Gear Friday Overview: Sleepy Gear. Yeah, only one gear.

Woohoo! Another Gear Friday! Finally! After so many months of waiting! Wait, what? Oh. There's only one gear. And it's a wand... that makes people sleep... Wow. "Sleeping" gears, I can easily see tons of other gears coming out, but I guess a bunch of ugly hats will do instead. Eh, the sleepy theme came with a face too, so that's okay. Faces are good. One gear on a Friday is bad though. Eh, I guess none would be worse.

Sleep Wand 

"You're getting very sleepy! Put your nearby foes to sleep for a short while."

Appearance: 8/10

Okay, for a pretty terrible gear, it looks okay. It's just a normal wand with a brown hilt, followed by a shiny orange gem thing, followed by a grey twisty thing, followed by a rock with a moon on it. Okay. Not that special. I mean, it's better than some other texture's and meshes we've been seeing lately that are totally low-polygon (you can see triangles in the mesh because it's not smoothed out, examples include Halloween Gift ribbons and other hats).

Ability: 3/10

If there was a ROBLOX dictionary where you look up a word and get a specific item relating to that word, this item would be under "useless." You pretty much just shoot out sparkles which legitimately go 5 studs up, curve down, and land about 10 studs away from you. As far as I know from Harry Potter, magic doesn't fling up and curve down. Terrible aim. Oh, and then when you actually hit somebody, you do damage for some reason (every though it's a sleep wand). Oh, and your enemy doesn't even sleep, the admins just took the lazy way out and made it so they couldn't move, but could still jump. I don't know about you, but I've never seen a sleeping person jump.

Price: 2/10

It's 400 Robux. That is totally insane. The gear isn't even useful, and it's priced at that? Wow. I mean, I'm excited that we got a new gear on a Friday night, but this gear is kind of pathetic.

Overall: 4/10

Eh, it's the looks that really saved this gear. Besides the appearance, this gear is awful. Just awful.

~pbjms~

Spotlight: Ignoble | Early Access Testing

First off, allow me to say welcome to 2014 everyone! May we be graced with actually good releases this year rather than the same, repetitive concepts that have been done to death that mostly populate the front page. That done, let's move onto the actual subject of the article; Teah Rudimentalitys new work-in-progress, Ignoble. Just a small note this article won't really have sections, since that's reserved for reviews, but spotlights are sort of just all over the place.

I'd like to bring attention to the name, Ignoble. What could that possibly mean? Well, a quick Google brings up this; "Not honorable in character or purpose."

Just knowing the definition of the name will give you a brief idea of the game, but some more exposition, just bear with me. Ignoble was actually already out late last year but was broken due to a ROBLOX update regarding camera usage, but Rudimentality fixed that issue and have since then been updating game with new content and bug fixes. The game also pretty much uses the same movement system as Strobe, another game by the same developer that's gone under for a bit due to the very same issue that broke Ignoble.

At it's core Ignoble is a third person shooter in the vein of something like DayZ but without the zombies, once entering the game you're able to customize your character with a variety of different hats, want to be a bandana-clad psycho in a suit? Sure, you can do that! Once you actually spawn into the game though it's about quick response time, since pretty much everyone is out to get you. Whether you spawn into a city, or out in an open field it's best to open your inventory and get your gun ready, and make sure you turn off the safety. Yes, you heard me correctly, you're able to switch the safety on/off in this game, something Apocalypse Rising doesn't have I'm pretty sure.

Your main objective in Ignoble (for the time being, anyway) is to basically play bounty hunter, or the mercenary. There are bounty boards scattered throughout important landmarks within the game that will show a brief picture of the colors of the player's garments and a bounty amount, and maybe their whereabouts if that's know. Then it's up to you to seek them out, or wait for them to come to you. But if that's not your kinda thing then feel free to roam about and get crates which contain random loot that you can sell to NPCs for cash and other items. Or maybe you want to just run around slaughtering everyone in your wake, playing the lone wolf? That's possible, Ignoble is all about choice to be brief. Choice is what will dictate your experience, but I suppose that's what can be said about all of these "DayZ"-like games.


But I digress, recently added are also guards which will stand around the boundaries of towns/cities and will shoot anyone that threatens them, or has $300 in bounty. (Killing more people gives you a higher bounty if that wasn't obvious enough, and killing guards instantly gives you a $300 bounty). Bounty can be decreased by helping out people by giving them goods such as "flour" and "exotic tea leaves". Radios are also a thing that were added recently, find a man named Carleton in a gas station and he can sell you random items for quests, and radios for $200 which you can tune into different channels with, but you will remain anonymous to players that you contact on the same channel, and it will reveal your whereabouts. Night vision scopes are also a thing, but currently broken and will be re-added in a later patch.

This is what I like about Ignoble, even though it's not in first-person it can actually be extremely immersive at times. The minimalistic hud and feel of the features give you this lonely, secluded feeling when out roaming the countryside and scavenging for supplies and keeping watch for bandits. Even if I don't feel like I did it justice, Ignoble is available for 25 R$ and I extremely recommend you check it out even if the development is still very early on it. You can find it here. Be sure to keep on the watch for this one everyone, it may very well be one of the most anticipated releases for 2014 on ROBLOX. At least, it is for me. There may be another article on Ignoble when it's in a more complete state but no promises.

Next time, I'll be looking at the sequel to one of the more known ROBLOX shooters, Authority 2: Corruption.

Think You Have the Most Anticipated Game Releasing on ROBLOX in 2014?

Well, lets see!

I promised recently over Twitter that I would make an article regarding to "The Top 10 Most Anticipated Games Releasing on ROBLOX in 2014" and I wanted to make this an engaging and interesting article that anyone could have the potential to be apart of.

For this, i'm looking at games not just by popular ROBLOX builders and scripters, but looking at work by common ROBLOX players! Think you have the most exciting game that will be released in 2014? I guess we'll have to see.

Read the rules for the 'contest' below to see if your game meets the guidelines, if so: send forth your game!

GUIDELINES:
- Your game must be releasing sometime in 2014.
- Your game can only apply for the contest if it is not complete and is still under development.
- Your game cannot apply if it has been released (as a final copy - a general release - if you need help understanding this, PM me)
- Your game must be original: no stolen places. Send me one and i'll laugh at you.


IF YOU MEET ALL THE GUIDELINES - SEND MYSELF (ITSFUTUR) A PM BY CLICKING HERE.

(Since it has been asked - you can send forth any game you think is the most exciting game coming out in 2014. Your friend's game, your game, your cat's game, any game you want to!)

In your PM, please list the game name, the user who made it, the genre, and other details that I should know about the project.

Winners may be contacted for an interview - this contest closes January 31. There will be ten winners, the winners (of course) will be posted about on here for the 'Top 10 Most Anticipated Games Releasing on ROBLOX in 2014.'

Best of luck, and as always: have a good day!
^ ItsFutur

Review: Cookie Clicker GUI Game

Cookie Clicker
     By David1234501              

     Hello, readers. Today I bring you Cookie Clicker, an all-GUI tycoon that recently took the BC Games page by storm. This differs from Quenty's in the way that the lag is very, very reduced (being that the entire game was made with GUIs). While the graphics are questionable compared to Quenty's, it has almost the exact same game aspects. A giant cookie to be clicked, upgrades to how many cookies you get per click, and items to purchase that make cookies for you. Different from Quenty's, though, is the "Chocolate Milk". Every so often (you can see the exact countdown in the bottom right corner of your screen), Chocolate Milk will activate. It increases your Cookies per click by five times.

As it isn't a very complicated game (yet), I don't see much more to be written besides the bugs. When you leave and come back, your Cookies Per Second stays the same and your Cookies stay the same. Your upgrades, though, are erased. The problem with this? When you come back, you are able to purchase the upgrades for their starter prices, which is easily exploitable.

Cookie is more of a tech-demo and a showcase than a game, albeit a good one at that!

Links: Cookie Clicker
          David1234501
          Quenty's Cookie Clicker
          Original Cookie Clicker

Hey! This is my last post on this Gmail! I changed my username to FiniteBlox.

Tweet tweet. @FiniteBlox
Thanks for reading,

~FiniteBlox
          (Formerly DDude9091)

Conversations with Myself: Limited Items (Part 1)

Conversations with Myself;

Limited Items  (Part 1)

Hello, FiniteBlox here. I decided to share my opinion about the Catalog today, and thought to myself, "What better way to do that then talking to myself?" So here you have it, me talking to myself about the Catalog (specifically Limited Items).

Me:

I think having a conversation with myself is a wonderful idea.

Me:

Shut up. We're supposed to talk about the catalog.

Me:

Fine, fine. The catalog, right. I myself am a little bit of a trader, with roughly 14k RAP worth. I thought I might throw together something explaining the catalog a bit, and what makes limited items rise and fall in price.

Me:

I'll start off with the original sales of limiteds. When a limited sells out, prices skyrocket. Other users see that they missed an item, and want to try to snag it.

Me:

Yes, and when that happens, limiteds rise very fast. But on limiteds that have sold for especially low and have many owners, there are more people competing for lowest price. At benchmark numbers, such as 200, 250, 275, there will often be five or more sellers.

Me:

This severely slows down how fast the limited sells. It stays at the same price for several sales, leaving more time for people to try to sell for lower.

Me:

Lots of times, this is how a limited starts to fall to a more reasonable price. The hype slowly ends, though this can take days (or will never happen, depending on what reputation the limited has in other members of its series).

Me:

That's the beginning of a limited over-explained. When the limited is past the original hype, the demand either dies, it raises, or it lowers.

Me:

I'll begin with how they raise.

Me:

I was going to begin...

Me:

As I was saying, limiteds tend raise in price after a plummet in demand. Take the Azurewrath: Duke of Demons for example.

Me:

What exactly is the chart supposed to prove?

Me:

It's just there for reference. The Azurewrath, one of my old limiteds, is horribly low in demand. This happens when a limited's price raises faster than its demand. It sells maybe once, and owners raise prices to above what remotely makes sense. Slowly, over time, users will trade it away. The people who received it saw it and thought, "Easy profit." They combat for lowest price, and now that the price is near the RAP, it sells. This causes a huge jump in RAP. Note that this is just one way that a limited can raise.

Me:

Yeah, because we're too lazy to explain the other ways!

Me:

Sh...

Me:

So terribly lazy, in fact, that this is being split into two parts.

Me:

Part two will cover ways that limiteds lower and lose demand. That'll be all for this part, though!

.
Do you think I'm a complete noob when it comes to limiteds? PM (or tweet) me what I messed up, and I'll slap it in Part 2.

Tweet tweet. @FiniteBlox
Thanks for reading,

~FiniteBlox

OPINION: The Truth Behind ROBLOX 'Coffee Companies'

ROBLOX Coffee Companies.
We're hearing a lot about these so-called 'companies' and what they turn out to be. A hospitable experience in a fancily made home store where a nice ROBLOXian stands across a shining counter - ready to prepare you a hot, pixelated cup of joe. But behind all this glamorization - I can't help but feel a little aggravated by such a ridiculous idea. This entire idea of virtual food in 'virtual stores. How does it even make sense?

It's no secret that I hate ROBLOXian 'food companies.' To me, they are no more than a bunch of over-dramatic roleplayers where everything is more so about interaction rather than making content or decent stuff. These food companies (especially coffee companies) rely on a stature of reliability: they need to make an image out of themselves to draw everyone away from the sole idea that all of this is just virtual, tasteless coffee and food. So by adding a sort of 'hangout' experience, workers, and a sense of life to the restaurant, some people thrillingly pull this off - and without explanation, even.

Yet, companies like StarBucks and Costa are some of the biggest 'companies' in ROBLOX consumables - their places drawing thousands of customers to their stores on a weekly basis and the question is how? Isn't it just pixelated food? The ROBLOX community is heavily disillusional in the idea that every aspect of real life should be on ROBLOX. After all, ROBLOX coffee? ROBLOX brands, just like the real ones? Exact replicas of public places? Food chains? I'm not one hundred percent on the understanding how some people find the entire concept of working at a 'ROBLOX Food Company' interesting [hey kids, would you like to work at a McDonalds in real life?], let alone visiting them. They must just be essentials, and since it would only be make-sense to visit places that distribute and sell food in real life, perhaps it's just something that is essential to your experience on a virtual game? Even though it sounds ridiculous, perhaps that is all there is to it.

Some would say it's absurdity - the idea of opening a company where you serve "coffee" to people and manage to squeeze out a return. But to me, it's the most hilarious idea I've ever seen. Coffee Groups toss thousands of ROBUX and TIX into the fire by advertising their groups, and what is their return? Nothing more than a few thousand measly and meaningless place visits where they make their roleplay coffee look fancy for all of about five minutes before the average, bored ROBLOX user leaves and in many cases: never returns.

Altogether, the idea when invested properly can make for an interesting roleplay experience. I don't exactly find the working part amusing, nor spending hours visiting these ROBLOX restaurants and cafes but if that's what ROBLOX players are into nowadays, [the pursuit of perfecting virtual food that you can't even taste] then that might as well be how it is.

I'm not going to tell you what to do with your ROBUX or TIX - but let me make a suggestion: don't join this so-called 'coffee industry' because it's an 'industry' with no returns, no promises, and only losses. There are only so many people that can glamorize pixelated drinks and pixelated food and somehow manage to make themselves, and their companies look good and odds are, you are not one of them.

^ ItsFutur

Please take note that the article you just read is one-hundred percent opinion. The article written by myself is simply a concept. These opinions do not reflect the ideas or beliefs of the 'ROBLOX News' site. Due to this being a potentially controversial subject, I completely understand that there could be some mixed feelings about the content of this article. Rest assured - your opinions are your opinions, and my opinions are my opinions. I say it time after time again.

OPINION: The Heat Death of FPS and the Rise of the Intellectual Game

First-Person Shooters are a much-beloved game genre among millions of gamers around the world. Games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and BattleField 4 sell millions of copies, profiting billions of dollars a year. The FPS industry is booming everywhere - even though there is no sign of innovation, no sign of creativity, or anything industry-changing, and personally: we ROBLOX players should all take a note.

The Heat Death of FPS is already among us. While FPS games will always be made by obsessive ROBLOX users in love with the concept of creating such games, it's clear that the very definition behind the quality of FPS games has risen and fallen with the spike of constant creativity. Nowadays, every way you turn, not just on ROBLOX, but everywhere you'll see some form of violence: whether it's in the form of a video game, propaganda, or senseless and reasonless murder. Violence is everywhere - inescapable, and it only extends to the dime-a-dozen, low quality and absurd ROBLOX FPS games. There are only a few decent First Person Shooters left on ROBLOX, most locked, in-development (aheheh Borderline,) or the users responsible for the works of art have left and abandoned their work and because of this - the quality and amount of talent left to create engaging and great FPS games is gone.

But there is something new. Look around, not just on ROBLOX but everywhere. 

Games like AntiChamber are some of the most innovative, interesting, and best-selling games on Steam. Lets look on ROBLOX - Choices, memories, Thoughts and The Fabric of Reality are just a few among the new era of impressive and meaningful games on ROBLOX. So, ladies and gentlemen: I present to you the replacement for FPS, INTELLECTUAL GAMES.

Intellectual Games are taking ROBLOX, Steam, and the Game Industry by storm, usually games created by independent developers, these games take on a new set of priorities: meaning, story, ideas, and graphics and combine these four powerful and moving priorities to move the user - to create a compelling experience.

Intellectual Games are truly the future. They invite gamers to try strategically challenging and puzzling games and that is why they will be so popular

(still working on it - waiting for some quotes from GollyGreg's interview)

With that said, there is so much expansion for games of this type in the future, and while it may be a subtle change of the mass index of people playing FPS to this new and exciting game type, it'll be a very interesting scene to watch not just on ROBLOX - but all over the game industry.

^ItsFutur

64-Bit Gift of Roblox News!

Happy New Year everyone! As my gift-giving season comes to a close, I'd like to give out one more special gift as a way of showing my appreciation to the fans and Roblox News staff. 

A huge thank you is owed to the fans for supporting the blog for yet another year! In 2013 we smashed our pageview records are closing in on one million (we are currently at 950,000)! A massive thank you is also owed to the staff at Roblox News who have been tirelessly producing quality articles for everyone to read and enjoy! Our top articles this year have racked up thousands upon thousands of views, which is a great achievement for us. 

So, please take this gift to commemorate another great year of blogging! The Roblox News gift boxes are somewhat collectable as I release one every year - owning the gifts shows to others when you first started following the blog, giving you some form of bragging rights. 

Sparkly

Thanks for reading and Happy Near Year! 

-Arbirator 

Editor of Roblox News

Five New Job Vacancies at RN - Apply Today!

Happy New Year everyone! With a fresh new year, we are looking for a fresh batch of budding bloggers to join out fantastic team!

At RN we look for the best journalistic writers who can enhance the current skill-set of the team. Staff who are responsible and able to tackle challenges are at the top of our agenda. We recognise those who have unique skills, talents and attributes. We are looking for experienced players who enjoy ROBLOX and whom enthusiastically engage with the community. Here at Roblox News, we are looking for passionate writers to join our ranks. Writers that can communicate their opinions effectively and with an aspect of style. We let our individual writers express their opinions and love of the game through the medium of our blog.

Remember: our blog is all about detail and accuracy of information. Our highest priority is making sure the content of our posts is enjoyable to view and read for our blog's visitors.

We will require writers to be very active on the blog; publishing several posts a week. They will be required to attend team meetings and briefings from editors and managers. Roblox News staff are given a large amount of freedom in what they post; they will be assigned the section of their choice i.e games, catalog or site news. A job description for each of the three roles can be found here. 

The five positions are as follows:

• Catalog Analyst
• Site News Journalist
• Site News Journalist
• Game Journalist
• Game Journalist 

If you believe you meet all the above requirements, please email an application to: robloxnewshelp@live.co.uk !

What should the application include? 

1) To start your Roblox News job application a paragraph describing yourself should be included. This should consist of your talents that you would bring to Roblox News. Describe your past experiences on ROBLOX and what others on the site may know for (particular projects or achievements). You should also include any hobbies and personal interests you may have. 

2) A paragraph about why you would you like to join Roblox News and why you want to apply for the chosen role (Game Journalist/Catalog Analyst/Site News Journalist). Including what interests you the most on ROBLOX is a definite plus, and you can also include your favourite past times on the site. Information about you have previously engaged with the community would also be a plus.

3) Finally, include a sample article of your choice. If you are applying for the role of Game Journalist, please send a place review, strategy guide or news report on an upcoming game project - you could take a look at the new Cloud 9 Snowboarding Game created by the ROBLOX Games Team. If you are applying for the role of Catalog Analyst, please send an article based on Limited investment or comparison post (Gear, Hat, Package). If you are applying for the role of Site News Journalist, please send an article based on a recent update to the ROBLOX site. This could include steaming of parts, new terrain perimeters or upcoming community events such as the 'Winter Games'. 

Remember to include your ROBLOX username and your email you use to log in to blogger - we will need both of these if you are chosen to join our team! 

The deadline to send in applications is Friday, 17th January 2014.

Good luck to all applicants! We are looking forward to reading them!

-Arbirator

Editor of Roblox News

Idea: Robolox Loans?

RayMan36 here with a rather "interest-ing" way to make it rain. I'm talking about the concept of a roblox bank.

A picture in one of my rants? Impossible!

I. Process
This is complicated. I am thinking it would only apply to roblox-created items, like hats or gears. It should be a BC-only feature (maybe even TBC or OBC), so someone couldn't make an account in a day and give someone tons of money. The amount given can be calculated by how much money the person has, and how long they have been on roblox (a BC card used on an alt just created wouldn't work). I'd say the account has to have some wealth on their head, so it can be taken away. The only hard part with this is that there requires a lot of admin work: a machine can't do all of this.

II. Loan Calculator
Now that you can have a loan, what are the asterisks going to be? First off, the rates would be extremely unreasonable. If you needed 10k, you would pay 2k robux a month, for a year. The payments would be automatic. If you weren't able to pay, you would get a warning the first payment missed. After that, concurrent bans. Second missed, 3 day. Third missed, week banned. Your account would eventually deleted

Now this seems like a terrible way to get money, why would roblox make this feature at all?
I think it's a good way to get robux out of the economy.

III. Uses
I've seen a lot of people's accounts, and they seem to say "I owe _R$ to ___. This could not only lift them out of the gutter, but slam them back into it in a year.

Whadya think? Comment!

-RayMan36