Ten Ton Hamster

With the promise of Lego Universe (Lego’s MMOG in production) arriving sometime within the next two years, comes a virtual experience that many Lego fans are extremely excited about. To enhance that experience, Lego announced at GDC last month that fans are not only going to be able to design their own virtual universe, but then they can order the design set they have created in a ‘real life’ form! Wow… now that is innovative and exciting! As I thought about the infinite possibilities that will give to the fans, I began to ask myself some other interesting questions.

As a parent, I am well aware of how quickly kids get bored with their toys. This led me to think about the cost of these come-to-life Lego sets. What am I going to do with this set when my son says “Mom, I don’t want that one anymore…I want this NEW one I created.” My first thought was “Oh no, that is going to cost me a fortune!” But then it hit me - would I be able to sell my son’s real creation on Ebay? I have sold and bought several things on Ebay. Admittedly, I have even perused the virtual items being sold for games such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft. The obsession with virtual currency and items fascinates me. Imagine the market that this will create? Will there be competitions for children’s creations? Maybe your child’s creation will become an official Lego set?

This begs the question: Will there be a secondary market for these unique Lego creations? How interesting will it be for kids to play with a one-of-a-kind creation that was designed by a child on the other side of the globe! Will kids want to sell their sets so they can entice parents to buy them a new one? Could this also create companies whose sole purpose is to pay people to design and order these unique Lego sets and then turn around and sell them for a profit? In a way, that would be similar to what gold farming companies do, except your child would have something tangible to play with. Would that drive up the cost of these sets? Would Lego be able to keep up with the sales and building of these sets, especially if there are so many being ordered? In addition, will our children be waiting months and months for these sets to arrive? How will Lego be able to decipher which is a real child wanting their design vs. a company designing to sell? They really can’t… any more than Blizzard can stop people from buying virtual gold and changing the economy in World Of Warcraft.

I wonder if Lego has really thought about the possibilities of what can happen with this virtual-to-real-life creation process. One thing is for sure… Lego is hugely popular spanning generations and with this new MMOG coming out they are here to stay! The Lego Store is the favorite store to go in (for this family) when we hit the mall on a Sunday afternoon!

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