| “ | SOE Live is a celebration of ALL SOE games and gamers alike. Attendees can meet developers, party with friends, compete for prizes and get the inside scoop on SOE games! | „ |
| ~ SOE Live website description |
SOE Live is an annual convention based around SOE games. The event features SOE staff, game panels, contests, parties, and more. Formerly the celebration had been named SOE Fan Faire up until it switched to SOE Live in 2012.
Free Realms has been included in these events since SOE Fan Faire 2008. Along with inclusion, each annual event has featured announcements on the plans for the future of Free Realms and attendee exclusive Free Realms perks.
Years of SOE Live[]
SOE Fan Faire 2008[]
SOE Fan Faire 2009[]
SOE Fan Faire 2010[]
SOE Live 2010 was held at Bally's, Las Vegas from August 5th through August 8th, 2010.
Panels[]
Friday August 6th, 2010
| Time | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 2 PM - 3 PM | Free Realms PS3 Q&A yes | Join us for an open Q&A session on Free Realms and the PlayStation 3 network. Bring all of your questions on cross-platform development, the challenges and opportunities! Presented by Ryan Wells. |
| 3 PM - 4 PM | Free Realms Events Q&A | Join panelists Tiffany Chu and Steve Bokkes and talk about the many live events in Free Relams - bring your questions! |
| 4 PM - 5 PM | Free Realms Animation Demo | SOE Artist and developer Floyd Bishop will be demonstrating how we animate characters in Free Realms and answering your questions about this critical phase of the development process. |
Saturday August 7th, 2010
| Time | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 2 PM - 3 PM | Free Realms PS3 Q&A | Join us for an open Q&A session on Free Realms and the PlayStation 3 network. Bring all of your questions on cross-platform development, the challenges and opportunities! Presented by Ryan Wells. |
| 3 PM - 4 PM | Making Free Realms Fun! | Join Nick Parkinson, Chris Fritchoff, Eric Hankins and Steve Bokkes as they reveal how they use information collected in-game to evaluate Free Realms game features. How do they adapt and plan development to make Free Realms more fun? Bring your questions for the Q&A! |
SOE Fan Faire 2011[]
SOE Live 2011 was held at Bally's, Las Vegas from July 7th through July 9th, 2011.
Panels[]
Friday July 8th, 2011
| Time | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 4 PM - 5 PM | Making Free Realms FUN | Find out where the fun in Free Realms comes from. Learn about the influence Community, Business, and Focus Testing have on the game. Brainstorm a new in-game item with developers! Last year's session brought a Beach Ball ride. What's this year's item going to be? |
Saturday July 9th, 2011
| Time | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 4 PM - 5 PM | Free Realms: How the jackpot Plant Grew Into Farming | From Jackpot Plants to Farming, we'll discuss how simulation in Free Realms has taken on all new levels of depth, complexity, and most importantly, fun! Join the Free Realms Development Team to learn how the underlying system behind Farming will be used in upcoming features... like Ranching! |
SOE Live 2012[]
SOE Live 2012 was held at Bally's, Las Vegas from October 18th through October 21st, 2012.
Panels[]
Friday October 19th, 2012
| Time | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 10 AM - 11 AM |
Making Free Realms Fun! | The Free Realms dev team chats directly with players about what goes into making Free Realms FUN! Got questions? Have some ideas? Bring them all! (Floyd Bishop; Ryan Shannon; Eric Hankins; Tiffany Spence) |
| 1 PM - 2 PM | The Animation of Free Realms | In this popular panel, Floyd Bishop will again animate SOMETHING from start to finish, to show our workflow, processes and the behind-the-scenes stuff needed to make things move in game! (Floyd Bishop) |
| 3 PM - 4 PM | Animation at SOE | A discussion about animation with several experts from various SOE games, sharing their experiences on games like EverQuest, EverQuest II, Star Wars: Galaxies, DCUO, Free Realms, Clone Wars Adventures, and PlanetSide 2! Floyd promises that "This will be amazingly epic!" (Floyd Bishop, Tom Tobey, Chris Myers, Chad Lichty) |
Saturday October 20th
| Time | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 8:30 AM - 4 PM |
NEW THIS YEAR! Free Realms and Star Wars® Clone Wars Adventures Kids Zone! | Family-friendly and kid-approved activities, like the Free Realms Art Workshop, the Star Wars Clone Wars Adventures activities, including a kids' live quest, tasty treats and fun videos at the Afternoon Ice Cream Social, and prizes, goody bags and themed pictures to take home! |
| 2 PM - 3 PM | FR: Designing Sunstone Valley | A discussion on the development and design involved with creating Sunstone Valley. This panel will cover the design goals chosen for Sunstone and what we wanted to accomplish for Free Realms as a whole. We'll also discuss the second expansion chunk, "Ponyvale" (name pending), while giving players a special sneak peek of the new zone. After the preview, we'll close with an audience participation segment to create a new Ponyvale themed item for the expansion and a short Q&A session. (Ryan Shannon; Eric Hankins) |
Announcements[]
- Revealed that devs plan to add overland mobs to older zones.
- Discussed the newly released parachute concept.
- Discussed plans for having weekly updates.
- Revealed that the next big update will be the Pony Vale area (put aside for now).
- Explained that Pony Vale will include a coking mission in which players can craft in their houses or in the overland areas.
- Stated that ranching and restauranting are still not ready to start as of that time.
- Revealed plans for players to design a house plot, then package it to give or sell to another player whom may then unpack it on their own lot.
Attendee perks[]
- Robo-Roo rewarded exclusively to SOE Live 2012 attendees that registered for a badge at SOE Live 2012.
SOE Live 2013[]
SOE Live 2013 was held at Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas from August 1st through August 4th, 2013.
Panels[]
Saturday August 3rd, 2013
| Time | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 10 AM - 11 AM | Star Wars®: Clone Wars Adventures™ & Free Realms: Creating Art for Kids Games | Creating characters and animation for kids games, including how to design characters that are bright, stylized, and full of personality. |
| 2 PM - 3 PM | Star Wars®: Clone Wars Adventures™ & Free Realms: Designing Games for a Young Audience | A presentation about how creating a game for children can influence its design. |
Announcements[]
- Ranching may be used towards a new "Pet pals" system.
- Two new pets will be in game soon, Baby dragon and a baby cyborg T-rex.
- Hints at a Pet Trainer job return, but in a slightly different form.
- In the process of revamping the character equipment screen UI.
- Attempting to make combat more like Clone Wars Adventures in certain ways.
- A new chapter update in the Hero's Journal that takes place in Wugachug, which was previously announced, is now revealed that the chapter takes place with the denizens of Wugachug suddenly sporting bixie-styled attire, along with a new "bixie queen" running the show. Upon further inspection, the bixie queen isn't all that she appears to be and it is up to the player to solve what is going on.
- The following week the fourth combiner was announced to come out, which had been the Blast Rover.
- It was revealed that players that purchased all of the combiner rides will be able to put them together and make one giant robot mount.
- It was said Pony Vale and another zone had not met current expectations in the terms of size and will not be focused on for the time being.
- Two new lots are planned to be released, one being a ocean-themed lot with a giant golden yacht in the middle that is available to players who have purchased the year-long membership plan.
- There will be a castle-themed set with walls, turrets, etc. that allows players to create and build their own castle.
- The character selection screen will be revamped so it will be done in game rather than on the browser, along with more character customization options at the beginning.
- Plans to add new levels to the game.
- Plans to add a new combat job to the game.
- Plans to add a new race to the game, one linked to Wugachug.
Attendee perks[]
- SOE Live 2013 T-Shirt rewarded to players that logged on Free Realms during the time of SOE Live 2013
- SOE Live Parachute rewarded exclusively to SOE Live 2013 attendees that registered for a badge at SOE Live 2013
Sources[]
- Highlights from the SOE Fan Faire 2009 community address on Massively.joystiq.com
- SOE Fan Faire 2011: A look at Free Realms with Sr. Producer Harvey Burgess on Massively.joystiq.com
- SOE Live 2012: An exclusive look at the future of Free Realms on Massively.joystiq.com
- MMO Family: Free Realms and Clone Wars Adventures at SOE Live on Massively.joystiq.com