Interview: SOE’s Laralyn McWilliams Discusses the Design and Concept Behind Free Realms

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If you want to play a better MMO, you have to be a nine year old.

This was the conclusion I came to after seeing an extensive demo of Free RealmsFree Realms reviews given to me by Sebastian Strzalkowski, one of the artists on the project, and later interviewing Laralyn McWilliams, the game’s Lead Designer.

Passion is the requisite personality trait of anyone who wishes to work in the gaming industry, and both of them possessed it in abundance, eager to show off and talk about their work.

It was easy to see why: They were actually getting to do something new, breaking away from the traditional MMO mold, and coming up with something original for a change.

My only lament is that I’m sorry the age demographic wasn’t moved up around ten years.

We’re going to be having additional Free Realms coverage in the coming days ahead, getting into more details about the game as time goes on.

For now, press play to listen to the interview, or read on for the transcript.

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The MMO Gamer: First of all, for those among our readers who may be unfamiliar, could you please introduce yourself to us and tell us a little bit about what it is you do at SOE.

Laralyn McWilliams: Sure. I’m Laralyn McWilliams, and I’m Lead Designer on Free Realms. I oversee the design staff working on the game.

The MMO Gamer: Also for those among our readers who may be unfamiliar, could you please fill anyone who has perhaps not been following its development in on the concept behind the game.

Laralyn McWilliams: Free Realms is a new online game that we’re really focusing on streamlining the process. An MMO that’s more appealing to casual gamers, non-MMO players, and kids, who are our primary demographic. It’s a game that will appeal to kids, but we also anticipate that it will appeal to a lot of other people, too.

The MMO Gamer: I’ve seen some numbers bandied about, but nothing specific. Do you have a key age demographic, say a 9-14 bracket in mind?

Laralyn McWilliams: It’s actually exactly that bracket, actually. About 9-14, 15, somewhere in that range. Although, from focus testing and other things it looks like it’s going to appeal to families, as well.

In sort of a Shrek-like way it’ll appeal to a large number of people, even though kids are its primary audience.

The MMO Gamer: As the lead designer, how do you go about approaching the design of a children’s title, as opposed to a more mainstream, adult title?

Laralyn McWilliams: I’ve made both in the past—designing any game is all about understanding who your player is, and what the player wants to get out of the game, and what they enjoy. It’s actually, from a design perspective, really similar for both audiences.

For kids, and casual players both, we really look at the way they play—or sometimes don’t play—MMOs. If you look at a kid playing an MMO, typically they have four or five or six different characters. If you look at a kid playing WoWWow reviews, they’ll take a character up to about 20, and they’ll get bored.

They realize that level 20 is really a lot like level 19 was, and probably 25 is going to be a lot like level 19 was.

We really designed Free Realms from the bottom up to let you be more expressive, to let you make more choices from moment-to-moment about what you want to do, and to really encourage you to create a character that expresses you, and that you want to live with for a long time, that you want to invest in, so that your character doesn’t become more boring over time, but less boring, because you unlock more content.

You’ve got more going on in your house, your pet has learned new tricks. Oh look, now we’ve got horses and I can have a stable, so I want to build a stable attached to my house.

We’re really looking at ways for Free Realms to be a place for you to really feel like it’s your home.