Just-RPG | Jason Ferguson's Geeky Gamer Blog

Archive for the ‘Just-RPG’ Category

Magic: The Gathering – Tactics Coming Soon…

If you’re a gaming geek like me, there’s probably a pretty good chance you’ve played a game or two of Magic: The Gathering. If you haven’t, then shame on you! Numerous videogames have been released over the years based on the popular Magic franchise, such as the online card game Magic Online and the fighting game Magic: The Gathering – Battlegrounds. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by jasondferguson

January 17, 2011 at 2:15 am

Posted in Just-RPG, MMORPG, PC, PS3, sony online entertainment

Tagged with magic: the gathering, PC, SOE

Free Realms – Keeping Players Engaged

leave a comment »

The Halloween season is here and Free Realms has pumped out a wide variety of activities and limited edition items for the season. As usual, I’m impressed with the new offerings in Free Realms and have been spending my free time immersed in the the virtual world.

Free Realms is constantly churning out new quests for players to embark on and introducing new weapons, armor and decorations for players to purchase. Far too often it seems that virtual worlds for kids expect gamers to “find something to do” in their games. Unfortunately, the simple fact of the matter is that kids have very little patience and tons of other games competing for their attention. If you don’t provide your players with new updates and fresh content, you’ll surely lose them.

Nearly a year ago I did a Q&A that was published on Just-RPG.com with Laralyn McWilliams, Creative Director for Free Realms. In the Q&A, Laralyn explained “Having something new all the time is definitely a part of our plan to keep Free Realms a fresh and exciting place to visit.” It seems that Free Realms has been very successful at doing that.

Much of the Halloween content is recycled from last year, but Sony Online Entertainment mixed in plenty of newness to help keep player’s (both new and old) engaged. This year’s activities include daily trick or treating, ongoing battles against the Pumpkin King, a special Goo’d Candy mini-game, dozens of new Halloween quests and tons of seasonal items for sale. That’s on top of the hundreds of quests and items already available in Free Realms.

Obviously most games don’t have the budget that Sony Online Entertainment can spend on Free Realms, but this general rule goes for all games – even a great game becomes stale after a while. That’s why it’s important to constantly add new features, introduce new items (such as clothing, weapons, pets and equipment), retire old items (to keep some level of rarity and increase demand and trading), plan community activities that encourage players to login and participate, keep players informed of in-game happenings, and provide gamers with the means to create their own fun while in your virtual world. In short, update your game to keep players from getting bored!

Free Realms is definitely not the only online kid’s community that constantly updates with fresh, engaging content. I’ll give a quick shout out to Habbo Hotel and Gaia Online here too. If you haven’t visited these three communities, I suggest you do so.

Written by jasondferguson

October 20, 2010 at 2:54 am

Posted in free realms, Just-RPG, MMORPG

Tagged with free realms, rant

New Issue at Just-RPG

leave a comment »

Looks like I skipped over posting a few recent updates at Just-RPG. Here’s some of what I’ve missed. Be sure to check out http://www.just-rpg.com for even more!