Saw this posted on another board and wanted to pass it along to my nobs friends:
Beta sign-up has begun!
What is Free Realms, you ask? From their website:
Quote:
Free Realms is a free 3D virtual world with stunning unique graphics and fun, quirky activities. Free Realms is an attitude. It's innovative, dynamic and deep. Welcome to Free Realms, where there's so much to see and explore!
It will apparently be a "child safe", free-to-play game, with added content for a monthly membership fee ($4.99), as well as an in-game cash shop.
Check out the promotional videos at
http://www.freerealms.com/whatIsFreeRealms.vmAlso from the other board:Underage Restrictions
Please note that underage accounts will be subject to certain restrictive controls for enhanced protection of children in our online environment. Sony Online Entertainment hopes to make Free RealmsTM a safe place for people of all ages!
The restrictions are as follows:
Quick Chat
Quick chat is a version of real-time text conversation between users that gives the user choices of pre-determined phrases and words. Players under age 13 are only able to select and view text from a list created by Sony Online Entertainment and are NOT able to insert any personally-created text.
Limited Forums Participation
Free Realms supports a Community Forum for users to socialize and chat about the game. Sony Online Entertainment takes its oversight of this fan forum seriously; as a result, our Community Team will be moderating the content posted to the forums by players. Players under age 13 will not be able to access this site other than content created by Sony Online Entertainment, however parents are able to change their child(ren)'s permissions to permit their child(ren) to view the forums, via a parental password, if they wish to do so.
Limited Profile Functionality
Each Free Realms account is provided a player profile page displaying his/her character images, game achievements, news items, collections, gallery, character stats and more. Players under age 13 are permitted to communicate through the quick chat system to post comments on friends' profiles using pre-determined words and phrases, but are not able to input user-generated chat.
The game looks really awesome--I love how it looks like it will be so flexible, so everyone can play their way. I signed up!ETA: The original quote from the other board also included a link to IGN but it didn't copy over for me. There is more info on the game, screenshots, and videos. Be sure to check out the 2nd video--it really has a lot of info!http://pc.ign.com/articles/890/890388p1.html