LEGO® Minifigures Online Buy-to-play FAQ Q: Why are you making the game buy-to-play? A: During the initial run of the PC version of the game, we have collected player data and feedback, and have used this to make informed decisions about the continued development of the game. The buy-to-play business model will allow us to present a more fun and engaging gaming experience that we believe will resonate better with the target audience, thus we believe that the buy-to-play business model will be more commercially viable for LEGO Minifigures Online than the free-to-play business model. Q: Are there any changes being made to the game for this transition? A: Many aspects of the game are receiving a significant overhaul that will coincide with the release of the buy-to-play game this summer. Several enhancements and additions are being made across the board. For example, we are implementing a strong narrative, with a voiced storyteller guiding players through the game and the different worlds using cinematics and scripted events.
We are also implementing unique gameplay events in the different locations that will make the worlds come even more alive, and much more. Q: What happens to existing customers? A: Anyone who has previously spent money on memberships or other in-game benefits will be upgraded to the full “purchased” version of the game. Q: What about players who haven’t spent any money? A: They will need to purchase the game to continue playing. Q:Will players have to start over or will their progress be saved? A: As long as they use the same LEGO ID their progress will be saved. Q: Do I need to purchase the game separately on each platform? A: The PC/Mac/Linux version can be purchased on the game's official website or through Steam, while the Android and iOS versions are available as separate purchases through Google Play and the App Store respectively. Other distribution channels may also become available. Q: What about households that might have multiple players?
Will they need to buy separate copies? A: No, we are adding support for multiple “Characters” per install. Q: Will there be any free areas or limited trial areas? A: No, players will need to buy the client in order to play the game. Q: What about Diamonds? A: Diamonds will also be removed. Existing diamonds will be converted to stars. Q: When do you plan to launch this conversion? Q: How much will LEGO Minifigures Online cost? A: Pricing will be announced at a later date. Q: When exactly will the this change will take effect? A: The exact date for the change will be announced later. Q: What kind of in-game benefits will players receive? A: Anyone who has spent any money, will be upgraded to the full version of the game. Players will discover many changes to the game when they first start playing the buy-to-play version, and we look forward to revealing more details soon. Q: Since diamonds will become stars, will the value of diamonds compared to stars be taken into account for this exchange?
A: Details on the diamonds-to-stars conversion will be announced later. Q: Will entering minifigure codes from packs still be a feature? Q: When will unlimited memberships no longer be available? A: Unlimited memberships will be phased out close to the launch of the buy-to-play version.Lego is ruining my life. The sound of tiny plastic bricks pattering to the floor gets into my dreams and makes my pulse race with panic. Every evening, when my three children are in bed, I get a broom and sweep it all up. Even so, it gets everywhere. The little crab-like hands between the floorboards; the heads under the sofa; the Lego superheroes stuffed in my coat pocket and rattling around in the washing machine. Before I had children, I thought Lego would be a Good Thing. A creative activity to foster the minds of future engineers and architects. Or at least, something to keep them quiet without resorting to the telly or gin. But it turns out it doesn’t even do that. My children moan without cease while playing with Lego: a constant choir of frustration because this bit won’t fit on that bit and the wheels keep falling off.
Then someone smashes someone else’s wonky-looking rocket, and that someone gets smashed in the face in revenge, and I’m all, “Right, that’s it! No more Lego for a week!”, and suddenly everyone’s screaming like I’ve threatened to lock them in a coal hole and the neighbours are lifting the phone again wondering whether it’s finally time to call the NSPCC. Perhaps my children are unusually stupid or badly-behaved; but I’m certainly not the only parent fed up with Lego. In fact, there’s a bit of a backlash under way. It began when – in contravention, one would have thought, of its Danishness – the firm brought out its puckeringly pink “Friends” series for girls. My daughter was given one: a curious blend of housewife and glamour model, with tiny waist, spindly legs and the huge head usually associated with starving celebrities. She was quite literally wearing an apron and carrying a broom. I was quietly relieved when she disappeared into one of the mysterious household vortexes from which Lego never returns.
The Friends series caused enough feminist outrage to unnerve Lego. It has since promised to increase its ratio of female mini-figures, and has introduced a worthy, if slightly yawnsome, series of female scientists. But now there are broader rumblings of discontent. The Nobel-winning chemist Sir Harry Kroto declared this week that Lego has no real educational value. It’s just bricks, after all, and “we don’t build cars or other machines out of bricks”. The British-designed Meccano is much more intellectually challenging, he said. “There is just no comparison.” Even those who believe in the brain-building qualities of bricks are grumbling that there are too many non-brick bits in Lego sets. Certainly there is in the stuff I pick out from behind my ears and between my toes: Batmobile windscreens, ninja swords, wheel axles, mermaid hair, propeller blades, that tiny red rectangle that fits on the bumper of the one from Cars. Modern Lego sets are highly specific, complex kits for making branded products.