User blog:Alienation999/The History of ROBLOX

ROBLOX is currently in a Dark Age, which which had begun in 2014, though some dispute that it began halfway through 2013.

Here is a a bit history of ROBLOX (Might be long anyway, but who cares?).

Pre-2004
In the Mid 1990's, ROBLOX was concieved as a game, but however support for 3D Games had not yet existed. This was during the same time that Videogames such as Mortal Kombat 3, Tekken 2, Chrono Trigger and Donkey Kong Country 2 were made.

Despite this, work began anyway in 1996, headed by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel, and a test texture was created in 1998. In 2003, Jim Stevens registered the domain goblox.com, but then later registered a domain for Dynablocks (ROBLOX was originally known as Dynablocks)

2004-2005 (Alpha and Beta Period)
Robert Underwood registered the domain ROBLOX, and finally settled at that. The first user is created by the Admin's, and is named Admin, though Admin was later terminated and had its ID changed. David Baszucki and Erik Cassel then make their accounts, and upload nearly a thousand models.

In 2005, the Alpha Period ended, and the Beta began. The successor account to Admin was created, and was called ROBLOX.

In June, ROBLOX was opened to the public. Players could play Minigames to earn ROBLOX Points, which are similar to the Player Points we have today. To help Admin's interact with new players, John Doe and Jane Doe were created.

2006
John Shedletsky becomes the Creative Director of ROBLOX, and created an account named Telamon.

Multiplayer Games are created, the friend system is created, private messaging is created, a search system is added, and places can now be made Friends-Only. Later, an immensely popular game named Crossroads was created, and the ROBLOX Blog was created as well.

Santa's Winter Stronghold is created to celebrate Christmas, and can be seen as a predecessor to the ROBLOX Holiday Events.

2007
Animations were finally added to ROBLOX Characters to make them appear to walk, as before, when they moved they were simply still. Also added, was the ability to change your character color, and to wear T-Shirts.

Later, A Happy Home in Robloxia (A former widespreadingly used template) was created, as with the Report Abuse system.

During April Fools Day, Telamon tricked users into believing that ROBLOX was being bought by Google, and created a link that redirected to ROBLOX called gooblox.com. A few days later, Builders Club was created.

As ROBLOX Points started to become obsolete, they were replaced with Robux, a new form of currency. Clockwork joins the Admin team, and hats are added to ROBLOX.

ROBLOX managed to reach 30,000 members, and the Veteran Badge is created for those who play for more than a year. Later during July, there were 40,000 members. The Robloxian Lottery was held, and was recieved positively by users.

A month later, with 50,000 members, Tickets are created to help make a currency for everyone.

As a possible sequel to the Winter Stronghold event, Giftsplosion 2007 was held, where users could earn gifts for doing various things on the website.

At the end of the great year, forcefields were added, and reached an astounding 100,000 members, compared to 10,000 in late 2006.

2008
Many present bugs on ROBLOX are fixed, and PayPal support for purchasing BC is added.

The Egg Drop 2008 occurred, marking the start of the ROBLOX Egg Hunt Tradition. Many new features were added, such as Shirts and Pants, ClickDetector, Sparkles, Comments and Decals.

ROBLOX proves to be immensely successful, now reaching a Million Members. However, during July, an infamous user known as Jaredvaldez4 joins.

Later during the year, an event at Yorick's Resting Place occurs during October, where users who complete the hard game earn the Riddling Skull. This event could be seen as a Proto-BLOXtober event.

In Giftsplosion 2008, gifts began to be released in months other than December for unknown reasons.

To improve experience for users, Trade Currency and User Advertisements are added.

2009
More colors are added, to allow more customisation to the color of ROBLOX Avatars. In an attempt to get even more users, the Ambassador Program and Inviter Program begin.

During June, Turbo Builders Club is created, and was designed to have more abilities than regular BC Members. To complement this, BC Upgrades are available.

After pressure on the C&G Forums, Groups are added, with the first being RobloHunks. The creation of the group feature helped many old groups rise, such as the X-101st Legion and the Vaktovian Empire, and new ones to grow, such as RAT.

Many more acclaimed features were later added, such as User-Made Badges, Group Search, Group Shouts, Facebook Connect, New Materials and GUI's.

In October, Limited Items and LimitedU Items were created, as with Group Ranks and Outrageous Builders Club. This years Halloween event was the Halloween Paintball 2009, which was a round based game where you could earn prizes.

Another popular event was Giftsplosion 2009, liked not for its difficulty, but that it was the first time Gifts utilised new meshes.

2010
ROBLOX started the year off with the addition of Sets, which were vital at the time since ROBLOX Studio was quite basic. Contests were also added, and were rejoiced by many users.

It was during this year that the controversial FEAR Group was created.

Another ROBLOX event was the Egg Drop 2010, which appeared two years after Egg Drop 2008. However, due to it being broken, it was reopened in the summer.

Around October, Halloween Paintball 2010  occurs, but didnt reach as much acclaim as the previous event. During the year, Privacy Features were added, and so was Captcha Protection for accounts.

Giftsplosion 2010 led to the release of many famed items, such as the Red Domino Crown and the Epic Face. Later however, BC Only Places, which were heavily criticised by both BC'ers and NBC'ers.

2011
In January, many old exploits were patched, and groups were given the ability to advertise themselves. The In-Game Screen Recorder was also released, to popular acclaim.

To try and increase the audience, new users are given the ability to choose a gender, which would slightly alter their avatar's initial appearance.

Another Group Update was added, where groups could declare each other as Allies and Enemies. Users could also declare a Primary Group.

A Milestone for ROBLOX was the release of the ROBLOX iOS App, but at this time, users could not play games. After a number of years, Telamon had finally created a teleportation feature for games, where an object in a game could transport a user to another game.

In August 2011, the Roblox Rally 2011 event occurs, though this time, instead of being a ROBLOX-based event, it took place in real life, in San Francisco. Many users won awards held here. Also during this month, Plugins and Mega Places are added.

Strangely, there was no Halloween Event in 2011. In November however,after a while of developing, Personal Servers were added. Giftsplosion 2011 however, only had gifts released in October and December, the October ones probably used to compensate for the lack of a Halloween Event.

2012
ROBLOX shows and tests the Universe feature during Hack Week, though it is not released. The Ambassador Programme was also discontinued, marking the end of the recruiting program that began in 2009. The Roblox Easter Egg Hunt 2012, and was immensely popular, for its ambitious design and its distinction from Egg Drop 2010 and Egg Drop 2008.

Later however, on April Fools Day, ROBLOX was hacked by DracoSwordMaster, and the site was severely messed up. The Administrators had to IP Ban the offending user, and had to shut down the site to revert the damage caused.

Dynamic Water and the Hat Trading System were added later on in the year. However, the heavily controversial Robloxian 3.0 packages are added to the catalog, though are not placed on sale.

The ROBLOX Game Conference 2012 occured in July, and was seen as a successor to the ROBLOX Rally. It was held in Santa Clara, California. The 3.0 Packages were eventually released after this, though originally were not free.

In September, Game Passes were added to allow Developers to earn more income in games. A Halloween event was again abscent, substituted for Halloween Gifts again during Giftsplosion 2012, which was a lot harder than previous Gift events.

2013
2013 was considered one of the best years on ROBLOX. In January, the ROBLOX team looked for places to host Roblox Game Conference 2013.

A tragic event happened in february, where Erik Cassel, who had long worked with the site, had died due to cancer, leading to lots of mourning on ROBLOX and the release of commemerative items to celebrate the work he had done.

One of the most famous events on ROBLOX, the Roblox Easter Egg Hunt 2013 occurred. People praised it for its large map, teleportation feature. This was also the only Egg Hunt to date to allow Eggs to be earned in ROBLOX Studio, where doing certain things would award an egg.

The ability to sell ROBLOX items in-game was made, revolutionising Clothing Groups such as Kestrel. The Roblox BLOXcon was also held, having been renamed from RGC. It was held in Chicago, London and New York, and held in a tour-like fashion.

Later however, two features were added. One was the Thumps Up and Thumbs Down system on games, and the other was the controversial Paid Access setting for games, which would force users to pay Robux simply to play. Another hated feature added was the liquid games page. Newer users liked the liquid one, while ROBLOX Veterans preferred the old one, as it was easier to use.

Later, Outlines were added. Originally, Developers were forced to use them, causing backlash from the community, which later led to them being optional. As not many could attend BLOXcon due to it being sold out, ROBLOX held Virtual BLOXcon 2013, which was a livestreamed event where people could talk to administrators and play games with them.

Another heavily controversial update was later added. They were the Price Floors. It was a moneymaking scheme by ROBLOX to make players buy BC or Robux. It set a minimum price to items. Free Items could no longer be sold, causing backlash from many Groups and NBC'ers.

BLOXtober 2013 is later held, marking the first time in two years that a Halloween Event was held. It was criticised for having a massive 20000x20000 map, which was the largest on ROBLOX at the time.

Giftsplosion 2013 was again criticised for its difficulty, though it was slightly easier than the previous years.

2014
After being developed for two years, Universe's, a highly anticipated feature, were finally added to Roblox. Its release coincided with the ROBLOX 2014 Winter Games, which utilised the feature. The event, unlike most others, was recieved well for its map and ambitious design.

This was followed by April Fools Day 2014, which gave players the Egg of Destiny. It was also during this month that Player Points were created, however, in this early incarnation, only limited Player Points could be issued, and their creation relied on the purchase of Developer Products. Instead of having a leaderboard for each game, there was a ROBLOX-wide leaderboard, and Player Point counts were displayed on the users profile.

Everything after this however turned horrible, with the beginning being the Roblox Easter Egg Hunt 2014. It was criticised heavily for being laggy, relying too heavily on Universes, and for having been created with lackluster effort. It was considered far inferior to the 2013 equivalent. This is where ROBLOX began its eventual downfall.

In an attempt to recover from the disaster of the Egg Hunt, ROBLOX decided to cash in on the success of the Winter Games, and began The ROBLOX 2014 Summer Games, which heavily revolved around Player Points, which led to it being criticised. People however appreciated that it showcased Developer's Talent, instead of work created by the Admins.

It was during this section of 2014 that ROBLOX became competitive, as people fought for Player Points, even leading to events being made solely to earn them, such as the ROBLOX Clan Battle. In the months following theROBLOX Clan Battle, Player Points were reformed. Developers could now give an unlimited supply of them, the ROBLOX-Wide Leaderboard was replaced with individual game leaderboards, and PP-Counts were removed from profiles, and ROBLOX believed that PP made ROBLOX too competitive.

BLOXtober 2014, also known as Hallows Eve 2014: The Witching Hour Returns could be considered a Proto-Devent (Excluding Winter Games and Summer Games), as it featured Developer Created maps, based on popular games, such as Work at a Pizza Place. The event was ridiculed by many for being too simplistic and not fun.

The first true Devent was BLOXgiving 2014. The term Devent had not yet been coined, and the widespread hate had not yet grew. The event was again riduculed for too simplistic, and that it was only Developers games decorated in a certain way, in comparison to the ROBLOX Thanksgiving Turkey Hunt 2013, where an entire game was created and scripted by Admins.

By the time of ROBLOX Holiday 2014, unrest had began to grow about the growing trend of Devents. People were upset that a ROBLOX tradition was turned into a moneymaking scheme for Developers.

2015
This year is considered one of the worse in the history of ROBLOX. The year got off to a bad start following The ROBLOX 2015 Winter Games, which were considered mediocre, but this was later overshadowed by the next event.

The Roblox Easter Egg Hunt 2015 was widely hated for the breaking of tradition. Instead of being hosted in a large Admin-Made game, it was hosted in a few Developer Made games. The term Devent was coined on the forums, and was used derogatively to refer to Developer Made events.

2015 saw the massive use of Devents, despite being heavily criticised and hated by the community, many of whom began to feel betrayed by ROBLOX.

Following the Roblox Ultimate Competition, sponsored Devents began to appear. Not only were they like regular Devents, they were also littered with sponsorship from real life companies to bring extra money to ROBLOX.

Such events were the 2015 Jurassic World Event, Teen Titans Go Sponsorship and the We Bare Bears Sponsorship among many more.

The proliferation even got to a point, where there were three Summer Events: The ROBLOX Summer Camp 2015,  The ROBLOX 2015 Summer Games and the ROBLOX Endless Summer Campout. It also happened around this time, that all lifetime Builders Club subscriptions were cancelled, and were made unavailable for purchase, causing controversy.

BLOXtober 2015 became the end of the line for many users. Not only had another main ROBLOX event been transformed into a Devent, but was also a Sponsored Event, and its game had little effort put into, and was ridden with glitches. BrightEyes, a ROBLOX Admin, had also lied to the community, promising a new hat mesh would be created, despite a retextured hat being created instead.

Devents began to take their toll on the website. Bloxgiving 2015, part of the usually successfull Thanksgiving events, was unnoticed by much of the community, who were fed up with the mass creation of Devents.

What happened next, however, caused the eventual downfall of Devents. The Roblox Holiday 2015 was transformed into an Alvin and the Chipmunks sponsored Devent, which caused mass protest for the end of Devents, and for once after almost a year, the Proliferation of Devents was over.

2016
Following the turn of the year, people thought that ROBLOX had reformed, and that the Devent Proliferation was over. The year started with a few sponsored events that were mostly ignored, as people mostly focused on the upcoming Egg Hunt.

The Roblox Easter Egg Hunt 2016 was applauded by many for not being a Devent, and for being similar to the 2013 Hunt. However, instead of being developed by a ROBLOX Admin, it was developed by a designated user.

It was during this time that ROBLOX was released for the XBOX ONE, a console developed by Microsoft.

Immediately following the Egg Hunt, leaked images of a ROBLOX concept named Avatar 2.0 arose. Avatar 2.0 was designed to replace the current Roblox Character, which was renamed Avatar 1.0.

Mass protests similar to the Devent protests arose, and ROBLOX decided to cancel Avatar 2.0, but eventually came out with another hated feature, which was this time, not to be cancelled.

R15 was the name of the new design. Avatar 1.0 was then renamed R6. It was this time, similar to the old ROBLOX character, but had 15 Joints instead of 6. People hate it still, because the animations are ugly, and people find R15 unnecessary.

In March 2016, ROBLOX announced that Tickets, a well rejoiced and historic currency of ROBLOX, was to be removed on April 14th. People were outrageous, and even to as far to say that 2016 was worse than 2015. All this had happened, and it has only been three months.

Despite many complaints over the removal, ROBLOX declined to revert it, and even went as far as to make false reasons for the removal.

Following the removal, Trade Currency was removed, many new Developers quit, clothing groups collapsed, and the current front page developers now had a monopoly over others, who now have no income at all.

Lots of users felt bretrayed, and many quit ROBLOX.