I am excited for this game to officially launch. I have been in the beta for the last couple of weeks and really enjoyed it. The casual feel of the game helped me not become overburden with the idea of constantly grinding like I got when I played WoW and other MMOs.

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I was very surprised to hear most Beta-testers say they would be paying for membership. I will be playing free myself.

We had a pretty nice going-away bash at the beach yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BjZBG36cg8

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I tried out two new games this weekend: The Chronicles of Spellborn and Free Realms. I won't say Spellborn was bad, not in the least. But I felt so much more entertained by Free Realms, I perhaps fear for my sanity just a little bit.

Spellborn has great graphics, and a lot of people find the skill system intriguing, but the quests are absolutely wretched. Grouping is klunky and not helped at all by the interface. I personally find the combat a bit dull, but I understand there are some people who breathlessly claim it to be revolutionary. Whatever. I tried a couple of very different classes, and they both reduced to mashing the same combo over and over in 90% of the battles. I'm sure this changes a bit at higher levels, but I'm not sure I want to invest the time it will take to find out. I know I don't want to do any more of these awful quests.

Free Realms combat is even simpler, don't get me wrong, but the difference here is a matter of expectations and delivery. In Spellborn, the game centers around combat; there is simply very little else to do. Free Realms, on the other hand, is decidedly NOT combat oriented. It's got minigames and crafting and resource harvesting, and a really good trading card game. And racing! And a freaking demolition derby!

Seriously, the TCG alone puts Free Realms head and shoulders above Spellborn in terms of flat-out fun times. And while FR quests may be very fedex-y, they at least have a cute story and some visual payoff in many cases. TCoS quests are merely a dull, uninspired, uninspiring leveling mechanism. In the case of Free Realms, you can pretty much skip most quests and just play the fun bits. Not so with TCoS.

I'm actually very excited to fork over my five bucks to upgrade my Free Realms membership. At this point, I have no desire to continue my Spellborn account past the free two weeks. Chalk it up to my childish nature or the fact that I'm a very casual gamer these days. Whatever the reason, it's Free Realms for me, for now!

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I'm not paying a dime until I see how many things are still broken tomorrow. I guess we shouldn't be surprised that they are launching this game so early, before its really ready. But this is how SOE does things.

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Does anyone know if my SOE Station Access subscription includes the premium Free Realms or not?

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Is this for the US only or are us Euro-types going to get FR tomorrow, too?

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I cannot say the open beta wowed me, but my gaming schedule is still open so I will be trying it tomorrow (or will that be Wednesday here in EU-time?).

I'll buy one month's premium membership to I expect - not much point trying it out if I still don't sample the other half of the classes.

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Any word on when the console launch is? It seems pretty silly for them to delay what probably is the best chance for a console MMO and maybe a system seller.

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Having been playing for the last 7-8 days now, I can't help but feel this product is being rushed... especially considering how unexpected the announcement was. I have a feeling that it's related to the TCG, as cards were shipping this week.

The game can be a lot of fun, but there were a lot of bugs even yesterday. Major job quests have been broken for a while now, the adventurer job hasn't had it's main source of exp implemented, you can't level the racing job, exp is vanishing from various jobs, the vault is only giving prizes ~50% of the time, mob aggro and pathing is completely messed up in many dungeons, combat jobs run out of quests long before they can accept the next batch meaning you have to grind for 4+ levels before you get a new one, exp gain rates are wildly different between the various jobs(ie: you can get to 20 in 2 hours with some jobs),etc...

They claim a huge patch is going live today, but it won't be tested by the beta testers as the servers wont go back up until the game launches tomorrow. Plus, anyone who's tested an MMO in the last 12 months or so has heard promises of the miracle patch before.

All that said, I will be buying a membership tomorrow. It's dirt cheap, and even with the bugs, the game is fun. If things are still a mess, I just won't renew.

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I'm not sure I get this game.

Combat in most MMO's is already fairly simple but Free Realms is in a league of it's own in combat simplicity. Even a coma patient can do it, probably better at it too, he could stand the boredom.

The TCG isn't half bad, but again, no need for an MMO if a TCG is what you want.

I'm sure this will be super popular but I don't understand why. As a kid I would have wanted a game like WoW, lotro etc. much rather than a mindlessly simple buttons smasher with a Mario Kart clone that makes even the SNES version look modern. Although I have to admit that in the late 80's and early 90's, this would have been a god game. But only because of the graphics really :)

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anyone know what's going on with the game? it was supposed to come out on tuesday but its now a little past midnight and still says its down.

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i just got this link from a friend of mine, (Free Realms is live)
http://www.freerealms.com/?affid=candystand&cid=1053612&ac=PXNH6HB

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@mememe Yeah that link does work, You even get a Spook Sphere, so you can turn into a monster..good stuff

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