LEGO Universe Partners, or LUPs, are unpaid LEGO fans invited to help out with the development of LEGO Universe. The term has since been changed to The World Builder League, to better insinuate their current purpose of building new worlds for other fans to explore.
History[]
In 2006, a very small "guinea pig" group of about five dedicated LEGO fans were invited to be a part of LEGO Universe's development. This group formed a team, with Eric Kingsley becoming the head of the group, which is now commonly called the A Team, or Alpha Team. At the time, the LUPs were limited to the use of LDraw and LEGO Digital Designer as tools for their development, though this was expanded later on.
Originally, the LUPs were sent out to literally teach the people at NetDevil how to build. NetDevil graphic designers were unable to produce concepts, as their field was not LEGO, so the LUP group started having sessions and explaining what they wanted to see in the game.
Soon, the small group greeted some new faces, as about fifty more fans were invited to be a part of the partnership. Soon, both LEGO and NetDevil realized the fans' true potential, and introduced a World Building Tool in 2007. As the worlds began to progress in complexity and form, the other fans also branched into different groups, three of which created Portabello, Deep Freeze, and Robot City.
Many other groups were created during the timespan of the LUP group, but all were at different stages in development when the game launched. Many were nearing completion, such as Robot City, and several were only beginning.
Sector Six, one of these groups, was mid-way through their build process. Sector Six was intended to be an outpost on a desert planet near to the Maelstrom, which was under siege and constantly near falling apart. Players would cross the desert, finding few but hostile enemies before they entered the outpost. Unfortunetely, this idea was closed with many others when the LUP group changed focus.
LEGO decided the hassle of the world building was too difficult and decided to turn the group into a property building group instead. Retitled and redisbatched, the program was targeted at teaching younger audiences more about building.
Along the course of time, a few fans left the program. But some remain, including the original five members, who created MoonBase.
The WBL Candidate Program[]
In a single post made by Imaginatrix, (a community manager for LEGO Universe) on the LEGO Universe Message Boards, it was announced that normal fans of LEGO who wished to become World Builder League candidates would only have to create awesome properties, albeit the standards can easily be expected to be quite high to enter such a position.
No information on what moderators look for, when they choose candidates, or what processes candidates go through has been given at this time, though a News Article claims that players with paid membership are eligible to join if they manage to impress the WBL recruiter.
Gallery[]
LUP Worlds[]
| ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||