Honouring Individual Gaming Styles & Lego Universe

I don't believe in "airing dirty laundry" by griping publicly about anything - the last post was quite an exception, although I tried hard to ensure that it was not a complaint directed at anyone. We did end up having a conversation in the car with every member of the family to sort out exactly what kind of observers they'd prefer to have around when playing Plants vs Zombies. I won't replay the talk, but it seems to have been quite profitable. Actually, it may have less to do with sorting out our individual gaming styles and more about the introduction of a new game to our family collection: the MMO Lego Universe.

We were not planning to buy Lego Universe, even though our son has been quite interested in obtaining it ever since he learned of its existence. We have enough MMOs to take care of, and this was an online game we'd need to pay to play. We thought our boy would lose interest too quickly to make it worth the while. However, my husband learned that the company was offering a trial membership at a greatly reduced price, and so my husband joined. The membership we have entitled us to four separate characters. It just so happens that there are four people in our immediate family, and so each person has their own character. Here's a brief introduction.

Daughter = Serene Sassy Cloud, a member of the Paradox faction

Son = Toxic Acid Laser, a member of the the Assembly faction

Father = Groovy Stoic Savant, a member of the Sentinel faction

Mother = Totally Spiffy Owl, no faction joined (the rest of the family made my character for me and chose my name - I'm lucky it's a pretty nice one!)

Father, son, and daughter have been playing together a lot. It's installed on my husband's computer, so he's been doing less writing when the children are around, but they are playing together. Everyone except for me has built a house in the BlockYard. As I type this, hubby is playing on boy's account while both kids watch. Each night when I sit with my son at bedtime, he is eager to tell me some new piece of information about the world. Last night, it was how he built his house and his new animal companion. The night before, it was about the four factions and their pros and cons. I'm not sure what it will be tonight. I asked them what their favourite part of the game was so far. Here are their responses.

Daughter = "So far, my favourite part of the game was joining my faction because I get new gear and new attacks."

Son = "Basically when I'm doing my faction, and when I can gain a new pet. My favourite pet is the bunny."

Husband = "Building stuff"

And so the ebb and flow of focus games in the household changes once again. Stay tuned for more (although equally irregular) observations.