Lego Universe
Information
This is a group to support the educational uses of Lego Universe
Website: http://universe.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx
Members: 79
Latest Activity: Apr 22
A New Collectively Creative Participtory Virtual World from Lego?
While there are many interesting and entertaining virtual worlds, and a handful with good opportunities for education, few offer ANY combination of affordances that make TSL such a powerful learning environment, such as:
- The ability to create items from scratch and direct them with internal code,
- The ability to sell or trade objects and afford the new owner the ability to modify them,
- Ownership of the intellectual property within their creations, etc.
Most youth-oriented worlds share a common set of tools - avatar creation, object collecting, communication tools, currency, a personalized "home” - but only Linden Lab has created a powerful tool for collective creativity, empowering its users/residents with tools required to construct the world around them and give shape to their dreams and desires.
That is, perhaps, until now (or some time in 2009), when Lego Universe is revealed, which to the best of my knowledge is a combination virtual world/MMOG (that is, it will be a creative, social space but also contain a larger narrative with points and missions).
The video below offers some concept art:
These short previews all look great but the second of the bunch, however, is the one that interests me the most, depicting one avatar building a car followed by a second avatar collaborating on its construction. Can it be that Lego can successfully transplant what has been so successful in the physical world into their digital equivalent online, one which is so desperately needed and is so well aligned with both virtual worlds and participatory learning?
On one hand, it is somewhat surprisingly easy to overlap the concept of building with Legos offline with building with prims in Second Life (the basic building blocks). And for those who might not be aware, Lego has a very active fan community who like to build and share what they build; the web site for Lego Universe takes good advantage of this community and interest in participating by offering numerous opportunities for fans to post photos of their own designs for items within the Universe.
Second Life is, in large part, defined as well by its community of engaged individuals sharing their creations. Second Life's toolset, powerful as it is, tends to be accessible to only the most dedicated. Lego bricks, however, are so easy my two year old plays with them.
Lego, in addition, has the advantage that most brands in virtual worlds do not - Second Life is so hard to describe because we have few lived examples with which we can relate it to; brands like McDonalds and Disney’s Cars have little to say about the core mechanics of virtual worlds, the very things one does when logged in. Legos, however, are all about building, a mechanic which translates so well to a virtual world, so immediately intuitively relatable, it has the power to tip in ways Second Life and few brands can.
If Lego can leverage their existing fan community and offer collaborative creation tools and ownership rights as powerful as Second Life's but with a user interface as simple as connecting Lego blocks, the potential for a new vibrant community for participatory learning might be right around the corner, build one virtual brick at a time.
I created this group on RezEd as I am interested in exploring the participatory potential of this space and connecting with other educators who have similar interests.
UPDATE 1/14/09
The FIRST OFFICIAL trailer is out. Wow!
Discussion Forum
This group does not have any discussions yet.
Comment Wall
Comment
-
Comment by Barry Joseph on December 4, 2011 at 10:20pm -
Wow! Just tweeted it. Good luck, if not getting to back then at least empowering youth to mobilize for things they are passionate about.
-
Comment by Sabine Reljic / Willow Shenlin on December 2, 2011 at 9:40pm -
Very nice, Knowclue. keep us posted. I am coming back to this thread often.
-
Comment by Knowclue on December 2, 2011 at 9:09pm -
Yet another successful program comes screeching to an end because profits margins were more important than the kids. Sigh! LEGO may be pulling the plug on LEGO Universe, but the wee fans are not going quietly. I've been documenting the fan outcry to Save LEGO Universe: http://savingtheuniverse.wikispaces.com/Save+LEGO+UNIVERSE%21
My own students wanted to do something as well. They are organizing "Occupy LEGO Universe", a day of action on New Year's Eve: http://occupylegouniverse.wikispaces.com
Funny how the rest of the world under estimates kids! What a great learning opportunity for both my students and anyone who is paying attention! Don't know if they will be able to pull this off, but what a honor to get to help them on this journey. As Jim Gee tells us... it's not about the game as much as it's about the communities that grow beyond the game. :D
-
Comment by Barry Joseph on November 17, 2011 at 3:10pm
-
I know! :-(
-
Comment by Sabine Reljic / Willow Shenlin on November 17, 2011 at 2:53pm
-
So sad that LEGO U will close on January 31, 2012. I can't believe there aren't enough subscribers. Many disappointed heads in my house.
-
Comment by Barry Joseph on June 23, 2011 at 3:23pm
-
Nice! Thank you for letting us know.
-
Comment by Knowclue on June 23, 2011 at 1:09pm
-
Huge news from LEGO Universe via Forbes: bit.ly/jfDq5k
"Originally launched as an in-store retail PC game on October 26, 2010 by distributor Warner Bros.... starting this August the game will be available for free via digital download. Sales of the retail PC game, which currently sells for $20, will be discontinued permanently.
Rather than generating revenue from micro-transactions, the LEGO Group will continue to rely on monthly subscriptions for the game. Players will be able to access two adventure zones and one player property area for free for as long as they want. Access to the rest of the world’s 15 adventure zones and five player property areas will remain $9.99 per month. Gamers will also be able to purchase six months of gameplay for $49.99 and 12 months for $89.99."
This is fantastic news as it means greater access for educators. Smart move for LU. I think too many equated it with LEGO's other single player video games and don't understand what makes this game unique. Once people can take it for a test drive, that perception should shift.
Just finished presenting "Saving the Universe" @GLS (what a fantastic conference) - notes to follow (really... I promise) just as soon as I finish pulling together the ISTE SIGVE Machinima Fest 2011. :D Hope you all contributed some machinima!
-
Comment by Barry Joseph on May 8, 2011 at 9:40pm
-
Knowclue, What a fantastic video! I for one can't wait to see how you are deploying it to meet educational objectives.
Barry
-
Comment by Knowclue on May 8, 2011 at 1:11pm
-
Update: "Saving the Universe" was a HUGE success in our after school program. The kids begged us not to end, and so we extended the class an additional 4 weeks. We just completed a machinima to promote the class to their classmates for our summer program. http://youtu.be/fens7Bm-yP4
Check out the session at VWBPE where a LU game designer joined to discuss the potential of using LU in the classroom. Thanks to Fleet for helping me get that documented. http://savingtheuniverse.wikispaces.com/VWBPE
I will be writing up my overall observations over the next couple of weeks, but in a nutshell I have to say that LU surpassed my expectations. I will definitely will continue using it with kids. 2Thumbs up!
-
Comment by Fleet Goldenberg on February 10, 2011 at 5:16pm
-
Hi again,
I was going through my research notes and found a piece I'd put in them last year about LU's child protection measures, so I thought I'd paste it in here.
*****
'LEGO Universe' uses a state-of-the-art combination of live and automated moderation. "You want to use automation where it makes sense, for example when someone has clearly and blatantly violated a policy. However, you can't rely on automated solutions to cover every case, or even most cases of poor conduct, as they too often are shades of grey infractions, not black and white. There are some things you just need humans to look for and handle".
Where games like 'Ultima Online' eventually relied on rooms filled with people watching gamers play through their virtual world, 'LEGO Universe' relies on a complex set of programs and artificial intelligence to spot potential problems. The key to the monitoring program, which Lego Universe developer NetDevil's co-founder Ryan Seabury says includes LEGO trade secrets, is closely watching the behavior of people in game to try and figure out who the person is behind the avatar.
"Like pulling weeds, you want to take bad players out at the root so they don't come back. We look for behavioural trends that correlate with known patterns of play for adults and children, and based on this human moderators are automatically notified of potential problem cases to investigate in real time. The moderators are trained and empowered to take action immediately as appropriate". That means if a player is signed in as an 8-year-old boy, but the program believes they are chatting or behaving like a 40-year-old, moderators will be alerted to watch them. This cuts down significantly on the human workforce needed to keep an eye on so vast a virtual world. It also means moderation can be applied almost universally, instead of relying on spot checks.
"Ten years ago it was all very manual, non-real time and very exploitable, which allowed for more than a few memorable anecdotes. As an industry we quickly realized the value of eliminating one bad subscriber to keep the nine they would have caused to quit".
© 2012 Created by Global Kids.
You need to be a member of Lego Universe to add comments!