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Several bloggers with kids in tow visited NetDevil Studios earlier this week for the Lego Universe Family Media Day. It was a chance to talk to the game designers and developers about their upcoming MMO.
Just visiting the NetDevil offices was a blast, but I'm sure what you're most interested in is the game itself, right? We were presented with a whole lot of information, but I'll try to sort through at least some of the most pertinent details.
What Is Lego Universe?
Just in case you don't know already, Lego Universe is a massively multiplayer online game, or MMO, which means that players from all around the world can play in this virtual universe together. It's a persistent world, which means that even when you're not playing, things are happening and other players are exploring. However, unlike MMOs like World of Warcraft, one of the key goals that NetDevil had was to make everything fun. Even the login screen is animated and entertaining, even if you just sit there and do nothing. It's designed so that kids and adults will have fun — above all the developers wanted to avoid creating a game that could feel like work. They were also shooting for something like a Pixar movie: something that kids will really enjoy, but there's stuff that only adults will understand, too. (For instance, one of the first worlds you encounter is called Avant Gardens.)
There's so much to Lego Universe, from the brickmasters around the world recruited to help create models and plan levels, to the little details and touches of humor that they've sprinkled throughout, that I'm sure there are things I've forgotten to mention. Hopefully, though, this will give you a sense of what to expect. Click through to read more:
Images provided by Lego Universe.
The Story
NetDevil was granted license to create its own story, so the plot line of Lego Universe is an original tale, not based on any existing movies or books. Four explorers discover the Imagination Nexus, the source of pure Imagination — but the greedy Baron Typhonus tries to use it for his own gain, he gets sucked in and unleashes the Maelstrom, a destructive force which tears the universe apart. The three remaining explorers, soon joined by a fourth, seek to battle the Maelstrom and save Imagination.
There are four Factions which make up the Nexus Force: Assembly, the engineers; Sentinel, the knights; Paradox, the ninjas; and Venture, the pirates. As you begin your journey, you are not part of any of the Factions, but you will get to join after completing missions. Each Faction has specific strengths, but once you make your choice you have to stick with it — this is the only permanent decision you make in Lego Universe that can't be undone (without deleting your character and starting over).
While the overarching mission is to defeat the Maelstrom and restore Imagination, there are also a lot of minigames throughout Lego Universe. There's a racing game — you build cars and then race them around a track, and there are Lego pets you can collect and train, from a puppy to a panda to a fire-breathing dragon. The game is designed to have a plot but still allows for a lot of open-ended play.
Creativity
One of the things that really sets Lego Universe apart from other MMOs (and even from the console games like Lego Star Wars) is the emphasis on creativity. While the console games are fun and provide challenging problem-solving, you don't really get to create anything of your own. And while most MMOs are great for the way the let you interact with other players in a vast world, you don't necessarily get to create things.
Lego Universe has that covered, with several stages of building. The first is QuickBuild, which is akin to the console games — you approach a little pile of bouncing Lego bricks, hold a key, and your minifig automatically throws together the object. Next up is ModularBuild: you collect sections of a model and have limited customization of, say, a three-part rocket ship. You can swap out the engine, the nose, and the cockpit, based on the pieces you've collected. The final level is FreeBuild. Each player gets their own piece of property (actually, one in each world) where you can take all the bricks you've collected from doing missions and actually piece things together brick by brick. You can also build or collect modules yourself.
Imagination is the currency of the game: you collect Imagination tokens as you explore (smashing crates and things, just like in the console games), and then it literally costs you Imagination to build things. There are also other tokens you can collect which are tied to the different Factions, allowing you to upgrade equipment that gives you special abilities.
On top of all this is a simplified programming language called Behaviors. Just like Lego bricks, behavior modules are small chunks that can be linked together to make a model behave a certain way: If another model is nearby, then break apart, then wait 5 seconds, then reassemble. You collect behavior modules as you play through the game, and you can make fairly complex scenes with them, even making your own mini-games within the game.
Each player's property will be tagged with a number that indicates the level of complexity of what's on their property—number of bricks, behaviors used, etc. The more complex the property, the higher the computing power you need to really appreciate it. While there isn't a scale yet for how to apply the raw numbers to processing power, it does give you a rough, relative look at the difference between properties before you decide to visit. It is also sort of a status symbol: since the only way you get bricks and behavior modules is by playing the game and completing missions, a really complex property shows that you've done a lot in the game.
Of course, none of the building would be nearly as much fun if you couldn't share it, so Lego Universe allows you to invite your friends to play on your property with you, and you can also trade models and parts with each other.
Online Privacy and Safety
The other major feature of Lego Universe is the way it's build to protect kids. Lego and NetDevil were insistent that this be a safe place for kids to run around and have fun, and they've done their best to create a safe environment that doesn't feel restrictive. There's a level of automatic filtering that is done, but they also rely heavily on human moderators.
Here's how it works: when you create your minifig character for the game, you can choose a three-word combination from a list of approved words for your name — "UltraHotPancakes" was one of the names that came up randomly. If you want to use a name that's not on the list, you submit it and a human moderator will check it over; until it's approved you have a temporary name. When you chat with other players, there's a white-list of approved words that will pop up while you type, sort of like predictive text. It serves a dual purpose—to make sure players aren't using inappropriate language, but also to help make chatting faster for younger kids who may not know how to type and spell very well. There is a black-list of banned words, but more than that they also watch out for phrasing that, while it uses words from the white-list, may be inappropriate for other reasons. For instance, the game won't allow you to ask a stranger "Where do you live?"
There's also a system in place that tracks your behavior in the game (not just chatting) to make sure that you are who you claim to be. A 30-year-old plays the game and interacts with other players in a different way than an 8-year-old would; so if there's an "8-year-old" who seems a bit off, they'll get flagged so a human moderator can take a closer look. A big part of their safety is figuring out processes so that dangerous interactions get bumped up in the queue for moderators, while harmless interactions are allowed through.
When you use FreeBuild to create your own models, they have to go through a moderation process before you can share them with the world. We don't want our kids running into a bunch of Lego genitalia, for instance. I believe models are also viewed by human moderators before being approved. NetDevil is relying on moderators from all around the world so that all time zones are covered. There are also ways to flag things that are offensive — even things created by the Lego Universe team—from models to chats to other player's behavior. And if there's a player that simply won't leave you alone, you can also choose to Ignore them, which makes them invisible to you.
Of course, as with any filtering service, there are bound to be mistakes, and false positives are particularly frustrating. What if you just built a really cool model and you want to show somebody you know? You don't want to sit and wait half an hour or a couple hours for it to get approved. That's where the Best Friends system comes in. If you know another player, you can choose to become Best Friends, which then allows you to have unmoderated chats with each other, and share Lego models without having to go through the moderation process first.
Of course, only time will tell how well all this will work, but I was impressed with the amount of planning NetDevil had done to make Lego Universe as safe and comfortable for kids as possible.
Technical Stuff
Lego Universe is rated ESRB 10+, runs on PCs and Macs, and officially launches Oct. 26, 2010, when it will be available at many retail outlets including Amazon
You can check here for the system requirements. NetDevil explained that they've tried very hard to design Lego Universe to run on older computers so that you don't have to have a top-of-the-line gaming computer to run it. You do need a broadband connection, though.
Future Plans
The developers told us about a few things they have in store for future updates. One is player-vs-player interactions. Right now it's a team game—everyone vs. the Maelstrom. You do fight bad guys and monsters, but you don't fight each other. However, they do have some PvP systems they've been working on and plan to release next year—they just didn't feel like they really fit into the current story line and wanted to save it for later.
There are also plans to have seasonal aspects to the game: during the winter, some worlds will have snow which will have some effects on gameplay and things you can collect; but once the season is over then the snow goes away and you have to wait until the next time it rolls around. Since the release date is so close to Halloween they won't be revealing any special Halloween things this year, but they definitely have plans for next year.
While there currently are not plans for releasing Lego Universe for gaming consoles, NetDevil is certainly interested and said that there shouldn't be any problems making it work from a technical standpoint—it's more of a legal issue that the "guys in suits and ties" have to figure out. That's also the same for other franchises such as Lego Star Wars or Lego Harry Potter. Right now they won't make an appearance because of all the different property owners that would have to be involved and also because they wouldn't fit in the story. However, NetDevil is also open to working with other Lego franchises down the road if that becomes possible.
Conclusion
All in all, I think NetDevil has done an amazing job with Lego Universe. My own daughters are just now starting to get into Lego (they've had Duplo blocks for a while but I only recently retrieved my old Lego sets from my parents' house) and so they were enthralled by the idea even if they don't quite have the videogame skills yet. I think it's a game that kids will enjoy, but adult fans of Lego will really love — particularly because NetDevil has permission to introduce Lego pieces that aren't available in the real world. The combination of Lego platforming, online multiplayer gaming, collecting bricks and building has enormous potential.
To me, the trickiest thing may be the cost — it's great that one DVD will allow four players, but only one at a time means your kids can't all play together. The sooner they figure out some sort of family plan, the better, because I imagine most parents won't want to spend 40 bucks per kid (and one for themselves, too!) plus the subscription fee.
You can visit the Lego Universe website for gameplay videos, FAQs about safety and privacy, ordering information and much more.
Also, be sure to check out Curtis Silver's Q&A with the developers from last fall.
