Everyone knows I love Free Realms. All the more, I want to see it flourish and succeed. I think it’s a very good game, and by far the most polished game SOE has put out. In the spirit of Cuppycake’s fair and unbiased blogging, I feel that I should point out the things that I think Free Realms need to step up their game on. Let’s go.
Viral Loop:
It’s lovely to see SOE entering the world of television and newsprint advertising again with Free Realms. That’s going to open up their game to many people who wouldn’t have heard about it, which is a great thing. However, FR is drastically missing their all important viral hooks that could potentially spread this game like wildfire. What’s that you say? It’s the support for rampant word-of-mouth advertising that has sprung so many free-to-play games (and Web 2.0 startups) into the big league. It’s things like:
- Slurp your Gmail/webmail contacts and invite them to Free Realms
- Invite-a-Friend and earn 10 Station Cash (or N gold!)
- Tweet your Free Realms leaderboard standings!
- Update your Facebook status with a link to your FR Character Profile!
- Send a postcard to your friends from Free Realms
These are prime motivators for free service growth. We’re even seeing traditional games diving into this world with things like Recruit-A-Friend bonuses. This is something you should have out of the gate, and not something tacked on awkwardly at the end. Services like Gaia Online and Small Worlds have this down.
But why don’t we continue on with human interaction….
Socialization:
I’m not the first to say this, but Free Realms is missing the socialization boat in a big way. Friending? Something that should be SOLID on Day 1 because it’s a key to conversion. Only being able to friend someone if they’re online? Seeing your friends online but not able to teleport around the world to them (and no informative error message). No offline friending? No cross world chatting? No custom chat channels? Free Realms definitely has the gameplay elements ROCK SOLID but unfortunately, for the audience they’re going for (the tweens) – the socialization features are more important than the gameplay. YoVille isn’t popular on Facebook because of the compelling gameplay. It’s because of the friend hookups, the chat spaces, the A/S/Ls, the forming up of interest groups, the bringing friends back to your personal spaces to share with them.
Right now Free Realms feels like a giant disconnected and antisocial world – which is a huge negative point for the game for their target market.
E-Peen:
With a lack for a better term for this, Free Realms is missing an important retention motivator – Bragging Rights. Interestingly though, SOE did this one so very well in both EQLive and EQII. This is having your level proudly displayed when someone inspects you. It’s being able to have a personal message when someone clicks on you. It’s being able to click the random stone in Norrath and have your name emblazoned on it semi-permanently. It’s being able to look up your character on Magelo Rankings and see that you’re the number 1 cleric on your server.
It appears that SOE *tried* to do this with leaderboards in Free Realms. The biggest problem is the lack of in-world hooks for this. When I click on someone, I should be able to inspect them and see what they’re wearing. I should be able to see what leaderboards they’re on. I should be able to see their jobs and a list of what level they are in them. There should be visible perks for being high level (I’m sorry, but a different color chef hat isn’t QUITE what I’m talking about). There should be announcements across the world when someone achieves level 20 in 5 jobs, in 10 jobs, etc. I should be able to post my score in Demo Derby on my Facebook page automatically, and display it in my in-world profile.
Right now, I feel like I’m grinding my ass off in a job only to not be able to share that success with other people. Personal motivators only go so far, I want everyone to KNOW how much time I spent working on something just by looking at me. They completely negate this, especially with the ability to purchase and wear any Station Marketplace item at LEVEL 1. SOE clearly knows how to charge people, let’s see if they can retain people. The goal should be: Get as many FREE players in as possible, and keep them long enough that they want to PAY you. You don’t keep people by a lack of encouragement in their time spent working on a job.
Intent and Purpose:
When you’re dropped in to Free Realms after the tutorial, you have 30 different directions you could head in. Not once is there direction given to your PURPOSE in the world. I don’t have an in-world identity in Free Realms. In Everquest 2, I was a refugee being mentored by others throughout the world and fighting to find my place and raise my rank. In World of Warcraft – I was a young Tauren working with my tribe to overcome adversity for my leader, Cairne Bloodhoof. In Wizard 101, I know that THE BAD GUY is Malistaire and I get to see him right off the bat. There is no large and overarcing story in Free Realms, which means that I’m not sure who I am or why I am there. Some will argue that this isn’t needed for this type – but I completely disagree.
If I’m in the game and don’t know why I am doing what I’m doing, and after I do it I can’t show it off, nor can I invite my friends to see it…there’s a problem.
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This can all be summed up by saying that SOE have nailed the gameplay and the environment and now it’s crucial for them to get these fundamental and more abstract issues down to be competitive in this crowded free-to-play market. Free Realms has tons of potential, I just want to see them nail it out of the park.
Tami Baribeau is the Associate Producer for Metaplace, Inc, currently working on Island Life. She is also the Lead Editor of feminist gaming blog The Border House, and the National Facebook Games Examiner for Examiner.com. She can be reached on Twitter or by email.
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There certainly doesn't feel like there's a story in Free Realms, or even an antagonist even. It also feels like I'm being dragged in 20 different directions all at once, with no idea which way I should go. I *am* enjoying it immensely, but I agree with that last section.
I'm old enough to not care about the facebook and twitter integration, but leaderboards don't seem to matter if I can't see where I am on them when I finish something leaderboard-related (and maybe who is just ahead of me).
I'm playing for now to interest my Goddessdaughter who is almost 7 and for that the pixies are excellent. And it gets her to read (and gives us something to do together). But there isn't a push from area to area, or a reason to do anything except to do it.
Outstanding analysis of the social tools required and how to implement them. The only thing here I'm not sure about is “purpose.” The sense I get is that Free Realms is being marketed as a social world, in between Habbo Hotel and Second Life.
Habbo would seem to demonstrate the popularity of the social world model for the younger end of the demographic. So, the audience is already accustomed to hanging out at the “digital mall,” as it were. The design question then is not, “why would tweens hang out without other goals” – gods know, that's most of what they *do* – but “why would they hang out *here*?”
The answer to that goes back to your first point – ideally because the space lets them do what tween socializing does – show off, build and mingle groups of friends, have some activities as thin pretexts for what's really going on, the socializing, that don't distract too much from that core purpose.
Think about arcades – their social purpose wasn't to provide compelling gameplay, but to provide something to have one's friends gather around, and to generate bragging rights. If the games were too interesting, people would focus on the game, instead of on the social interaction.
So it sounds like Free Realms has made some structural mis-steps, but not conceptual ones: “just enough play to be a social lubricant” would seem to be the design sweet spot.
I tend to agree with your analysis but not with your judgment. I enjoy the game too but precisely because it's different than other games. If I want a story and a purpose, I'll play WoW. The lore is one of that game's great strengths. But it doesn't need to be in every game. And I don't think it needs to be in a game for tweens.
“You don’t keep people by a lack of encouragement in their time spent working on a job.”
That really contradicts what you say under socialization. People who are achievement orientated tend not to place a premium on socialization and people who are socialization orientated tend not to be focused on achievements. The assumption that the only reason to achieve is to brag reflects you own personal bias. I don't think it reflects most gamers, let alone most tweens.
In this respect I think FR has got it right. Tweens are more likely to compete over who has the coolest pet (which they have to buy) than over their level.
I do agree however that they could do a much better job with the socialization. I thought this was a weak point as well. But I just don't agree with the final two points you make.
When looking at all the promo stuff for the game, I figured the social aspects would actually be the weak point… I wonder how much of this was brought up in beta, or did the beta community spend too much time playing mini-games and using the beta forum (if there was one) to establish social ties.
Since social aspects are the reason I play MMOs (if I don't want to play with people, I play single player games), I've been trying to talk to people and interact while doing my quests. In this regard, FreeRealms is a failure. People don't talk, they are too focused on levels and games. I get the feeling that I need to bring friends with me in order to have friends in the game.
I have a varied background in games and have played every top mmo out there. This game as advertised is all about having fun and doing whatever you want to, which it acomplishes in spades
I also agree with many assertions made here but agree most with the lack of social interaction. I feel like I am a solo player in an mmo world. If this is targeted at tweens as Tammy suggests then then have missed the boat imo. For them the social is first and formaost and the game is something to do while waiting to socialize or have something to talk about.
I could care less about lore or even the ” reason ” I am doing something in FR, its the fun I am after, for some its epeen, some social and others achievments/levels. I also want to see peoples levels and gear, not only is it bragging rights but in many cases gives others things to look forward to and is another hook.
There are still alot of bugs and quests that don't work consistently so I take issue with the notion the game is perfect by any stretch. Yes it is the most bug free new game I have seen latly. There is a graphics glitch on every ranged attack that causes you to pop back or forward 5 feet when casting at max range, likly the most obvious and annoying bug any game could have yet its still there !
Without dragging this out I also think they have an amazing opportunity to make FR the best mmo out there for their target audiance. It just needs the hooks and little things missing now.
I fall under the E-peen category fully. I've beaten thehigh score for the Hack n Slash mini game probably 5 times now, with screenshots on my blog of 2-3 of those times. I even recorded a video yesterday of me getting my highest score yet, which is 1k over the current high score. The fastest I've finished the game is 42-43 seconds, yet the leaderboard's first two pages are filled with people who have done it in 31 seconds, which isn't possible unless you fail. So why do people who lose at the game get ranked as if they won?
I submitted a ticket about this and I haven't had access to the leaderboards since. I hope they're fixing them and I hope they've got my scores somewhere. Sure would like to know if I can move on to the next game or not.
You hit the nail on the head in everything you say,so much so that i had to say it.They are many elements missing and if fixed this would be a near perfect game.I have already introduced it to people that don't like WOW and they love this game,also my children love it.
I just joined free realms today, great game alot of different choices and very different than other mmorpgs. It kinda reminds me of Mabinogi by Nexon. Anyway i've been trying to speak to people for the past 30 minutes, and noone responds. (lol)
I think if they allowed discussion on the forums there would be more social activitie.. I also think that the majority of users are 10 years old and whose parents told them not to speak to anyone, don't give out personal info etc. (theres nothing wrong with that)
Anyway if anyone wants to hang out with me im on server 7 usually and my name is…
Rafael Grandfolk
Chef~!