By ReutersInformationWeek
Now the manufacturer of the little plastic playing blocks
wants to take them online to "Lego Universe," a virtual world
for fans of the ubiquitous toy.
Lego Universe joins an established trend where toys and
video games are cross-promoted, such as Nintendo's
Pokemon TV show, game card, toys and video game franchise, and
Mattel's Barbie online shopping and gaming portal at
barbie.
To launch next year as a massively multiplayer online game,
or MMOG to those in the gaming community, Lego Universe will
let players create online versions of themselves and interact
with each other.
"We want to make the connection between digital play and
physical play," said Mark William Hansen who is in charge of
Lego Universe. "The physical experience is our core, the
digital experience will never replace the physical experience,
but it's a nice add-on."
Hansen, speaking at the headquarters of Europe's largest
toymaker, said he had been working on his doctoral thesis with
Lego Group on mass customization and ended up joining the
family-owned company to create the game.
Lego Universe will blend real-world style environments with
characters and buildings made of digital plastic pieces. A
forest would have less bricks in the background, while a city
would lend itself to being made nearly entirely with bricks.
Each player's avatar, or online persona, will be a
customizable digital version of Lego minifigures, the tiny
characters included with most Lego kits that also feature in
existing Lego video games such as Lego Star Wars.
That's not surprising. Lego employees are just as likely to
pull out a Lego figure of themselves, with name, phone number
and e-mail address rather than a traditional business card.
Lego Universe will initially launch as a PC game, available
in stores or as a download, and may eventually be available on
other gaming platforms. It will operate as a pay-as-you-go
subscription service at a "competitive price", Hansen said.
Most social online worlds have their own currency or
monetary system, and Lego Universe will also require users to
spend virtual money to buy virtual bricks. But rather than
winning or beating an opponent, players build capital by
spending time in the game.
"The more a child plays, they collect more coins and more
bricks. The more you play, the more you get to build things,"
Hansen said.
The other crucial element of Lego Universe, like other
MMOGs, is that users will be encouraged to interact with each
other, to build and play with virtual Lego bricks as they would
on a carpet littered with real Lego pieces.
"We want kids to come and play together," Hansen said.
BRICK-BY-BRICK
Lego Universe is part of a bigger plan by the company to
revitalize itself after a near-collapse five years ago, when
the company founded in 1932 posted its first loss.
Lego executives say the company lost its way by branching
into non-core areas like television shows and toys that
required less building and weren't customizable like the core
Lego bricks.
"It was a near-death experience," said Henrik Lorensen,
vice president of business development at Lego.
Lorensen said Lego was distracted from its main area of
expertise of providing toys children could use to build their
own worlds and unleash their imagination, or as he said, "the
joy of building, of creation, that you have when you play."
Lorensen said the approach of "making good, classic
products in the right way" is reflected in Lego Universe.
About two dozen people at Lego are working on the game
while an additional group of nearly 70 are working to create
the online world in Denver, Colorado, where game developer and
Lego partner NetDevil is based.
The digital efforts fit in with Lego's popular video game
franchise and also with Lego Factory, a digital design system
that allows users to build Lego designs and then order the
necessary components in one package from Lego.
Through such efforts, Lego believes it can reach even more
people than the 400 million who play with Lego bricks every
year. Lego has expanded its line to include kits tailored for
girls, featuring princesses and horses and castles.
Lego Universe, the company believes, will encompass all of
that and more, as the name suggests. Users will be able to
create, destroy, enact battles, or just fiddle with bricks in a
world of their own.
It will also give the company the ability to reintroduce
bricks that are no longer made in Lego factories and
potentially offer all the 6,000 types of bricks made by Lego.
But there will always be a link back to the physical
world.
Just like with Lego Factory, users will also be able to
order the physical versions of their online creations and have
them delivered to their door.
(Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
By: Reed Stevenson
Copyright 2008 Reuters. See original article on InformationWeek
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