The End of the Universe

After merely 15 months, LEGO Universe, the brick-themed MMO, shut down last night at midnight, citing too small of a subscriber base to support the costs and maintenance of the gaming world. In typical LEGO fashion, a very sensitively written and caringly worded response has been posted as an F.A.Q. to why the MMO is coming to a close.

Admittedly, I never played the game.  I was given access to the Beta test, but regrettably, I just didn't have the time back then to give it a shot. It was a very busy time of my life back in 2010 when the Beta was running, and  I just couldn't justify the time an MMO would require - even if it was a LEGO MMO. LEGO building was more a priority than the LEGO adventures.

The world looked cool, but it just couldn't convince me that I needed to play this to enhance my LEGO experience. Not to put too much stock in to my own opinion, but I never really felt confident that this MMO would be a success.  If LEGO couldn't suck someone like me in to the world, someone who loves worldbuilding, fantasy storytelling, and building narratives with friends, then how could this product truly succeed at a mass level . Or perhaps it was something more simple, that there may have been a smaller overlap between the MMO market and the core LEGO audience than LEGO had anticipated, and in an already crowded MMO market that is primarily dominated by World of Warcraft, there just wasn't enough room for these minifigs to continue their adventures.

I have enjoyed some of the other LEGO adventures - most notably, the LEGO Star Wars series of video games have been a lot of fun.  But for me, LEGO has always been about the discovery and imagination fostered by playing with real bricks, and the tactile experience has always been a big factor for me.  Being able to hold and observe my completed projects in real space  has always been of utmost importance for me as a LEGO fan. Ultimately, this is what makes me value the physical experience that real LEGO can provide over other virtual world building experiences, games such as Dwarf Fortress(which I have played) and Minecraft (which I haven't).

So although LEGO Universe has ultimately been deemed a failure, I hope that the LEGO company is able to learn from this experience, and to grow in new and exciting ways.  Maybe down the line, there'll be a way to combine the love of building real world objects and integrating them into virutal worlds - hrm, now that would be awesome! Are you listening, LEGO?