up or craft each individule piece of whatever you're making and then assemble it all in short mini-events that last a few sec to several min each.  Its quite fun!

 

Personally from what I've seen $5 is tempting, but I'm still waiting to see long term how I like it during beta!  Though from what I'm seeing you'll be able to do it just all of it for only the $5, and the microtransactions are all optional to make thing seven better or look different!

Ya that was me that mentioned that. I thought that aspect was really cool. I could go off and explore, build houses, play mini-games. It's almost like a sandbox as you are not forced to do anything. it's not linear, I liked that idea and when I saw that it was free I was like BAM.

Now I have no issues with there being in-game Advertisements. Do what you gotta do to keep the game free. I also don't care about micro-transactions. I won't buy anything with real money, but if other ppl do that's fine.

My main problem is the premium account costing money. They shouldn't have a premium account, it just be free. Obviously a premium account would cost money or there would be no point in having a premium account. That's what I'm saying, don't add that at all. It's like if WoW became free to level 20 but you have to pay for level 80. OBVIOUSLY it's not free to play now is it? You can't do anything at level 20 and all future updates will be to the premium side. So the premium accounts get all the new goodies and you're always stuck with the old content.

So whether ppl agree or not. If there's an option to pay monthly it's automatically deemed p2p. You just can't do anything as a free member. Otherwise that would make being a paying member pointless. But it does seem like a cool game regardless... just wasn't expecting it to be p2p... but if it's better than runescape then who knows. Maybe I'll pay the $5/mo.

Originally posted by Aethios

 

It reminds me a bit of Cooking Mama.

Yeah, pretty much exactly like that!  The way the mini-games are set up though are actually fun and entertaining at least for now.  I'm still just at awe though with the amount of different things you can do, and after 12+ hrs only did like 1/8 of it! 

Surprised all of this is even coming out of my SOE hating mouth, but they really do have a hit here and it will do well, not just with younger kids, but of all ages cause my being in the 30s am getting bored with the norm, so these mini-events provide a bit of fun at short or even long intervals if you so choose.  Its not all about login and just do kill 10x, delivery crap quest after quest after quest...you can skip all that entirely and do a plethora of other interesting things instead...

if you goto the SOE site

its stated you can pay a monthly fee for additional content

www.freerealms.com/memberBenefits.vm

Originally posted by Nadia

if you goto the SOE site

its stated you can pay a monthly fee for additional content

www.freerealms.com/memberBenefits.vm

 

 

 

 

Yes, but ah hell screw it {my account here has no relation to my SOE account} ....I did get to a point on some quest chains that had the upgrade to a premium account to continue on.  There are also some rare named mobs I found that when clicked on to fight also had an upgrade to premium account to be able to enter the fighting instance and fight it.

So yeah it free to do a lot of things, but you will eventually get to a point where you may have to upgrade, but with so many different things to do, you can prolly get pretty far in everything before you get to that point or just skip those that require membership and find something that doesn't.

Still though $5 a month isn't bad as a P2P or a F2P, since the microtransactions are entirely optional....

Originally posted by Khrymson

Originally posted by Nadia

if you goto the SOE site

its stated you can pay a monthly fee for additional content

www.freerealms.com/memberBenefits.vm

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, but ah hell screw it {my account here has no relation to my SOE account} ....I did get to a point on some quest chains that had the upgrade to a premium account to continue on.  There are also some rare named mobs I found that when clicked on to fight also had an upgrade to premium account to be able to enter the fighting instance and fight it.

So yeah it free to do a lot of things, but you will eventually get to a point where you may have to upgrade, but with so many different things to do, you can prolly get pretty far in everything before you get to that point or just skip those that require membership and find something that doesn't.

Still though $5 a month isn't bad as a P2P or a F2P, since the microtransactions are entirely optional....

Ya, I don't know. I guess when I saw FREE Realms, I thought it would be free. I knew there would be in-game advertisements as SOE has done this before. I knew there would be micro-transaction as I've seen this in SOE games before. I never buy any, but I know ppl who did just to get the best gear.

But with so many things requiring you to be a premium member. You might as well declare it a P2P with the ability to play it for free as a trial until you want to start paying lol.

in the Free Realms forums, I re-posted a Dev Q&A if anyone has interest

www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/232507/Free-Realms-Developer-QA.html

Lol that's funny. I saw it coming long ago.

They do all they all they can to maximize their income using basic economic models you learn in classes.

You make the client pay per use (micro transactions) plus you add an "optional" entry fee.

In the end they are the winner because they grab the consumer's profit without giving away the producer's one. You use this system mostly in monopolistic markets. Link for more infos: http://ingrimayne.com/econ/International/MonoComp.html

Unless people voice their opinion not playing this game all MMO in the future will use this model.

Word of mouth is your ally...

Oh, come on now.

John Smedley's only interest is what is in your pocket, and how he can get it out of there and into his grubby Ferengi hands.

It's what SOE is all about now...distracting you while they take your money.

Originally posted by Servase

 

Ya, I don't know. I guess when I saw FREE Realms, I thought it would be free. I knew there would be in-game advertisements as SOE has done this before. I knew there would be micro-transaction as I've seen this in SOE games before. I never buy any, but I know ppl who did just to get the best gear.

But with so many things requiring you to be a premium member. You might as well declare it a P2P with the ability to play it for free as a trial until you want to start paying lol.

See you almost got it, except for the part you say the game to be declared P2P as it's a OPTION as you already said a couple of times, I keep wondering why people get upset with options, yes the game is free to play if you want to, yes the game also has microtransaction for those who want it, and yes the game also has a premium sub fee for those who want it, yes you will get less out of the game when playing it free, tell me honostly which F2P game can be played to the max and enjoy every aspect ingame without the use of any premium or rmt? I don't know any.

Only thing I hope is that Free Realms will proof to be succesfull and maybe just maybe SOE might get it right the next time they gonna creat/develop in house MMORPG's, as to me Free Realms seems to offer everything I want in a MMORPG except with FreeRealms the game is targetted towards kids and family's, would SOE make a mature version of Free Realms I definitly would take a look and most likely play it, for now I would pass on the game due how the game looks to me, which does not make it a bad game, just not a game that is appealing to me visually.