The Lego excitement

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the close resemblance of some computer games to Lego.

During my childhood, I spent a lot of time playing with Lego models or building new vehicles and buildings out of the many different Lego blocks. The great thing about Lego is that it allowed me to express my creativity and to shape new things out of a bunch of different blocks. Although I have not built anything out of Lego for a very long time, I still enjoy designing new things out of a bunch of blocks. However, in contrast to the plastic Lego blocks, the building blocks are now virtual blocks and only exist in particular game worlds.

Building new vehicles and buildings has become one of the core game mechanics of current computer games. Minecraft allows the players to place, remove and relocate a colorful variety of different blocks in order to create huge buildings and express their creativity. Kerbal Space Program, Besiege and TerraTech evolve around the assembly of different vehicles and provide the players with a variety of different parts that can be combined in order to design a new vehicle. Subesequently, the players can utilize their unique vehicles in order to explore the virtual world or to pursue their goals.

Interestingly, the core concept of the gameplay has not changed since my Lego days. Of course, the environment is now a bit more age appropriate and demands additional knowledge about physics and the laws of nature. Furthermore, due to the strong immersive effects, it feels almost as if I would be directly involved in the action. For instance, landing a spaceplane back on the runway always results in a very exciting experience. However, I can still feel the same excitement of my Lego days when I design a new virtual airplane or building.

Curiously, the virtual world of Minecraft even closed the gap and became to a certain degree reality: Lego has created a special Minecraft series and thus closed the circle.