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Lego Universe, changing the face of MMO's?
Kubinator
September 21st, 2010
L
ego Universe is a new MMO I had the pleasure of taking a look at and discussing with several of the game representatives at PAX. Although the game is geared toward younger players, I have a feeling many of us will enjoy it. I had a blast at PAX manipulating the blocks and making a crude elevator from a flower pot and tree. I'm sure for a lot of us a game like this will bring out our "inner kid."
Building in Lego Universe is quick and easy. Like other Lego games [Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones], Universe shares the "quick build feature" that makes building things in the environment a snap. Within this "Lego-Land," there are story-driven quests summarized by the plot. The fun Lego universe has been flooded with dark forces known as the Maelstrom and turned Lego minifigs into Stormlings. Players need to free Lego Universe. There are four classes: Assembly, similar to an engineer, Sentinels, a fighting class and Venture, the all around explorer class. There is also the 4th faction, the Paradox, devoted to Maelstrom research or in layman's terms, it's a magic user.
There will not be any experience points or character leveling, which is both good and bad. Players' statistics will be determined by a character's equipment [i.e., weapons] which can be bought from NPC and earned from quests like many other MMOS. This equipment determines your attack strength and speed and gives you special abilities.
Players can pick up bricks and other lego parts from around the gaming world and build anything, and add actions to their builds similar to what WoW's macros do. From the looks of it, these can get very complicated! With a few simple commands, brick walls explode and rebuild, or act as an elevator. All builds become permanent part of the Lego universe, and everything is moderated on the server. Speaking of moderation--to keep the game "kid-friendly," both text and player names are moderated. In Lego-Land, players cannot used the oh-so funny, but overused names of "dookie licker,""butthead," or "noob-ganker!" The player can also build rocket ships and travel to different themed worlds. If I found a pirate world based on my childhood memories, I would never leave.
The game has unlimited possibilities. The pricing is right--$39 for the game and $10 a month for unlimited playtime. My concerns? Is there enough in the game to keep older and younger gamers interested? Is there enough of a market interest for Lego Universe to make a dent in the market share that games like WoW, the upcoming Guild Wars 2 and fan favorite Everquest 2 have?
But who can resist Legos? Although the game is geared toward a younger audience, everyone loves Legos including this gamer! I will be giving this game a try when it comes out.
Contest time!
All over
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