SOE's John Smedley

Well, the boldest one, first and foremost, is that kids are not adults. It seems obvious on paper, but if you think about it, their play-times are very different, the things they do in games are radically different, and the way you monetize them can't be the same as how you monetize, say, their parents. All of your assumptions go out the window when you finally see how kids actually play.

The most glaring example is this. When you register, in front of your screen are two questions: what country do you reside in, and what's your birthday - split into three separate fields for month, day, and year. What happens there? Well, it turns out that we lost a lot of customers during registration. Think about it. If you ask a 9-year-old that question, they'll probably be able to tell you their birthday, but it's doubtful that they'll know their birth year. It's pretty elementary to us: mine is [redacted - John Smedley is younger than my dad], but your average 9-year-old logging on for the first time really might not know it. We just assumed they would.

Furthermore, we built this elaborate tutorial to ease players into the game. As the test, we took the tutorial out, and just let the kids go in. Guess what? Exactly the same amount of people got to the same place in the game without the tutorial - to the percentage - the kids simply didn't care. We made these mistakes because we made assumptions based on an adult mindset.

As you'd expect, we don't discuss numbers, but I assure you we're very happy with the results; pleasantly surprised, in fact. I would say we're continuing to invest in the free-to-play and micro-transaction-funded MMORPG field with some unannounced products that we'll be announcing sometime next year.

I think we're going to see a lot more variety in the kinds of MMOs out there. In fact, we're going to be creating some of the first of those games. You see, until recently, MMOs have been about men in tights. And while I truly believe that fantasy MMOs will be the staple of the industry, things are changing - and now we're getting men in tights other than Rangers and Dark Elves in games like DCUO.

Seriously, though, look at a strong franchise like GTA or Killzone. They're diverse, and permeate well beyond their target audience. We don't have that in online gaming, and that's what I believe games like The Agency and DCUO are doing.

I mean, do you see many sports MMOs? They're out there, but frankly, most of them suck. The job that EA has done with some of their online titles is good, but try and find a really great sports MMO out there. Why is it that one of the single largest gaming segments is almost completely unrepresented in the genre? I really think we have to move towards getting these gaps filled with quality titles - and that's where the industry will be moving.