This Christmas Pea received a Lego Fusion kit for Christmas. When it was time to choose which kit she should get it was a tough choice. I took the time and looked through the videos of gameplay online and made the decision that despite my hatred of the Lego Friends line with their barbified miniatures, pink blocks, and shopping mall plans, the Friends Resort kit was the best way to go because the game allowed you to customize and play as a female avatar (the “mayor” avatar in the town master set can be female but is not customizable) and when the buildings were being built the construction team was comprised of female avatars (albeit in tank tops and sans hard hats while the male construction workers are more appropriately –and safely– dressed).
I had to weigh the pros and the cons and hope for the best in the end. Since Christmas Pea has played with her Fusion kit every day. She has always been a bit of a Lego addict and the Fusion kit has only added to it. She builds things to “put in her game” and then furnishes her new buildings. Early reviews of the Fusion series reported that the app itself was “broken” that it crashed frequently or that users were unable to bring buildings into the game because the in game camera would not recognize them. One of the early kits (a race track set) was even taken off of the market because it was “not up to Lego standards”. Fortunately, we have had very few issues with our kit and the app. There have only been two or three times when the in app camera couldn’t recognize the shapes or colors of the blocks that were used and this was always rectified by placing the building on a plain light surface in full light.
Ultimately, the Fusion game is a bit like a cross between The Sims and Animal Crossing. You collect funds, furnish buildings, and interact with the environment around you based on the buildings that you have placed in the game (i.e. you can dig for fossils once a museum has been built and you can help injured animals once the Animal Center is in place).
Despite all of the fun simulation mechanics of the game, what does remain the same are the gendered limitations of the Friends line. All of the buildings are service oriented. There are cafes, veterinarian’s offices, shops, and the like, but no hospitals, firehouses, or police stations. The jobs available (though no one is actually ever seen working beyond the building process, only making purchases) are all very feminized. You can rescue an injured puppy or tidy up the resort, but you can’t fight crime or fires.
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