Lego Universe
Encyclopedia
Lego Universe is a massively multiplayer online game
developed by NetDevil
. The game was released on October 26, 2010, with an early opening (October 8, 2010) for LEGO "Founders", which consisted of users who pre-ordered the game. It is globally distributed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Its release was delayed from original estimates of 2009, late November 2008, and mid-2008. The game is currently available in English
and German
, with three different servers. The servers are scheduled to shut down permanently on January 31, 2012.
populated by LEGO
minifigure
s.The premise is that years ago, a team of four minifigures went on a great journey to seek the last essence of pure Imagination
: Doctor Overbuild, Duke Exeter, Hael Storm, and Baron Typhonus. After having found it on the mysterious planet Crux, the greedy tycoon of the expedition, Baron Typhonus, was pulled into the source, fusing with it to create a maelstrom
of chaotic dark energy. However, even though Doctor Overbuild plugged the hole, the stress caused Crux to explode into thousands of other worlds. After the incident, the explorers decided to form their own factions, Doctor Overbuild creating the Assembly, Duke Exeter forming the Sentinels and Hael Storm leading the Venture League. The factions worked together and created the Nexus Force in order to destroy the Maelstrom and its minions. A few years later, The Venture Explorer, a ship carrying new recruits is being attacked by the Maelstrom. The player, aboard the ship, escapes to Avant Gardens with the aid of Sky Lane. Here, a disaster involving Paradox, a fourth faction which studies the Maelstrom, has infected Avant Gardens with Maelstrom and released a beast called the Spider Queen. After travelling through the world and discovering the Spider Queen's location, the player destroys the Spider Queen at the Block Yard and claims their first Property, where they can place collected models and bricks. Now, members (not free to play) can travel to Nimbus Station, where they choose which faction to join. From there, the player can travel to other worlds like Forbidden Valley or Gnarled Forest.
The world in comparison to the other worlds is quite large. It includes the Ninjago Monastery, Skeleton Battlefields and the Ninjago Caves. Players upon arriving follow a chain of missions to learn all four elements of Spinjitsu, from the four ninjas in their temples within the monastery, and help defend the Monastery from skeletons. With the world also came a new crafting feature known on game cooking. A vendor in the Ninjago Monastery trades a special consumable item in exchange for common consumable items found around Lego Universe. Aside from the main mission chain that is to lean Spinjitsu, there are several other sub-plot mission chains available to players. The Ninjago Monastery world includes many new daily missions.
The Ninjago Monastery introduced new puzzles that required two players to complete a certain task that would allow them to proceed to a new area. Two player puzzles were shown to the player by a "two minifigure heads icon" shown above any two player puzzle. A new feature that allows the "purification" of new maelstrom weapons into purified weapons was added. This purification feature is introduced in a mission chain. Many of the mission chains including the main plot involve the Skeleton bosses in the Ninjago Caves. These Skeleton Bosses are taken from the LEGO Ninjago toy line. One of these Boss Skeletons, Frakjaw, is within the minigame: "Battle with Frakjaw!" and is involved at the end of the main mission chain.
As with other worlds, The Ninjago Monastery comes with its own models and items. The Ninjago Monastery also includes an "Earth Dragon Pet" That can be tamed after completing certain missions. The Ninjago Monastery is the most recent major addition to LEGO Universe.
and travels to various themed worlds, each with different enemies and challenges. Players collect and earn gear that can be worn and fought with to aid them in achieving a wide range of set goals. Also, players can have Specialties, each one with their unique gear. In addition, minifigures can gain ranks which allow them to use more advanced gear.
The currently accessible full worlds are the pirate-themed Gnarled Forest, faction-oriented Nimbus Station, green and festive Avant Gardens, high-tech Nexus Tower, maelstorm based crux prime, Ninjago's world ninjago monastery and the ninja-based Forbidden Valley. Custom-built rocket ships are used by players to travel between these worlds. Three racetracks are found on these worlds that allow players to race against each other with custom race cars.
Throughout the game players collect Lego pieces that can be used to freely build models on their personal properties. Properties can be set to only allow in certain friends or to give access to anybody in the game.
bricks, a Lego city populated with sets from numerous different themes, and a short theatrical battle between an eye-patched Lego minifigure and a "Darkling". In January 2010, six new gameplay videos, an interview, and another trailer were shown at CES 2010 and released on the internet. A theatrical-style trailer depicting the background story was revealed at the E3 Gaming Expo
.
and Europe
. Fans could track and find these pods, all of which landed between November 2009 and early January 2010. Once a pod was found, its data was put up on the Bradford-Rant page. After all of the Pods were found, a new trailer for Lego Universe and the tagline for the game, "Answer the Call: Save Imagination," was released.
, which is April 1 at 8:00pm ET
. On March 27, the timer reset to June 2, 2010, at 12:00am GMT
, or June 1 at 8:00pm ET
.
, where attendees could play in the Beta. It was during this event that the global distributor of LEGO Universe was announced, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, along with the official release date.
, there would be a demonstration and sign-ups for beta testing.
The link to the Closed-Beta signup page was originally leaked on an LU Producer's Twitter page, allowing some people to sign up for the game before anyone else. The February issue of the Lego Universe newsletter, released soon after, also contained a link to the Beta sign up page for Lego Universe, wherein subscribers were able to sign up for a chance to be in the Beta Test for PC only (though a Mac version was released later on during testing.) Members of My LEGO Network on Lego.com also received a message inviting them to the Beta sign ups. In March, the Lego Universe website featured a link on an article directly to the Beta sign ups. Lego Universe Beta invites were sent out to the first round of non-Alpha Testers on March 10; the Beta Test then ended on September 26 at 7:59 PM EDT (September 29 at 1:00 PM EDT, on the German Server) to prepare for the "Founders" Launch on October 8.
Massively multiplayer online game
A massively multiplayer online game is a multiplayer video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and usually feature at least one persistent world. They are, however, not necessarily games played on...
developed by NetDevil
NetDevil
NetDevil, owned by Gazillion Entertainment, was an American developer of massively multiplayer online role-playing games in Louisville, Colorado.- Beginnings :...
. The game was released on October 26, 2010, with an early opening (October 8, 2010) for LEGO "Founders", which consisted of users who pre-ordered the game. It is globally distributed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Its release was delayed from original estimates of 2009, late November 2008, and mid-2008. The game is currently available in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, with three different servers. The servers are scheduled to shut down permanently on January 31, 2012.
Plot
LEGO Universe takes place in an alternate universeParallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
populated by LEGO
Lego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
minifigure
Minifigure
A Lego minifigure is a small plastic articulated figurine available as part of the construction toy Lego, produced by Danish toy manufacturer the Lego Group. They were first produced in 1978, and have become hugely successful, with over 3.7 billion produced, and the figure appearing in a variety...
s.The premise is that years ago, a team of four minifigures went on a great journey to seek the last essence of pure Imagination
Imagination
Imagination, also called the faculty of imagining, is the ability of forming mental images, sensations and concepts, in a moment when they are not perceived through sight, hearing or other senses...
: Doctor Overbuild, Duke Exeter, Hael Storm, and Baron Typhonus. After having found it on the mysterious planet Crux, the greedy tycoon of the expedition, Baron Typhonus, was pulled into the source, fusing with it to create a maelstrom
Maelstrom
A maelstrom is a very powerful whirlpool; a large, swirling body of water. A free vortex, it has considerable downdraft. The power of tidal whirlpools tends to be exaggerated by laymen. There are virtually no stories of large ships ever being sucked into a maelstrom, although smaller craft are in...
of chaotic dark energy. However, even though Doctor Overbuild plugged the hole, the stress caused Crux to explode into thousands of other worlds. After the incident, the explorers decided to form their own factions, Doctor Overbuild creating the Assembly, Duke Exeter forming the Sentinels and Hael Storm leading the Venture League. The factions worked together and created the Nexus Force in order to destroy the Maelstrom and its minions. A few years later, The Venture Explorer, a ship carrying new recruits is being attacked by the Maelstrom. The player, aboard the ship, escapes to Avant Gardens with the aid of Sky Lane. Here, a disaster involving Paradox, a fourth faction which studies the Maelstrom, has infected Avant Gardens with Maelstrom and released a beast called the Spider Queen. After travelling through the world and discovering the Spider Queen's location, the player destroys the Spider Queen at the Block Yard and claims their first Property, where they can place collected models and bricks. Now, members (not free to play) can travel to Nimbus Station, where they choose which faction to join. From there, the player can travel to other worlds like Forbidden Valley or Gnarled Forest.
Factions
There are four factions, only one of which a player can join. Each Faction has three specialties that have 3 different ranks and gear. There are two valiant weapons per faction which can be bought at the Nexus Tower. The Sentinels are combat based, using heavy weapons and armor. Their specialties include Knight, Samurai, and Space Ranger. The Venture League is based on exploring, utilizing combinations of strong weapons and fast attacks. Their specialties include Daredevil, Buccaneer, and Adventurer. The Assembly focuses on building and creating, using gear that builds weapons. Their specialties include Engineer, Summoner, and Inventor. The Paradox relies on studying the Maelstrom, and using it against itself, mainly using ranged attacks. Their specialties include Space Marauder, Sorcerer, and Shinobi.Venture Explorer
After you have created your Minifigure, you will come to the Venture Explorer. It acts as a tutorial for any newcomers, teaching the basics of running, jumping, and smashing. You ultimately build a rocket and head off to Avant Gardens with help from Sky Lane. Also, members are able to participate in a "Return to the Venture Explorer" with difficult enemies such as Hammerlings, Corrupted Sentries, and Elite Dark Spiderlings.Avant Gardens
This is the second world players will visit. It introduces newcomers to the basic mission scenarios and gets them prepared for what they will soon come to face. In addition to the storyline missions, there are side missions and bonus activities such as survival and foot races. Players with memberships will see this as the first zone to see tamable pets in. The Maelstrom minions here are easy, such as the Stromling, an easy foe, Stormling Mech, a can-be-hard for newcomers and Dark Spiderling, born from the Block Yard's boss, the Spider Queen. The mini-game here is Avant Garden Surival, here you must survive against Stromlings, dark spiderlings and Stromling Mechs, when the better and more enemies come try to attack you. Here you can tame Terrier, Triceratops and Buffalo Pets. Here are two properties where you can build your own places on; the Block Yard and Avant Grove.Nimbus Station
Nimbus Station acts as the Hub for members and is the third world players will visit. Here, you can access most of the other worlds. After the seventh mission, you must select one of the 4 factions (The Assembly, the Sentinels, the Venture League or Paradox.) Here you can enter yourself in a race against other minifigures in the Vertigo racetrack. You can also participate in the Battle of Nimbus Station, an event similar to survival in Avant Gardens but incorporating a wave system and taking in Nimbus Station's past, fighting off stronger enemies (Such as Stromling Invader.). Members will enjoy many numerous amounts of features in Nimbus Station, including more pet choices. Also there is a rocket pad to Frostborough near Christmas, the portal to Starbase 3001, and the Club Door. This properties here is Nimbus Rock and Nimbus Isle. The tameable Pets here are Dog and Skunk Pets.Pet Cove
Pet Cove is the key to everything about Pets. It is primarily a hub for players with memberships to learn how to tame Pets and do stunts with their Pets. Obviously, this will be the zone where a large variety of Pets will be available. The Pets here are Terrier, Cat and Rabbit Pets. If you are one of the Sentinels you also tame your faction Pet here.Gnarled Forest
Gnarled Forest is a pirate infested forest-styled zone in which players can experience the shift from beginning features to regular features. Minifigures will learn many new abilities here and unlock many new weapons. This is the first zone that introduces players to guns. Being the child-friendly company it is, LEGO has made fun and ticklish names for these weapons such as the "Plunger Gun."Nexus Tower
Nexus Tower is the hub of everything informational in terms of factions. Here one can accept missions from the faction leader and interact with other things within Nexus Tower. The last piece of the Imagination Nexus is kept here.Crux Prime
Crux Prime is the largest of the planetary fragments created in Crux's explosion, and is positioned directly opposite of the Maelstrom. Here can you meet many enemies you have met before but in stronger form along with bosses of all varieties (such as Stromling Invaders), and also a myriad of Ninjago Skeletons, straight from the Ninjago Monastery, attempting to mine Maelstrom Crystals. There are only 7 characters that the player can interact with in Crux Prime.Ninjago Monastery
The Ninjago Monastery was a new LEGO Universe world added to the game within a new build of the game on September the 20th, 2011. It saw the addition of the LEGO Theme, Ninjago to the game.The world in comparison to the other worlds is quite large. It includes the Ninjago Monastery, Skeleton Battlefields and the Ninjago Caves. Players upon arriving follow a chain of missions to learn all four elements of Spinjitsu, from the four ninjas in their temples within the monastery, and help defend the Monastery from skeletons. With the world also came a new crafting feature known on game cooking. A vendor in the Ninjago Monastery trades a special consumable item in exchange for common consumable items found around Lego Universe. Aside from the main mission chain that is to lean Spinjitsu, there are several other sub-plot mission chains available to players. The Ninjago Monastery world includes many new daily missions.
The Ninjago Monastery introduced new puzzles that required two players to complete a certain task that would allow them to proceed to a new area. Two player puzzles were shown to the player by a "two minifigure heads icon" shown above any two player puzzle. A new feature that allows the "purification" of new maelstrom weapons into purified weapons was added. This purification feature is introduced in a mission chain. Many of the mission chains including the main plot involve the Skeleton bosses in the Ninjago Caves. These Skeleton Bosses are taken from the LEGO Ninjago toy line. One of these Boss Skeletons, Frakjaw, is within the minigame: "Battle with Frakjaw!" and is involved at the end of the main mission chain.
As with other worlds, The Ninjago Monastery comes with its own models and items. The Ninjago Monastery also includes an "Earth Dragon Pet" That can be tamed after completing certain missions. The Ninjago Monastery is the most recent major addition to LEGO Universe.
Gameplay
Lego Universe brings players from around the world together to build and fight against the Maelstrom and its minions. The player assumes the role of a Lego minifigureLego minifigure
A Lego minifigure is a small plastic articulated figurine available as part of the construction toy Lego, produced by Danish toy manufacturer the Lego Group. They were first produced in 1978, and have become hugely successful, with over 3.7 billion produced, and the figure appearing in a variety...
and travels to various themed worlds, each with different enemies and challenges. Players collect and earn gear that can be worn and fought with to aid them in achieving a wide range of set goals. Also, players can have Specialties, each one with their unique gear. In addition, minifigures can gain ranks which allow them to use more advanced gear.
The currently accessible full worlds are the pirate-themed Gnarled Forest, faction-oriented Nimbus Station, green and festive Avant Gardens, high-tech Nexus Tower, maelstorm based crux prime, Ninjago's world ninjago monastery and the ninja-based Forbidden Valley. Custom-built rocket ships are used by players to travel between these worlds. Three racetracks are found on these worlds that allow players to race against each other with custom race cars.
Throughout the game players collect Lego pieces that can be used to freely build models on their personal properties. Properties can be set to only allow in certain friends or to give access to anybody in the game.
Trailers
The original trailer, leaked around early 2008, showed early concepts of the game. These include character customization using the traditional Lego method, a workshop where a car is created from LegoLego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
bricks, a Lego city populated with sets from numerous different themes, and a short theatrical battle between an eye-patched Lego minifigure and a "Darkling". In January 2010, six new gameplay videos, an interview, and another trailer were shown at CES 2010 and released on the internet. A theatrical-style trailer depicting the background story was revealed at the E3 Gaming Expo
Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010, commonly known as E3 2010, was the 16th Electronic Entertainment Expo held. The event took place on June 14–17 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. E3 is an annual trade show for the computer and video games industry presented by the Entertainment Software...
.
Bradford Rant
In November 2009, a website for the fictional "Bradford-Rant Institute for Cosmic Kinesis" was linked on the Lego Universe web page. The institute was supposedly tracking seven Lego "Pods", which landed in various parts of the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Fans could track and find these pods, all of which landed between November 2009 and early January 2010. Once a pod was found, its data was put up on the Bradford-Rant page. After all of the Pods were found, a new trailer for Lego Universe and the tagline for the game, "Answer the Call: Save Imagination," was released.
The Great Minifig Mission
In January 2010, the Bradford Rant promotion then was turned over to "The Great Minifig Mission" promotion in which Lego account holders complete missions in order to help minifigs enter the universe. The missions are released at an approximate rate of one every week when the site is updated. When the promotion started, it had a timer ending on April 2, 2010, at 12:00am midnight, GMTGreenwich Mean Time
Greenwich Mean Time is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. It is arguably the same as Coordinated Universal Time and when this is viewed as a time zone the name Greenwich Mean Time is especially used by bodies connected with the United...
, which is April 1 at 8:00pm ET
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
. On March 27, the timer reset to June 2, 2010, at 12:00am GMT
Greenwich Mean Time
Greenwich Mean Time is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. It is arguably the same as Coordinated Universal Time and when this is viewed as a time zone the name Greenwich Mean Time is especially used by bodies connected with the United...
, or June 1 at 8:00pm ET
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
.
E3 2010
On June 15–17, 2010, the LEGO Universe Team hosted an event at the 2010 E3 Gaming ExpoElectronic Entertainment Expo 2010
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010, commonly known as E3 2010, was the 16th Electronic Entertainment Expo held. The event took place on June 14–17 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. E3 is an annual trade show for the computer and video games industry presented by the Entertainment Software...
, where attendees could play in the Beta. It was during this event that the global distributor of LEGO Universe was announced, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, along with the official release date.
Alpha
Beginning December 8, 2009, members of the Lego Kids Inner Circle who had been members before December 7 were invited to test the game before the beta started. Before this, the only people who could play the game were Lego employees and their friends and families. The game was in a very early state; only a few worlds were ready for testing, and the parts that were playable had several glitches. As time went on, glitches were fixed, and more worlds were opened. Several concepts tested in the Alpha test did not make it into the Beta and were scrapped.Beta
In January 2010, Lego announced that, at the Consumer Electronics ShowConsumer Electronics Show
The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...
, there would be a demonstration and sign-ups for beta testing.
The link to the Closed-Beta signup page was originally leaked on an LU Producer's Twitter page, allowing some people to sign up for the game before anyone else. The February issue of the Lego Universe newsletter, released soon after, also contained a link to the Beta sign up page for Lego Universe, wherein subscribers were able to sign up for a chance to be in the Beta Test for PC only (though a Mac version was released later on during testing.) Members of My LEGO Network on Lego.com also received a message inviting them to the Beta sign ups. In March, the Lego Universe website featured a link on an article directly to the Beta sign ups. Lego Universe Beta invites were sent out to the first round of non-Alpha Testers on March 10; the Beta Test then ended on September 26 at 7:59 PM EDT (September 29 at 1:00 PM EDT, on the German Server) to prepare for the "Founders" Launch on October 8.
Purchase
LEGO Universe is based on a subscription known as "Game-Time". A player can choose from one, six, and twelve month subscriptions (the six and twelve month subscription times rendering special in-game bonuses when bought). Once a user buys a subscription, the Game Time refill code is sent periodically based on the subscription that was purchased, using a process known as auto-renewal. Game Time can also be purchased in the form of non-renewed game cards.Normal Order
LEGO Universe became available for normal order on September 27, 2010. The Normal Order ships with only the LEGO Universe DVD and one month of free game time, though promotions occasionally arise which provide additional exclusive items. The game is also available for download online, through services such as Steam.Free to Play
Aside from the normal membership packages the game also offers a free to play option with certain limitations, such as there being only two worlds available for free play (one being Venture Explorer — Tutorial world) and Avant Gardens. You can take part in the fight against the Spider Queen and have temporary gear which involves armour and weapon for each Faction. There is a button which asks players if they want to become a full member, where they get access to everywhere in the Universe and get to do more missions & achievements. Free to play requires the user to enter a Lego ID & password and create a character with a jazzy name. One limitation is that players playing free-to-play (F2P) cannot talk with other members / players. They are also limited on having a maximum 10,000 coins to buy items and food. They can visit only the worlds of Avant Gardens / Block Yard (property) and be levelled up to a max of 15 (by doing all the missions they are allowed).Game server shutdown
On Tuesday, January 31, 2012, the LEGO Universe servers will be shut down and the game will no longer be available to purchase or play. Jesper Vilstrup, Vice President of LEGO Universe, stated "Unfortunately, we have not been able to build a satisfactory revenue model in our target group, and therefore, have decided to close the game." For the last month of LEGO Universe, players with membership will be offered a month of play at no cost as a "Thank you" from the LEGO Universe Team.See also
- RobloxRobloxRoblox is a massively multiplayer online game virtual playground and workshop designed for children aged 7 and over. Players can build games with blocks of various shapes, sizes, and materials. Roblox users can code the places they design with a restricted and sandboxed version of Lua 5.1...
- A building studio MMOG. - BlocklandBlocklandBlockland is a multiplayer computer game built on the Torque Game Engine, in which players build using Lego-like building blocks. It was developed by Eric "Badspot" Hartman and was released on February 24, 2007. The game is not endorsed by, or affiliated with the Lego brand. However, at one point,...
- Similar online computer game. - MinecraftMinecraftMinecraft is a sandbox-building independent video game written in Java originally by Swedish creator Markus "Notch" Persson and now by his company, Mojang, formed from the proceeds of the game. It was released as an alpha on May 17, 2009, with a beta version on December 20, 2010...
- A sandbox building video game currently in development.