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.
