One word: Chihuahuas.

Anyone who knows me personally also knows that my pick of AWESOMENESS for the MMOG world for 2009 is going to be… a kid’s game: Free Realms.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I have violated my primary rule because I haven’t even played it yet and I am a fanboi. So sue me. The line forms to the left… but first, hear me out. There are simply too many positives for this to fall on its face.

Here is why Free Realms is gonna work.

It’s FREE. Creative Director Laralyn McWilliams said that they are aiming for about 60% free-to-play, with 40% of the content limited to those who subscribe. That’s pretty darn generous.

It’s CHEAP. Yes, something can be both free and cheap at the same time! For those who want all the content, the subscription fee is set at a very affordable $4.99 a month. That is HALF of what Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean charges, and a dollar less than FusionFall. In these times, that makes a lot of difference.

Even this hillbilly can afford Free Realms:


SOE is not a newb. They don’t have a single mega-game like Blizzard, but they have a large stable of sound, working MMOG titles. They don’t go crazy in the good times, they don’t panic in the bad times. The very fact that they can justify keeping The Matrix alive says a lot for their ability to manage a diverse lot of games and teams. They’ve learned a great deal over the years.

SOE believes in Free Realms, like I believe in beer. Better yet, so does SONY You will not see Free Realms suddenly poof in a round of budget cuts. It will make launch. You know you’ve gained notice within the mega-corporation SONY when the CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, names your game in his CES keynote.

SOE has already rolled out, tested and fine-tuned the Station Marketplace, an integral element of Free Realms. There will be no last-minute panic when the game launches and people rush to buy purple booties with pink sparkles. I’m lookin’ at you, Brakk.

Free Realms is beautifully crafted but will run on a wide range of systems. SOE knows that kids are going to be playing on hand-me-down systems. This will not be a bleeding-edge, video-card crushing game, but it looks fantastic. Creative Director Laralyn McWilliams recently toured me through a few zones not yet released publicly, and they are uniformly well designed. I’d like to tell you more, but I’d have to kill you. Trust me, they are cool. The world is quite sizable, and we talked a bit about potential for expansions after launch. Say it with me: limitless.

Speaking of limitless, the inventory has no maximum number of items. This is a pack-rat’s dream game. I tried my best to convince McWilliams that this could be a big mistake, as everyone I know will try their damndest to fill the unlimited inventory slots. She has never met Wren, apparently. “Well, maybe we’ll limit it for free players,” she allowed, after I scared her with tales of Wren's meeeelion packs and alts loaded down with more packs and full banks and... you get the idea.

Free of server walls. While there will be servers, they will be borderless, like Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean. You can log your character into any server at any time, and magically teleport to your friends. AMEN.

Free of class walls. Every character can play every class, and they all have separate, distinct leveling paths. There will be elite classes as well (unlockable by the subscribers). Imagine being a ninja one minute and a chef the next. THEN imagine being the elite class: NINJA-CHEF. Yeah!


Free Realms has smart, responsive pets. Well developed pets with strong personalities, individual strengths and needs. There are dogs, small dogs and cats in game at launch… some time ago we were shown a wider range of pets, that I will assume will go in over time. I WANT A GOAT!!

And you thought I made that Chihuahua up, didn’t you? Here is a photo of that very critter in game, in two different outfits that will be available for purchase through the Station Marketplace:


Smart cross-marketing. Free Realms has secured a partner in Topps trading cards to distribute the physical version of their integrated card game. SOE made a brilliant marketing move in introducing these TCGs to EQ/EQII and SWG. The FR version follows the same model, but is decidedly simpler and cuter, along the lines of Pokemon. You'll soon find Free Realms booster packs at WalMart and Target, each offering an in-game loot card.

Speaking of mini-games: Every tradeskill contains minigames, suited for kids and casual players alike. McWilliams demonstrated the mining minigame to extract ore (similar to tile matching games), followed by breaking up the ore (think free-form whack-a-mole with no bloodshed) and then creating the metal itself. There are mini-games for each profession, including postman (letter sorting, of course!)

Free Realms has depth. Most kid-friendly MMOGs are boring or limited in scope and their players will be looking for something new. Toon-Town was a great start but the fun wore off fast, and the other “kid’s MMOGs” that I have seen are blah, yuck or meh. No stars among them, with the exception of FusionFall (Cartoon Network), which draws on well-known icons of the cartoons to support what I presently see as an MMO/platformer.

Free Realms has broad appeal across its target audience: 8-14 year old kids. Free Realms ran focus groups before Christmas, with groups of boys and girls. The boys thought it was an awesome game with cool fighting and monsters. The girls thought it was a great game for exploration, dress-up and pets. In short, as McWilliams said, “Each group felt the game had been designed for them.”

Free Realms has a broad appeal to a large segment of the adult population: casual gamers. The same parents and grandparents who would find Warhammer or EQII intimidating will find Free Realms an open, non-threatening game. The collections, achievements and mini-games in particular will help to cement this group.

Hell, I bet Free Realms has appeal to raiders. Wait till Fires of Heaven arrives en masse!

My prediction for FOH's favorite job: you know they are looking for an excuse to go postal!


Free Realms has a large, built in, potential customer pool. Their first goal should be to preach to the choir: the people who already enjoy and play SOE games. As the MMO gaming population ages, I see more and more couples with families playing. They are looking for something that they can do with their kids. I suspect many of them would play this game without their kids!

The only thing lacking in this game: playable Dwarves. They do exist as an NPC race, so there is hope for me yet! Meanwhile I’ll have to pick between lame humans an’ pansy elfinks… errr… fairies!

Ok, I am done now, although I have barely touched on some of the game’s features. Over the next few months I’ll go into more depth on each one.

;-)#
Brasse

For more information, check out the official Free Realms site. Sign up for Beta, then click on "What is Free Realms" and enjoy all the videos linked from the buttons at left. My favorite is "Imagine Your New World," which really shows off the pets.

Brakk's cousin, twice removed, lives in Free Realms already: