“Free Realms is more than just a virtual world for our players; it is a portal for imagination. A place where players transform their house into a jumping maze for friends to compete or a petting zoo that boasts all their pets,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. “Our job as developers is to listen to and predict what they want and give them the tools that inspire and compel them to share their experiences with eight million others.”

Free Realms is browser-based and available at its official website.

Click here to get a beta key!

1. Go to gpotato.com

2. Login using your gPotato username and password, or create a new account. (if you don’t log in to your gPotato account first, clicking on “Redeem” on the Aika page won’t work. It’ll just refresh the page.)

3. Go to http://aika.gpotato.com

4. Click on “Redeem Beta Key.”

5. Enter your closed beta key. Your gPotato account is now activated for Closed Beta 1. There will be a link available for downloading the client.

To find out more about the game, visit the official website.

Here we go, like Alice down the rabbit hole, venturing into a fantastic world of wonder and awe.

I apologize for the grandiose introduction, but something about a land filled exclusively with anthropomorphic animals does bring to mind certain images.

I refer of course to Earth Eternal, the initial offering from Sparkplay Media. I must admit that Earth Eternal isn’t at first glance something I would have considered for regular play, but it seems that I was very much selling it short. Having been able to spend some quality time with it, I will say that it certainly is something that I could get into.

I suppose we might as well start with the basics. Earth Eternal is a fantasy MMO, set in a world where humans have become extinct and animals have evolved to fill their place; at least in a nutshell.

Players may choose from a rather impressive list of anthropomorphic animals as their character; though as far as I can tell at this point, this selection doesn’ t have an effect on the actual stats or choices possible for the character.

The game is free to play, with the requisite cash shop, and as a final bonus, you can do it right from your browser.

Now I am suitably impressed by the technical savvy displayed by working out a way to get this to play in a browser, as it does actually look fairly good, but I have to admit that I personally far prefer playing with the downloaded client that comes with it. I may be just a little bit crazy, but for some reason the client seems a little quicker to respond to me.

In the interest of keeping things brief, I’ll start with what I like about the game, before I go on to some things I think might merit some changes.

First and foremost, I would say that the art team at Sparkplay deserves a rather heaping helping of kudos. The limitations of the browser based game they have could have proved a problem, but even with the reduced polygon counts, and lower texture resolutions, they have managed to make a game that looks very good.

I don’t want to mislead anyone and say that they’re going to be getting anything even approaching photo-realistic, but all of the game’s visuals work excellently together to create a coherent visual style that’s colorful and fun without being saccharine and “kiddy.”

The game also plays very well, though as I did mention above, it suffers from a little sluggishness in the controls occasionally, the control scheme is very similar to the standard layout that you find in most games these days, so anyone who has experience should not find themselves having any difficulty in picking up and playing.

One of the strongest parts of the game in my opinion is the level of character customization through skills and spells.

While one does select a class to play as when creating their character, they are not limited to only the skills available from that classes “Skill tree” for lack of a better word.

Certainly there are several skills and abilities provided to each class that are solely for them, but I would go so far as to say that fully half of the class skills in the game can be “Cross classed” allowing for a rather wide range of skills and abilities regardless of your initial selection.

This system is one of the better I’ve seen in recent years, allowing players to play and build their character based on their experiences and preferences rather than locking them in to a set selection of abilities right at creation.

Now there are a few things that I imagine could have been done better, and in most cases likely are expecting to be changed.

The first and certainly most annoying is the loading times. As someone who has been playing online games for a long time I like to think that I’m patient enough to deal with reasonable loading times. The loading times for Earth Eternal on the other hand simply are out of hand on occasion.

I certainly imagine that this is in fact a priority for the team behind the game and I would be shocked if this wasn’t fixed before the game was sent into a live environment.

Another minor qualm I have with the game at the moment is with the animation.

There are a few instances during which I have noticed a little bit of stuttering in the animation to the point where it actually did become a distraction. Again, this seems like the sort of issue that is likely to be sorted out during the beta.

One thing that does slightly bother me that isn’t a technical issue is the sound.

Perhaps I’m just being nitpicky here, but the game doesn’t seem to have that many sound effects, and when you hear the same one all the time being used for a number of situations it does start to grate a little, but like I said, perhaps I’m just being a little nitpicky.

All things considered, Earth Eternal is a very highly polished game that raises the bar for free offerings.

About the only thing that it has going against it, is that it does everything well, but as yet doesn’t seem to excel in any one area, though one might say that the atmosphere and setting are unique enough to make up for that.

Since it’s still a beta at this point it’s tough to make any real calls on how it’s going to turn out, we all know a lot can change.

But, at this point I would say that Earth Eternal is an amusing jaunt into a pleasant world, and a good way to while away a few hours. By all means,  anyone who’s looking for something to amuse them should at least give Earth Eternal a try.

Recently I have been given the opportunity to tackle the rather sizable task of reviewing one of the most expansive games on the market today.

Make no mistake, EVE Online takes the massive from MMORPG and runs with it like Forrest Gump.

I would like to make it clear that I certainly did my best to experience as much of the game as possible, but there was a great deal that was simply not possible with my relatively limited time with the game.

I suppose a reasonable place to start would be the technical aspects of the game, and the most noticeable part of that is the visuals. EVE Online, being set in space which doesn’t require an extensive amount of environment detail, instead places that detail in the ship and station visuals.

The graphics are impressive to say the least, the four races each have a visually distinct style for their ships from the practical and industrial looking Caldari, to a much more sci-fi theme with the Amarr.

While the ships and stations do look quite breathtaking flying past bright stars and nebulae one aspect of the visuals that I personally would have liked to see a little more detail was in combat. There is very little visual indication of your ship’s “health” while fighting.

Hardly a game-breaking problem to be sure, but something that I imagine would improve the character of the game, even something as simple as some shield flash on impact would draw me into the space combat a great deal.

The other half of the presentation equation, the sound, is in my humble opinion, the weakest part of the game. Now we all know that in space no one can hear you scream, but a little bit of audio can be a very powerful aspect of a games presentation, and EVE is a very quiet game compared to many.

All of the sound design that is there is very well done, missile impacts are visceral and the firing of beams and cannons are pleasantly destructive sounding, but I would have liked to hear more.

As far as the music goes, EVE comes with a jukebox with a rather expansive list of tracks you can listen to, but they play without regard to the situation you happen to be in, and there are situations where you find yourself in a rather intense fleet battle with a slow, soft piece playing in the background that can lead to a slight sense of dissonance.

While I did mention the sound being the weakest aspect, I would like to reiterate that it is in no ways bad, rather that when this is the largest gripe I have with the game, it must be doing something right.

While a game with splendid presentation can be impressive, it’s rarely fun without some content to back it up.

ANow I am normally a proponent of well written, highly story driven content, but in this case I will happily eat my words and say that EVE Online, especially with the new changes made in Dominion, delivers some of the highest quality player driven gaming of this or any other decade.

It does this by masterfully combining two related, but subtly distinct systems. In fact one might say that EVE Online provides two games for the price of one.

The first of the two meta games, and I would imagine by far the more niche, is the economy.

Now, many games have “economies”, but every other one that I’ve seen to date has paled in comparison to the amount of work that has gone into the market system in EVE Online.

Price histories, market reports, an incredible number of tools are all built into the market screen you can access at any time. As far as I can figure this is one of the most unique aspects of EVE, in that everything that can be purchased and is routinely used by the large player run corporations and alliances is created by players.

As I said above, this certainly does sound, at least to me, like the far more niche part of the game, but the depth possible makes it very fun if you happen to have an interest in it.

The other major thing to do, and the one that has received some rather major changes with the Dominion update, is Sovereignty.

I have to speculate here, as I’m not sure there’s really a definitive answer to this question, but I would imagine that this is the reason that EVE Online is the only particularly successful PvP focused MMO to date. This, to me, is the heart of the PvP game.

Essentially, this is a complex system of territorial control that player alliances and corporations partake in, conquering and holding their various galactic empires, and reaping the benefits of natural resources in those systems. The most recent changes were made with the goal of addressing some of the less entertaining parts of the territorial control game previously.

To my mind it certainly is very entertaining, even though to say that I participated is something of an overstatement. Rather you might say that I arrived and was promptly relegated to observer status. Watching though was an incredibly rewarding experience, with massive fleets of ships firing on another, and debris floating everywhere.

Having said all that, EVE Online is a difficult game to write a generic review for, because it’s non-standard in so many ways.

From the real-time skill training to the unique setting, it certainly will not be for everyone. In my opinion developer CCP understands that they are providing a niche title and are cultivating that outlook. One thing that can be said for any player is that this game is one that will require a rather sizable investment of time to get the most from the experience.

In an attempt to make a definitive review statement, I will say that technically the game is as close to flawless as I’ve seen, and it does what it attempts to do better than nearly every other title I’ve had the opportunity to play.

If you are looking for an epic experience in a sprawling galaxy; being a dashing space pirate, a mover-and-,shaker in the world of finance and industry, or an emperor of a vast galactic empire, EVE Online is currently the absolute best option.

Score: A solid 5 of 5.

Disclosure: A review copy and press account were provided by LEWIS PR on behalf of CCP Games.

Welcome to Episode 19 of Working as Intended!

What are you still reading this for?

Go listen, already!

Chop chop!

Topics

• Power Level, a podcast-within-a-podcast response to people complaining we talk too much
• What we’ve been playing: The MMO Conspiracy
• Star Trek Online has gone live; but is it ready?
• FunCom Reveals Northern Grasslands for Rise of the Godslayer
• The Secret World Teases with Kingsmouth Website
• Major Layoffs at Red 5 Studios

Hosts

• Jeffrey Philipp
• Steven Crews
• Siam has been living in a hobo shack  in a peat bog somewhere in Ireland for the past several weeks, and was still unable to join us for this show.

As always we appreciate your feedback! You can also send us your questions or topics you would like us to discuss by dropping a comment here or sending an email to podcast@mmogamer.com.

Remember to subscribe!

“There are darker and far more terrifying things in Kingsmouth than the walking dead,” says Senior Producer and Director Ragnar Tørnquist. “The video simply scratches the surface and reveals only a tiny glimpse of what this location is all about. Kingsmouth harbors ancient secrets and dark conspiracies that players have to work together to uncover – along with a menagerie of evil, including creatures from myth and legend, and horrors from the sea. A mysterious mist has enshrouded the entire Solomon Island, and it will be up to the players to figure out what’s happened and to stop this terror from spreading further.”

The video:

ijji.com welcomes creative suggestions for its new game from Monday, Feb. 1 through Wednesday, Feb. 10 at http://event.ijji.com/newfps.nhn. After reviewing all submissions, ijji.com will announce the winning title, and the mastermind behind it, on Tuesday, Feb. 16 – along with four runners up. As a “thank you” for naming the game, the person whose entry is selected as the winning title will receive a coveted, powerful iBUYPOWER Chimera 2-F Desktop PC. The four runners up will receive 250 complimentary G Coin boosts, the portal’s in-game currency.

Go ahead and send in your suggestions!

Set in Earth’s near future, a ’spy-fi’ world of advanced technology and player-driven conflict, Global Agenda’s fast-paced, action-oriented massively multiplayer online game is Hi-Rez Studios debut title and has been in development since 2005.

The game is available on Steam, Amazon Marketplace and the Global Agenda website.

Let it not be said that we do not listen to our critics and take their suggestions seriously.

A number of people have pointed out since we began our Working as Intended podcast last year that we tend to sometimes talk… a bit much.

Fifteen minutes, they said, would be much more reasonable to listen to than 45.

But to our thinking, a fifteen minute podcast would meet, at best, Web 2.5 standards. We here at The MMO Gamer have always prided ourselves on being ahead of the gaming journalism curve, and so, after expert consultations with groups of futurists, science fiction authors, CERN researchers, and the Umbrella Corporation, we bring you the world’s first-ever Web 3.0 podcast.

Our Web 2.0 podcast, Working as Intended, will be published at its regular time on Monday.

Topics

• It’s two minutes long, just listen to the thing.

Starring

• Jeffrey ”The Ice Man” Philipp
• Steven “Sdog” Crews

In the bold world of Web 3.0, feedback is irrelevant. We’re so meta, we’re in the cloud. Your negative vibes cannot touch us. However, if you’re still stuck in 2009, you can send us your questions or topics you would like us to discuss by dropping a comment here or sending an email to podcast@mmogamer.com.

Remember to subscribe!

• Fiesta  Bundle
• Secret of the Solstice Bundle
• Wind Slayer Bundle
• Project Powder Bundle

You can find more details about the offering, which is available until January 31st, here.

Red 5 Studios, Inc. is currently working on an unannounced massively multiplayer online game. Recently, the team formed around a new direction and took on additional investment from a strategic partner in the online games industry.

You can read the entire statement here.

Via Edge Online.

For more information about the game visit the official website.

Welcome to the official Kingsmouth home on the Internet! Kingsmouth is a beautiful seaside small town in the northeast of Maine. Here you will find peace in rural surroundings and still find yourself in a friendly town that’s filled with excitement, opportunity and activity.

Visit the website for this quaint town.

Vis the official website for more videos and screenshots.

Jeffrey and Steve have been playing Star Trek Online, and they do not mince words in their assessment of it.

Will the game be ready for release? Will it appease the most Klingon-fluent Trek fans? Will Lassie be able to get help for Timmy who has fallen down the old well?

You’ll have to listen to this week’s show to find out!

Topics

• Jeffrey: The once-jilted Cryptic fan, eager to bring a fresh set of eyes to Star Trek Online. Steve: The jaded cynic who would give his own mother a bad review if she produced an MMO. Who will reign supreme in the battle of the Podcast Pundits?!
• Global Agenda Releases New Launch Trailer, Launches February 1st.
• Applications Open for SOE’s Third Annual G.I.R.L. Scholarship

Hosts

• Jeffrey Philipp
• Steven Crews

As always we appreciate your feedback! You can also send us your questions or topics you would like us to discuss by dropping a comment here or sending an email to podcast@mmogamer.com.

Remember to subscribe!

The Positions

Feature Writers, to write interviews, impressions and featured articles on a variety of topics related to the MMOG industry and community. Candidates should have an excellent grasp of the written English language and be able to work quickly. Candidates should aim to uphold journalistic standards in their writing.

Bloggers, to engage our readers in discussion and to passionately write about games or topics that matter to them. As a blogger on The MMO Gamer, you have a direct channel to readers and space to write about anything under the topic of MMOGs. Candidates should have the passion to write extensively about this topic and the ability to put their thoughts into well written posts.

Reviewers, to help readers in their decision to put their money towards new games. Our reviewers have to look closely at a game for relatively short period of time to analyze and write about it. Experience playing and enjoying a variety of  different games, MMOGs and otherwise, is a must.

Reporters, to write news daily and keep our readers up-to-date on the ongoings of the MMOG industry. Candidates should be able to work quickly, have a good understanding of the MMOG industry and work independently.

The Perks

• Writing Portfolio – At The MMO Gamer you can build your writing portfolio and help develop your career as a journalist in the MMOG field.
• Industry Event Entry – As a Staff Writer for The MMO Gamer you will have access to industry events, free of charge.
• Staying Up-to-date – Know what’s going on in the inner halls of the MMOG industry.
• There is also good possibility of beta access to the latest MMOG titles.

The Requirements

• Quality conscious
• Good grasp of the English language
• Passionate about the MMOG industry
• Dedicated
• Communicative
• Age 18+

Go ahead and drop Siam, the Editor-in-chief, a line at siam@mmogamer.com to inquire about any of the positions.

“The past two G.I.R.L. Scholarship recipients were such a valued addition to our team that we are thrilled to offer this program for the third consecutive year,” said Laura Naviaux, Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Sony Online Entertainment. “Our goal is to continue to encourage and reward women who share our commitment and passion for developing cutting edge online games for all demographic groups.”

One student can win the scholarship which pays up to $10,000 towards tuition and the option to do a 10-week internship at one of SOE’s studios. To read more about the G.I.R.L. program, visit the official website and to apply, visit ScholarshipAmerica.org.

To find out more about the game, visit the official website or check out our first impressions.

There wasn’t much news to report this week.

As such, the bulk of the podcast is comprised of our conversation with Matt Mihaly, CEO of Sparkplay Media, regarding his current project Earth Eternal as well as his history with real-money trading, text-based games, and the current state of the industry at large.

As a personal aside, I strongly encourage everyone to head over to Earth Eternal’s official website and give it a shot, if for no other reason than it is the only game I have ever played which allowed me to roll a bipedal neon pink pig with a green mohawk.

Topics

• Special Guest: Matt Mihaly. Topics include Sparkplay Media’s free-to-play MMO currently in open beta, Earth Eternal, real-money trading, making the transition from the world of MUDs, and much more.
• Star Trek Online Enters Public Beta
• BioWare Confirms Spring 2011 Release for Star Wars: The Old Republic

Hosts

• Jeffrey Philipp
• Steven Crews

As always we appreciate your feedback! You can also send us your questions or topics you would like us to discuss by dropping a comment here or sending an email to podcast@mmogamer.com.

Remember to subscribe!