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The Short-Lived LEGO MMO


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It's time for this week's installment of the Bits N' Bricks podcast, still discussing the still popular and well-regarded LEGO Universe. Go listen to Episode 13 - LEGO Universe: Death of a Dream on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform to hear more behind-the-scenes of the launch of the game and the events that led to its closure less than two years later. Journalist Brian Crecente and documentarian Ethan Vincent pull back the curtain with their usual interviews and insight. And if you're still looking for a LEGO Universe fix, don't forget about Darkflame Universe, the fan-made remake of the game!

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Okay, I'll admit, listening to the later parts of this podcast episode really made me feel a little emotional, to think that some simple impatience resulted in the loss of such huge future potential for this game. Not to mention that, while I should have suspected this, it's only now that it really hit me that there were likely a lot of kids who really enjoyed Lego Universe and ended up devastated that it was shut down after only 15 months of activity. While I'm sure some lessons were learned following the closure of this game (even the guy at the very top acknowledged in hindsight that shutting down Lego Universe was a major blunder), it's still sad to think that so much time, effort, and money went into something that could've been epic for years, but instead simply ceased to exist too quickly.

 

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but while I did get a copy of Lego Universe back in 2010 as a Christmas gift, I never got a chance to play it because I was busy in college at the time. That physical copy of the game I have is still sealed in its original plastic wrap, and I plan to hold onto it for a long time to see if it'll ever become something highly valuable. But on the other hand, now that I've actually learned at lot about Lego Universe, I just can't stop thinking about how I really missed out on something very special. Perhaps I might have even started playing other Lego games years earlier than I ultimately did if I had been able to have the opportunity to play Lego Universe back in the day.

Formerly known as Takanuva's Symbol, I rejoined BZPower on October 10, 2012.

These days, I am perhaps best known for my obsession with all Lego video games.

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I remember how heavily Universe was originally pushed. I never did end up getting into it, so I guess I can't be too surprised what became of it.

"You are an absolute in these uncertain times. Your past is forgotten, and your
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Funny that this comes up right after I made a post on this topic. But hey, may as well talk about it some more as I have quite a story with that game. Once again I was a closed beta tester and a pre-order member (so I got access to the game two weeks early). That game is probably the single best Lego based game ever developed. At the time I loved it. After years of licenced TT games lego unvierse was exactly what I wanted. It felt like a return to the pre-2005 days when Lego games were based on in house Lego themes with more variety in terms of gameplay. Sure it borrowed many elements from the TT formula but it also was able to expand upon and deviate from it as well. The combat system was actually really good. Especially in comparison to the TT games. You could go through many different weapons which all felt different plus the faction kits which gave you extra abilities. Summoner was my preferred assembly faction kit solely for the fact you could summon a monster during battle. The fact it also included lego digital designer was also a nice bonus and some really cool stuff got made with it. The racing game was also incredible. The control was really fluid. It was just great.

Listening to the podcast does help close up a few things for me. Back during September of 2011 I couldn't help but feel like the game may have been having problems behind the scenes. This was because there was this members only promotional during that month in which you could get an egg that hatched a crocodile that was effectively a massively overpowered weapon which could kill countless enemies. I remember just scoffing at it but part of me at the time said "something's going wrong". Needless to say I was correct and it was a pretty depressing month to say the least. I remember having a rather hairbrained scheme to get the game back at the time. I assembled a small crew with my idea of going to other MMOs at the time like club penguin and bin weevils and advertising the game there in the hopes of starting a sales surge which would change Lego's mind. Of course it didn't work but hey it was better thought out than protesting in game. Ultimately though I still can't help but feel a little bummed out knowing Lego's actual reasoning. It was due to the very mindset they had going in which ultimately was the reason I lost interest in the company around that time. They no longer supported themes long term and instead wanted the big bang strategy for every theme. It seems to back my assertion that Lego Universe should have released in 2008 instead and maybe the company would have been kinder to it. 

I also can't help but notice the issue with moderation which is part of what drove this games costs up astronomically. I remember the in-game censorship and even I think it was a bit overboard. All numbers were censored. In both written and numerical form all numbers were censored. I remember that we had to resort to using words to stand in for numbers and the player would just have to figure it out. So in order to say 1/one you would say "won", two/2 was "too", and 3/three was "tree". To this day I will insist that censoring numbers was pointless and outright counter intuitive as it made trading awkward to say the least. In fact it reminds of a romour I heard around the time of its cancellation that Lego disapproved of the game because too many players were outside of its target audience. I was 12 at the time and I remember being one of the youngest in the game. Most of my friends in game were in their early to mid teens and one of them was in his mid 30s with children. Needless to say I actually don't remember coming across many kids under 12. I don't know if the romours were true or not but it does seem to confirm one of my theories that the smartphone was part of what damaged the game. 

In all honesty though I didn't like the direction it took after the summer 2011 update. The inclusion of the ninjago world felt jarring to me as it was a seperate story and aesthetic within the game. It felt like a blatant advertisment for ninjago and didn't seem to fit into the aesthetic of a big mix up of Lego themes. Overall I can't help but feel Lego would have run it into the ground through theme tie ins. Sad to say that we'll never know how it could have turned out. Either way I won't forget it. If any of my friends from the time are reading this you can feel free to contact me. I was Wakko/Yakko/Freakazoid/VentureJones in game.

 

It's time to move on.

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On 3/3/2021 at 3:57 PM, Lenny7092 said:

I don’t get why is it called the Darkframe Universe? Why not call it “Lego Universe Returned” or better “Lego Universe Rebuilt”?

So this one is a fun answer; back when the game was live, there were 3 regional servers. Overbuild, Exeter and Storm. Vanda Darkflame, the fourth faction leader, didn't get a server with her name. We decided we'd change that and name our project like it was the 4th server that never was.

 

On topic, I'd say this was an incredibly sad episode. The game was shut down too early and LEGO knows it was a mistake, just like the players did when it happened. I was surprised to hear actual subscriber totals being shared and shocked that they threw away so many subscriptions.

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