LEGO MMOG Named and Given a Launch Window 69
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."
Here is a thought (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Here is a thought (Score:5, Insightful)
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!
=VBut 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.
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Adults can legally smoke, children can't. It's only hypocritical if the "child" is 18 or up.
Re:Here is a thought (Score:5, Interesting)
Still, an MMOG has to be more creative than another freaking toy-brand-based television cartoon.
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$10-$20/month would easily be worth it compared to the cost of buying and replacing blocks, the time spent cleaning up stray blocks, ER visits to extract wayward blocks...
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What would be nice is a vacuum that could separate Legos from dust, dirt and other trash. That would help out the parents a lot.
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No wonder childhood obesity is on the increase.
Child safe? How? (Score:5, Insightful)
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? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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Way to miss the point.
The point of the GP is that technology *cannot* distinguish offensive from non-offensive. It's flat-out impossible given human inventiveness.
Filtering bad-words don't work. Allowing only "good"-words don't work. Allowing only "innocent" items don't work. Blocking all communication works, but then why make it an online game at all ?
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QED
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I very much doubt "safe" refers to either graphic violence or sex, but mostly to pedophiles making real world contact with the children. The buddy system where you can only interact meaningfully with real world friends (who have told you their buddy code) should work well. Communication with strangers should be much more restricted than the GP suggest, only a limited number (15 - 20) of fixed phrases allowed.
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Is anyone thinking about how to make an age proof system for the interweb? Obviously some things require you to be above a certain age to access (and we all know what that is), but there's also things like this that require proof the other way.
I have no idea how as to even begin to think about how to devise such a system but I hope someone out there is.
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My 8yo son is a member, but lost interest quickly and now prefers Runescape.
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I'm positive that it's intensively moderated, but their in-place systems do a good job. So, for example there IS no text chat except for canned phrases like "let's
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Publish the "alphabet" online for all to share. Publicize it.
Done.
Now, you can share your secret code with anyone -- in game, even.
Layne
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Yeah, I'm sure an ASCII reference table is the first thing an 8 year old would think of.
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For example, some people think the Aristotelian Mean (the idea that the right amount of a virtue always lies in the middle) is a truism, because it just says that the best point lies between too little, and too much.
I don't think it's a Truism that "Humans will always find a way". Often we don't.
Of course it's child-safe! (Score:3, Funny)
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http://www.fudco.com/habitat/archives/000058.html [fudco.com]
The guys who write the Habitat Chronicles blog have been in the graphical multi-user online service game for a long time. If you're in to MMO design, and haven't already read it, The Lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat [fudco.com] paper is a good starting point.
It's amazing how many things they point out in that paper (which is now 17 years old), that MMO designers *still* screw up to this day.
Two words (Score:4, Funny)
http://drew.corrupt.net/lp/series1.html [corrupt.net]
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Lego sex, Bible style! [thebricktestament.com]
I have no idea what the guy who made that site's credentials are, but it's still hilarious.
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Let us build! (Score:2, Funny)
For the love of god... (Score:5, Insightful)
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...
Well, actually... (Score:1)
IMHO, we've got too many kids (and adults) glued to their screens playing g
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Another thing is interacativity. In real life, children have to pretend they're Lego people. In game, they control Lego dudes themselves, and interact with the environment through them.
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You want nerdier? I'll see your Star Wars, and raise you a Firefly [reasonablyclever.com]. Lego Mal shoots first!
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Who can aford enough blocks to build an entire mansion from leg? Welp now you can online!
Re:For the love of god... (Score:4, Interesting)
Even if you only start with one or two worlds think about this:
LEGO Sports (soccer, basketball, etc.)
LEGO Town (airport, mall, cops, etc.)
LEGO Space
LEGO Western Town
LEGO Castle
LEGO Star Wars
LEGO Circus
LEGO Comics (DC and Marvel)
LEGO Aqua
LEGO Harry Potter
The list goes on.....and on.
Layne
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And then I saw/played the game. It's actually a heck of a lot of fun. It's not only a legitimately humorous take on the Star Wars universe, it was sanctioned by Lucas, so it proves he has a sense of humor about these things after all. It works amazingly well given the
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Yes, and he's laughing all the way to the bank.
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Hey, check it out. I played with Legos when I was a little kid ---- I have fond, nostalgic attachments to them, to the different sets that were released (but my parents would never
Microserfs anyone..? (Score:2, Interesting)
It wasn't a game (Score:4, Informative)
Buzzwords (Score:3, Funny)
How precisely does a collection of buzzword boilerplate sound promising?
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Adult server? (Score:2)
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(I assume all the profanity filters and such will be in place, but still.)
Blockland (Score:2)
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But Lego Star Wars 1 and 2 were good games and sold very well. The Bionicle games are also quite well done and enjoyable.
This is probably just going to be another in that line of gaming. I somehow doubt you'll be able to actually design stuff, but instead will only be able to put together things they've approved. Especially since children are 'protected' and they won't want people mak
"Lego Games" Escapist article (Score:5, Informative)
Looks like a plot to a Douglas Coupland novel (Score:1)
Future Chat of Legoland MMO (Score:1)
I misread that for a moment... (Score:2)
An MMO? Ew. (Score:2, Interesting)
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