I will miss Lego Universe. I remember when I first joined the Lego Messageboards, Lego had just announced that LU was on its way. I was mainly the Lego News area, and it became my favorite thing to report on. I would be all over the web daily trying to find the latest news about it.
When Lego Universe finally went into Alpha Testing, I jumped right in. (I was part of the Kids Inner Circle, so I was part of the 2nd wave of members allowed in) I remember how in awe I was while I played the first MMOG I'd ever played. My little brother sat right beside me, all the while "ooo"ing and "Ahhh"ing at the graphics and things you could do. I beat every possible mission in Avant Gardens and Venture Explorer the first day I was in. And every time they released a new world to the testing, I was there. I probably had to recreate my character 5 times before they released it to Beta Testing.
After release, I had to wait until December to buy the game. Even though I had almost become nonexistant on all Lego Forums, I spend almost every free minute in the game. Even though there were plenty of MMOs around, Lego Universe had the biggest appeal for me. I would spend the first while in the game fighting enemies and saving up coins. Then I'd spend all the coins on bricks and models and spend hours building on one of my many properties. The building experience was amazing! I remember a month or two before they announced it was closing, 2 of my brothers and I were on the computer for several hours trying to make a complex set of behaviors to work on a Spaceship we had built in-game. One of the best memories I have of the game.
When they announced the Grand Championships back in October, my little brother went crazy coming up with ideas for his character. He wanted so much to place, and was doing everything he could to get his character to the highest level and to build the best properties. I also became pretty excited and started putting together some ideas for the building contests.
All that came to a halt when I was logging in one day and saw the announcement in the loading screen. I couldn't believe it, and thought for a while that the game had been hacked. When it was obvious that it hadn't, I told my little brother about it. At first he thought I was trying to trick him, and when I showed him the article, he was almost in tears. Neither of us felt like playing the game at all after that. We knew that any time we put into the game would be lost as soon as they closed the game.
The last day of the game, I logged in briefly. Just to pay a visit to my old properties, old favorite places. I always tried to hold on to the hope that maybe they would last minute decide not to close it. But then the next morning, it all was gone. The worlds, the properties, the buildings, the characters (both player and computer), the models, the pets. The missions, the friends. All gone.
So thank you lego for a wonderful year of memories, and fun times with my lil bro. Now that LU is gone, and I am in college and ready to finish moving on, I only hope that those younger than me, just entering the 'Lego Phase" of life, will have as many fun experiences with lego as I did.
Goodbye Lego Universe!
