Well just can not help it. I told you so! It was a few months ago I said that Free Realms would be a huge hit for SOE and help position them at the forfront of mmos again. I remember people here laughing at me and going into all the Smedly crap. Well with over 4,000,000 register players already my prediction was correct. With DC Universe and The Agency coming out, both of which look great I think all the SOE "haters" need a new job. You have been working hard to kill SOE since SWG-NGE and you did not even put a dent in them. Free Realms is a great game for all ages and experience levels. SOE made a bold move to go more to RMT in games and it looks like it will pay off, get use to it, it also looks like it is the future of mmos. Congrats SOE with Free Realms you deserve it. Your hard works shows in this game. Now make me a Free Realms for adults.
 

/golfclap

You deserve it!

Originally posted by eccoton

Well just can not help it. I told you so! It was a few months ago I said that Free Realms would be a huge hit for SOE and help position them at the forfront of mmos again. I remember people here laughing at me and going into all the Smedly crap. Well with over 4,000,000 register players already my prediction was correct. With DC Universe and The Agency coming out, both of which look great I think all the SOE "haters" need a new job. You have been working hard to kill SOE since SWG-NGE and you did not even put a dent in them. Free Realms is a great game for all ages and experience levels. SOE made a bold move to go more to RMT in games and it looks like it will pay off, get use to it, it also looks like it is the future of mmos. Congrats SOE with Free Realms you deserve it. Your hard works shows in this game. Now make me a Free Realms for adults.
 

Registered players mean crap. Hell, I'm registered. You know how many times I've logged in? At the 1 million, 2 million, and 3 million mark. Just to get the free crap. That's 3 times. Haven't spent a dime and haven't ever left the first area.

Originally posted by eccoton

Well just can not help it. I told you so! It was a few months ago I said that Free Realms would be a huge hit for SOE and help position them at the forfront of mmos again. I remember people here laughing at me and going into all the Smedly crap. Well with over 4,000,000 register players already my prediction was correct. With DC Universe and The Agency coming out, both of which look great I think all the SOE "haters" need a new job. You have been working hard to kill SOE since SWG-NGE and you did not even put a dent in them. Free Realms is a great game for all ages and experience levels. SOE made a bold move to go more to RMT in games and it looks like it will pay off, get use to it, it also looks like it is the future of mmos. Congrats SOE with Free Realms you deserve it. Your hard works shows in this game. Now make me a Free Realms for adults.

What makes this thread really ironic are these past quotes from eccoton:
 

The facts and SOE history has shown over and over again it is not about players their loyal customers but about money and doing things poorly if that is the cheapest most profitable way. Great business have discovered you can treat your customers as if you appreciate them and still make huge profits. SOE has never seemed to learn this.

Well here we go again. Can SOE do anything right?

I will never ever play a SOE game again.

Yea, the content of the OP is troll bait.

Happy to see a succesful MMO. However, all MMOs have a large bump at release. I wager Free realms will settle around 300-500K

Originally posted by donjn

Originally posted by eccoton

Well just can not help it. I told you so! It was a few months ago I said that Free Realms would be a huge hit for SOE and help position them at the forfront of mmos again. I remember people here laughing at me and going into all the Smedly crap. Well with over 4,000,000 register players already my prediction was correct. With DC Universe and The Agency coming out, both of which look great I think all the SOE "haters" need a new job. You have been working hard to kill SOE since SWG-NGE and you did not even put a dent in them. Free Realms is a great game for all ages and experience levels. SOE made a bold move to go more to RMT in games and it looks like it will pay off, get use to it, it also looks like it is the future of mmos. Congrats SOE with Free Realms you deserve it. Your hard works shows in this game. Now make me a Free Realms for adults.

What makes this thread really ironic are these past quotes from eccoton:
 

The facts and SOE history has shown over and over again it is not about players their loyal customers but about money and doing things poorly if that is the cheapest most profitable way. Great business have discovered you can treat your customers as if you appreciate them and still make huge profits. SOE has never seemed to learn this.

Well here we go again. Can SOE do anything right?

I will never ever play a SOE game again.

 

What is ironic about this response is that now I am a "hater" when for the last 3 years I have been called, a viral marketer for SOE, An employee, SOE fanboi, and it was even posted I am John Smedly himself. Out of my over 1000 posts what thread was that one from? Probably one from when I was mad at SOE for one of their patches to EQ2 that messed up the game for a few weeks for me? Or was it the thread I made when SOE raise the price of station pass to cover their Vanguard losses? You must have had to dig pretty far for those since it is known what a fanboi I am of SOE. It is funny when I posted over and over again that I had a lot of issues with SOE and found them to be lacking no one ever believed that. Where were you then with your out of context quotes? It would have kept the real "haters" off my back. Time change my friend and while I never said SOE was perfect I do support their efforts now. They have given a lot more pleasure then pain.
 

Originally posted by eccoton

You have been working hard to kill SOE since SWG-NGE and you did not even put a dent in them.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wow are you really trying to say that NGE didn't do anything to hurt SOE's bottom line and reputation? That must be some good stuff your smoking.

By the way the number of registered users of a free game doesn't really mean that much. The number of people logged in and playing and buying stuff would be a better metric to look at.

Now I don't hate SOE or want to see them go out of business, but I will always have doubts about any game they produce since you can't trust them.

Originally posted by Zorvan

Originally posted by eccoton

Well just can not help it. I told you so! It was a few months ago I said that Free Realms would be a huge hit for SOE and help position them at the forfront of mmos again. I remember people here laughing at me and going into all the Smedly crap. Well with over 4,000,000 register players already my prediction was correct. With DC Universe and The Agency coming out, both of which look great I think all the SOE "haters" need a new job. You have been working hard to kill SOE since SWG-NGE and you did not even put a dent in them. Free Realms is a great game for all ages and experience levels. SOE made a bold move to go more to RMT in games and it looks like it will pay off, get use to it, it also looks like it is the future of mmos. Congrats SOE with Free Realms you deserve it. Your hard works shows in this game. Now make me a Free Realms for adults.
 

 

Registered players mean crap. Hell, I'm registered. You know how many times I've logged in? At the 1 million, 2 million, and 3 million mark. Just to get the free crap. That's 3 times. Haven't spent a dime and haven't ever left the first area.

So your point is that you have not spent a dime or left starting area. Well that proves a lot. The fact you do not play and are registered also means crap.

seekingalpha.com/article/140107-free-realms-a-great-success-for-sony

Originally posted by Brixon

Originally posted by eccoton

You have been working hard to kill SOE since SWG-NGE and you did not even put a dent in them.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wow are you really trying to say that NGE didn't do anything to hurt SOE's bottom line and reputation? That must be some good stuff your smoking.

By the way the number of registered users of a free game doesn't really mean that much. The number of people logged in and playing and buying stuff would be a better metric to look at.

Now I don't hate SOE or want to see them go out of business, but I will always have doubts about any game they produce since you can't trust them.

 

I have said this before we are not the normal mmo players here at mmorpg.com. The stuff we debate about most players do not know or could careless about. Almost all of the 4 million registered players in Free Realms know nothing of NGE. So yes the "haters" did not dent SOE. I never said SOE did not loss money or customers over NGE. Did the evil Smedly get fired over it? Nope he did not. I said all the "hater" rhetoric did not hurt them. I been in mmos since 1996 with Meridian 59 and have been interested in the industry of mmos since then. Yes NGE is a stain on SOE's record. They have made many mistakes many of which pissed me off but they have also made great games and Free Realms is stacking up to be a great game and a huge success.
 

Originally posted by Czzarre

Yea, the content of the OP is troll bait.

Happy to see a succesful MMO. However, all MMOs have a large bump at release. I wager Free realms will settle around 300-500K

Yes there is a difference between registered players and those that buy items or pay to play. I wager Free Realms will settle around 7 to 8 million registered users. No mmo had a 4 million bump in less then 2 months not even WoW.

 Free Realms looks like a fun kids game.  I wonder what percentage of those 4 million have actually spent money in the game.  Probably very few...even if they are still playing.

I have no doubt it's a big success with kids.  But I see it more as a tween social network than a game/mmorpg.  Much like WoW has become nothing but a social network for high school/college aged kids...or very lonely adults.  I don't see either as games/mmorpgs anymore.  They are fancy chat clients with mini games (BGs, arena, instances, card games, trading, auction house, crafting, dueling, dailies, etc) to keep members distracted while they chat.

Originally posted by eccoton

Originally posted by Zorvan

Originally posted by eccoton

Well just can not help it. I told you so! It was a few months ago I said that Free Realms would be a huge hit for SOE and help position them at the forfront of mmos again. I remember people here laughing at me and going into all the Smedly crap. Well with over 4,000,000 register players already my prediction was correct. With DC Universe and The Agency coming out, both of which look great I think all the SOE "haters" need a new job. You have been working hard to kill SOE since SWG-NGE and you did not even put a dent in them. Free Realms is a great game for all ages and experience levels. SOE made a bold move to go more to RMT in games and it looks like it will pay off, get use to it, it also looks like it is the future of mmos. Congrats SOE with Free Realms you deserve it. Your hard works shows in this game. Now make me a Free Realms for adults.
 

 

Registered players mean crap. Hell, I'm registered. You know how many times I've logged in? At the 1 million, 2 million, and 3 million mark. Just to get the free crap. That's 3 times. Haven't spent a dime and haven't ever left the first area.

 

So your point is that you have not spent a dime or left starting area. Well that proves a lot. The fact you do not play and are registered also means crap.

seekingalpha.com/article/140107-free-realms-a-great-success-for-sony

On the contrary, it proves your opening post is worthless. Do registered users pay the bills? Or do subscribers?
 

Originally posted by Thradar

 Free Realms looks like a fun kids game.  I wonder what percentage of those 4 million have actually spent money in the game.  Probably very few...even if they are still playing.

I have no doubt it's a big success with kids.  But I see it more as a tween social network than a game/mmorpg.  Much like WoW has become nothing but a social network for high school/college aged kids...or very lonely adults.  I don't see either as games/mmorpgs anymore.  They are fancy chat clients with mini games (BGs, arena, instances, card games, trading, auction house, crafting, dueling, dailies, etc) to keep members distracted while they chat.

SOE has said that 60% of the players are their target tween audience. They also said the big suprise is that 40% of the players are adults and experienced mmo players. That is over 1 million of them.  I play Free Realms and the in game evidence is that a lot of the players are paying, a whole lot. I see a ton of dogs and cats in clothes both have to be bought. I see ton's of players with outfits that can only be bought. I see ton's of flaming cool looking weapopns that can only be bought. I see an awful lot of archers, Warriors, and Wizards which are only available to subscribers. In game experience is the total opposite of your "Probably very few" comment.

Originally posted by eccoton

Originally posted by Thradar

 Free Realms looks like a fun kids game.  I wonder what percentage of those 4 million have actually spent money in the game.  Probably very few...even if they are still playing.

I have no doubt it's a big success with kids.  But I see it more as a tween social network than a game/mmorpg.  Much like WoW has become nothing but a social network for high school/college aged kids...or very lonely adults.  I don't see either as games/mmorpgs anymore.  They are fancy chat clients with mini games (BGs, arena, instances, card games, trading, auction house, crafting, dueling, dailies, etc) to keep members distracted while they chat.

   In game experience is the total opposite of your "Probably very few" comment.

That may be true...but I don't consider Free Realms to be a "game."  It's a social network where people can dress up and play Whack-a-Mole while chatting.  I'm saying this as someone who has been a gamer (name a genre/format and I've played it) longer than you've probably been alive.

Most of these new mmos are NOT games.

Originally posted by Zorvan

Originally posted by eccoton

Originally posted by Zorvan

Originally posted by eccoton

Well just can not help it. I told you so! It was a few months ago I said that Free Realms would be a huge hit for SOE and help position them at the forfront of mmos again. I remember people here laughing at me and going into all the Smedly crap. Well with over 4,000,000 register players already my prediction was correct. With DC Universe and The Agency coming out, both of which look great I think all the SOE "haters" need a new job. You have been working hard to kill SOE since SWG-NGE and you did not even put a dent in them. Free Realms is a great game for all ages and experience levels. SOE made a bold move to go more to RMT in games and it looks like it will pay off, get use to it, it also looks like it is the future of mmos. Congrats SOE with Free Realms you deserve it. Your hard works shows in this game. Now make me a Free Realms for adults.
 

 

Registered players mean crap. Hell, I'm registered. You know how many times I've logged in? At the 1 million, 2 million, and 3 million mark. Just to get the free crap. That's 3 times. Haven't spent a dime and haven't ever left the first area.

 

So your point is that you have not spent a dime or left starting area. Well that proves a lot. The fact you do not play and are registered also means crap.

seekingalpha.com/article/140107-free-realms-a-great-success-for-sony

On the contrary, it proves your opening post is worthless. Do registered users pay the bills? Or do subscribers?
 

If you played regularly you would see there are ton's of  subscribers and probably more that do not subscribe but use the RMT. All the dogs and cats in funny clothes are all bought. All the archers and warriors are subscribers. My post was never meant to be anything of worth just a comment because I remember how many post/posted that anything SOE will do will be a failure.  
 

This game is money hats for SOE. and the 4 million is impressive for the time frame its been gained in.They hit two million in little over a month. That's impressive.

Originally posted by Thradar

Originally posted by eccoton

Originally posted by Thradar

 Free Realms looks like a fun kids game.  I wonder what percentage of those 4 million have actually spent money in the game.  Probably very few...even if they are still playing.

I have no doubt it's a big success with kids.  But I see it more as a tween social network than a game/mmorpg.  Much like WoW has become nothing but a social network for high school/college aged kids...or very lonely adults.  I don't see either as games/mmorpgs anymore.  They are fancy chat clients with mini games (BGs, arena, instances, card games, trading, auction house, crafting, dueling, dailies, etc) to keep members distracted while they chat.

   In game experience is the total opposite of your "Probably very few" comment.

That may be true...but I don't consider Free Realms to be a "game."  It's a social network where people can dress up and play Whack-a-Mole while chatting.  I'm saying this as someone who has been a gamer (name a genre/format and I've played it) longer than you've probably been alive.

Most of these new mmos are NOT games.

Do you play Free Realms? It is plenty of a game and a fun one at that. I have maxed to level 20 cap. A pet Trainer, Warrior, Adventurer, and archer. It was a lot of fun felt like a game to me but what would I know I am just a kid. I grouped and fought in combat with many people. I made my own maps for the rare collectibles in game (oops sorry in chat) If you think Free Realms is nothing but a chat system you are mistaken and probably have not advanced any toons. If you did you would find that there is indeed a challenge to Free Realms it is not just a kiddie chat room.

Hmm lets see, you also say "I'm saying this as someone who has been a gamer (name a genre/format and I've played it) longer than you've probably been alive." So this statement means your age makes you more informed then me? Is that some kind of badge of honor? Hmmm I am so young and new to gaming thanks for making that point, since it invalidates anything I comment on about games. You did read that I have been in mmos since 1996 with Meridian 59? Name a format well how about my first game system The Magnovox Odyssey 2000 the first home system 1972. You still been gaming longer then I have been alive? Buddy I am 50 years old so what does that make you like about 90? Oh I am sorry I checked your profile a whopping 29 years old my aren't we mature. Dude I have game systems and pinball machines older then you. You might drop the gaming experience thing. See I have been gaming longer then you have been alive 37 years since my first system and I have actually played almost all system/formats/genres you ain't even out of grade school yet as far as gaming is concerned.

 

Originally posted by eccoton 

 

SOE has said that 60% of the players are their target tween audience. They also said the big suprise is that 40% of the players are adults and experienced mmo players. That is over 1 million of them.

1 million adults signed up, but the forums struggle to get more than 100 total users logged in.  Why do few people interested in reading or posting about the game?

4 million registered players, but still only 10 servers.  SOE doubled the number of servers on the climb to 1 million players to handle the crowds, but has not needed to add even 1 more server for an additional 3 million players?  That tells the whole story right there. 

Now they are funneling everyone to server 1 by default to generate some crowds. The majority of the servers are ghost towns, sorry but they are.

The entire gameworld is a little bigger than 1 zone in WoW/EQ2, so I don't know how many people you think it can support without becoming over crowded, but it isn't much.  Log into any server above 3 and tell me how many "tons of people" you see and how many are spending money.  Please don't give me the excuse that everyone is hiding in instances either.  Where is everyone?  Where are these millions of players? 

I don't know how successful you think this game is or what type of industry leader soe is again, but everything speaks to the contrary except one thing.  The soe press releases of million of registered players and that is it.  Everything else shows a game that is far less successful than any of their major titles.  Less servers, a fraction of the gameworld size gameworld, empty play areas, empty forums, etc.

Soe might as well say 400 million registered players for all that is worth.  Here is a screenshot of the server loads right now.

Originally posted by Zorvan

Originally posted by eccoton

Well just can not help it. I told you so! It was a few months ago I said that Free Realms would be a huge hit for SOE and help position them at the forfront of mmos again. I remember people here laughing at me and going into all the Smedly crap. Well with over 4,000,000 register players already my prediction was correct. With DC Universe and The Agency coming out, both of which look great I think all the SOE "haters" need a new job. You have been working hard to kill SOE since SWG-NGE and you did not even put a dent in them. Free Realms is a great game for all ages and experience levels. SOE made a bold move to go more to RMT in games and it looks like it will pay off, get use to it, it also looks like it is the future of mmos. Congrats SOE with Free Realms you deserve it. Your hard works shows in this game. Now make me a Free Realms for adults.
 

 

Registered players mean crap. Hell, I'm registered. You know how many times I've logged in? At the 1 million, 2 million, and 3 million mark. Just to get the free crap. That's 3 times. Haven't spent a dime and haven't ever left the first area.

I actually have spent 3 hours there, just to give it a try, and to make a comparisation with FusionFall.

FreeRealms comes basically down to one thing: Lots of mini-games that you can play anywhere on the web. This time with a bit better graphics. Your reward..? Skillpoints in one of the few (free!) jobs you get.

Wanna get really into battle..? Can be done - just pay that phucking $5 a month and you can make a warrior or wizzard. BRUHAHAHA

As said with the 3M registered player counter. I believe that number immediately. Now please show us the number of players that have spent more than 20 hours a week in the game over the last 3 weeks... I hope you'll hit 500K

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

This game is money hats for SOE. and the 4 million is impressive for the time frame its been gained in.They hit two million in little over a month. That's impressive.

This has been labeled a giant success for SOE in the press. Its well deserved.

I remember reading a translated chinese press release for Perfect World before the english language version came about.

It spoke of over 30 million registered users.

And since then, there's been 2 more releases to other parts of the world...

Yet, Perfect World, wich has millions of registerred western users, barely get a mention in this part of the world.

4 million registerred users? How many pays? How many plays?

I know I'm a registerred user, in Perfect World, Free Realms and plenty of the F2P games in existance... Heck, so are my buddies. But none of us play em, none of us paid a dime... but we're still part of the boasteous marketing press releases from the games, where they paint the picture of massive userbase....

don't trust marketing unless they release income numbers or paying and active users statistics.

Daffid011, always nice to see you ring in with your SOE thoughts.

Anyway I found this interesting and it surely is not fact and pure guesstimating the 89/10/1 rule and I think Free Realms is probably doing better then that. 89% of registered users do not spend a thing. 10% only spend the bare minimum. Leaving only 1% the spend a lot. Now I think Free Realms is doing better then that but even with those percentages Free Realms is a  success. Now I know some are sensative about SOE and anything they do or say. So again this is just for fun and speculation. So no need to go overboard to show how wrong it is. However it is interesting.

www.massively.com/2009/06/13/free-realms-guesstimating-monthly-revenue-using-the-89-10-1-rul/

I love this quote from comments on this article:

"Oh my god this should send teh SOE haters and SWG vets into full on Rage mode...just think of all the hours they will put in inventing formulas that disprove this."

I though the exact same thing when I read the article.

The subscription fee is only $4.99 a month.  Do you seriously think the majority of their registered users won't spend that much on a game they obviously enjoy?  I don't like SOE much at all and I have tried Free Realms.  If it wasn't such a kiddy, cutesey game, I'd subscribe, but I can see it's huge appeal with children and teens.

Originally posted by eccoton 

In game experience is the total opposite of your "Probably very few" comment.

There is a press release every few weeks that talks about millions and millions of people "registering" for free realms.  Then there are people speculating with 89/10/1 or whatever other formula and projecting how much money soe must be making.  It makes sense right?

Until you start applying your own advice and looking in game to see what things are like.

10 servers and the majority are ghost towns.  Maybe 2 have decent populations. Not to mention there are only 10 servers!  10...  Warcraft has 4.5 million NA/EU players and nearly 500 servers to support those players and each of those game world are easily 50 times larger than free realms and you still see people everywhere.  Free realms has 2% of the servers or warcraft, but you seem to think it has a comparable population?

How many players do you think 10 servers can support? At one point the soe claims meant that on average over 8,000 players were joining each server every... EVERY DAY for a two week period.  Thousands and thousands of players need to join those servers every single day to make those 4 million claims valid. 

Just log in and tell me if you see THOUSANDS of brand new players on any server.  Pick any one you want.  75% of them are children/teens so they should be logging in during daylight hours and not hard to find. 

Or you could just take the soe press releases at face value, apply some vague RMT formula to it and produce success.  Despite there not being enough hardware to support that playerbase, or size of gameworld to support it or even in game population to support it. 

1) claim millions of registered users

2) ???

3) profit

For persepctive:  EQ2 has 25 servers and hundreds of zones.  Free realms has 10 servers with 1 zone that would struggle to fill a large eq2 zone. 

You do the math.  Even if 4 million people tried the game it would mean free realms has the worst retention rate in the industry.