Lego Universe

An MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) based on the popular LEGO toys, released October 26, 2010. The official site can be found here.

The plot is simply this, four guys, a knight, a pirate, a scientist, and a baron, travel across the universe, searching for the source of imagination; they inevitably come across a perfectly cubic planet, and land on it. This source of imagination could make any idea come to life...

So the Baron, after going mad on the journey, creates the Maelstrom, a threatening chaotic force. This turns against him and drags him into the source of imagination, where he presumably was absorbed. The source turns dark and is eventually plugged up with the remains of their ship, exploding the planet into fragments. The remaining crew eventually call upon the help of every available person in the Universe, and help ward off the Maelstrom's dark minions, the Stromlings.

In August 2011, the game partially became free-to-play (the first two zones were free for all, with the rest only available to subscribers), but the change apparently failed to attract sufficient amounts of new subscribers, so LEGO ended LEGO Universe on January 31, 2012.

Tropes used in Lego Universe include:

• All There in the Manual: The backstory is detailed on the website, in special missions.
• Allegedly Free Game: Eventually it comes to a point after you've gotten your own property to build on, that you have to be a Member to continue with the storyline and unlock other worlds and missions.
• Abnormal Ammo: The Venture League (one of the in-game factions) is guilty of this trope. Specifically, their Buccaneer class. Rank 1 shoots a trident from it's pistol. Nothing too abnormal about that... But when you get to Rank 2, the pistol shoots a fish. Somewhat fishy, but... Wait! Rank 3 launches a SHARK!
  • The newest update introduces the Sushi Delivery System, which is a crossbow. Guess what it fires...
    • To make things interesting, the fish fired from the SDS also home in on the enemies targeted.
• A Taste of Power: Two missions added in the August 9th patch temporarily give new players special armour that has roughly the power of level 2 faction equipment and 4 extra hearts.
• Big Bad: The Darkitect Actually the former Baron Typhonus.
• Bullet Time: In the intro, a couple of shots have this when characters build things.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Your abilities depend on what clothes you wear, in fact due to faction gear (usually the most powerful) being earned through defeating enemies it acts as a pseudo-level system.
• The Corruption: The Maelstrom. All of the Stromlings in Avant Gardens? They were researchers.
• Collection Sidequest: Oh, so very much. Every area in the game has ten (or more) hidden flags to find, and there are more than a dozen "find the hidden chests/compasses/whatever" missions.
• Cosmetic Award: The Vailient capes are only availible to those how have hit the current level cap of 40 and are very expensive but only have the powers and defence bonuses of normal level 3 shoulder gear wich can be bought earlier and cheaper.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?
• Dark Action Girl: The current leader of the Paradox Faction, Vanda Darkflame. Apparently stubborn and uncaring of whatever impression her methods give, though that's probably a given in her position.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Paradox faction use malestrom based powers but, despite what some say, are fighting to save imagination like everyone else.
• The Engineer: One of the faction specialties of the Assembly faction.
• Giant Spider: The Maelstrom's personification is this along with smaller but still huge enemies known as spiderlings.
• Gone Horribly Right: The Baron wanted to find the essence of pure imagination, and prove that it didn't have limits. What he ended up creating was the Maelstrom, a force of chaos without limits.
• Guide Dang It: Every single mission on the website.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Or rather "Dragged by his own Spider Queen".
• Kick the Dog: An absolutely brutal example; upon the Maelstrom's creation, the first thing the first spiderling did was stomp on and destroy a Puppy. Thankfully, it is later reconstructed (The wrong way round), sparking a possible Moment of Heartwarming.
• The Heartless: The Stromlings.
• Non-Lethal KO: When your character runs out of health, they get smashed and rebuild at a safe spot. Justified because, well, you're playing as a Minifigure, and Minifigs can just be put back together again.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Ninjas, racers, jungle explorers, pirates, robots, cowboys and knights have all been seen to interact. A character's outfit could be a mix of all of these, and more.
  • Don't forget Spacemen!
• Order Versus Chaos: More like Imagination vs Chaos. Or Creation vs. Destruction, if you prefer.
• Our Dragons Are Different: While there are the typical destructive, evil dragons in the game(which are composed of the evil Maelstrom), it is possible to find and tame a smaller, and nicer dragon as a pet.
• Preorder Bonus: Preordering the game would have gotten you a Minifig wearing Nexus Astronaut Uniform, this same costume can be gotten in game by redeeming a code that would have also come with it.
  • Also, everytime you update your subscription a in-game bonus is given, with longer subscriptions giving better awards.
• Product Placement: There is an entire world themed around the Ninjago line of Lego Products. You can actually learn the Ninjago art of Spinjitzu there, and in general it's actually a pretty fleshed out place, with more missions available than most areas.
• Reference Overdosed: So many references to internet memes. For example, Three Wolf Moon.
  • Or here's another one: in the Return to the Venture Explorer mission where you need to gather data from multiple computers (whilst dodging considerably tough enemies), when you complete it, it says "All your base are belong to me."
  • One mission is called "Respect My Authority."
• Your Reward Is Clothes: Some of the time, there are rewards for achievements that make working towards them worth it, but the rest are either purely cosmetic, don't have any stat boosts (or barely any useful ones by the time), or are ugly.