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Roblox
Roblox's Logo since April 25, 2005.
Developer(s)	Roblox Corporation
Publisher(s)	Roblox Corporation
Designer(s)	Roblox Corporation
Engine	ImPlicitNgine
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	June 2005
Genre(s)	MMOG, Physics Sandbox
Mode(s)	Online multiplayer, Solo editing

Roblox is a free massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) virtual playground and workshop designed for children aged 6 and over. The game is made up of building bricks of various shapes and sizes. Roblox has no pre-defined goals, unlike some games. Players could build anything such as houses, churches, cities, swimming pools, and more and share them to the Roblox community. Roblox users can program the places they create with a simplified version of Lua 5.1. Roblox is part of the TRUSTe privacy program.

History and development

Roblox was created by David Baszucki in Silicon Valley, California and is based in Portola Valley, California. The name is a portmanteau of the words "Robots" and "Blocks". Roblox's project straddles aspects of online entertainment: virtual worlds, casual gaming, and user-constructed content.

Roblox has gained $2.18 million in funding after an equity issue.

Customization

Places

Players in Roblox have the ability to construct up to one place with a regular account, ten with Builders Club, twenty five with Turbo Builders Club, and 100 with Outrageous Builders Club, out of an unlimited supply of virtual building blocks. These blocks can be customized to each players liking. Every user starts out with a home of their own where they can customize it using materials such as bricks, scripts, and other user created models.

Avatars

Players in Roblox are given an avatar, which is used by the player when visiting each virtual world, that they can customize with new hats, heads, clothes and faces. All of these are available to purchase with Roblox's two virtual currencies, in the Catalog.

Badges

Roblox provides users with achievement awards called badges. For example, Roblox has three combat badges that are awarded to users with high amounts of lifetime Knockouts. There is also 3 Builder's Club badges, one for each type of Builder's Club, given to the player when they join the paid service. There are a total of 15 badges available to users. On August 13, 2009, Roblox allowed users to create their own badges that they put in their game that others could work on getting, or even as a freebie.

The Catalog

The Catalog is where players purchase and sell creations for Tickets and Robux. When selling, there is a 10% sales tax, so 10% of the money it is sold for goes to the virtual economy, and 90% goes to the seller; for example, selling a shirt for 10 Tickets will give the seller 9 tickets. Some items, such as hats, can also be bought but can only be uploaded by an administrator. However, players can now sell limited edition hats for Robux and get 75% of the sale.. On May 8, 2009, gear was introduced. This introduced weapons, boosters, etc. that the player could bring to the game. On June 3 2009, players were allowed to specify which types of gear would be allowed in their place.

Premium Offers

Builders Club

Although Roblox is free, it offers premium membership in the form of Builders Club, Turbo Builders Club, and Outrageous Builders Club. With any form of Builders Club, Roblox provides players Builders Club features, like the following:

Central Bank

On September 26, 2008, Roblox added the "central bank", where users can buy Robux for cash. Builders Club members get more Robux with paying the same amount of money with non-Builders Club members. Also, Builder's Club members can buy smaller amounts of Robux (which is cheaper) while free members cannot.

Outrageous Cast

The outrageous cast is a new update created for only Outrageous Builders Club Members. Every two weeks, At roughly 4:00 Pacific time, the ROBLOX developers launch a live stream where they talk about new updates, and answer any questions asked by the users in the livestream chatbox. This cast was launched with the Outrageous Builders Club Update.

Gameplay

Roblox users can bring their avatar with them into the 3D worlds that have been constructed by other users. Players can chat with eachother. When chatted, the message appears in the top left corner in a chat log. Also, In a recent update on the week of November 23rd, 2009, when chatting, a bubble made with GUIs appears above the character's head for a short amount of time. Only players close to the chatter is able to see this. Users can report others if their behavior is unnaceptable using the report bubble at the bottom right corner of the screen. Some games offer the usage of leaderboards, allowing roleplaying, and scoring to be available to all. Finally, you can buy items called, "Gear" from the catlog. If the place allows it, you can bring your purchased gear in game with you.

Games

In Roblox users are allowed to visit other users places and see their creations. A game is built up of bricks and Lua scripts to allow users to make whatever they wish. People are free to build anything they want, such as obstacle courses, paintball, demolition games, capture the flag, hang-outs, churches, team fights or tycoons.

Meshes

Meshes are the shape of an item. Since 2008, people have not been able to upload meshes to Roblox except through exploiting which would get the user banned. People can however change the size, color and texture of meshes in Roblox Studio. Textures for meshes are uploaded as Decals.

Sounds

Different sounds can be programmed to occur at certain times and durations. There are built in sounds that download to the computer and sounds that have been previously uploaded to Roblox. As of 2008, only administrators can upload sounds.

Roblox Studio

Roblox Studio is a program very similar to Microsoft Visual Studio, used to build, edit, or test places. It is an essential program in order to do things such as scripting and advanced building. With Roblox Studio, the user does not have a character and he/she uses the arrow keys to scroll around the game. The player can pause, cut and copy in Roblox Studio. People are allowed to copy or edit other places if their game's status is "Shared" or, more commonly called, 'uncopylocked'.

Economy

Roblox has its own virtual economy. Players can earn and trade two currencies, Tickets and Robux. Users are awarded Tickets by getting people to visit their virtual places, Tickets, Robux, or both from selling their user made clothing, or by trading their money on Roblox's stock market. Players are also given a login bonus of 10 Tickets. Builder's club members get a daily allowance of 15 Robux or 35 Robux if they are in Turbo Builders Club.

Players can also advertise their clothing and places by uploading advertisements that they have created. They can then Bid Tickets, and their bid will compete with other users' bids. The higher the bid the more likely that the ad will appear.

Roblox also has a built-in Trade Currency system in which you can trade Tickets for Robux or Robux for Tickets. The Trade Currency has a system in which the rate can change. This rate is what decides how many Tickets you get for Robux or vice-versa.

Interaction

Chat Modes

To enhance security of kids, there are two kinds of chat modes, Super Safe Chat and Safe Chat. Safe Chat users are allowed to say anything they want as long as it does not contain profanity. Super Safe Chat users can only use words or sentences chosen from a pre-determined list. Users under the age of 13 and Guests can use Super Safe Chat only.

Guests

When Roblox has users that could make games, upload shirts, buy clothes, and more, added in mid-2008 there are "Guests" that are all around Roblox. However, they have Super Safe Chat, which means they cannot talk unless if they use the blue chat bubble in every game with a list of words they could click and say. However, some people made scripts in games that let guests talk. Also, it is prohibited to impersonate a guest. If you do, and are reported, your account will be deleted.

Social Features

Groups were released on July 30, 2009, allowing users to have clan wars, petitions, face clubs, etc. Roblox also added a feature called a Shout, which allows users to change their personal status in a similar fashion to popular online social networking websites Twitter and Facebook. Other additions included the option allowing users to chose best friends, and be able to see the status change of your best friend in your feed. As of August 13, 2009, the amount of groups users could own was five for free members, ten for Builders Club members, and twenty for Turbo Builders Club members.

On the same day, there were many group updates. There was group search (under "People"), you could also give your group ownership to others, and group status updates, where a group announces an update, and everyone in that group receives the message. On September 2, 2009, they added "Facebook Connect", where people could share their character, places, and status updates to friends on Facebook's wall. On the same day they added "Roblox live chat" where people could chat with their friends.

Friend Referrals

On October 14th, 2009 Roblox released a Friend Referral feature. This meant that the users would be able to invite their friends, via email of printable invitations. An example is 15-457-36. You can either use these when joining Roblox, or getting upgraded to Builders Club, where you and the referral code owner get 50 Robux extra.

See also

• Blockland - A similar MMOG
• LEGO Universe - An upcoming MMOG in development by NetDevil, endorsed by LEGO.

References

1. "Listio Reviews of Roblox". Listio. Retrieved 5 August 2009.
2. "Roblox Game Review - MMO Hut". MMOHut. Retrieved 13 November 2009.
3. "Roblox as an educational program language". Kids Like. Retrieved 24 January 2009.
4. "Parents guide to Roblox".
5. "Roblox at TRUSTe". TRUSTe. Retrieved 12 April 2009.
6. "Roblox Info on BuisnessWeek". BusinessWeek. Retrieved 20 September 2009.
7. "Interview with Telamon". Roblox Corporation. Retrieved 20 September 2009.
8. "Roblox About page". Roblox Corporation. Retrieved 16 June 2009.
9. "Roblox Raises 2.3M". VentureBeat. Retrieved 20 September 2009.
10. "Building blocks of Roblox".
11. "Help page found under Building".
12. "Roblox Catalog".
13. "Roblox Badges".
14. "Roblox hat".
15. "Gear on Roblox".
16. "Selecting Gear on Roblox".
17. "Builders Club". Roblox. Retrieved 4 November 2009.
18. "Roblox Central Bank".
19. ^ "Buy Robux and Play as Guest on Roblox".
20. "Roblox - Free Multiplayer Online Games". Free Multiplayer Online Games. Retrieved 14 October 2009.
21. [http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/roblox-lego-meets-webkinz-equals-fun- games/ "Roblox - A Cool Lego-Based Free Virtual World for Kids"]. makeuseof.com. Retrieved 11 October 2009. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); line feed character in |title= at position 51 (help); line feed character in |url= at position 67 (help)
22. "Roblox on the Great Games Experiment". Great Games Experiment. Retrieved 17 July 2009. {{cite web}}: line feed character in |title= at position 8 (help)
23. "Roblox Game Overview at Onrpg". Onrpg. Retrieved 5 August 2009.
24. "Roblox Review on Common Sense Media". Common Sense Media. Retrieved 24 May 2009.
25. "Gorilla Nation". Free Press Release. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
26. "Groups on Roblox". Roblox Corporation. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
27. "More Social Features on Roblox". Roblox Corporation. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
28. ^ "Group Updates on Roblox". Roblox Corporation. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
29. "Facebook Connect". Roblox Corporation. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
30. "Roblox Live Chat". Roblox Corporation. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
31. "Refer a friend, get paid!". Roblox Corporation. Retrieved 1 November 2009.

External links

• The Official Website
• Official Roblox Wiki
• Developers' Journal
• Help Section

• 2005 video games
• Massively multiplayer online games
• Lua-scripted video games