I only had the time to spend a few hours fiddling around with SOE’s Free Realms a week or so ago, but it has turned out to be one of the shortest MMO betas in history. The game goes live tomorrow for Windows and is down getting all patched up for the big event today.

Unlike the beta characters from another notable free-to-play game, Runes of Magic, which I am actually spending time on every few days, the beta characters in Free Realms won’t be kept over for the live game launch. Beta participants are getting an in-game gift of some sort. Perhaps a copy of our home game?

My quick recommendation for Free Realms is that it is a bright, colorful, casual-friendly, mini-game-heavy MMO that I think every gamer could enjoy if they give it a chance and are willing to look past its focus on younger, pre-teen or teen gamers. I can’t see a downside with having a character there since it’s free to play, the mini-games I’ve seen so far are fun, and you can always come back and play it whenever you need a break from other activities on your PC.

And if you do find you’re missing something by not paying a subscription fee, membership is $5/month and gets you some exclusive jobs, more character slots, more quests and items, and leaderboard rankings. Not a bad system.

Seen on Massively.