Roblox

Roblox
Official Roblox Logo
Developer(s)	Roblox Corporation
Publisher(s)	Roblox Corporation
Distributor(s)	Roblox Corporation
Director(s)	David Baszucki (CEO) John Shedletsky (Creative Director)
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, rudimentary Mac OS X version
Release date(s)	June 2005
Latest release	7a / August 6, 2011
Genre(s)	MMOG, MMORPG, Physics-based sandbox
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Media/distribution	Download
System requirements 1.8 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM, either Direct3D or OpenGL, Windows XP SP2/Windows Vista/Windows 7, Mac OS X (Beta), Internet connection

Roblox (stylized as RŌBLOX) is a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) virtual playground and workshop designed for children aged 7 and over. Players can build games with blocks of various shapes, sizes, and materials.^[1] Roblox users can code the places they design with a restricted and sandboxed version of Lua 5.1.^[2] Roblox is part of the TRUSTe privacy program^[3] and is a Better Business Bureau accredited corporation.^[4][5].

Roblox has raised $2.3 million in funding after an equity issue,^[6] and another $4 million was raised after a second round of funding.^[7]

History and development

Roblox was created by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in Silicon Valley, California and is based in Redwood City, California.^[8] The name is a portmanteau of the words robots and blocks.^[9]

In mid-2007, Roblox considered a new character concept to allow for more complex clothing such as hairpieces to blend with the character.^[10] This was however rejected later for the minifigure 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.^[11]

Relief help

2010 Haiti earthquake relief efforts

On 21 January 2010, Roblox donated $5472 to relief efforts for the 2010 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.^[12]

2011 Japan relief efforts

On 11 March 2011, Roblox did a similar relief effort for the 2011 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.^[13]

If a user bought both hats, a total sum of $1.10 would be sent as a donation to the American Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Fund.

Roblox users have bought the fundraiser hats 23,395^[14] times, raising a total of $10,445.80^[14] ROBLOX has donated it to the American Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Fund.

Updates

In mid-2008, Roblox added a feature to allow non-registered users to enter places with restricted functionality by playing as a guest.^[15] The username of a guest is shown as "Guest [number (0-9999)]". Guests can only use the chat menu full of predetermined phrases.

A server on roblox

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 disabled the feature of uploading sounds, images, animations, and mesh data types via Roblox Studio, and also disabled the viewing of data previously uploaded that way.

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.

In May 2011, Roblox made another GUI cosmetic update for the game, following the previous 2010 update. It smoothens out the rest of the CoreGUI, including the player/team list. During the month of May, Roblox also introduced a brand new iPhone app.

In August 2011, Roblox introduced the plugin feature.^[16] Plugins allow users to write Lua code that adds a button to the Roblox Studio toolbars to write custom features into their version of Roblox Studio. As of September 2011 there is no official way to share these plugins to other users, and non-Roblox links are not allowed on the Roblox forums.

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, and move around with the spacebar and arrow keys. With the "/" key the users can also chat with each other. Users can optionally allow their places to be visited offline, but this also allows other players to copy the user's content.

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 sandboxed 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 editing Ultimate Paintball.

Roblox Studio is a program similar to Microsoft Visual Studio and is used to construct places.^[17]

Players create their own places, edit them and also edit public domain places.

Economy

Roblox has 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.^[18] 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.^[19]

Trading is not allowed because a Trading System is upcoming.

ImPlicitNgine

The ImPlicitNgine is a physics engine programmed in C++ that is used in Roblox. David Baszucki, the CEO and co-founder of Roblox Corporation, created the engine in 2004. The engine handles physics that simulate the real world in tandem with OGRE and G3D, which handles the rendering of the graphics. The ImPlicitNgine allows accurate simulation of hundreds of thousands of rigid bodies in real time. ImPlicitNgine also allows games to be composed without any static geometry sans the skybox. Because of this, every entity in a game can have physical calculations applied to it.

It features rigid body simulation, real time simulation, and spherical and rectangular physical calculation.

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 than standard Builder's Club.

Cash cards

Roblox gives people the option to pay via PayPal, Rixty, Wallie, Paymo, and also sells Roblox cards at Toys R Us,^[20] 7-Eleven, GameStop, Walmart, Best Buy, and Future Shop which can be purchased for $10 or $25 and be used for upgrades such as Builders Club or Robux. Currently, the cards are only sold in the U.S. and Canada.^[21]

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.

Roblox is certified by the Better Business Bureau and TRUSTe.

Test Sites

Roblox also hosts two test sites, gametest.roblox.com and sitetest.roblox.com. gametest.roblox.com is used for testing different features in-game, and sitetest.roblox.com is used for new features on the website. These sites are available to registered users to test new features being developed. The sites are only up at certain times, and players on the regular site are notified with an orange banner saying when they are available.

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 scaled 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. However, by using the workaround, WINE, you can run the program with most features. In relation to most popular programs on WINE, it has a small number of users,^[22] possibly due to the different target age and intelligence demographics of Roblox and Linux.

iPhone App

On May 26, 2011 Roblox released an iOS app.^[23]

With this app, players can do things on the website, such as view their profile, manage their friends and more, with more features coming. However, there is no feature for building or playing Roblox games, and there is currently a bug with the app which allows you to register usernames over the character limit. In the newest version, 1.1.1, a feature was added where the user can now buy Builders Club as an in-app purchase, via iTunes.^[24]

See also

• Blockland - Similar online computer game
• LEGO Universe - A MMOG made by NetDevil, endorsed by LEGO.

References

1. ^ "Roblox Game Review - MMO Hut". MMOHut. http://mmohut.com/browser-games/roblox. Retrieved 13 November 2009. 
2. ^ "Roblox as an educational program language". Kids Like. http://kidslike.info/roblox_using_roblox_as_an_educational_programming_language. Retrieved 24 January 2009. 
3. ^ "Roblox at TRUSTe". TRUSTe. http://www.truste.com/trusted_sites/index.html#R. Retrieved 12 April 2009. 
4. ^ "BBB Review of ROBLOX in Redwood City, California". Better Business Bureau. http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-francisco/business-reviews/internet-gaming/roblox-corporation-in-redwood-city-ca-316031. Retrieved 8 December 2009. 
5. ^ "Better Business Bureau Accredited". Roblox Corporation. http://blog.roblox.com/?p=1885. Retrieved 8 December 2009. 
6. ^ "Roblox Raises 2.3M". VentureBeat. http://games.venturebeat.com/2009/08/14/roblox-raises-23m-to-help-kids-build-casual-games/. Retrieved 20 September 2009. 
7. ^ "ROBLOX Raises $4 Million For Its Online Building Game For Kids". http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/14/roblox-raises-4-million-for-its-online-building-game-for-kids/. 
8. ^ "Roblox Info on BusinessWeek". BusinessWeek. http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=32789865. Retrieved 20 September 2009. 
9. ^ "Interview with Telamon". Roblox Corporation. http://blog.roblox.com/?p=1540. Retrieved 20 September 2009. 
10. ^ "Roblox Developers' Journal >> More Character Visuals". Roblox Corporation. http://blog.roblox.com/?p=123. Retrieved 22 March 2010. 
11. ^ "Do You Need Any Body?". http://blog.roblox.com/?p=2339. Retrieved 11-07-2010. 
12. ^ "ROBLOX Uses Virtual Goods to Help Kids Donate to Haiti". Earthtimes. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/roblox-uses-virtual-goods-to-help-kids-donate-to-haiti,1132480.shtml/. Retrieved 21 January 2010. 
13. ^ "Roblox Developers' Journal >> Hats for Japan". http://blog.roblox.com/?p=4160. 
14. ^ ^{a b} "Roblox Developers' Journal >> Generosity by the Thousands for Japan!". http://blog.roblox.com/?p=4217. 
15. ^ "Be Our Guest; Buy Our ROBUX". Roblox Corporation. http://blog.roblox.com/?p=371. Retrieved 26 September 2008. 
16. ^ "Roblox Developers' Journal >> ROBLOX Plugins: Power to Scripters". Roblox Corporation. http://blog.roblox.com/?p=5534. Retrieved 6 September 2011. 
17. ^ "Roblox - A Cool Lego-Based Free Virtual World for Kids". makeuseof.com. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/roblox-lego-meets-webkinz-equals-fun-games/. Retrieved 11 October 2009. 
18. ^ "It’s the Economy…". http://blog.roblox.com/?p=440. Retrieved 19 July 2010. 
19. ^ "The unofficial RoblEX trading group". http://www.roblox.com/Groups/group.aspx?gid=16127. 
20. ^ "ROBLOX Cards now available at Toys R Us!". Roblox Corporation. 26 September 2010. http://blog.roblox.com/?p=3112. Retrieved 5 October 2010. 
21. ^ "ROBLOX Cards Now Available at 7-Eleven!". Roblox Corporation. 1 October 2010. http://blog.roblox.com/?p=3085. Retrieved 5 October 2010. 
22. ^ http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=15961
23. ^ "Roblox Developers' Journal >> ROBLOX for iPhone Version 1.0!". Roblox. 26 May 2011. http://blog.roblox.com/?p=5009. Retrieved 26 May 2011. 
24. ^ "Roblox Developers' Journal >> Builders Club Available in iTunes". Roblox. 18 September 2011. http://blog.roblox.com/?p=5714. Retrieved 26 May 2011. 

External links

• Roblox Home Page
• Roblox Developer's Journal
• Roblox Help Wiki