Seeing Free Realms at E3 reminded me of something I’ve been mulling for a little bit. In the same way that I think guilds are simply not visible enough - too ephemeral - the primary content of MMOs can often be obscured for various reasons. Time is the one that I hear a lot of friends talking about. When Brent put down his Hunter from our Monday night WoW group, he deleted all the quests in his log. To come back fresh, he said. This is a pretty common problem, I think: coming back to a character after a lengthy absence can result in confusion - even bad decisions.

To combat this confusion, Free Realms has a unique display that appears when a player logs in. Here’s a clip from Massively’s writeup:

“When you launch the game, you start at a welcome screen which gives you information about what’s new in the game that you could be doing right now. It includes a bit of the Facebook kind of information from your profile page with your friends mini-feed, but it also has quests that you’re working on, new mini-games that you can click on and go directly to, and information about how your pet is doing. When asked how much direction Free Realms would give its players, McWilliams told us, “We don’t want you to have to go find your fun. It’s not fun to wander around and not know what to do.” The welcome screen will provide players with immediate options of fun things to do, with links to take the player directly there — with no travel time or stumbling around, not knowing where to go next.”

I was actually thinking of something more personal, a sort of attendant NPC. The Moogle in FFXI is probably the closest comparison currently in a game right now. He lives in your player apartment, and provides you various functions likes job switching, storage, etc. An attendant NPC, in my mind, would be able to provide a number of additional services.

• Questing suggestions: The attendant could point out zones or quest lines that the player isn’t currently engaged in. Rumors amongst the populace, that sort of thing.
• Holiday news: The attendant could ensure that players are aware of holiday opportunities and ongoing world events.
• Dungeon delving: Hints and quests that would lead the player to level-appropriate dungeons and instances.
• Class-relevant vendoring: Resources or items that are relevant to the player’s class and level all in one locale.

The insidious thing about an attendant like this is that he could provide some sense of ‘grounding’ even in a game without housing. If attendants were only available in certain areas of NPC cities, and you had to pick which one was your ‘home’, it would give the player some sense of belonging. Far more meaningful than a ‘hearth stone’ would be a personal NPC who remembers your name and starts to learn a few basic things about you. Maybe comments on equipment upgrades you’ve had, or compliments you on a recent PvP victory.

Another hook, you know?