Free Realms (PS3) First Impressions
Free Realms has been around for awhile on the PC and Mac, but this past Tuesday Sony released Free Realms for the PlayStation 3.
So, what exactly is Free Realms? It a nutshell, it’s a lot like what PlayStation Home is: a virtual social world where you can create and style an avatar, decorate your home, change clothes, chat with friends, and play a variety of different minigames, but targeted to a much younger crowd. It’s like World of WarCraft but with very casual, minigame style “quests”.
It’s very cartoonish in nature, and seems to be targeting the 10 through early teenage years, you know, the ones who think that Club Penguin is no longer for them because it’s a game for babies, and they need something a little more “mature” and substantial. Kids are so fickle. 
Installing Free Realms on the PS3 is a bit deceiving. The original download file from the PlayStation store is 29 megabytes – a quick download, right? Well, once you download and install the program, an additional 800+ megabyte file is downloaded. Something to be aware of. The 800 megabyte download went by relatively quick, but don’t expect to immediately jump into Free Realms when you run the game for the very first time.
Once the full game is installed, you are then instructed to create an avatar, and give it a name. Just like in any MMO, there are several different choices of character customization. The selection of clothing was relatively slim, and I expect, just like with Xbox Live’s Avatars and PlayStation Home, you’ll be able to purchase additional items… at a small fee, of course.
Upon joining the world of Free Realms, you’ll see a very familiar and busy game world populated with both actual players and quest givers. Quest givers have an on-screen arrow with the quest giver’s name and how far they are away from you. While there is a lot of characters and their names overlaying data on the screen, once you know what to look for, getting where you need to go is a bit less daunting. I did have trouble a few times trying to chat with a quest giver, but because another player was adjacent to them, the conversation lock-on kept wanting to select the other player rather than the quest giver.
There are a lot of mini-games to play. Some are basic and familiar games like chess and checkers. I also played a tower defense game, and an 4-player co-op action games where you protect a flock of sheep from wave after wave of angry wolves. There were also games that were only available to members, and this is when Free Realms starts to show its true form.
Free Realms is free, but only if you like being limited in what you have access to and what you can do. Not only do members gain access to perks, but they also gain access to micro-transaction purchases. In essense, you have to spend money, to then be able to spend MORE money. Ah, Capitalism at its finest!
Some items are as cheap as 50 cents while other items (like avatar props, etc.) can easily go for $5.50. The cost of a monthly membership is $5. However, the payment system through the PlayStation Store gives you a discount if you pay by the 3, 6, or 12 months. In fact, there is a lifetime membership that is only $5 more than an annual membership.
For me, the thought of paying for something like Free Realms is not appealing at all. While everybody was playing World of WarCraft (or not playing it while being charged the monthly $15 fee), I was the playing Guild Wars, which didn’t have a monthly fee.
Free Realms is a vortex that will eventually suck your bank account dry. There is a lot of things to do and games to play that are free, but eventually you’re going to be forced to make a decision if you really want to progress further.
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