Massively

It would be an understatement to simply write that it's been a good year for SOE with Free Realms. They announced their obligatory huge-and-growing number of registered users for the game, but they also revealed some of their plans for the game. Free Realms creative director Laralyn McWilliams was on hand to talk about some of the new content on the way. While some of this was hinted at in E3 2009, now the details are out there. There will be more content for Derby and Kart Racer jobs, like new wearables and customizable cars. In fact, Free Realms racers can have garages where you can customize your car with performance parts. In addition, there will be 40 quests for both the Derby and Kart Racer jobs.

Ken George from Big Bang Entertainment introduced a new Free Realms job they've been working on, Soccer Star, with video footage showing off acrobatic moves and slide tackles on a soccer field. There will be guild tie-ins with soccer as well, so the jerseys players wear will match up with the color schemes used by your guild.

McWilliams also gave Fan Faire attendees a first look at the new Free Realms area on the way which is a desert playground, home to the dwarves. Of course the zone will have new creatures, mini-games, a Druid (combat) job, and greater progression for existing jobs, taking players past level 20.

(Beyond the in-game content announced for Free Realms, that emphasis on customization that Smedley mentioned will also apply to the Free Realms trading card game, where players can have their own avatars printed onto physical cards by Topps. As Smedley put it -- "think business cards for kids.")


Chris Field, producer for Star Wars Galaxies, appeared on stage and announced that it's SWG's sixth anniversary, to the day. Massively spoke with Field this week and he hinted that there would be some announcements about SWG to be made at Fan Faire. There were indeed. Perhaps the biggest announcement was "Star Wars Chronicles", a new system for player-generated content. Field said, "You're going to be able to create quests that involve interactions with some of the iconic Star Wars characters you've all grown up with, like Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett, Han Solo, and even the infamous Darth Vader." Field didn't say much more on this, but we think it's a significant announcement and we'll look for more details about this as time goes on.

He switched gears to mention a new direction they'll be taking Star Wars Galaxies, towards horror. Those images we'd seen floating around online depicting an amalgam of Star Wars characters fending off zombies were apparently legit; Star Wars will get its first horror novel, Death Troopers, in October.

"Star Wars Galaxies will be right there to bring an experience inspired by that novel to our players in game, with the Death Troopers quest line," Field said. We're not sure how well this will be received by Star Wars IP purists but it's an... interesting announcement, to say the least. We'll keep an eye on this as more info becomes available.

These are just a few highlights of what was discussed in the community address. The Agency and DC Universe Online were also presented, but there were no earth-shaking announcements made. In fact, if you've followed our E3 coverage of these games, you're more or less up to speed with what's happening with these titles, although it's possible more info will come out of Fan Faire 2009 in this weekend's panel discussions.