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Role Playing (Games) Toys

Lego MMOG Announced 61

Posted by Zonk from the swordhand-connects-to-the-orc's-face dept.
Gamespot is reporting that a Lego Massively Multiplayer Game aimed at kids is in the works. Developer NetDevil, makers of Auto Assault, will be working on the project. No firm details beyond the project's announcement at this point, but the site slates the game for a 2008 launch.
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Lego MMOG Announced More

Lego MMOG Announced

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  • Nice one :) another reason not to do any work

    • Nice one :) another reason not to do any work
      Finally I can build a virtual chocolate teapot out of Lego!

      I can feel my life draining awaaaayyyyyyy.......
  • It gets taken over by NXT robots who igrore all the humans.

  • Oh Boy (Score:2, Interesting)

    by inklein ( 1003985 )
    As a kid who grew up on legos, does a computer game destroy the point of legos?
    I mean, you're supposed to BUILD with them!
    • Will probably be based on the Bionicles(sp) so not exactly classic lego anyway. All those pre-formed specific parts killed much of what LEGO was about anyway.

      • Re:Oh Boy (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @05:49AM (#18248122)
        That's not what LEGO is about. The really cool thing 'bout them was that you could take the (more or less) generic parts and build something new that came out of your imagination.

        I've recently seen some of the "newer" LEGO boxes and I was appalled. I mean, what does it have to do with LEGO when you get like 4 parts that you have to link together, and which you can't put together any other way than how it's intended?
        • I've thought the same thing. While small, specific mold stuff like little guns or antenae or whatever were cool...the new stuff looks like glorified model kits. To many movie tie ins.

        • Re:Oh Boy (Score:4, Insightful)

          by gfxguy ( 98788 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @09:05AM (#18249042)
          Hello. My name is GfxGuy, I'm 40 years old, and I'm a lego-holic.

          ["hi, GfxGuy"]

          Some sets are like that, but they are usually for the younger kids. My daughter has one set with a little fairy tale setting where the set really is basically four pieces (a floor plate, two wall/shelf things, and a pointy top), but it also came with a number of accessory pieces, plants and so forth that can be used anywhere. It's true that the wall is useless for anything else. There was a dinosaur kit my son got, and it was exactly like you mentioned - a foot piece that could only reasonably be used with the leg piece that could only be used with the hip piece...

          On the other hand, I like a lot of the pieces. Sometimes I get ideas based around, for example, an interesting new cockpit design, or engines (they have several jet engines now).

          But beyond that, my favorites were always various wheelsets and doors and windows. Sure, I could get a tub of lego and build a house, by why should I have to imagine working doors and windows?

          So yes, I agree they've gone too far, I think it's mostly in sets that try to appeal to younger kids. My son also got a dragon set (it's a really big dragon - if you're still into lego, you'd probably know the one I'm talking about). He gave up right quick, so I built it for him. It's almost completely "generic" pieces that can be used elsewhere. Even the cloth pieces that came for the wings could be used as a sail or something.

          So the more complicated sets, the ones with hundreds of pieces - I believe they still are like that; you can use the pieces for anything your imagination wants.

          And if you have a specific idea you think would be cool with Lego, then BrickLink [bricklink.com] is your friend. I wanted to make a bridge to work with the lego trains, and got all the technique girders and pins from there.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Carewolf ( 581105 )
      It could be Second Life universe for kids, where the kids can create their own content using Lego.
    • does a computer game destroy the point of legos?

      From My observations of my daughter's continued use of both BlockLand Mods and Legos I would say no. http://blmods.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]

      Why don't you give it a try for yourself.

  • That would be a better idea ! Toys versus toys. Choose your team, fight the others. Big battles like QuakeWars or BattleField2042. A good idea.

  • So let me get this straight (Score:5, Funny)

    by dave1791 ( 315728 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @04:31AM (#18247852)
    So let me get this straight! Instead of my son knocking down my daughter's masterpiece Lego tower, some anonymous greifer will do it?

    Oh yeah, I just soooooooooo have to subscribe.

  • Purely Training... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Clazzy ( 958719 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @04:37AM (#18247876)
    Start them on this and move them up to WoW, it's a perfect scheme to get more people addicted, don't you think?
    • You, sir, are a terrible person.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Clazzy ( 958719 )
        It's not me who came up with selling a MMOG to kids, they're not thinking of the children! These evil monsters are getting the poor children hooked at an early age to fleece them later. I'll stop exaggerating now.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by toleraen ( 831634 )
      Toontown Online did this years ago, and if you've spent much time in WoW's general chat channels, you've seen that they've moved on already. God bless the ignore command!
  • and the inner child in me is now very dead.

  • Bulding your own stuff (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TheSexican ( 796334 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @05:21AM (#18248012)
    There would be some awsome opportunities in this game to be able to build your own houses, cars, super-weapons or whatever by finding/obtaining the raw Lego building blocks needed and then assembling them in any manner you choose. It would allow user-created content a-la Spore with such massive potential. Furthermore, quests could be used to make obtaining certain Lego parts challenging. But yeah, in the end it just seems like if the game designers really put some thought into this then they might have a great game on their hands that would allow today's children to build with Lego virtually, preparing them for future high-tech computer jobs while still having fun.

  • An MMO for kids? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by earthbound kid ( 859282 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @05:27AM (#18248026) Homepage
    Does anyone else think this is a Bad Idea? If there's one thing we've learned from Second Life, it's that left to build their own world from scratch, adults on the internet will make a lot of sex shops. Now, even if the Lego MMO is targeted for kids, it's also going to be pretty popular with people who played with LEGOs as kids, which means it's inevitable that the entire world is filled with nothing but boobs and wieners made out of CGI little plastic blocks.

    It's like, "think of the children," only for real this time, because seriously adults are going to fill Legoland with crap.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by iainl ( 136759 )
      Really? Not insubstantial portions of the internet are filled with adult geeks who still play with Lego, and their designs. But these are usually nano-scale Giant Japanese Robots, Star Wars vehicles, assorted creatures from the Cthulhu Mythos and film sets.

      As much as I don't want ten replies with links to anatomical Lego designs, there seems a higher chance of your daughter being attacked by Yog Sothoth than animated penii.
      • As much as I don't want ten replies with links to anatomical Lego designs

        Well, let me be the first to link to the brick testament [thebricktestament.com]. (NSFW). Bible. Porn. Legos. What else do you need?

        For those who want to see some even less SFW lego porn (I mean who wouldn't?), check out drew.corrupt.net [corrupt.net].
    • adults on the internet will make a lot of sex shops

      Uh oh, I can see where this is going. The kids are going to build hundreds of... sweet shops!

      They'll rot their virtual teeth! :-O

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Aladrin ( 926209 )
      By your comments, I'm guessing that you've never played any of the Lego video games. None of them let you actually build anything. It's all pre-fab and just looks like Lego. (I believe there's program that lets you build with virtual Lego, but it's not a 'game' it's more of a modeling environment.)

      Having said that, Second Life has 2 sections: Teen and regular. The Teen section is not filled with sex shops. What makes you think Lego won't monitor the content of their MMO and actively fight stupidity an

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Jaysyn ( 203771 )
        Lego Racers 2 lets you build cars from the standard Lego parts at the very least.
      • I believe there's program that lets you build with virtual Lego, but it's not a 'game' it's more of a modeling environment.

        As mentioned above, for interactive building fun in a FPS environment, there's Blockland [blockland.us], or if you prefer, Blockland Mods [blogspot.com]. The former is the base game, with basic bricks; the latter contains lots of user-created additions.

        For offline, more systematic virtual Lego, you can't go wrong with BlockCAD [telia.com], which is just what it sounds like, and is perhaps what you're thinking of.
        • Lego has their own CAD program that links in with their block database and allows you to purchase your creation. I think you can even set up build instructions and get that included, but I haven't looked at it for a while.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Aladrin ( 926209 )

          No, I mean Lego brand building blocks. As this is a Lego brand game, I mean to talk about how they make games.

          Someone pointed out that one of the Lego Racer games does allow you to actually make the cars from pieces. I haven't played that one. I've played almost all the other games at some point or another and none of the games I've played allow you to build the items from pieces. There's no reason to think this MMO will be any different.

    • And, adults put lots of sex on the internet as well. We should make sure our kids dont have access to that. And I see people wearing skimpy clothes in real life, blindfolds should be mandatory until 21 and so on and so on. If you focus on the negatives all the time, you'll get nowhere fast.

      Instead, look at the positive side of things: This allows children, adults, anyone to build their own worlds, and show them off. It encourages creativity, gets kids interested in games that aren't just FPSs, and leads o
    • its like some one has thought of the "paedophiles for once"
    • Nope. Toontown online did this years ago. They've got some safety features [wikipedia.org] built in as well. Mainly there's no open chat. Also, in order to chat with another player you have to do sort of a secret handshake. Friends lists can be monitored by parents.

      However, kids will be kids. Who here can honestly say they didn't build a few select body parts with LEGOs as a kid?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kabocox ( 199019 )
      Does anyone else think this is a Bad Idea? If there's one thing we've learned from Second Life, it's that left to build their own world from scratch, adults on the internet will make a lot of sex shops. Now, even if the Lego MMO is targeted for kids, it's also going to be pretty popular with people who played with LEGOs as kids, which means it's inevitable that the entire world is filled with nothing but boobs and wieners made out of CGI little plastic blocks.

      It's like, "think of the children," only for rea

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by argStyopa ( 232550 )
      I'm not entirely sure I agree.
      I would have agreed with you that MMOs are inevitably 'tainted', but Disney's Toontown is an outstanding example of a fun MMO that is totally child-safe. I was amazed at the unobtrusive yet secure protections that they have in place, yet it remains a really quite a fun game.

      So I wouldn't say it's impossible. Difficult? Especially if you hand them freeform construction tools, yes. But I would no longer say impossible.
  • There's a good reason why the book had a Lego man on the cover!
    Microserfs by Douglas Coupland" [amazon.com]
  • Everyone is so opposed to getting kids hooked on cocaine, and then they put out an MMORPG for kids! Why don't they sprinkle some heroin around the schoolyard while they're at it?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by savity ( 1002191 )
      There is already a MMORPG for kids. Disney's Toontown Online. Perfectly safe environment which has no proper PvP. Everything is aimed at kids working together to make toontown safe from the evil Cogs who are trying to take over. It uses a concept of speedchat to only allow characters to use preapproved phrases to get across their meanings and desires "Let's use Squirt" and so on..... You can have secret friends where you have to give a real person a code outside of the game which allows them to be your se
      • Let's use Squirt

        Because that's a good idea.

        (Since we gave Steve Ballmer so much crap for this, I think it's only fair.)

  • Blockland!! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Some Guy ( 21271 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @08:57AM (#18248964)
    There is already a game where you build with lego-like-but-not-lego blocks. It's called Blockland [greatgamesexperiment.com] and it's cool. Although it isn't massive, it is multiplayer...

  • Netdevil, huh? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Bieeanda ( 961632 )
    Given the abysmal sales and retention rates of Auto Assault, and the server consolidations that have resulted from both, I'm really surprised that anyone was crazy enough to finance their pursuit of such a lucrative license.
  • On one hand, I'm excited! The previous LEGO Star Wars titles have been a blast even though they are obviously geared towards kids. I'd certainly jump at the chance to take a look at this game.

    However, this worries me. I know I'm not the only one that fondly remembers LEGOS. Sure the game is geared towards kids but unless they put an age cap on the game (not that anyone wouldn't lie about thier age, I mean c'mon, who does THAT?) I can only see the LEGO virtual world being innundated by not only those pervs t

  • Crafting is going to rock (Score:4, Funny)

    by CharAznable ( 702598 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @10:48AM (#18250108)
    No word on classes? combat system? instanced Lego dungeons? races? I bet crafting is going to be awesome.
  • ... when I used this program [wikipedia.org] (yes, I know the base is LDraw)
  • I'm also curious to know which of the lego systems they will be using. Given the popularity of Bionicle among many kids I wouldn't be suprised if someone was looking to base a MMO around that. Although, I don't much like Bionicle myself. Bit it would certainly be conducive to kind of gameplay present in most MMOs. I suppose the Puzzle Pirates approach requires much less of a commitment than a standard MMO would, but the Lego site, in some ways, isn't too far from offering that kind of experience right now.
  • Saying that you're making a Lego MMO is like saying you're making a wood MMO, or a stone MMO. Lego are just building blocks. OK, I can have some idea what the things will look like when they exist, but I don't know what the things ARE. Spaceships? Medieval knights? Dinosaurs? BIONICLE?!
  • How will they handle copyright infringement? It seems like a no brainer that people will end up making things from their favorite media properties....Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. And while Lucas might be cool with them doing that...I can imagine plenty of others who wouldn't.

    I really hope they just make this open ended with some optional physics properties you can attach to parts. That's the magic of Lego...the fact that a piece can be used as part of a gun on one project and then suddenly its an engine in

  • I hope not, it's still under development! http://whitehexagon.com/ [whitehexagon.com]

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