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The timeless thread is back. It's back and it's filled to the brim with some of the most well thought through, thoroughly explained, and very well organized information in ROBLOX. This thread has only one decided purpose. To help. I don't care how it does help, whether it be the people I am arguing with or the people that argue alongside me, as long as it fulfills its purpose.
You are not required to read this whole thread, just to clarify. This is not like any regular thread, it is a guide. A guide to the truth about ROBLOX, and a guide to the road of the best assumptions you can make when proof is lacking.
The information in this thread is not correct. It is not all proven. There are some facts, but it is mostly opinion. This means you are welcome to disagree, however I have designed my assumptions to be almost unbeatable.
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Chapter I: ROBLOX now, ROBLOX then
One thing I hear a little too often on the forum is the phrase "the good ol' days." People have grown to assume that everything was better in the good ol' days, but that isn't necessarily true. It's only not necessarily true when you think about it, as most people on ROBLOX do not do, which is the exact reason we get all sorts of ridiculous rumors and hardly convincing arguments. Staying on-topic, however, let's summarize the good ol' days for you, in case it's a phrase you're unfamiliar with.
In the good ol' days, there were no inaccurate contests. There was no spamload of hats and gear. There was no offline chat or connection to Facebook. There were no statuses, no best friends, no groups, no highly personalized profile. Also no stamper tool and no terrain generator. There were only games and a small community. BC came a little later.
To some people, this description of new updates may sound completely disgusting. To others, it may seem like heaven. To some like me, however - we don't really care at all. These are the people who actually think about it.
Many people believe ROBLOX is turning into a social network, and is abandoning its old building traditions that made it popular in the first place. But, to the people who think about it, that's hardly so. Why? I suppose I should stop keeping you in the dark and actually tell you. Let's look at the facts for a minute.
In 2005, when ROBLOX was opened to the public, the motto was "Build and play games with friends." Now that motto is basically the same, but you can also "Be anyone." People are convinced that ROBLOX doesn't care about its old motto anymore and is switching over to caring about clothes, chat, etc.
The facts, however, prove otherwise, at least for now. In the early years, there were games, forums, and friends. The three major aspects of ROBLOX. You could build games, play others with friends, and then forum if you don't feel like games. However, after 7 years, has this changed at all? The answer is no, as you might of expected. The motto has always been "Build and play games with friends," and will always be.
Sure, a lot of things have come to ROBLOX, but nothing that directly and majorly affects the motto. The terrain generator and the stamper tool prove that they still care about building, even though they weren't the best updates ever. The newer playerlist, the backpack, video camera, and ingame reset proves they also care about playing experience.
So, for 7 years, ROBLOX has kept the motto the same. So why do people think that they're having second thoughts about the purpose of the game? The answer lies in the updates. ROBLOX has put so many updates in the game that have nothing to do with building and playing with friends that people are convinced that they just don't care about that anymore. But, once again, the people who realize the truth about ROBLOX are the ones who think about it.
ROBLOX has always been based on multiplayer gaming and building. There are not many ways they can improve that. Their whole system relies almost completely on the users, and not with ROBLOX. Because ROBLOX's system is that every place on ROBLOX is a unique one, and not littered with stuff that ROBLOX already made for the players. If ROBLOX made so many features for ingame play that you would barely have to script to make your place awesome and different from the rest, then would there be a point in their system?
This is why ROBLOX has not focused on making ingame updates. Unless they dream up something that is simply needed in a place (like a reset button, or a video camera, or a playerlist), they should leave the rest to the players. So, what does ROBLOX do in the meantime? Make accessories.
Chapter II: Has ROBLOX been improving?
So, now we know why ROBLOX has been focusing on accessories, but did these accessories improve ROBLOX? Could they have done it better? Can they do it better? These are difficult questions to answer, because we need inside knowledge to make a convincing point. We know nothing of their financial state, nothing about how hard their developers are working, what they are currently working on. Absolutely nothing. The least we can do is assume, and that is what I intend to do here.
Let's try to answer the question, "Could they have done it better?" This is a bit of a trick question, because they could not have done it perfectly. What's implied in the question is, was the ROBLOXian community satisfied over the years?
If the ROBLOXian community existed of people who actually thought about what they were going to say, they would of realized that they actually were content. At least, I am. No one has any reason to have been content in the year 2006 and not content in the year 2012. Reason being, there's no difference between the two time periods, except for a whole lot of upgrades, and one major factor - the community. The community is what has caused the enormous change in ROBLOX. These are the pros and cons of the community today, compared to the community of '06.
Pros:
Lots of games
Almost always someone online to play with
Active forums
Big servers
Lots of possibilites for friends
Cons:
Crowded servers
Lots of exploiters
Lag
Lots of immature people
Spam
So the community has, frankly, been the most major difference between the early years of ROBLOX and the later years. If people are dissatisfied with the new community, they did not say so. Most people act as if they know everything about why the good ol' days were better, but old ROBLOX was just a downgrade of the new ROBLOX if you don't take the community into consideration.
The new community does, however, have a little bit to do with ROBLOX's sequence of updates. New customers are drawn and attached to the game based upon what they see. But, I can assure you that most people joined for the games, and not for the clothing. Only later, they will notice minor features that they will begin to enjoy, and that will keep them attached to ROBLOX.
The key to be inserted into all of this is, however, money. ROBLOX needs to keep customer satisfaction high while running a site at the same time. They focus little on games, partially because they don't need to, and partially because they need to promote getting money. They say that good builders should upgrade to BC, but it's hard to make it easier for a BCer to build, or give him a wider range of tools/places. Of all the BC features, only one has anything to do with building.
But that's nothing to be ashamed of. What else can they give BC? The game is run by the players. Players make the models, the scripts, and the places. ROBLOX gives some starting tools, and the users carve masterpieces with them. That's the rule of the game. Because of this, it's hard to give a BCer more. So, and here's the climax of my point - ROBLOX focused on other things to promote BC.
Groups, hats, money. They didn't make those features to promote a social network, they made those features to promote BC, in other words, money. A smart marketing tactic. They have kept customer satisfaction high by keeping the whole structure of the game - building - free, and also managed to keep the site running by adding accessories only accessible by upgraded members of the site. Only, this plan had one side effect, which is the reason NBCers are complaining today.
Chapter III: A feeling of discrimination
There is an ominous tension between ROBLOX and its users, I hope my previous chapters helped fix that a little. But there is another problem. Tension between BC and NBC.
This is superstition. Basically. The word does not exactly mean what it means here, but it defines the current circumstances correctly. There is no "war." It's only in your head, for the most part. I will push further into this idea, starting with this: NBCers and BCers alike usually are a part of at least one of these "groups," or simply categories each with their own separate main perspective on the situation:
1. "There is no war"
2. "Stop complaining, BCers paid, you didn't"
3. "NBC deserves more benefits"
4. "NBC and BC are fine the way they are. They are balanced"
5. "NBC deserves absolutely nothing, they don't pay at all"
I agree with Number 1 and Number 4. Frankly, there is no real "war." Every month or so, there's one NBCer who's blown his top that makes a really long riot post on the forum, which dies relatively quickly. Other then that, I see very little discussion over the topic ingame, in the commentary, or anywhere else, really. Most of the people in ROBLOX are either: Too inexperienced to care, or experienced enough to understand. To understand that ROBLOX needs money to run the site.
But there are people who push this idea. They assume that ROBLOX is swimming in money, that their staff live in mansions, and that they do nothing besides chair-racing all day. I am here to say, however, that this idea is purely ridiculous. In my opinion. You are welcome to disagree with me here, because I am only assuming.
ROBLOX have three major things to pay: servers, employees, and bandwidth. ROBLOX also has three major aspects of gaining income: advertisement revenue, BC purchases, and ROBUX purchases. Advertisement revenue is generated by NBCers, who see ads. Now, the question is, does ROBLOX actually need this money to run the site, or could they cut their income a little?
That's the big question: no one knows, except for ROBLOX. Don't bother trying to prove something about their finance to me, unless you have evidence of a genuine interview with the whole ROBLOX team.
So, let's not worry about it. Because we can't prove anything, arguing about it doesn't accomplish much, does it? Also acknowledge that ROBLOX is a for-profit company. They have to make more money than they actually need.
Now, let's get back on topic. NBC discrimination. Why is it balanced, in my opinion?
Because BC does not have any features that NBC doesn't have. I would be questioning the balance between NBC and BC if NBC didn't get any money, didn't have any places, couldn't join groups, couldn't forum, couldn't gain badges, etc., but NBC does.
There is not a single major, unique feature that BC gets, but NBC does not get. Bodies was the only feature that BC got especially, and NBC did not really get. But bodies are too minor to count.
ROBLOX has balanced BC and NBC just right. BC does not cost much, but you don't get that many more features. The only things you can really treasure are the groups, places, and money.
NBC and BC are definitely balanced. NBC are given, in my opinion, the perfect amount of features for people who don't pay. What's more, ROBLOX has kept the three most important things free for everyone: the ability to play and build places, the ability to forum, and the ability to join groups.
Chapter IV: The Guest War
This is a short chapter covering a common ROBLOXian's feelings towards guests, and why these feelings should be different.
Where should I begin? Let's begin with the fact that guests are simply users trying out the game. If they do something stupid, it's not because they're idiots, it's because they're new.
People want to get rid of guests, because they're annoying, and they delete things. I actually haven't seen any guests deleting things, but that's not the point.
The point is that users should be welcomed, not blocked. There is no difference between a guest and a newbie, but people are often harsher towards guests. But there's another problem - users impersonating guests so that they can break the rules.
People are irritated by that. But face it: an alternative account can deal far more damage than a guest. An alt uses up a name, often a snipe, that other users might of wanted. Plus, an alt can break far more rules than a guest, since he can talk. An alt can be reported, but then the rulebreaker can just get on another alt. Be happy that guests, and not alts, are being used to break the rules. If we were to remove guests, people would resort to alts, and that would create a far bigger problem than the one we solved.
Chapter V: Conclusion
I have one thing to say after all this. Don't worry about it. There is not enough evidence. There are so many stereotypes and rumors, it is impossible to decipher the right ones, if they exist. Since there is nothing to prove, because there is no proof, just don't worry about it.
Most importantly, enjoy ROBLOX. There are so many things you can do that you might just take for granted. You don't have to do anything. ROBLOX wanted to make a game that players all over the world can enjoy, making their own games and inviting friends to play others'. I'd say that they achieved their goal. If only their community thought about it. |