LEGO Universe sent Emails around today telling it's playerbase that it will be shutting down on 2012, January 31st. To those who may not be familiar, LEGO Universe was an interesting quirk in the MMO world. LU was a strange game that concentrated more on the action and adventure platforming aspects of gaming, rather then a stat collecting and equipment grinding adventure world. Unlike games like World of Warcraft, Players were encouraged to minor puzzle solve, find the best way to paddle the villian with your lego weapon of choice, and to jump from platform to platform to get to the other side.
LU was a fun, enjoyable game, and real relaxing for those stressful days at work. So, why did they fail to attractr customers? Let us read up on some of my basic buisness rules for design that I have written, meerly from observing such failures in progressivism.
1. Work with what you have: This rule is FUNDAMENTAL for being successful when trying something new, and failure to follow such a basic rule has led to many-a-sad tale of failure from new, and innovative ideas.
eg. LEGO Universe added the ability to build in your own little private area with parts you earned. But with no real way to build big, and no real way to let non-friends walk in, you could not show off your build unless you were already a top scored build. Not only that, but weapons were simply single pieces.
2. Customize: This is another simple rule that can save even the most mundane or mediocre of games. Champions Online for example, really brought little, if not nothing, new to the table. So why is it then, that it attracts so many people? The promise of looking how you want.
LEGO Universe had amazing potential being both Live Action AND LEGOs, to give player's A LOT of customizeability in both character and equipment.
eg. Players who started the game, could pick from a FEW basic outfits and items, and ingame, you could get maybe a few different pieces to equip/wear, but that was it. Add in the lack of level building (Which could have helped the company add much needed content), And the inability to customize weapons (You could not even do something as sneaky as add little single prong jewel looking bricks to your items) and you have so much wasted potential to cash in on a massively growing portion of gaming.
3. Ratings and Humans: This rule is obscure, and seems to be overlooked (Like in Fallout 3) but, pay attention to ratings. LEGO Universe had nice action, like smacking an enemy with a big LEGO axe, and shattering him into pieces, but, nothing ever TOO big was around for players to destroy.
If you have a game about toys, don't be afraid to destroy them, you might at most get a Y7 or PG rating, but if you are not using anything from reality BUT LEGOs, and not on anything living. You can have fun with it. Let us knick away at a badguy building and collapse that bad boy. LEt us fly around and use lasers to blast away other badguy ships. They had the perfect excuse here to have as much fun as they wanted, and still keep a broad audience, and they missed it.
4. Don't release until ready: Another rule that seems quite obvious, but is rarely followed. LEGO universe basically started it's closed beta in open beta, and never finished it. Many worlds were unfinished, very little variety exsisted in enemies or items, and yet players still would see that 10.00USD a month price tag. Older gamer's are bad enough when burning through content, but when you cannot impress them with content lastability, how do you expect to keep your target audience content?
It will be sad to see such a rarity go, as I did enjoy what little of it exsisted for what it was. But let this be a lesson (That will most likely go ignored or unfollowed) On how not using your resources, can cause the downfall of even the most intriguing of ideas.
LU was a fun, enjoyable game, and real relaxing for those stressful days at work. So, why did they fail to attractr customers? Let us read up on some of my basic buisness rules for design that I have written, meerly from observing such failures in progressivism.
1. Work with what you have: This rule is FUNDAMENTAL for being successful when trying something new, and failure to follow such a basic rule has led to many-a-sad tale of failure from new, and innovative ideas.
eg. LEGO Universe added the ability to build in your own little private area with parts you earned. But with no real way to build big, and no real way to let non-friends walk in, you could not show off your build unless you were already a top scored build. Not only that, but weapons were simply single pieces.
2. Customize: This is another simple rule that can save even the most mundane or mediocre of games. Champions Online for example, really brought little, if not nothing, new to the table. So why is it then, that it attracts so many people? The promise of looking how you want.
LEGO Universe had amazing potential being both Live Action AND LEGOs, to give player's A LOT of customizeability in both character and equipment.
eg. Players who started the game, could pick from a FEW basic outfits and items, and ingame, you could get maybe a few different pieces to equip/wear, but that was it. Add in the lack of level building (Which could have helped the company add much needed content), And the inability to customize weapons (You could not even do something as sneaky as add little single prong jewel looking bricks to your items) and you have so much wasted potential to cash in on a massively growing portion of gaming.
3. Ratings and Humans: This rule is obscure, and seems to be overlooked (Like in Fallout 3) but, pay attention to ratings. LEGO Universe had nice action, like smacking an enemy with a big LEGO axe, and shattering him into pieces, but, nothing ever TOO big was around for players to destroy.
If you have a game about toys, don't be afraid to destroy them, you might at most get a Y7 or PG rating, but if you are not using anything from reality BUT LEGOs, and not on anything living. You can have fun with it. Let us knick away at a badguy building and collapse that bad boy. LEt us fly around and use lasers to blast away other badguy ships. They had the perfect excuse here to have as much fun as they wanted, and still keep a broad audience, and they missed it.
4. Don't release until ready: Another rule that seems quite obvious, but is rarely followed. LEGO universe basically started it's closed beta in open beta, and never finished it. Many worlds were unfinished, very little variety exsisted in enemies or items, and yet players still would see that 10.00USD a month price tag. Older gamer's are bad enough when burning through content, but when you cannot impress them with content lastability, how do you expect to keep your target audience content?
It will be sad to see such a rarity go, as I did enjoy what little of it exsisted for what it was. But let this be a lesson (That will most likely go ignored or unfollowed) On how not using your resources, can cause the downfall of even the most intriguing of ideas.