MMOGs for Younger Audiences, Part Two

RPG Vault has whipped up the second portion of their roundtable-style discussion with developers of MMORPGs designed for younger audiences. This time, we hear from Twin Skies’ Adam Powell:

When your target audience isn’t adults, it’s even harder to attract players since you also need to reassure their parents. Even though Twin Skies isn’t aimed at a particularly young demographic, it will be fully COPPA-compliant, and will restrict the ways kids and youths can interact with each other. As a developer, I feel we must take the initiative and responsibility for protecting them when they use our site and game. It’s not fair to demand that parents be aware of everything their children are doing, which is why we’ll use moderators to fill in those gaps and ensure their safety. We have a very active group who are trained in how to deal with these issues, and will constantly be adding new features both for the families and our staff to ensure our environment is as child-friendly as possible.

The next major challenge MMOG developers face is getting those people who are interested to actually pay for your product. Twin Skies is still in the very early stages of development, but we are planning to make our game as accessible as possible. Younger players do not usually have access to a credit card or other means of payment, so you need to think of alternative ways to allow them to pay. This is somewhat challenging, but thankfully, there are more options becoming available as technology develops.