Ok, ok, I couldn't resist.

[Brasse]

Free Realms does not yet have forums of their own, and I wanted a place to talk about it.
See this comic and article for a brief introduction to the game.

Visit the official site[/b]]=http://www.freerealms.comofficial site: be sure to sign up for beta, and explore all the cool videos under "What is Free Realms?"

I am 45 years old, and I look forward to this game as much as any 9 year old.
;-)#

[Aeva]

As you should!

[Rivenya]

I check my email and the site hoping for news every day.  And my 13 year old nags almost as good as I do about it.  FF was a loooong time ago and I want my Free Realms!!

[Mandie]

hrm well .. still giddy from my 'pester Brasse til she sells stuff' success ..  I'm thinking this may be my next project ..

[Erebethor]

 Why are you all so excited? I can't really see the point of getting so excited about something so cutesy. You'll play it for a bit, but there'll be somrthing nagging at the back of your mind. So you sit down with a cupppa/glass of wine/coffee/Red Bull because it helps you concentrate on stuff like this and reflect on it. Then it hits you. Where's the BLOOD? The VIOLENCE? I appeal to you Brasse, answer me this, can you bash elfinks in this game? And Brakk, can you do... well whatever it is you trolls do? The answer, my friends, is a resounding NO! As far as I can see the ONLY, repeat ONLY, redeeming feature will be the lack of gold farmers.
Yours non-cutesily
Ereb

[Wren]

Pfffffffbt. I think the first and only game I enjoyed because it had a lot of blood was Mortal Kombat. The first one. Circa 1991.

Mostly I see blood (and excessive violence) in a game as a gimmick. It doesn't do anything for me. Well, I guess it turns me off from playing that game!

Free Realms seems like it will be a safe(r?) place for my kids (10 and 7) to have their first online gaming experience. Better and more importantly, since things should be all about ME, it looks like something I would enjoy too, and so together we will have oodles of fun. My boys are lots of fun to play with!

As for the cutesy, I love the bright and vibrant colors I've seen in the screenshots. I like the AWWWW factor of the pets and characters. It looks like they got the perfect mix of cute for me, without going overboard into the *gag* realm, like Hello Kitty.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to it. Now I just need to get my kids to become better typists before it launches!

happy day,

wren

[Atlay]

I’ve been playing MMOGs for 9 years now, and have played a wide variety of games. Across all of these games the one constant has been Mrs Atlay rolling her eyes at me and saying she did not understand the attraction of spending several hours a day sat in front of a computer playing in a virtual world. Mrs Atlay really does not nag (otherwise she would not be Mrs Atlay, lol), but she does make those subtle little comments to let you know she thinks you are a tosspot for wasting so much time ‘playing silly games’.

All that changed about two weeks ago when she discovered Pet Society on Facebook, and made ‘Bubbles’. OMG, can you say ‘OBSESSION’?! Bubbles is now the highest level pet in my Facebook friends network, has the biggest house, the most garments in her wardrobe, and a collection of trophies that suggests she’s training for the 2012 Olympic Hurdles event. I reckon Bubbles is getting at LEAST 2 hours a day of Quality Time from Mrs Atlay, who is now hooked on an online ‘silly game’!

This weekend I showed Mrs Atlay this Free Realms comic, and explained some of what I understood from the article that accompanies the comic. As soon as she saw the pet, and the comments about how interactive they were, etc, she was like ‘this looks great, can we buy it now? would you play it too?’. So, Pet Society has hooked the long term sceptic on the idea of an online game, and Free Realms looks like it might be interesting enough to tempt my Other Half to actually get a subscription to a ‘real’ MMOG, when at least a dozen other games that she has watched me play had no appeal at all.

I think it’s safe to say that I’ll be dabbling with this one, especially if I can do so casually with ‘Bubbles’ whilst the other 95% of my brain is playing AC1 on another screen.


Atlay

[Wren]

LOL, proves there is a game for everyone!

She could come by and feed my neglected animal, Shiffe, in Pet Society. Otherwise I think it will wither away. Bhinder has taken on this role so far, and has even put lovely things in my pet's home...which I have not seen!

FR will have pets in it, and the whole cutesy factor may appeal to Mrs. Atlay. That would be super cool to be in a game with her after all this time. I hope that works out.

Lastly, find me on the fb, please. I want to passively keep up with your life, but could not determine with 100% accuracy which of the ***** ******** were you.

happy day,

wren

[Thales]

Lastly, find me on the fb, please. I want to passively keep up with your life...

Surely this must take the prize for "most typically 21st century phrase yet uttered in the 21st century" :-)

The 1900's were so "I love you, dear friend.  Let's exchange hand-written letters twice daily."  The 00's are so "I want to passively keep up with your life. Send me your Facebook ID"    I do this, too.

Thales <-- Was on Facebook for about a week before he found the number of old friends (read: random people from high school he had lost touch with for the perfectly good reason that we had nothing in common) "friending" him to be unsettling.

Yeah, so on the topic of Free Realms, I signed up for the beta ages ago, but they still won't let me in.  I want to be cute, too!

[Redwohc]

Across all of these games the one constant has been Mrs Atlay rolling her eyes at me and saying she did not understand the attraction of spending several hours a day sat in front of a computer playing in a virtual world.

Mrs. Rewohc has this problem, too.  But she's become obsessed with solitaire.  She plays a handheld game for an hour at a time and can't stand it when she doesn't win.  She's been known to say "This piece of **** is ******* broken!" when she doesn't win in her first dozen games.  She still doesn't understand sitting in front of a computer and playign a game for 5 hours.  But she has no problem going scrapbooking with her friends for an entire weekend   Curious creatures, they be.

Redwohc

[Tyraenna]

I will openly admit to having a version (I liked games, but didn't understand MMOs) Mrs. Atlay's problem years ago ... before Quin made me sit down and try EQ.  Big mistake for him

Anyway, FreeRealms definitely looks worth trying to me.  I love cute and vibrant, and games that are developed for kids can just as easily be targeted at an adult audience, just in a different way.  Count me in!

Tyr

[Grumble]

I think the important thing to remember about this or any MMO, is not the cutting-edge content, or the number of expansions per year, or the level of gore or nudity.. but how much FUN the game is, and the quality of players and friendships you can make while in the world.

I have been an avid MMO player since UO ( I dont think Ive missed a major MMO release since then), and Ive had good experiences, bad experiences, and it never has anything to do with how big or complex or successful the game is.  For instance, I had a blast with WoW for about a year, until I had a maxed out character for nearly every class, and was frankly bored to tears.  Ive come and gone from LOTRO for the past two years, but have always come back for the friends I have met.

If I were to play this admittedly cutesy game, and found a group of players to have fun with.. then I dont care if there were raccons in pijamas popping out of toadstools.  Its the quality of experiences, whatever they may be, that I search for in my MMOs.  And in any case, nothing can be worse then my 2 torturous months trying to play Vanguard on release.  =)

BTW... I am a 44 year old elementary teacher.. so keep the comments to yerself!

Go Dwarves!