Lego Universe Has Immense Levels of Phallus Protection

[Tom Goldman]

Lego Universe Has Immense Levels of Phallus Protection

Try as you might, it's going to be extremely tough to show children a Lego phallus in Lego Universe.

Lego Universe [http://www.amazon.com/Lego-Universe-Pc/dp/B002I0HL2A] is an MMO where players collect various types of bricks as they complete quests and defeat enemies. Those bricks can then be used to create anything the player wants, just as they would with Lego pieces in the real world. Let's think about this: a kid-friendly MMO, and players able to create anything they want and show it to other players. See the problem?

It'd only be a matter of time before NetDevil were attacked by parents whose children had been shown Lego genitalia if proper protections weren't put in place. Luckily, NetDevil wasn't born yesterday and knows the ways of online players and their phallic obsession.

MTV Multiplayer has the details on how NetDevil has implemented some seriously deep levels of protection to avoid trouble of this sort. First of all, every created object (and player name) has to be approved before it's displayed to other players. Until NetDevil takes a look, these things remain hidden.

Friends can see other friends' creations, but becoming friends isn't as easy as it is in other MMOs. People constantly complain about Wii friend codes and how uncharacteristically unfriendly they are, and NetDevil's "friending" system works in a similar way to keep kids safe. Players must share their "Lego IDs" outside of the game's world and invite each other to become friends. There is no in-game notification at all.

Parents can even totally block this system and freeze Lego Universe into only showing their kids pre-approved objects. Not that it'll matter in the long run, because if someone on the internet wants to show someone else something terrible, it's going to happen no matter what. Players will probably just assemble pre-approved objects into the shape of a phallus instead. However, kudos should go to NetDevil for making a Herculean effort here, and I hope it's successful.

Edit: Lego Universe is under development by NetDevil, not Funcom as previously reported.

Source: MTV Multiplayer [http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2010/09/27/lego-universe-genitals/]

Permalink

 

[Irridium]

They will fail.

If MMO players(or people on the internet in general) want to make penises, they will make penises. No way around it.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

My brother is/was in the beta for that MMO - I'll have to ask him if he ever tried assembling a Lego wang at any point. The game itself looked pretty fun from what I saw of him playing it, very whimsical.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Is there anything inherently wrong with showing parts of the body? This seems to be America's UBER-FEAR of the moment. Not something as simple as Terrorist nukes, but Katy Perry jiggling with Elmo and now "A KID MIGHT SEE A LEGO PENIS!"

Won't the modders just create a vagina or anus instead?

 

[Sennz0r]

It's kind of sad that precautions like this need to be taken, but props to Funcom for the dedication.

 

[hansari]

This looks like a challenge for a 4chan.

...im making a prediction, yes.

 

[imnot]

I thought that game looked actually pretty fun.
Mabey not so much now.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

They will fail.

If MMO players(or people on the internet in general) want to make penises, they will make penises. No way around it.

But how [b/]much[/b] will they want to make penises? If the systems in place make it extremely difficult to get around I doubt people will invest much time and effort just so they can show innocent 3 year old joey they're magnificend sharp edged writhing purple pyphon.

 

[mjc0961]

Is there anything inherently wrong with showing parts of the body? This seems to be America's UBER-FEAR of the moment. Not something as simple as Terrorist nukes, but Katy Perry jiggling with Elmo and now "A KID MIGHT SEE A LEGO PENIS!"

Won't the modders just create a vagina or anus instead?

To be fair, Elmo deserves better than that.

This looks like a challenge for a 4chan.

...im making a prediction, yes.

Ooh fun! Well, not for the people who have to go through the submitted things, but the thought of a room full of people going through the submissions constantly denying thousands of penises all day while not being able to get to any of the legit submissions before clocking out for the day made the evil bastard in me chuckle.

 

[wordsmith]

Is there anything inherently wrong with showing parts of the body? This seems to be America's UBER-FEAR of the moment. Not something as simple as Terrorist nukes, but Katy Perry jiggling with Elmo and now "A KID MIGHT SEE A LEGO PENIS!"

Won't the modders just create a vagina or anus instead?

I'm so tempted to make a Goatse on Minecraft right now...

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

To be fair, Elmo deserves better than that.

I dunno, Elmo is only a step up from Barney in my book. Although he still has more talent than Ms Brand.

 

[Irridium]

They will fail.

If MMO players(or people on the internet in general) want to make penises, they will make penises. No way around it.

But how [b/]much[/b] will they want to make penises? If the systems in place make it extremely difficult to get around I doubt people will invest much time and effort just so they can show innocent 3 year old joey they're magnificend sharp edged writhing purple pyphon.

Simple, they will want to very badly now.

Funcom basically just challenged them with this. It may not be worded as one, but the internet at large will see it as one, and try harder to best it.

Kind of like how everyone tried their hardest to crack Spore's DRM and pirate it to hell and back, because EA said they couldn't.

 

[Scout Tactical]

The question is if a moderator can't recognize it as a phallus, how can a kid?

 

[FactualSquirrel]

Urrm, I was interested in this until I heard about the friend code thing.

Now I'm not sure I'll even bother with a trial.

 

[yourbeliefs]

That must be a fun job... being the guys who have to approve every created object. I can only imagine what comes on their monitors daily. And how do you explain that to people at a dinner party or something?

"So John, what do you do for work?"
"Currently I make sure that no penises or vaginas get online in the Lego Universe."

 

[imnot]

I thought that game looked actually pretty fun.
Mabey not so much now.

by your statement i can gather the game only looked fun when you thought you could make lego penises. So a games fun is only mesured by how many penises you can show to young children... interesting reveal about yourself there.

No I just dont like the whole freind , waiting to get stuff shown thing, when I was like 8 I was on the lego website and to get a message show on the forum it took about two weeks.

 

[Jared]

They will fail.

If MMO players(or people on the internet in general) want to make penises, they will make penises. No way around it.

Agreed - They have done it with Halo Reach, they will do it with Lego.

No two ways about it

 

[deadxero]

It's good to see they're taking precautions... but fucking sad that it's necessary in the first place.