The Sanctuary Podcast: A Free Realms Podcast

Changes are a comin'

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:52:00 +0000

Episode 10 - Changes are a coming

Intro

- What did we do this week?

BIG NEWS - UPDATE

Job Sampling

Live Gamer

Housing

Pets

Item Dyes

Changes with Combat

Fishing and Dying

Holidays

Soccer items in the vault

iTunes Review

Interview with a player

Spooky Spectacular

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:33:00 +0000

Episode 9 - Spooky Spectacular!

Intro

Big News!

On October 15th the 1st Annual Super Spooktacular came out.

In the update there are 35 new costumes for players and their pets.

Spooktacular Quests

The best place to start the fun is to go visit Halloween Harry.

Repeatable Quests

There are a few repeatable quests that are good to mention.

Costumes Discussion

Bone Bog Cemetery

Holiday Wheel

Meatballs taken away, now back in

Trophies

Events notices

Soccer Special

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:53:00 +0000

Episode 8 Show notes

Welcome to our special Soccer episode!

What do you think about it?

* Soccer star is the new job.

* How to play soccer - tips and tricks

* There are collections related to the soccer job.

* New Style cards

* Halloween decorations

Interview with Pex

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:47:00 +0000

Intro

What did we do this week?

How to win extra spins on the spinner

http://www.freerealmsinsider.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6518

9/16/09 - Sony Announced that they finally crossed the 5 million player mark.

Here are the items I felt were worth noting in the article.

3. Game Demographics:

a. 67% of players are male; 33 % are female. The typical MMO only has 15% female, but they want more females playing. Apparently the Free Realms statistics show that females out purchase males by a 30-40% margin! Big surprise there?!

b. 51% of FR gamers are under the age of 13. And around 75% of players are under 18.

Free Realms Update Exports Meatballs Internationally!

Double points weekend - By the time you hear this, it will be over, but Sept 18-20 was double points weekend.

Interview with Pex - mostly about Soccer

Talk like a Pirate!

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:56:00 +0000

Intro -

What we did this week:

DragonCon Announcements:

You can watch the Ustream of the panel here. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sony-online-entertainment

Soccer in FreeRealms, the games will be 5 to 10 minutes, Quick Fun Games. Soccer releases September as said before.
Fishing is coming after Soccer update, this is the next Job. A minigame will be in the job, "You get the bobber in the water, fish...then you go into an underwater cam where you try to get them. We didn't want it to be boring than just right clicking and seeing what you get."
On Housing, there is no information available right now. You will have certain "instances" to enter in (like your Garden)
The Second Storyline is in development right now.
There are rumors that it was mentioned that the Soccer job will start out as a free job, and as you progress, it will turn into a members only job. (Rumor)

Guild Deletor

We saw a post on the forums about someone who has been joining guilds and then asking to be made a leader in the guild, so that they can help with it. Then when they get to be a leader in the guild, they are kicking out all members and deleting the guild name. This is just a warning out there. Be careful who you make a leader in your guild.

Double points for Station Cash cards coming up soon???

http://www.freerealmsinsider.com/content/493-rumor-mill-sc-dollar-days

Dates to Be Announced Soon!!!

Ninja trainer?

Update 09/09/09

The update makes it a lot easier to get around the world of Free Realms and find things to do. Check out these highlights of what is new:

* The Free Realms Trading Card Game’s First Expansion, Shattered Past, is now available!

* Rock out with The Dares at the daily mini-concert at 5 PM (PST) in Snowhill!

* A new ‘Stuff To Do’ button has replaced the quest journal button. Click it to see your quests, collections and a new ‘Activity Finder’ that can direct you to job trainers and other activities

* Guild lists will now properly update when members log in and out

* The spinner has been moved

* Fixed an issue that could cause a crash when playing the TCG against the computer

* A new ‘Take Me There’ in your quest helper will automatically take you to your next quest target

* You can now teleport directly to any icon on the atlas

Discussion about teleporting and the Take me there button

Talk like a Pirate day event

iTunes Reviews:

Free Realmz Queen - Awesome and Helpful - I love to hear online gossip so this rocks and its so helpful because you always know whats up in free realms!

the Luc-in-ator - I have to say it's worth six stars but sadly itunes doesn't have six stars. O well, I will have to settle for five. Keep up the good work! Rovolin

Bigkidatplay - The show has a great dynamic between father and daughter as they cover the goings on in Free Realms. Whether you play a lot or a little, of if you're just thinking about playing, you should listen to the Sanctuary.

Advertising

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:16:00 +0000

Episode 5: Advertising - brought to you by ...

~Intro~

~What have we been up to~ Any funny stories?

~News~

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs.

-20 Meatballs, 12 Corn, 12 Celery, 12 Strawberrys, and 12 Cherrys are needed to complete all 3 of the FFA Rep's quest. Each quest rewards a Shirt that has the "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" logo.

-"Spaghetti and Meatballs" Requires more Falling Ingridients to make, You can trade the ingridients to Helga Humbleloaf(Quest) to get each item for the Dish. 24 Meatballs, 12 corn, 12 celery, 12 Strawberrys, 12 Cherrys(4 Meatballs, 1 Spaghetti, 1 Onion, 1 Tomato Sauce).

-"Spaghetti and Meatballs" turns the player into a giant meatball for 30 minutes.

Discussion topic: Advertising in game.

I have to say, I think Sony nailed it this time with their in game advertising. This was extremely creative, exciting and the players loved it. Give them something to earn in a creative way. Even I'm running around with my t shirt on. (at least for right now) -

Further Discussion topic: Advertising in game, that you have to be in the US to see/participate:

RepNation Free Agent Program:

Benefits to being in the Free Agent Program:

Benefits Ingame:

RepNation Associate (All tasks you do, you earn points.)
250 Station Cash (Same as the Starter Card
Random Item
Membership Never Expires

Benefits Out of Game:

FreeRealms T-Shirts (Wear these out of game, take pictures of others and you in the picture [party task], promote the game!

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New update:

The Aug 28th update has some new features that you will want to check out. Here are the highlights:

Look for the spinning icon on your game screen for your chance to win a prize on the Daily Wheel! There are great items on the wheel including potions, treasure tickets, karts and pets so come back every day to see what you win!
The Marketplace has a new layout.
Sword Testing is now ranked on the leaderboards.
Some SC Karts had to be taken to the shop for some repairs. They are once again fully accessible to their owners.
Players will now have more time to defeat the Troll Fort battle. The timer has been extended from 33 to 45 minutes.
Players that were not able to see their own whispers will now be able to see both sides of the conversation.
When players on your friends list goes into an encounter, they will no longer appear to be offline.
If you are wearing a Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs costume, you won't have to worry about dogs being aggressive anymore.

Someone noticed that you can't get on the stage anymore at Snowhill.

Rudolfo's Speedy Kicks now give the original speed boost for those who had them originally. If you get them after the changes were made, you get a new slower speed boost.

The guild lists have been reverted to their original behavior of listing the online members at the top, sorted by rank.

In game Events:

We've noticed that there have been several events that have taken place in game recently.

Contest Results:

Our first winner is - Girls Clothing - Cinnamon Riverglitter

Our second winner is - Boys Clothing - Sev Kenek

They will each get a code that they can redeem in game for a fabulous prize! We'll post the prizes that were awarded on the website. It's hard to describe.

Listener Comments:

Finally a Free Realms podcast. Its really well done and i like that a father is podcasting with his Young girl that plays with him. After all,its a family friendly game. Good job

posted by: Castagere

Itunes Reviews:

jpbart - five stars!! - This podcast is very helpful in many ways it keeps me up to date on patchs,bugs, and many other events from free realms,if you have a free realms account you shood download this podcast even if you follow a forum that tells you all things that are going on in free realms because now they offer a contest and its always fun to hear advise from fellow gamers. -ROCK ON-

Wolfdancer123 - A Must for Any Free Realms Fan - I have just recently discovered this show and loved it from the start. The father-daughter aspect is great and the news and gossip presented is informative and useful. I look forward to future episodes! -Amelia Wolfdancer

iTouchCMan - Sanctuary Podcast - Epic

Pet Frenzy

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 04:58:00 +0000

Episode 4

Title: Pet Frenzy

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Get to level 20 in racing the easy way. Race yourself!

http://www.freerealmsinsider.com/content/298-get-level-20-kart-racing-job-easy-way-race-yourself

There was an update on Friday. Several items were put in place with this update:

Quick Chat Localization

Keyboard Mapping

Duelist on Demand

New Kart decorations in the Station Cash store

With the update there have also been several problems reported by players. Here are some of those issues:

1. When whispering to other people in game, you can't see what you said. Pex acknowledged the bug on the forums.

2. The chat filter has become a little more annoying again.

3. Some people cannot switch to the Chef job.

4. Guild and Friend's lists have been changed to sort alphabetically instead of by who is online.

5. The item, Rudolph's speedy kicks have been slowed down.

6. The camera movement is making some people motion sick.

7. Pet's not digging up treasure chests since the patch.

8. Coin and ticket drops appear to be happening in lower amounts after patch.

9. Oh and Bruce is gone.

10. International players appear to have to reinstall the game.

Free Realms Free Agents

TCG: New Card Duelist Quest Chain.

Clothing:

Contest for designing clothing for Free Realms. See the blog site for more information. http://thesanctuarypodcast.blogspot.com

Pets:

Talk about pet map! http://www.freerealmsinsider.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4596

Some players at FreeRealmsInsider have put together a map showing the locations where they have found buried treasure with their pets.

Stuff we know:

They give you a speed boost.

You can try them out first for 20 minutes without having to purchase one from the Station Cash Store.

Pricing:

Pets in Blackspore are transparent - members only, 350 SC

Price range is 200(Members only) - 400 SC

On occasion your pets will get a thought bubble over their heads that point out messages to you.

Collection Book
Rock
Treasure Chest
Pet Happiness Speed Buff

Each pet has one of four personalities: Friendly, Lazy, Nervous, or Excited. The different personalities will dictate how your pet behaves overall.

Pet clothes:

Pet ideas:

Bug with Pet Trainer

Listener's email!

Shout out for iTunes reviews:

Vroom, Vroom!!

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:27:00 +0000

Show Notes - Episode #3 - Vroom, Vroom!!

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Intro

-----

Be sure to listen to the interview with Lead Systems Designer, Luke Sigmund.

What we did this week - Played Tower defense games

* Zune podcast should be working now.

* Rate us on iTunes!

Big News

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Speedway Thunder!

Update Notes:

Speedway Thunder is here! There's new quests for Kart Drivers and Demolition Derby Drivers and new racetracks in Seaside and at the Thunder Falls Speedway near Lakeshore. Highlights of today's update are listed below...

Quests & Collections

Visit the new racetracks: Sandstorm Speedway and Thunder Falls Speedway!
Kart Drivers and Demolition Derby Drivers can now level and get new items! See a trainer at any of the Speedways to get started.
Garages: Visit a mechanic at any of the Speedways to tune up your kart!

Items & Marketplace

Check out the Marketplace for new karts and new items to customize them with!

General

Now you can view leaderboards in game! Click on the High Scores button from the mini-game start screen.

Bill Riddly Quest information

Link to the article on the Free Realms forums:

http://forums.station.sony.com/freerealms/posts/list.m?topic_id=10547

However, FreeRealmsInsider has found out the 3 people you have to talk to. Go visit http://www.freerealmsinsider.com to see the details if you're interested.

Free Realms Comic Book - http://comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=3082&disp=table

Future mini-games?

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Possible new items found in the files for the game.

New code - Strawberry racing hat: STRAWBERRIES

Developers blog site on MMORPG.Com with updated information on this week's patch, Kart Racing.

http://www.mpog.com/blogs.cfm?isapi_rewrite_remap=FreeRealms&bhcp=1

Cow tipping?!?! Click on a cow, see what happens.

http://forums.station.sony.com/freerealms/posts/list.m?topic_id=10215

Blue Hula outfit -The full outfit is back in the game after the update!

ZAM interview with updates: http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=18996

- Another job coming, they haven't announced, based on a 2d mini-game.

- Soccer is a team based action game.

- Druid is a mixed mini-game combat job. You'll be able to play a mini-game and do combat to level up.

- New 2D mini-game coming that involves crafting.

- Will see more story quests in the new area that is being worked on.

- There will be a party in August to celebrate the game going International. This will also launch Soccer.

- Going to be a boombox, that you can buy from the store. When you put it down on the ground, it makes everyone dance.

- No date for housing yet, but aiming to have it out this year. Housing should be somewhere in between housing in EQ 2 and The Sims. Influenced by games like EQ, Vanguard and Animal Crossing.

- Ability to cange your character's appearance using 'Style Cards'. "That means new hair styles, skin tones, eyes, eye color and hair color."

- Level cap changes - they are testing several options to see what makes the most sense. You'll definitely be able to go beyond level 20 and unlock new abilities and spend stars.

- Halloween will have a huge event tied around it.

- Future story line, will introduce a Good and Evil system. At some point, you will need to work for one side or the other.

Interview with Luke Sigmund, Lead Systems Designer for Free Realms!

The Race Is On!

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:32:00 +0000

Show Notes - Episode #2 - The Race is on! ------------------------------------------ Intro ----- *Website redone *Submitted the podcast on Zune, should go live soon! *Rate us on iTunes! *Playing on server 7 Updates from last week ----------------------- We got a few new pieces of information on what we discussed last week. *Soccer - We talked about how it's going to be coming out in the near future. Sometime "later this summer". There will be timed minigames with power-ups that are picked up on the field and allow you to do special moves, like a spin kick, power kick or slide. Your guild can choose a color scheme so everyone matches. And you'll be able to unlock a new job, a Soccer star. New area and job ----------------- *Desert theme - Sunstone Valley - Home of the dwarves. *Players should be able to progress beyond level 20! *Druid job, members only. Player housing --------------- *At E3 it was mentioned that player housing could possibly show up in Sept or Oct. You'll be able to select land, size and style of your house. They plan to also include mini-games to help you maintain your house. The garage that should be coming in the next patch will be attached to your house, so you can show off your cars. Neighborhoods will be instanced, which means that when you visit the neighborhood, it only has a limited number of houses in each area to keep things from slowing down by having too many people in an area at a time. Currently they plan to have 3 buildings per personal plot. Big News --------- Speedway Thunder! -------------------- *Twitter said "Speedway Thunder". Then came patch notes: They added quest trails to several quests that were missing them. Added mannequins to show the outfits before you purchase them. You can now preview items in the marketplace window. There is a new members only chat channel. You type /mo to chat there. Pets won't need to tinkle as often. An interesting item is that jobs will level up more quickly now. Wasn't it quick enough already for some jobs? And, ... a new raceway is under construction over in Seaside. We posted a screenshot from the game on the website, and a video clip someone shot of the inside of the raceway. *Some players also reported that the maps now show more of the npc's in the world, like duelists, TCG npc's and cooking tables. *All the Summer Splash items were removed. *There is a new castaway hat in the store and several vendors selling Station Cash goods. *A vendor in Seaside selling racing gear, Merry Vale has a burning hot apron and shrouded glade has a full tux outfit. *One other interesting observation was that the pet trainer in Seaside was acting a little odd. She shows up on the map as a green dot to a level 20 pet trainer, but her ! is greyed out. When you talk to her, she says that you are not high enough yet and you should return when you have more training. Is this a sign of things to come soon? *More information on Speedway Thunder! From all indications, it looks like the update is going to be coming out next week, which is going to add another 80 more quests. An interview over on IGN.com, revealed several new details. You will be able to work your Kart Racer and Demolition Derby driver up to level 20. There are 2 new race tracks coming. One in Seaside and one in Thunder Falls. Plus you can get 2 new cars. There are new parts to upgrade and customize your car in the new garage. You can get the new parts from the quests, as rewards, buy them from merchants with in game currency or with Station Cash in the marketplace. The SC parts will be the premium parts. There will be different slots on the car where you can upgrade those parts. The engine, steering, turbo, tires and decals to name a few. Some are for looks but others will help your car perform better. *They mentioned that they want the updates to be themed around something for that patch. They also want to keep adding new quest to keep things interesting. There are close to 1,000 quests in the game at this point and there is even 1 player who has finished 924 of them! *Adding an Expert difficulty on the minigames to make it more challenging. Discuss: Out of Bounds ----------------------- Tip of the week: ---------------- On twitter, someone slipped a little interesting hint. If you type /ABSNBD in the chat window, you enable a little cheat so to speak. It makes your head huge, like a bobble head. Type it again to return to normal. Information sent in by listeners: ------------------------------ Malik Blazegate shared a tip with us to help you level your combat jobs to level 10. In Blackspore, there is a dungeon at the bottom left corner of the map called, Haunted Mines. It is a level 3 dungeon, but if you go in and fight just the spiders at the beginning of the cave, you'll earn a lot of experience. Once you get beyond the spiders, it gets much harder. At that point, you can exit the dungeon and start over again. This should help you get to level 10 on your jobs fairly quickly. Thanks for the tip, Malik! Reminder: Visit the website, listen on iTunes, rate us on iTunes! (The ninja trainer is in Lakeshore)

The Starting Line

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:42:00 +0000

It's the first episode of The Sanctuary. We've been working hard to get it up and online for the first time. I appreciate your patience as we figure this all out. Here are the show notes we worked off this week. I'll have a cleaner look next week. Introductions: Zachary Weaselchaser Arianwyn Backgrounds: Zach -Long history of games, (EQ, WoW, etc) Arianwyn -Toontown What do we like/dislike about the game? Zach - Warrior, fighting, mining Arianwyn - Helping others, exploring, postman What do we dislike about the game? Zach - Naming, limited levels Arianwyn - Naming, lots of stuff Big News Seaside Summer Splash ended. Rumors abound: -Player housing? -New Locations - they show on the map as coming soon -Sony Fan Faire 2009 -Demolition Derby and Race Driver are getting 40 quests to level 20. And garages to customize your car. -Soccer is coming - Guilds will have matching uniforms -They showed Dwarven homeland. -Druid job will be part of a desert land, a combat job. -TCG will the ability to put your character on a printed card Ninja: To unlock Ninja, speak to Master Ty in the southern part of Lakeshore. Leveling Ninja is a combat job, meaning that the majority of your levels will come from combat instances. Prowling dungeons and besting enemies in the wilderness will earn you stars, which in turn give you experience, as well as the opportunity to invest the stars into your specialized abilities. As a Ninja, there is also a series of quests that will guide you through your job. These quests will grant you experience; however, you will hit road blocks that prevent you from continuing the quest line until you gain more levels. Your trainers will notify you of this and offer you a reminder quest whenever this happens! Trainers The best way to level up a job is to do the training quests. To get them, talk to the following Trainers. Ty in Lakeshore Ty in Lakeshore (unlocks the Ninja job, must have at least one other combat job) Chloe in Blackspore Swamp (this chain will block you partway through if you are not Ninja 5) Frostpetal in Snowhill Ty (again) in Lakeshore (this chain will block you if you are not Ninja 10) Pasted from Ninjas are masters of the ancient art of combat and deception. Wielding swords, shurikens and other exotic weapons, they can vanish from plain sight to perform damaging sneak attacks. Master Ty once taught at the defunct Dragon Clan Dojo but now lives in Lakeshore and trains only those who are worthy. Pasted from They have a shadow ninja that helps them. Once you get up to lvl _? Ty is a retired ninja trying to find some peace on the banks of Lakeshore. He was once the leader of the Flying Dragon Clan, but now he seeks only to meditate by the water. No one is sure why he has given up teaching. Even though Ty tries keep to himself, he is still aware of what is happening in the world and doesn’t always like what he sees. He does not want to get involved but when he finds fighters willing to help others, he will teach them the ways of the ninja. Ty hopes that by training these new ninjas that he can help do some good for those in need. A Ninja is a special kind of warrior trained in the ancient arts of surprise and deception. Ninjas can appear in a cloud of smoke and use special weapons like the katana. If you already have combat training in a different job and wish to become a ninja, go to Lakeshore and prove yourself to the mysterious Ty. Pasted from Arianwyn's notes: I like the clothes, but there are way too many ninjas out there! ("Where is the ninja trainer?" is all I hear!) Tip of the Week: Zach - Fight in Bandit Hideout.