Interview: FlowPlay Launches OurWorld into Public Beta

ourWorld, a virtual world aimed at kids 11-15, launched in public beta today. The world, developed by FlowPlay, bridges the genres of virtual worlds, MMORPGs, social networks, and casual games.  You can't cram many more buzz words in there, but FlowPlay manages to artfully pack the content together. With over 100 games in a massive environment, ourWorld encourages its users to play together. "A lot of people approach games through competition," said CEO Derrick  Morton. "We think people want to have fun, chill out, meet other people. We're all about cooperation. The more people you play with in your room, the more currency you earn."

ourWorld follows a basic narrative that creative kids one day grew tired of being told what to do by teachers, parents, and other adult authorities in DownWorld. They left to create ourWorld.

"These different characters that you'll start meeting throughout the exploration of the world, we want to tease some of these things, so you can unlock new environments or meet the designers," explained VP and Executive Wanda Gregory. "It's kind of a fun environment, and it's based on what kids want: that freedom and how you can personalize yourself. Kids come on and they don't want to get off."

And they shouldn't have to for some time: the company estimates that it would take 8 months of playing 20 hours a week to get through all of the game content, including stories and licensed casual games with more content on the way.

Even once the gameplay is finished, the world is still open-ended enough to give users reason to explore. The missions are just meant to get users started.

"It's a guided experience," said Morton. "You don't have to make anything. We think the casual players are more apt to be involved in something where there are small goals and easy things to do. We have apps and tools for people to create art and items."

Any user can play as long as they want, but once they won't be able to increase past level 10 or own and decorate private apartments without upgrading to a premium membership for $5.99/month. That's an odd choice given that so many other youth-oriented worlds are moving away from subscriptions and towards microtransactions.

"I've got to say, though, a lot of parents we talked to thought the micro-transaction stuff was too expensive with no limit," said Morton. "They might not pay any money, but it might cost $90 one month. They're much more comfortable with just $5 a month."

FlowPlay is also looking at advertising for an additional source of revenue. In addition to paying users virtual currency to take surveys, it's also looking to partner with new clothing designers to promote their brands in-world.

"We want to keep it so it could be indie designers," said Gregory. "We'd love to find some that are just coming up and have them work with us to create some clothing or an environment to design in. We've also talked about letting kids—there's a lot of burgeoning designers out there—take part in a promotion to design some clothes."

For now, all the customization comes in changing clothes and updating avatars. In the future, though, FlowPlay has plans for private apartments that can be decorated with custom art.

"We're looking at May," Gregory said. "We've got different districts coming out. We're looking at the end of April to have an area more music-oriented and then a fantasy area, and then we wanted to do hip hop and a techno area, more of a Rodeo Drive Coutre, and then a beach area. We're going to be rolling those out every 4-6 weeks."

So far, even in the relatively limited beta, it looks like users are hooked.

"We see a 20 minute/session average in this early stage," said Morton. "And over 50% of the people that have played it have returned within 48 hours.  The average session is around 15 minutes on a place like Miniclip, so we think we're doing pretty good."

Comments

[emily]

you shouldnt do this because some parents wont let children have vips or these other stuff it
is not fair

[Tamy]

I realy liked Ourworld. Already played Flowplay, was on lvl 11. I'm membership. Now i'm lvl 6. It's really cool.

[flower girl dress]

Thanks for bringing this to my attention - I’ve reviewed it myself now. A very enjoyable read

[larysa]

i'm membership and im level 36 but....ourworld dont working

[Someone]

it dont work when i login and i put all my login things write u suck!