Roblox

Roblox is a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) virtual playground and workshop designed for children aged 10 and over. Players can build games with blocks, in various shapes, sizes and materials. Roblox users can script the places they design with an extremely restricted, sandboxed attempt at Lua 5.1. Roblox is part of the TRUSTe privacy program and the Better Business Bureau corporation. You can read more about roblox here!

Roblox has raised $2.3 million in funding after an equity issue.

History and development

Roblox was created by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in Silicon Valley, California and is based in Redwood City, California. The name is a portmanteau of the words robots and blocks.

In mid-2007, Roblox considered the concept of a Megablocks-style character to avoid infringements on any copyrights held by Lego Group and allow for more complex clothing such as hairpieces to blend with the character. This was however rejected later for the mini-figure design which was already in use. In 2010, Roblox gave a second shot at publishing different body shapes which players could buy using virtual currency.

In mid-2008, Roblox added a feature to allow non-registered users to enter places with restricted functionality by playing as a guest. The username of a guest is shown as "Guest x", where x is a number.

Guests can only use the chat menu full of pre-written answers and words.

Relief help

2010 Haiti earthquake relief efforts

On 21 January 2010, Roblox donated $5472 to relief efforts for the Haiti earthquake, allowing players to buy one of two virtual items: the Red Hat for Haiti, which contributed 65 cents for every person who bought it, or the Blue Hat for Haiti that contributed 10 cents for every person who bought it.

2011 Japan relief efforts

On 11 March 2011, Roblox did a similar relief effort for the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, selling two types of caps, a Japanese Baseball cap, and a Rising Sun cap, donating $0.10 or $1.00 respectively for each cap bought.

If a user bought both hats, It would donate $1.10 to Japan Relief Efforts.

The ROBLOX Corp has succeeded, ROBLOX users have bought the Fundraiser hats 23,395 times, raising a total of $10,445.80. ROBLOX has donated it to the American Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Fund.

Updates

In 2010 Roblox made a sizable cosmetic update to its game GUI, as well as to its site, introducing a smoother in-game experience, and a menu to hold built in build tools (In edit mode). The website also received a sizable facelift - introducing a new theme selection for the users (Roblox 3.0). At the end of 2010, Roblox decided to retract the privilege of mesh and sound uploading from its users.

At the beginning of 2011, Roblox introduced a new feature that allowed users with any type of Builders Club to make places that could only be played/entered by users who also have a Builders Club subscription. Termed "BC Only Games", many users voiced their complaints about this feature, siting the website's motto "Free online building games" and saying that it was not truthful if you had to pay to play some of the games. In response, Roblox changed its motto to "Free online and building games.

Gameplay

Customization

Players customize their characters with items in the Catalog. The Catalog contains Roblox and user created items such as clothing, images, models, gear, sets, heads, faces, and packages, which include body types, legs and arms. A user can also create one of these items (excluding the gear, heads, faces, hats and packages) and upload it onto the Catalog.

Interaction

Players can also visit other users' 3-D virtual places, represented by their characters (Like EvilRyu252525), and move around with the spacebar and arrow keys. With the "/" key users 13 and older can also chat with each other. Users can optionally allow their places to be visited in solo mode, but this also allows other players to copy the user's content. Players receive a small amount of in-game currency (tix) when their place is visited by other players.

Building

Users have a choice of thousands of games to play, varying in design from what the game developers wanted to create. Types of places vary by the feature where the creator of the game can choose a genre. Players in Roblox have the ability to construct up to 100 places (depending on membership type), using an unlimited supply of virtual building blocks. Players can add as many bricks as they want. They can insert their own scripts to add functionality, or can use other player's scripts, if that player has allowed it onto the public market.

Programming

Optionally, users can utilize a Sandbox version of Lua to add extra interactivity to their games. This allows them to create multiplayer games, board games, obstacle courses, warfare games, adventure games, and thousands more. There are also several tools provided, such as Graphical User Interface items, and a Hierarchical Object system to represent the blocks and other items in-game, which help users create content.

Roblox Studio

Roblox Studio is a program similar to Microsoft Visual Studio and is used to construct places.

Economy

Robloxhas its own virtual economy, based on Tickets and Robux. Tickets are earned when other users visit a person's virtual places, the first time a player logs in each day, and when other users buy the player's virtual items. These items include shirts, pants, and t-shirts. They can be sold for either a set price in Tickets, or in Robux, allowing the buyer to choose which currency they pay with. Robux are earned daily by paid members, in varying amounts, depending on the user's level of membership. Robux can be earned through sale of virtual goods, and can also be purchased with real money.

On November 21, 2008 the Roblox currency exchange was introduced. Tickets can be exchanged for Robux and vice versa. Some people take advantage of the RoblEX and make money off of it from trading schemes.

Upgrades

Although Roblox is a free game, Roblox lets players pay for premium upgrades such as Builders Club. There are three versions of Builders Club: Builders Club (referred to as "BC"), Turbo Builders Club (referred to as "TBC"), and Outrageous Builders Club (referred to as "OBC"). Builders Club allows players to have more places and get exclusive items. If players purchase TBC or OBC, they will receive more benefits then standard Builder's Club. The specific benefits are listed below.

Benefits	Free Account (NBC)	Builders Club (BC)	Turbo Builders Club (TBC)	Outrageous Builders Club (OBC)
Active Places	1	10	25	100
Daily ROBUX	None	15 R$	35R$	60 R$
Cost Monthly ($)	$0.00	$5.95	$11.95	$19.95
Sell Stuff	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
See Off-site Ads	Yes	No	No	No
Virtual Hat	None	BC Hat	TBC Hat	OBC Hat
Bonus Gear Item	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Signing Bonus	None	100 R$	100 R$	100 R$
Create Groups	No	Yes (10)	Yes (20)	Yes (100)
Join Groups	Yes (5)	Yes (10)	Yes (20)	Yes (100)
Create Badges	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
BC Beta Features	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Live video cast with Roblox	No	No	No	Yes
BC Only Games	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
IP Ban Users	No	No	No	No

Cash Cards

Roblox gives people the option to pay via PayPal, Rixty, Wallie, Paymo, and also sells Roblox cards at Toys R Us, 7-Eleven, GameStop, and Best Buy which can be purchased for $10 or $25 and be used for upgrades such as Builders Club or Robux.

Builders Club Only Games

A recent addition to Roblox has been to give the functionality of going to games specifically made and/or specialized for those who have purchased BC. This has been looked down upon by a majority of the community.

Parents

Roblox gives parents the option of two chat modes: standard chat or safe chat. With standard chat, players can type anything they wish into the chat box, but with safe chat they may only choose from pre-selected words and phrases. Roblox also gives parents the option to monitor their kid's activity with a parent account. When a user is under safe chat, they can only see other pre-selected messages.

Compatibility

Historically, Roblox has been only compatible with Microsoft Windows. But, recent updates to gametest.roblox.com have allowed users who own Apple computers (Macs) to install a dumbed down version of the game - where the Roblox Studio menu will not appear. So far, the Mac version of the game does not work with the "play" button, so Mac users can only use roblox in Edit mode. More updates to the version will be coming out soon.

At this time there is no version of Roblox that will function with Linux.