LEGO MMOG Named and Given a Launch Window

Kotaku has the press release expanding on details for LEGO Universe, the block-based Massively Multiplayer Game announced earlier this year. The title is slated for a Q4 release next year. There isn't any concrete discussion of gameplay yet, but the general description does sound promising: "The full-featured MMOG will be complete with character advancement, expansive social and community features, and will provide a child-safe alternative to other MMOGs on the market. As a player, you'll be able to customize your mini-figs and interact in the universe as any character you choose, providing unique opportunities for players to expand and explore with their creations."

Comments

Here is a thought

[buswolley]

Child appropriate? I tell you what is child appropriate: Being outside, building models, playing in the sand, riding your bike.

Re:Here is a thought

[Knight Thrasher]

You're posting on /. - how could you possibly not see the irony in a post like this?

Slashdot - Geeks sitting inside on computers telling kids to go play outside!

=V

But more to the point on topic - kids are going to play video games, no matter how hard we shake our canes or yell at them to play on our lawns. I would rather kids have the option of playing a LEGO based MMO than, say, a GTA based MMO.

Re:Here is a thought

[Null Nihils]

Child appropriate? I tell you what is child appropriate: Being outside, building models, playing in the sand, riding your bike.

Or how about playing with actual LEGO blocks, and using some imagination?

Still, an MMOG has to be more creative than another freaking toy-brand-based television cartoon.

Child safe? How?

[Sierran]

One of the truisms of humans - they'll *always* find a way. I recall reading an excellent story online by a programmer who was working on a 'child-safe' online interactive environment; after being forced to abandon live chat, the sponsoring company went with text chat. Then they went with selection of pre-programmed words. When an eight year old swiftly produced something like 'I want to put my tall giraffe in your fluffy bunny' that was right out, and bang went communication. Not to be deterred, their li'l alpha testers swiftly realized you could take the adorable objects in the game and make, um, *interesting* shapes on the ground (and each other) with them, which was way more fun than the design gameplay. The sponsor gave up.

The only way to ensure a child-safe environment is to police it. The problem is that getting people to agree on what their children can be exposed to will never happen; someone's perfectly 'of age for the project' child will always know (or just have heard and faithfully attempt to repeat) something that someone else will find it a crime that their child has been exposed to. Realistically, the only way to prevent situations from getting out of control is to have an active and dynamic response to situations like that arising...which, traditionally, has meant teacher or chaperone. Unless LEGO wants to spend a crapload of money on nannymoderators, I just can't see this working.

Of course, I'm a pessimistic shmuck who is obsessed with tall yellow stiff giraffes and soft fluffy inviting bunnies.

And to whoever's excellent anecdote I just thefted, my apologies, I'll try to find the link.

Re:Child safe? How?

[MicklePickle]

Mod parent up please. This is exactly the issue with 'safe' online MMPOGs. Every parent's level of what's "safe for their child" varies greatly. None of the MMPOGs I've seen give parents ANY ability to limit what their child sees or does. It's a case of some parents having to sit there and watch what happens.

Case in point: my 8 year old daughter likes these MMPOGs, which is fine I had no issue with it. Until I walked in one day and found my daughter talking to someone, (probably a "child" IE read 50 year old pedo), on IMVU. The other "child" had just said "Want to Cyber sex?". WTF? Where's the parental control? I searched on IMVU - none.

So, it's banned in our house until they come up with a way to give parents the ability to limit what goes on, or ensure that children are safe.

The thing is what works for one parent won't for others, and I BET anything that someone will respond to this post saying "What's wrong with that?". Well, yeah you might want to let your daughter do that, but I don't, and MMPOGs don't provide any ability to limit what goes on or provide parents with the ability to.

What I'd like to see is a way of gradually limiting what the player can do. All the way from full access to just logging in. Trouble is, (as the parent post said), there will always be a way around it.

For the love of god...

[caitsith01]

Occasionally this site just hits the "nerd" killswitch in my brain.

Honestly, could this get any nerdier? A massively multiplayer game based on playing with Lego for god's sake? I assume a Star Wars theme will be included somehow. Grown men, sitting at home on their PCs, playing with lego interactively with other grown men. I have goosebumps.

Am I alone in just not understanding this whole "virtual lego" thing? Isn't the whole point that they are a tactile, physical toy that kids (and adults) physically play with to create real objects? Why would someone want a computer simulation of that, rather than either a simulation of something real, or (gasp) real lego bricks?

Every time I see this kind of story, I have the Comic Book Guy's voice echoing in my head: "No Aquaman, you cannot marry a woman without gills... you're from two different worlds! Oh, I've wasted my life."

Cue responses pointing out that it says "News for Nerds" right there in the title...

"Lego Games" Escapist article

[Allen Varney]

I surveyed the surprisingly large field of Lego games a few weeks ago in an article in The Escapist #97, forthrightly titled "Lego Games." (Link goes to plain-vanilla HTML text version.)