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I know you've heard enough, but please hear what I have to say on the matter.
This post is going to be long but please bear with me.
Before I start, let me tell you who I am.
I first heard about ROBLOX in 2008, and joined in 2010. (I've had other accounts. This is just the one I use now). Back then, I was a complete noob like everyone here once was.
I had 10 of these things called "Tickets." It was only a matter of time before I joined my first clan. That was Rebel Squad.
After that, it was only a matter of time until I learned I earned 10 of these "tickets," or "tix," every day. I then learned I could use them to buy various items from this place called the "Catalog."
It's been 4 years. I am still loyal to Rebel Squad, and was even promoted to an RS HR rank, until I quit and rejoined due to bad leadership.
Bad leadership.
Rebel Squad had some 30,000 members when I joined. The leadership changed one day, and after a battle for the throne of Rebel Squad, one person ultimately claimed leadership of RS. He was greedy. He channeled group funds for himself, he made sure he had ultimate control and power over everything, and made sure nobody could stand up to him. Half of the Rebel Squad member body left. Half! That included me, of course. I was an HR at the time, and when I discovered the conspiracy, I left because RS was corrupt and didn't think about the members first. I rejoined about two months later when the leadership of RS was taken out of the previous ruler's hands, as his members no longer obeyed him and left. The new ruler knew what he was doing. He made sure every decision was accepted by the members, and put the members ahead of anything. We climbed to 40,000+ members in the span of a few weeks. This was true leadership.
Keep this story in mind. I'll be bringing it up shortly.
That was me when I first joined ROBLOX.
Now, if a new member happens to join, he will start out with 10 measly tix, just to discover he will have to wait another two months to buy a good, complete set of clothing.
That means he has to log on every day for 60 days, consecutively, to be able to buy just one shirt. What's the problem, you ask?
Well, the member is not likely to become hooked to ROBLOX quick enough to make him want to stay. Most likely, he or she will be called a "noob" because of his/her looks, which would further pressure them to leave ROBLOX. They aren't gonna sit around for 60 days being called a noob, are they? No, they will turn to some other game or service to provide them entertainment.
Thus, no new growth will occur on ROBLOX.
Now, as I have told you, I have a deep history in clans.
I have been a high rank in over 70 clans and been a member in a countless number of clans.
Just yesterday, a new member walked up to me and said they were disappointed because they couldn't attend a training. The uniform was just too expensive. It was 600 tix altogether. Our clan rules state that uniforms must be worn at all times when in an event for that clan.
Now our clan growth screeched to a halt as we tried to figure out workarounds for the situation.
At Virtual BLOXcon, it was stated that ROBLOX had a liking for groups, and would like to further the growth of groups.
How is this furthering group growth?
I talked about leadership a while back, and how a good leader puts the members before themselves.
ROBLOX, what you have shown after releasing this and other updates is that you don't care about the members at all. You just want money. In my example with what happened to RS, half of the members left when the leader got greedy. This example is a good microcosm to what is predictably about to happen to ROBLOX. The community has no say in any of this. It isn't good from a business standpoint either.
Companies like ROBLOX depend on their user base to earn money. Because of this, it is crucial for companies to please their community, since they are the ones making them the big bucks. If a company upsets the community, they won't make quite as much money. The majority of the ROBLOX player base is non-BC, non-paying members. This update makes it so it's so much more difficult for non-BC members to buy clothing.
This update, as stated by ROBLOX themselves, was "To Incentivize (Not a real word, mind you) people to buy ROBUX." Well they overlooked one key thing - people can leave. They don't have to buy ROBUX. They can just hop on over to some other game, and forget about ROBLOX entirely. ROBLOX is not so important to people that they would spend a fortune on ROBUX when they could just play Minecraft, or World of Warcraft, or League of Legends, just to name a few. People are not going to spend real money just to buy some in-game clothing item they could easily make themselves, or could have bought for a few pieces of in-game currency.
It is a terrible business model that ROBLOX is setting up right now. One which will hinder growth and even prevent it. Not only that, it is set on a course to decrease the member count drastically. As members get unhappy, they just leave. Enough said.
I do not understand how a company that wishes to succeed can so easily stand around while the rest of their member body riots. The forums are filled, people are taking off their clothes, ranting, conducting large-scale meetings, and more, just to show how unhappy they are with this update. Just to prove their point. Just to be heard.
Sure, there have been complaints about updates multiple times in the past, but nothing on a scale this huge.
ROBLOX, you say that people will profit from this, but how? People, even BC members with more than enough money, won't buy shirts because they are too expensive. Even then, existing members already have shirts and pants they've bought in the past that they could wear, so they won't even consider new clothing at these outrageous prices. Most people can't even afford them. The amount of sales of merchandise will decrease drastically. People who buy a 300 tix shirt could have gotten 200 shirts with the same amount of money in the past.
ROBLOX also says that this was meant to decrease copying of shirts. Well, unless an actual copylock feature for shirts is put in place, copying will still continue. People won't be able to tell which shirt is the original and which is not, so this "minimum price" thing is no use. Then if people decide to sell their clothing at prices higher than the minimum, people can easily copy them and sell them for the minimum.
I think all of you have read quite a few forum posts and heard quite a few rants, so I believe you know where I'm going with this.
There is one final topic I need to touch on.
And that is the creativity. The freedom.
Up until three years ago, ROBLOX used to be a place, albeit full of scammers and copiers, where people could freely share their creations.
In the past three years, more and more restrictions on sales have been added. This upset some members, but that was only temporary until people saw it didn't have that big of an impact.
Then we come to today.
This update restricted the freedom to set a price on a person's creations, screwed over NBC members, and demolished the organized uniform distribution of clans and other groups to distinguish their own members. That all happened in one swift update. The previous ones had very little impact, so people didn't care after a while, but this one had a huge impact throughout the entire world of ROBLOX. The arguement between ROBLOX and the community will continue until the community either gets what they want, or everyone ups and leaves.
ROBLOX used to be a place where people could freely express themselves in their creations.
Some people WANT their shirts to be free to spread word of a cause (i.e. Stop Cancer, etc.), or some people wanted their shirts low-priced to profit by the bulk of sales, not by the high price.
People should be able to set the price to what they want. They shouldn't have to be restricted to prices 300 tix and up, or 25 ROBUX and up.
As things continue, creators are losing more and more of their freedom. What is likely to happen now, what, with the high prices, less and less shirts are going to be made as less and less people can afford them.
It's a simple principle of business.
A business can profit as long as it is earning more money than it is using up.
Creating shirts, pants, etc. on ROBLOX is free. There is no money required to create the items. Thus, the price can be set low, as to not upset customers, AND the makers can strike a profit, from any price.
Because of this, there is absolutely no reason to force people to sell their stuff for high prices.
ROBLOX already only lets BC members make shirts, so removing this benefit for NBC members is just preposterous and goes against a ton of business principles.
Finally, people used to express what they wanted through the clothes they made. Now, if they do that, whose going to buy their clothes? What if someone makes something they don't think is really all that great, and they purposefully want to sell it for less? What then? They would get virtually no sales for their creations. Way less sales than they would have gotten, should they have had the option to sell it at their selected price.
This new updated took all the creativity away from ROBLOX.
Now there is no chance of success for BC members who make clothing, and no chance of success for the 95% of people who either can't afford or don't want to buy clothing at the raised prices.
So, ROBLOX.
You've managed to screw over the entire community, destroy your entire economy, crush groups, and cause a full-scale community riot, all with one small update.
Wow.
I have never seen a more moronic company.
*clap clap* Applause to you.
Achievement unlocked.
Whatever.
The only way to set things right and guarantee a future for ROBLOX is to get rid of this update and listen tot he community for once.
Those guys in the community are the ones you are depending on to earn money.
And for all of you ROBLOXians, BC or not, you have a lot more power than you think.
Fellow ROBLOXians, if you think about it, we have the power to make or break ROBLOX's future. We have the power to ensure they are either highly successful or a colossal failure.
It's up to us.
So join us in this fight.
Post some threads of your own.
Email ROBLOX at [email protected] or [email protected]
Don't run, fight back.
There's a lot you can do.
And with that, I concede.
~SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION~ |