Adele Caelia continues her exploration of Free Realms by interviewing Laralyn McWilliams, Creative Director for Free Realms at Sony Online Entertainment.
A World of Choices
Adele Caelia: What is Free Realms?
Laralyn McWilliams: Free Realms is an online virtual world where you can do what you want, when you want to do it. You can change jobs (similar to traditional MMO classes) any time, which means you can be a chef one minute and a warrior the next. Each job has minigames and activities associated with it, which let you level up.
Standing Out
AC: What makes Free Realms different than other games of this type? How does it stand out?
LM: Free Realms has a lot of unique features. It has a terrific look that also means it can run on a wide variety of machines. Changing jobs on demand is really different from other free games (from other MMOs, really) and it’s also got a unique approach to installation—just go to the website, and you’ll be playing in a few minutes with no long installation download or patching process.
Target Audience
AC: Who is the target audience? How is the game geared towards this audience?
LM: Free Realms is primarily aimed at kids and teens, aged 10-15, but it’s really a game for everyone. We intentionally designed it to be easy to start, easy to understand, and easy to enjoy. You can play Free Realms for 15 minutes and feel like you’ve accomplished something!
Safety
AC: Where can parents find out more information on the game? What types of parental controls have been implemented?
LM: Free Realms includes protection for kids under 13 (they can’t enter any personally identifiable information and also can’t see or use free chat). You can find out more about Free Realms’ parental controls at http://www.freerealms.com/forParents.vm .
Magnetism
AC: What is the biggest draw to the game? What will make people want to play?
LM: Free Realms is all about playing the way you want to play, and that’s also the game’s biggest appeal. If you don’t want to play the cooking game, you don’t have to. If you want to explore, you can discover new parts of the world but never get attacked by enemies. And of course, if you want to fight, there are plenty of creatures you can battle!