Q&A: FreeRealms & SOE's Expansion Beyond The Hardcore

Gamasutra spoke to key creatives Bruce Ferguson (Producer) and Laralyn McWilliams (Lead Designer) about their brave new MMO world.

"What we are trying to do is take all of the things we have seen in other MMOs that tend to be a frustration factor - the length of time you have to play, the high end rate content - things like that, and figure out a way we can make the game more accessible.

We are looking at smaller play areas. Things you can do very easily, not necessarily as defined so you can create your own play, and do things you can do relatively quickly. Rather than taking a four hour or an eight hour session in the middle of the night, we want you to be able log on perhaps with your children, play the game for a short amount of time and actually enjoy yourself.

LMcW: It is also important to us you can play FreeRealms in a lot of different ways. If you like action RPGs, you'll find things you like to do in FreeRealms, but we don't require you to do those. Most MMOs require you to play a certain way.

They might have sub-things to do, like you get to craft here and there that kind of thing, but you're pretty much there to fight. FreeRealms has combat, but we have other things and everything in FreeRealms is optional. You do what you want when you want. You are not obligated to play in any one way."

[neogeo]

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