I suppose not every young kid game needs to have monster battles. Take Super Mario Kart - for instance - where you just race. They could be trying to develop a new, under addressed market.

I suppose if you want to play a game that has a leveling treadmill you do have plenty of choices out there. PLENTY.

On a side note, WTF with all the Free Realms articles? Is SOE paying you guys under the table to write about the game for more press for them? I mean, no offense to Free Realms, but it is really not an earth shattering MMO. Cute, has a nice niche, and it is not alone. There are other "free" MMO games that target pre-teens too and are quite successful. They get very little press here.