I don't mess around. I made sure that they had the keys in person at my local EBGames. Gave em $5 and got a key instantly.

I never do online order with this kinda thing.

I don't think there should be a Lore correct way. Too much confusion on BGs plus, I think our hatred of the opposing faction runs deep. Most switching players would be ostracized and ridiculed. Not a fun way to play.

I'm surprised with the concern about Lore anyway. It's not like WoW really takes anything seriously. Every quest and NPC name in the entire game is just a pop-culture riff off of something. It's not like there is some immersive Lore that needs to be protected. WoW lore is a thin premise at best.

I think it's smart they are keeping this an "outside of game" change. This change has zero impact on effecting your game other than you getting lvl 80s asking where the FP is in a major town. LOL. Sad isn't it?

Conversion of mounts is easy. Each side has a corresponding mount or faction that can be cross mapped. The game was designed that way to stop whiners and attempt to halt the "Blizz favors X faction" arguments. It's a simple matter of them mapping out 1:1 crossovers of faction xp or faction items.

I've come to hate the alliance over the years. I'll be glad to turn my 70 Drenai mage into a Troll so I can finally level the rest of the way.

I'll remember that when you cancel your wow account to play Aion.

I've been playing wow since beta. Aion just killed wow for me over one weekend of beta play. It's that good.

Ouch. Looking at that screen shot after playing Aion beta all weekend hurts. All of Blizzards billions and that's the best they can do for a new armor? Jeeez.

it could be that you haven't yet upgraded to paid. I think they are trying to get you to upgrade. It's a tactic.

Once you are upgraded however. Loot for your job drops about 90% of the time.

I have so far leveled a ninja, archer, wizard and warrior to 20 and always got reward drops for each job i was playing.

Thanks for the tip about the collection sword. I did not know that!

It is worth mention that a big drawback to Free Realms is the "end game."

There really isn't one. Once you finish leveling up a job the only thing to do with it is to show off your loot, or use it to help other people who are leveling up.

A lot of the best items for your job (class) are only equippable at top level. Yet once you get put them on there is nothing else you can get. You essentially have attained the top tier loot and there are no rare items you might find to replace them.

I think Free Realms should have made there be some items that take a while to get and that you can't buy with Station Cash. Perhaps social items or costumes of some kind.

5mans also offer more challenge but you don't get rewarded for that challenge. Better items do not drop and there is no reward really beyond just having fun with your friends. Perhaps that is reward enough for the targeted demographic?

Still. You spend real money in Free Realms to buy items/weapons/armor for a character who doesn't really need them unless they are below max level. This seems like something of an oversight.

I actually found it funny that the Chat in Free Realms is more mature than what I find in WoW. It's as if all these kids have yet to hit the jerk point in their life where they become frustrated and need to vent that frustration on every person everywhere around them. Leet speak and ridicule abound in WOW. Not so in Free Realms, all you find there are helpful and polite people looking to have an enjoyable time. Go Figure.

Other fun things include:

-Smart loot system that drops loot mostly for the Job (Class) you are playing.
-A game you can walk away from at any time (no real risk of dying)
-No corpse runs (see above)
-Total freedom to change jobs (classes) as needed.
-Mining that is actually fun
-A game that you can hop into for a short time and get something done.
-Teleporting to your friends easily so people can play together quickly.
-No griefing of any kind possible

Another interesting thing many people may not know about Free Realms. When you group with others the instances get harder... I mean... wayyy harder.

A lot of the instances are almost impossible to beat if you 5 man them. The challenge gets crazy. Especially since your group shares the 5 death limit. You really don't want others in your party to die since their deaths count against you.

Some of this may be more accidental than by design. Since the instances were tuned with 1 player in mind. But nevertheless, don't allow it to be said that Free Realms is devoid of a challenge. I've played wow since launch, raided MC for years, done Nax and all that. Free realms has no complicated boss encounters and those are actually the easy part in a 5 man since everything is essentially tank and spank. But, the trash waves on some of the 5 mans are brutal in Free Realms.

It's more interesting than the typical un-creative junk that we are tossed these days.

A way to upgrade to 2 GB of ram.

Basically this determined my last purchase and I bought an HP mini instead. Note: I'm running straight up Ubuntu 8.10.

Microsoft has imposed this 1GB limit because of XP and their desire to push people to vista. For Dell to buckle to the pressure and even go as far as making the laptop non-upgradeable is ridiculous. Let people enjoy using their computers the way they want to.