Earlier today, a SOE press release announced the achievement of 8 million registered users on Free Realms, as well as the impending arrival of a holiday themed event--the Festival of Hearts! According to the press release:

Later this week, Free Realms is scheduled to kick off the Festival of Hearts, a special month long event that celebrates love, friendship and kindness. All players will be able to participate in themed events, daily social activities and storyline quests that incorporate traditional items and rewards which embody the holiday: hearts, candies, forget-me-not cards, flowers, love potions and more. Heart Breakers are invited too, as even the Stone Hearted can participate in the world events that ensue.

To go along with that exciting news, several new pets were also announced:

New Hippo, Tiger, Beetle, Groundhog and Owl pets will also be available in the Marketplace.

Your ZAM staff is looking forward to this event! We hope to see everyone in Free Realms soon.

Sony Online Entertainment announced today that more than eight million users have registered to play Free Realms! It seems like just yesterday SOE hit the one million mark and celebrated with a party and presents, although it actually happened a mere 17 days after the game's launch in April 2009.

Free Realms has gained more than seven million users since that party was held back in May 2009, which is certainly an impressive milestone. Congratulations, SOE! Now we'll just have to wait and see if that number can grow for the game's one-year anniversary in April.

Free Realms came down yesterday evening for a small maintenance, which added several new pets, or variety to older pets, to the Marketplace. Players now have more color choices when deciding between ponies, spiders, dinosaurs and unicorns. Additionally, a new face has been added to the pets--a baby penguin! The penguin's name is Pipsqueak, and it can be purchased for 250 Station Cash.

After taking a break for Mass Effect 2, Fony and The BFF Report jump right back into Star Trek Online to give us a full run down of what to expect from the upcoming space adventure. With the Normandy parked back in the garage, he beams back into the USS BFFR to battle it out with some Klingons, go on a few quick missions, and find out what it takes to be the captain of a Bird of Prey! On top of all that, Fony had to get just a bit more time in with character creation to see what he could come up with... you'll be laughing after you see what he conjured up.

To watch all of The BFF Report's Episode 16 - Star Trek Online, Part Two, make sure you click on the link! Enjoy!

The January Member's Pack arrived yesterday, and in it was a nice variety of new blocks for housing! Players have already proven what creative designs they can build with the previous sets of blocks, so these new options fired off a great idea in my head--its obstacle course time!

The new choices of blocks, available in either the Marketplace or the Coin Shop, include various shapes such as cylinders, wedges and arches. Most of these blocks are solid colored, but you can find zany tiger-striped versions in the Coin Shop. All of these new options show that the developers were listening to the players and checking out what had already been accomplished with the limited choices in the past.

So, how did my obstacle course turn out? Find out for yourself by watching the video after the hop!