Roblox is a virtual platform that centers around game creation and programming. Users create three dimensional worlds to be shared with and played amongst millions of players. A variety of games are available to players, ranging from roleplaying, survival, and racing games to simulations and battle royales. Roblox is accessible from a number of devices, making its reach even greater.    

A screenshot of the game selection screen in Roblox

Being that player-to-player interaction within the Roblox virtual world may seem disjointed due to the number of separate servers, the following question emerges: How do players express care for others, and how are friendships and a sense of community fostered? 

In my own foray into the Roblox universe, I not only had to learn the mechanics of each game, but also learn how to forge connections with other players in an environment that was unfamiliar to me. The following is a subset of the observations that I made in my beginning few hours on the platform, specifically in one of the servers called “Theme Park Tycoon 2”. The objective of the game is to build a theme park to attract guests, earn money, and continue growing your park. In my list, primary bullet points are direct observations, and the subpoints are my personal opinions and thoughts about what I observed.

Theme Park Tycoon 2 Game

  • Light guitar music with occasional light drum patter in the background as well as chatter from park “guests”
    • Don’t think these are real people, they seem to be computers with names like “Channing” and “Deborah” and “Kenneth”
  • Interacted with another person’s park by accident by leaving through the entrance of my park and turning to the right. This person’s park was arguably more advanced than mine (more rides, more elaborate setup outside of default setup)
  • I said hello and complimented their park and then they walked away from me
  • Music does not change at all. It plays on a loop
  • Number of guests in the park fluctuate and they give money and you can use the money to create new rollercoasters, paths, scenery, terrains, and stalls
  • Time passes in the game. The sun goes down and comes back up a couple of times
  • The guests mill about 
  • The guests with “female” names still have the default male roblox body 
    • Further confirms my assumption that the guests are computers
  • Calm nature, only the buzzing of the guests and the theme music
    • I’m enjoying this. Feels low stakes because I’m in charge and I get to choose what I’m doing and how I want my park to look. Kinda bitter I can’t find a way to edit where I place something/undo though
    • Interaction with other roblox players is limited and on my own terms
  • It is only when you’re zoomed in a certain amount that you can hear the chatter of guests
  • The likes in the park that appear on the little thumbs up sign on the outside of your park come from other real life roblox players
  • I say hi to a player and he jumps around a lot, there is a lot of rotation of the character
    • I presume this is due to the controls which are a bit clunky to manage

busy on laptop so can’t type notes there (these are from my phone)

  • Now in quite a casual conversation
  • He tells me he’s drinking something. I ask what and he says “sparkling water” (grape rasberry [sic] flavor) after we talk about his park. He tells me he only built it just today and that it took him several hours so it “wasn’t impressive”
  • His username contains a masculine real world name and his avatar is a boy 
    • so I assume the real life person is a boy
  • This conversation started because I was at another player’s park and I said hi and he said “come” and I followed him and then the other guy showed up and said “wanna see my park” and we both obliged and followed him
  • He (referred to as D from now)  has 69 guests at his park and he said he’s saving up for the ferris wheel which costs $16000 of the in game currency 
  • Added the two guys as friends via the Roblox menu where you can see all of the players that are in your game at the exact moment
  • D built his ferris wheel!!
  • The controls are really so interesting the cameras cut around and jump around 
  • We just kept riding different rides in D’s park (planes, ferris wheel, etc)
  • D comes to my park with the other friend (he says “imma come to yours”
    • kinda nice because he did it on his own 
  • D said my park was “nice”
  • D also directed me to build the ferris wheel and add food stands
    • I lean towards trusting him because he’s spent more time here 
    • he also says I’ll make more money this way 
  • “can you give me build rights then i can clean up spills” -> “i’m just gonna fix up your park a little bit” 
    • I am skeptical 
  • He promises not to be a scammer and says he was scammed in Bloxburg. I give him build rights so he can clean up trash and “fix up my park”. I had to ask him how to do it and he directed me to “Settings” and I had to do some skimming to find the button from there 
    • Bloxburg is another game in the universe
  • He built 3 food stalls and a hat stall and asked me what I thought 
    • It was nice of him he didn’t have to do that
  • D builds another ride without my permission and my money runs down 
    • I would’ve built it eventually but felt weird having him just do it for me
  • He built me stuff and then stopped
    • so I think he’s actually good intentioned
  • He said “hopefully you get more money now” and then said “I’ll leave you alone now” and bounced
    • that was nice I didn’t even ask him to help me and he gave suggestions
  • the other guy…. just there in my park… sitting, didn’t say much except beckoned me to follow him a couple of times
  • The person who helped me before came back and gave my park a “like”. Specifically he said “watch this” then liked my park and said “you have a like now”.  then I went back to like his and he said “gtg soon” and then his park vanished 
  • He left at almost 10 pm EST 
    • so I’m assuming he went to bed (draws on my assumption of age)
  • Oh i went to check out other parks and he was back oops he said “i got lagged [sic] out for a sec” 
  • I was in the middle of buying a bathroom then D said “imma build a little more on your ####”. He then said “wait”, “save your money”, “i’m going to buy new ride” 
    • kinda like he’s taking over my park now 
  • i had $7000+ then had $500 something meaning he had bought the ride
  • He bought the plane ride then said “like the new ride?”
  • After few minutes he said “i’m done building now”, “for now”, “wait nvm” 
    • I’m catching myself deferring to him even though this is my park 
    • I start to feel bad about wanting to leave this game because he says he’s gonna buy a big ride in his park and tells me to come look
  • Then he leaves and I leave
  • Seems as if majority of players I encountered were masculine presenting
  • Blocking out of certain words in the chat with tags (####)

D offers me help with the construction of my theme park

My experiences give a brief glimpse into what friendship and expressions of care may look like in Roblox. As a new player, I interacted with other users who had more experience with the game and were willing to offer me help to grow my theme park. There was no in-game benefit for either of the players who chatted with me. I added these two players as friends, which would allow me to communicate with them outside of Theme Park Tycoon 2.

To further discover how connections are made in Roblox, more research will need to be conducted. It would be beneficial to try and participate in all types of games. I only managed to reach simulation and roleplaying games, but other kinds of games likely hold more information on how communities are formed in the Roblox platform and even outside of this virtual world. Another avenue of fruitful research would be to frequent one game for extended periods of time. Playing one game would allow for a greater understanding of how players navigate the specific server and how interactions between players take shape. This would also allow for the development of necessary expertise, which would make it easier to interact with other players in games where having more skill is considered a valuable asset. For example, players with higher levels in Royale High often have more outfits and accessories to trade or sell, which can help encourage other players to interact with them because there appears to be some sort of benefit. There is no guarantee of encountering the same set of players in one server, but to assuage this, Roblox users can add other players as friends, giving them a means to direct messaging on the platform. It is also possible to create servers that are for friends only, which can offer a new lens to how players interact and form friendships through Roblox. 

My theme park when I first started

My theme park a few minutes before I logged off