User blog:Nealybealy/Interview with LMO's Lead Designer!

Just today we got some questions answered by Oscar Lopez Lacalle, the Lead Designer of LEGO Minifigures Online! Do tell us what you think of the interview, the answers, and your thoughts on what we should do in the future to cover LMO. :)

A big thanks to Funcom for making this all possible!

The Interview (A = the answer we received)
'''1. Congratulations on the game finally going Live! Is there anything we should know about how updates will be from here on out? Will we keep getting content at a steady rate?'''

A: Thank you! The LMO BETA period was a blast and we are happy we managed to get so much content into the game already! Moving forwards, we are committed to provide a steady influx of new content and updates as time goes on. Right now, we are excited about finishing and publishing the Lost Creations, our next content update. The Lost Creations is an endgame oriented “endless” game mode where players compete against the clock to defeat a variety of challenges in short randomly generated levels. If you beat the current level's challenge, you get to choose between trying the next level or claiming your rewards and end the run. After that, we will be releasing the Series 13 minifigures and unlocking new passives for all existing minifigures. And in the future, you can expect new worlds, more minifigures (both from new and older series), achievements and achievement rewards (including the elusive Chicken Suit Guy), new minigames and game modes along with improvements to our current content, bug fixes and balance tweaks!



'''2. When the game originally went into Closed Beta, we heard of a character known as "The Stranger" and that the end of the world was coming. Can you elaborate on this storyline and why it was scrapped?'''

A: “The Stranger” was a BETA placeholder name for the mastermind behind a lot of the events happening in every world. He was what we call a long term story thread and he represented a threat that was always there but that you only get glimpses of every once in a while. As the BETA progressed and we were fleshing out the stories for each of the worlds, we realized that we didn't want “The Stranger” to get in the way of the heroes and villains of each world, so we toned his presence down and he kind of disappeared from the face of the game. At this point, there are hidden threats that players don't really know about yet, they just are just not “The Stranger” anymore. There are several clues in the game about this, see if you can find them! We'd love to hear what you think about it!



'''3. We've seen that some minigames are planned (PvP, for example), but what about the race car that's present in the Hub? Are we going to see some sort of product tie-in for this?'''

A: We are constantly experimenting with minigames of all kinds. Some of those minigames are planned; some are... well, experiments. The racing minigame was a prototype that we played around for a while because it was a lot of fun, and it is definitely something that we might polish and put out in the future. About product tie-ins... it is always a possibility!



'''4. PvP; can you talk about this? Explain a little how it'll work?'''

A: All I can say about the PvP modes at the moment is that we are trying to create a PvP environment where every player feels like they can contribute to their team's success but avoid toxic behavior by minimizing competition between players of the same team. We are experimenting with adding some PvE elements to the battlefield and even creating safe zones where players can choose to take it easy and cool off for a bit if they are getting trampled in the PvP front, while still contributing to their team's victory. In general, we are focusing on game modes that promote cooperation between team members and making sure that the game's environment remains enjoyable even when under the pressure of PvP competition.



'''5. After the recent lifting of Epic Dungeon and Pocket Dungeons from Members-Only to all players, are we going to see any expansion of Member perks?'''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm0cm10pt;line-height:16.8666667938232px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;">A: We are always keeping an eye on the member-only offer and tweaking it to make sure that members get a very strong pack of advantages. I feel that currently members have very significant advantages that might not be immediately apparent, but that are very important and have a huge impact. For example, even though everyone is able to run every Pocket Adventure and Epic Dungeon, only members get to open member-only chests. Because of this, members obtain parts, base plates, diamonds and stars much faster than non-members, which in turn grants access to higher level areas earlier and makes farming minifigures and upgrades much easier. With that being said, adjusting the member benefits is a fluid process and we will do our best to make sure that membership is the preferred option to play the game.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm0cm10pt;line-height:16.8666667938232px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;">'''6. So we've seen a Pirate, Medieval, Space, Mythology, and now a Dinosaur/Jungle themed world; will we be seeing more diverse themes in the future and tie-ins of themes like Adventurers?'''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm0cm10pt;line-height:16.8666667938232px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;">A: We are constantly working on ideas for new worlds, sometimes inspired by existing themes (i.e.: Pirates or Space) and sometimes completely new (Mythology). Also, something you probably have noticed is that the in-game worlds don't directly map to specific themes and we try to give each world a unique spin. For example, there are ghost pirates in the Pirate World and fairy tales in Medieval. Expect to see several new worlds in the future! Which world would you really love to see?

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm0cm10pt;line-height:16.8666667938232px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;">'''7. Will custom names ever be allowed for normal players?'''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm0cm10pt;line-height:16.8666667938232px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;">A: The name wheel is in place to guarantee that players cannot create offensive names and keep the game's environment safe for everyone. Even though we might add new names to the list or explore other ways of handling it, it is unlikely that we do away with premade/whitelisted names. It's a matter of security.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm0cm10pt;line-height:16.8666667938232px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;">'''8. In LEGO Universe, there was a faction known as the Paradox. One of their best weapons was the Wormholer; is it possible we could see a character with some heavier weapons in the future of the game?'''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm0cm10pt;line-height:16.8666667938232px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;">A: It is very possible, yes. In fact, some of the Shadow Centurions are known for using heavy laser weaponry! As for player weapons, well it depends on what items future minifigures are wielding but there are already some good examples of extraordinary weapons in the game. Seen what the Alien Avenger's blaster can do when supercharged? How about the Galaxy Patrol's Extra Magnetic Grenade? There are also really powerful abilities in the game with devastating effects, despite not coming out of guns or rocket launchers (rockets are awesome though, we love rockets!). A little spoiler, there are some really cool weapons coming up in future series too!