This type of pay model is not usually this popular.
Uh, yes it is. Some of the largest MMO's are Free to play.
---------- "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
The first 999,999 are getting a free t-shirt for their character and pet as well as a couple hundred station cash. The one million user will be getting lifetime membership and 10k station cash.
REALLY? Link?
---------- "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
The first 999,999 are getting a free t-shirt for their character and pet as well as a couple hundred station cash. The one million user will be getting lifetime membership and 10k station cash.
The first 999,999 are getting a free t-shirt for their character and pet as well as a couple hundred station cash. The one million user will be getting lifetime membership and 10k station cash.
Is it just me, or did they hit the 1 mill mark pretty fast?
Personally, I find this game very enjoyable. It would be nice if they take the advertizements and other nonsense off the screens when waiting for the game to load. At least take it off for the members.
Is it just me, or did they hit the 1 mill mark pretty fast? Personally, I find this game very enjoyable. It would be nice if they take the advertizements and other nonsense off the screens when waiting for the game to load. At least take it off for the members.
They are going to remove it for members, it was a mistake according to Pex on the official forums.
I got so caught up in playing the Chef and Pet Trainer that I've taken both of them to 20 already. That surprised me, so now I'm going to take it a lot slower and just enjoy the ride. I'm going to wander around and just explore for a while, doing the collections and just being an Adventurer for the foreseeable future, just so I don't burn through everything.
I have no idea how many of these are paid members, but 1 million users in a freemium game like this to me sounds significant. This type of pay model is not usually this popular.
Yes, question is, how many are paying customers?
Trying a free game isn not such a rare thing to do, you know.
I tried every single game which was for free, yet I don't play any of them.
But at least SoE this time has been honest, we all knew well in advance this game was all about RMT and Cards, they didn't drop the bombshell one day like they did with EQ and EQ2.
I don't know if this game is going to work though.
The idea is good, but Its target audiance is way too young, not sure they are even aware they are supposed to buy the items with real cash.
SOE is using inactive station accounts to pad the numbers of FreeRealms. Myself and a handful of others have logged in to our account pages to discover we are subscribed to this game, even though we never initiated it.
I often wonder how much the compensated anti-SOE shills make? it must be a good amount because no matter what time the night or day a positive post is made about any of their products they are here to put a negative spin on it.
That being said my Daughter and wife both love FreeRealms SOE has a huge hit on it's hands.
I often wonder how much the compensated anti-SOE shills make? it must be a good amount because no matter what time the night or day a positive post is made about any of their products they are here to put a negative spin on it.
That being said my Daughter and wife both love FreeRealms SOE has a huge hit on it's hands.
I can honestly tell you I'm not paid. But gladly would accept payment to slam SOE. It'd be a fantastic gig, but I suppose the fact that I'm doing it for free anyways defeats the whole purpose of payment :P
That being said, if there is somebody out there who is willing to pay, I'm game to write some nasty anti-SOE posts all day long ;-).
A wise person once said 'If you love what you do for a living, you never have to work a day in your life'.
I often wonder how much the compensated anti-SOE shills make? it must be a good amount because no matter what time the night or day a positive post is made about any of their products they are here to put a negative spin on it.
That being said my Daughter and wife both love FreeRealms SOE has a huge hit on it's hands.
they only have themselves to blame really. regardless of wheather they are inflating the numbers by counting inactive station accounts or not why did they have to include FreeRealms on people's accounts when they have not registered on that site?
Their questionable ethics in the past will always work against them in practices like these.
This just in! SOE is using inactive station accounts to pad the numbers of FreeRealms. Myself and a handful of others have logged in to our account pages to discover we are subscribed to this game, even though we never initiated it. Another dispiceable business manuevre by SOE.
I just checked the Free Realms site out of curiosity. It says that everyone with station access gets a Free Realms subscription, whether they want one or not.
There's no indication on the page that these "subscriptions" have not been counted towards the alleged million.
One SOE rep (Pex I believe) saying that they only counted subs that actually created a character just doesn't cut it for me.
I find it hard to believe that they didn't simply count the number of subs registered to achieve their total. I don't believe them that they took the time to distinquish between subs that created a character, and subs that did not. They really had some bean counter sorting that out? I really doubt it.
I've seen some very nice people (Tiggs) pass on outright false information for SOE probably because that is the information they themselves were given from those up the food chain.
I'm sorry, but claming a million subs and then having people find that they've been unknowingly subscribed to the game really seems to cast doubt on the claim, in my opinion.
P.S. I happen to want SOE to be a successful company, but happen to think they should change the way they do business to achieve this goal. This wouldn't be an issue at all, if a number of people didn't find suprisingly that they had been subscribed to Free Realms outside of their awareness.
Actually, we're only counting existing Station Members (and Station Access subscribers) who have actually come to the Free Realms website and registered an account.
believe what you will however the logic of them putting a link to a game which requires zero subscription fees is not hard to understand really. I have a lot of games in my station account with links in them I dont actually use. Aside from the fact that the bulk of the characters signing up and remaining seem to be from places like miniclip.com. I guess I dont see it. If people want to be really really paranoid over a free game with characters then so be it. Reality says in the scheme of things 1 million free accounts in a free game is just a number. If people want to take it further so be it. However sony as a company changed awhile back for those that took notice.
Its time to face some reality here and realize that free realms is a good game with 1 million subscribed customers and that number was accounted for by counting characters created not station pass accounts...
Actually, we're only counting existing Station Members (and Station Access subscribers) who have actually come to the Free Realms website and registered an account. believe what you will however the logic of them putting a link to a game which requires zero subscription fees is not hard to understand really. I have a lot of games in my station account with links in them I dont actually use. Aside from the fact that the bulk of the characters signing up and remaining seem to be from places like miniclip.com. I guess I dont see it. If people want to be really really paranoid over a free game with characters then so be it. Reality says in the scheme of things 1 million free accounts in a free game is just a number. If people want to take it further so be it. However sony as a company changed awhile back for those that took notice. Its time to face some reality here and realize that free realms is a good game with 1 million subscribed customers and that number was accounted for by counting characters created not station pass accounts...
I already commented on Pex' claims, so I'm not sure why you thought I needed to see them again in bold. Did you miss what I already said about this statement? I've seen a very nice person (Tiggs) say things on behalf of SOE that turned out not to be true.
Regarding the game being good, I actually think it's beautifully done. Pause for a moment and let that sink in if you think this is nothing more than an anti-SOE rant. The graphics are amazing, the variety of gameplay available is exceptional, and the system requirements are very reasonable. It looks like it has a lot of potential.
The only thing I happened to question is why people have found themselves listed as "active" subscribers to a game they do not play. This observation seems to cast doubt on the subscription claims that seem to be used as a marketting tool. In one article I read, the alleged population figures come immediately before an advertisement to pay for a premium subscription.
I think that this game has a great chance of being a success if SOE marketting and management don't manage to screw it up, like I believe they have done with other SOE titles. Specifically, I think management needs to avoid dramatic decisions that alienate players (and developers). I also think that marketting needs to pay attention to accuracy. I don't think that's been a strong suit for SOE historically--my opinion of course, based on my personal experience.
i dont. other companies have to work hard to maintain a playerbase. look at turbine and lotro. they work extra hard maintaining and expanding that game. soe just takes the easy way out.
i dont. other companies have to work hard to maintain a playerbase. look at turbine and lotro. they work extra hard maintaining and expanding that game. soe just takes the easy way out.
A friend of mine who surprisingly discovered he had an active Free Realms account summed up his feelings this way:
"What makes it look sleazy to me is the fact that they don't tell people they have an active FreeRealms subscription. People just happen upon that info when they go look at their accounts. Which makes SOE look like they're up to their old snake oil tricks.
Why would you go to the trouble of activating however many hundreds of thousands (if not more) accounts AND NOT TELL THEM? It's like saying 'we want those numbers, but we don't actually want them to play it'."
Again, I can't really blame this guy for feeling this way. I think a lot of people would be tempted to say, "hey what gives here?" especially with all the press about the overwhelming number of alleged subs so quickly achieved.
If SOE wanted to avoid stirring up controversy (again) I think they simply should not have activated all of these people outside of their awareness right before their big subscription announcement. Bad timing? Poor communication? I think so, and we've seen that before from the same management crew.
Just maybe they'll learn from this (though they don't seem to do well at learning from mistakes) and get out of the way so that developers can see their vision become an unquestionable success. The game development really does appear well done. /tiphat to the creative work
Yeah so now back to the actual game and not conspiracy theories... Smed posted they are now up to 2 million http://twitter.com/j_smedley
OK, I didn't really question the 1 million mark even since other games have done it this last year, but at the same time didn't find it beyond reason that soe was counting people who were not actually playing. Believable, but not something I felt worth speculating on.
Two million makes me question the validity of these claims or think there is something not going well behind the scenes.
The game still has the same 10 servers it did when they claimed 1 million registered players.
Smed is claiming they have doubled the registered players from 1 million to 2 million in a matter of days, but the number of servers is the same.
You can log on any time of the day and you will find 10 servers listed as low population except for an hour or two a day when server 1 will be listed as medium.
2 million registered players and the best that can be mustered is 1 server hitting medium for an hour or two?
There are only so many possibilities to explain it assuming SOE is telling the truth.
Their servers can handle tens of thousands of people at LOW population status, which means they could handle far more if they hit medium/heavy/full. This doesn't seem very likely.
People play so infrequently that 10 servers can handle whatever their retention rate on 2 million is. Again unlikely.
People register, try the game but don't stick around so they don't need to add new servers.
A combination of the second and third.
Something else I don't see?
Considering that most mmos see a very high "log in" rate during their release and expansion release and several mmo makers have put the average primetime log in around 15-20% of the overall game population during normal times, it looks to be a fair guess that free realms would be higher than that right now.
However, just assuming there are 2 million people trying the game and only 1 out of every 10 registered player logs in at prime time (10%), that would mean each server has roughly 20,000 people on it at once. I doubt the gameworld is anywhere close enough to handle that type of population and I also doubt the servers could handle that load especially with all of the instancing it does.
I'm not suggesting the game has 100% retention, but the game is under a month old, has doubled in size from 1 million to 2 million within a matter of DAYS and yet not a single new server to help the load of an extra million registered players?
you are aware if the number of people in north america and the mass marketing push they have on right?
I can imagine it easily. How many users does yahoo have?
I highly doubt they had to cheat as many people suggest in fact in face of the amount of money behind their tv ads, in store free trial cards and little free gifts given out on huge social networks like facebook. I would find it hard not to imagine.
I think its just a case of people not grasping the actual size of what they have chosen to do and the fact that a lot of people feel that sony is a dead company.
Comments
Uh, yes it is. Some of the largest MMO's are Free to play.
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
REALLY? Link?
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
REALLY? Link?
SOE press release
www.soepress.com/release.asp
Kotaku
kotaku.com/5256072/more-than-a-million-flock-to-free-realms
EQ2 fan sites
REALLY? Link?
SOE press release
www.soepress.com/release.asp
Kotaku
kotaku.com/5256072/more-than-a-million-flock-to-free-realms
Sweet!
My kid will freak when they hear that. Thanks for the update Nadia!
"If we don't attack them, they will attack us first. So we'd better retaliate before they have a chance to strike"
Is it just me, or did they hit the 1 mill mark pretty fast?
Personally, I find this game very enjoyable. It would be nice if they take the advertizements and other nonsense off the screens when waiting for the game to load. At least take it off for the members.
screenshot from ingame dance party last night
EQ2 fan sites
They are going to remove it for members, it was a mistake according to Pex on the official forums.
I've found it surprisingly addicting.
I got so caught up in playing the Chef and Pet Trainer that I've taken both of them to 20 already. That surprised me, so now I'm going to take it a lot slower and just enjoy the ride. I'm going to wander around and just explore for a while, doing the collections and just being an Adventurer for the foreseeable future, just so I don't burn through everything.
It's a fun little game. I like it.
Yes, question is, how many are paying customers?
Trying a free game isn not such a rare thing to do, you know.
I tried every single game which was for free, yet I don't play any of them.
But at least SoE this time has been honest, we all knew well in advance this game was all about RMT and Cards, they didn't drop the bombshell one day like they did with EQ and EQ2.
I don't know if this game is going to work though.
The idea is good, but Its target audiance is way too young, not sure they are even aware they are supposed to buy the items with real cash.
This just in!
SOE is using inactive station accounts to pad the numbers of FreeRealms. Myself and a handful of others have logged in to our account pages to discover we are subscribed to this game, even though we never initiated it.
Another dispiceable business manuevre by SOE.
I often wonder how much the compensated anti-SOE shills make? it must be a good amount because no matter what time the night or day a positive post is made about any of their products they are here to put a negative spin on it.
That being said my Daughter and wife both love FreeRealms SOE has a huge hit on it's hands.
I can honestly tell you I'm not paid. But gladly would accept payment to slam SOE. It'd be a fantastic gig, but I suppose the fact that I'm doing it for free anyways defeats the whole purpose of payment :P
That being said, if there is somebody out there who is willing to pay, I'm game to write some nasty anti-SOE posts all day long ;-).
A wise person once said 'If you love what you do for a living, you never have to work a day in your life'.
According to this article, they hit it in just 18 days.
"If we don't attack them, they will attack us first. So we'd better retaliate before they have a chance to strike"
they only have themselves to blame really. regardless of wheather they are inflating the numbers by counting inactive station accounts or not why did they have to include FreeRealms on people's accounts when they have not registered on that site?
Their questionable ethics in the past will always work against them in practices like these.
congrats SOE for the sucess. Hopefully this will give us junkies alot of better mmos that takes FRs concept to a new level.
I7@4ghz, 5970@ 1 ghz/5ghz, water cooled||Former setups Byggblogg||Byggblogg 2|| Msi Wind u100
I just checked the Free Realms site out of curiosity. It says that everyone with station access gets a Free Realms subscription, whether they want one or not.
There's no indication on the page that these "subscriptions" have not been counted towards the alleged million.
One SOE rep (Pex I believe) saying that they only counted subs that actually created a character just doesn't cut it for me.
I find it hard to believe that they didn't simply count the number of subs registered to achieve their total. I don't believe them that they took the time to distinquish between subs that created a character, and subs that did not. They really had some bean counter sorting that out? I really doubt it.
I've seen some very nice people (Tiggs) pass on outright false information for SOE probably because that is the information they themselves were given from those up the food chain.
I'm sorry, but claming a million subs and then having people find that they've been unknowingly subscribed to the game really seems to cast doubt on the claim, in my opinion.
P.S. I happen to want SOE to be a successful company, but happen to think they should change the way they do business to achieve this goal. This wouldn't be an issue at all, if a number of people didn't find suprisingly that they had been subscribed to Free Realms outside of their awareness.
as I posted in the other locked thread,
the 1 million accts that were "counted" are being credited with 200 Station Cash
go check if you have an additional 200 Station Cash,
if you believe you were among the million (wrongly or not)
EQ2 fan sites
Pex wrote:
Actually, we're only counting existing Station Members (and Station Access subscribers) who have actually come to the Free Realms website and registered an account.
believe what you will however the logic of them putting a link to a game which requires zero subscription fees is not hard to understand really. I have a lot of games in my station account with links in them I dont actually use. Aside from the fact that the bulk of the characters signing up and remaining seem to be from places like miniclip.com. I guess I dont see it. If people want to be really really paranoid over a free game with characters then so be it. Reality says in the scheme of things 1 million free accounts in a free game is just a number. If people want to take it further so be it. However sony as a company changed awhile back for those that took notice.
Its time to face some reality here and realize that free realms is a good game with 1 million subscribed customers and that number was accounted for by counting characters created not station pass accounts...
I already commented on Pex' claims, so I'm not sure why you thought I needed to see them again in bold. Did you miss what I already said about this statement? I've seen a very nice person (Tiggs) say things on behalf of SOE that turned out not to be true.
Regarding the game being good, I actually think it's beautifully done. Pause for a moment and let that sink in if you think this is nothing more than an anti-SOE rant. The graphics are amazing, the variety of gameplay available is exceptional, and the system requirements are very reasonable. It looks like it has a lot of potential.
The only thing I happened to question is why people have found themselves listed as "active" subscribers to a game they do not play. This observation seems to cast doubt on the subscription claims that seem to be used as a marketting tool. In one article I read, the alleged population figures come immediately before an advertisement to pay for a premium subscription.
I think that this game has a great chance of being a success if SOE marketting and management don't manage to screw it up, like I believe they have done with other SOE titles. Specifically, I think management needs to avoid dramatic decisions that alienate players (and developers). I also think that marketting needs to pay attention to accuracy. I don't think that's been a strong suit for SOE historically--my opinion of course, based on my personal experience.
what if i dont want to be counted :P
i dont. other companies have to work hard to maintain a playerbase. look at turbine and lotro. they work extra hard maintaining and expanding that game. soe just takes the easy way out.
i dont. other companies have to work hard to maintain a playerbase. look at turbine and lotro. they work extra hard maintaining and expanding that game. soe just takes the easy way out.
A friend of mine who surprisingly discovered he had an active Free Realms account summed up his feelings this way:
"What makes it look sleazy to me is the fact that they don't tell people they have an active FreeRealms subscription. People just happen upon that info when they go look at their accounts. Which makes SOE look like they're up to their old snake oil tricks.
Why would you go to the trouble of activating however many hundreds of thousands (if not more) accounts AND NOT TELL THEM? It's like saying 'we want those numbers, but we don't actually want them to play it'."
Again, I can't really blame this guy for feeling this way. I think a lot of people would be tempted to say, "hey what gives here?" especially with all the press about the overwhelming number of alleged subs so quickly achieved.
If SOE wanted to avoid stirring up controversy (again) I think they simply should not have activated all of these people outside of their awareness right before their big subscription announcement. Bad timing? Poor communication? I think so, and we've seen that before from the same management crew.
Just maybe they'll learn from this (though they don't seem to do well at learning from mistakes) and get out of the way so that developers can see their vision become an unquestionable success. The game development really does appear well done. /tiphat to the creative work
Yeah so now back to the actual game and not conspiracy theories...
Smed posted they are now up to 2 million
http://twitter.com/j_smedley
OK, I didn't really question the 1 million mark even since other games have done it this last year, but at the same time didn't find it beyond reason that soe was counting people who were not actually playing. Believable, but not something I felt worth speculating on.
Two million makes me question the validity of these claims or think there is something not going well behind the scenes.
The game still has the same 10 servers it did when they claimed 1 million registered players.
Smed is claiming they have doubled the registered players from 1 million to 2 million in a matter of days, but the number of servers is the same.
You can log on any time of the day and you will find 10 servers listed as low population except for an hour or two a day when server 1 will be listed as medium.
2 million registered players and the best that can be mustered is 1 server hitting medium for an hour or two?
There are only so many possibilities to explain it assuming SOE is telling the truth.
Considering that most mmos see a very high "log in" rate during their release and expansion release and several mmo makers have put the average primetime log in around 15-20% of the overall game population during normal times, it looks to be a fair guess that free realms would be higher than that right now.
However, just assuming there are 2 million people trying the game and only 1 out of every 10 registered player logs in at prime time (10%), that would mean each server has roughly 20,000 people on it at once. I doubt the gameworld is anywhere close enough to handle that type of population and I also doubt the servers could handle that load especially with all of the instancing it does.
I'm not suggesting the game has 100% retention, but the game is under a month old, has doubled in size from 1 million to 2 million within a matter of DAYS and yet not a single new server to help the load of an extra million registered players?
Something is not right.
you are aware if the number of people in north america and the mass marketing push they have on right?
I can imagine it easily. How many users does yahoo have?
I highly doubt they had to cheat as many people suggest in fact in face of the amount of money behind their tv ads, in store free trial cards and little free gifts given out on huge social networks like facebook. I would find it hard not to imagine.
I think its just a case of people not grasping the actual size of what they have chosen to do and the fact that a lot of people feel that sony is a dead company.