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Without having something to muse about, this channel would be effectively useless. Below is
a link to the thought provoking new age internet "coffeehouses" I frequent. My thoughts will
be posted every so often here. Expect them to be on a wide myriad of topics, primarily math,
the sciences, and the self. There's also a chance that my short stories can end up here
eventually. For the more technical writing, I've created a "layman's list" - a complilation
of complicated concepts that I try my best to explain simply. It is linked here!
There's also going to be a second part to this channel that's less about my creative musings
and closer to "what I've learned in x today." I believe that remembering material through
teaching is crucial, and maybe you, the reader, will learn something new too! WIL!
A Zenful Approach to MATLAB
A lot of my friends and acquaintances in university have come to me wanting to 'get' MATLAB.
Typically, they are frustrated that their hours-long debugging has been extremely lackluster,
and failed to solve the problem. This is only further exacerbated by decently tight deadlines
on homework, which puts further stress on getting the homework done on time.
My approach to MATLAB has (in my view) been pretty successful. I don't have any qualms with
the language (aside from a few quirks) and generally don't spend too much time on debugging.
I think the longest amount of time I've spent on fixing my code (initially typing it is a
whole different story that I'll get to later) took around half an hour. I think that some may
find my approach helpful in their own endeavors with the language, so here's the way I do it:
First and foremost, you want to record the mistakes you made previously. MATLAB is very nitpicky
especially on syntax, and I've fixed a lot of my programs by noticing that I didn't put a '*'
between a number and a variable. When something in a new code doesn't work, I know what to check
for first. A checklist approach to possible errors can really cut down on the time you spend on
debugging.
Second, use old code that works as a reference point. You might be writing a ordinary differential
equation script and for some reason it just isn't working. If it's your first time doing that, use
online resources such as MATLAB documentation. The second, third, fourth, etc. time around, if an
error pops up in a similar ODE function you're programming, use your first code that works to
figure out what's tripping MATLAB up. To do this most effectively, you need well-structured code.
Third, write well-structured code. You don't need to put comments on every line, but you should
know what every block of your code is doing. This will save you a lot of time in debugging, because
it can really narrow down your list on what might've gone wrong. Also, this'll allow other people
(which includes your peers and your graders) to understand your code as well, which is helpful to
them.
Fourth, reduce and reuse are very helpful. Many of the problems you might solve can be lumped into
categories, such as fsolve problems, ODE problems, and PDE problems. If you have template code for
these core problems you might encounter, the likelihood you will have a difficult debugging experience
in the first place becomes unlikely.
Hope this was helpful, and best of luck in your MATLAB projects.
The Slow Death of American Public Intellectualism: A Work-In-Progress Essay
Rough Waves in a Perfect Storm: What Lies in Roblox's Future
This is an optimistic and market-minded case study that I've written for a Engineering Writing and
Entrepreneurship class.
Multiplayer games have become ubiquitous in the video game industry since the 1990s,
and their popularity has only grown since then. Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying
Games (or MMORPG for short) were a massive hit, with games such as World of Warcraft,
released in 2004, still being popular to this day. Roblox was also created in 2004, by engineering
entrepreneurs David Bazucki and Erik Cassel, who initially developed it as a sandbox physics
engine. Roblox debuted in 2006 to a limited audience, and slowly gained popularity over the
years, with the pandemic further hastening the snowball-like growth of the company. While the
company has undoubtedly benefited from the pandemic and savvy financial decisions, they now
face a slew of challenges ranging from scrutiny into their virtual currency and marketplaces, to
mounting pressure from the platform's game developers to increase payouts. Additionally, the
lifting of pandemic restrictions has caused a slowdown in daily user growth. However, by nature
of being a well-established player with many income streams and minimal outside competition,
Roblox has a multitude of options that they can pursue to solve the problems at hand and
continue their growth, albeit at a slightly slower pace than during the pandemic. To better
understand these challenges and how to best address them, one should take a closer look at the
building blocks of Roblox.
Roblox has two key supports that made it successful as a destination for game players and game
developers - a robust physics engine that is now eighteen years in the making, and its
game-hosting service. The physics engine is the structural backbone of every Roblox game, with
the code governing player and object motion. Its complexity allows for the large variety of
games that Roblox hosts. The hosting service is self-explanatory: users can join each other's
games by connecting to the host server of those games from their devices. Combined, these
features allow users of the platform to both create, host, and play games all within Roblox's
virtual environment. While the Roblox team organizes events and occasionally releases games, a
vast majority of the games on the platform are created by its users. During Roblox's early days,
game developers were rewarded with virtual currencies that could only be used to buy cosmetics
from the Roblox marketplace, or gamepasses for other games on the platform. This virtual
currency could also be purchased with dollars. This radically changed in 2013, when a feature
called Developer Exchange (DevEx for short) was introduced to the community. This allowed
developers to "cash this amount out at $100.00 USD" with a cap set at "500,000 ROBUX (or
$500.00 USD)" ("Roblox Blog"). This allowed developers of especially popular games to earn
real money from the games they made. Since 2013, the DevEx program has become much
friendlier to developers, with 100,000 ROBUX now exchanging for $350.00 USD. While for the
initial iteration of DevEx developers needed to have an expensive Roblox membership (costing
around $20 per month), as of two months ago users can exchange ROBUX for dollars without
any sort of membership requirement ("Roblox DevForum"). This has helped spur Roblox's game
development scene. The exchange mainly benefits the creators of relatively popular games, and
accumulating 100,000 ROBUX from game development is no easy task. However, with the
increase of payout rates as well as the amount of users participating in the DevEx system and the
ever increasing cost of hosting so many games and players on their servers, Roblox's net income
has been in the negatives. A further increase in DevEx rates would only exacerbate the mounting
costs of operations. Generally, despite Roblox's leaps and bounds in revenue over the past four
years, their earnings have been negative and decreasing.
Another problem that Roblox faces is the increased scrutiny their cosmetic market place is
experiencing as a result of some tradable, collectible items. The direct purchase of ROBUX is a
significant revenue stream for the company, in part due to users using this currency to buy those
cosmetics for their virtual character. As brought up in the People Make Games follow up video,
the limited collectibles market is problematic, as it easily allows impulsive and costly purchases
with no effective way to undo any poor decisions made in the moment. Additionally, with every
purchase made in the limited collectibles market, Roblox takes a 30% cut, which makes up yet
another revenue stream for the corporation ("People Make Games"). The increased scrutiny
definitely has its place, and it is on Roblox's shoulders to decide how to improve their virtual
marketplace to make it more restrictive and safe, while not significantly cutting into their profits.
The People Make Games video takes too extreme of a stance against the marketplace, though,
and doesn't acknowledge that much of the massive rise in item prices is due to the large influx of
new players willing to buy them. This rapid growth has also led to several other problems
touched upon in the video, such as scams and even black markets - things that Roblox should
crack down on, both for user safety and for public relations. However, the marketplace has been
around since before the DevEx system, and a case could be made that some of the market items
are an iconic part of Roblox's image. Therefore, a massive overhaul of it could do more harm
than good, both to the active members of the collectible community and to Roblox's bottom line.
A final and important problem that Roblox faces is the end of the pandemic. The company has
grown significantly during the pandemic, with Roblox financial news reporting a 32% year over
year increase in daily active users in January 2022 ("Roblox News"). Likewise, large increases in
year-over-year revenue and hours engaged were reported. With pandemic restrictions being lifted
around the world, Roblox's growth has slowed down and as a result, its stock has plummeted. A
quote from Roblox CEO David Bazucki in a February 2022 Yahoo Finance article reads "As
parts of the world began to return to a more normal way of life, our absolute numbers have
continued to grow… [but] growth rates have declined as we are comparing, in some cases, to
quarters last year in which certain key metrics doubled or even nearly tripled" (D'Anastasio).
This drop in stock price implies a lack of confidence among investors in the direction Roblox is
headed after the pandemic is over, as well as skepticism about Roblox's endeavors in the
metaverse. However, this may have been a market overreaction. The stock has stabilized at
around $50 per share - slightly lower than its initial IPO and considerably lower than its peak
after Q3 earnings beat expectations, but a reasonable adjustment for a company that was able to
grow much faster during the pandemic than it would have otherwise.
Before delving into the options Roblox has to mitigate the problems at hand, it is also important
to understand what they've been working on and investing in, to both better understand their
market operations and their future trajectory. First of all, Roblox has rightly invested into a
robust server-side system that keeps the site, the games, and the game servers up and running.
They've collaborated with HashiCorp, a cloud computing company that aided Roblox in first
setting up this large system back in 2018. Back then, "Roblox has deployed Nomad on 11,000+
nodes in 20 clusters across bare metal and cloud — serving 100 million MAUs [Monthly Active
Users] in 200+ countries with 99.995 percent uptime" (HashiCorp). Now with 54 million daily
active users, it follows that Roblox and HashiCorp have expanded their operation, which has
caused a significant portion of the rising operation costs. Those costs are necessary though, as
the near-constant uptime and robustness of the servers are the backbone of the company,
especially as it grows larger through its expansion into foreign markets.
A second big investment for Roblox has been the metaverse, which also is one of the few places
where the company may encounter significant competition. However unlike Meta, the elephant
in the room when discussing the metaverse, Roblox's focus is not augmented or virtual reality.
"AR/VR might not be all that necessary to create immersion" says Craig Donato, a chief
business officer at Roblox, in a December 2021 Morning Brew article. "When you read a lot
about metaverses in the press, I think we naturally gravitate toward immersion being the
problem. Like, 'Oh, we need VR and AR, and that's when it's going to really take hold.' I think
that we've already kind of hit the tipping point for immersion. What I would say, though, is that
there's an incredible amount of innovation that still needs to occur on the social side" (Morning
Brew). This clears up Roblox's recent acquisitions of Loom.ai and Guilded, a virtual avatar and
online community startup respectively. It seems that Roblox's vision for the metaverse is a more
immersive experience within the already existing framework the company has built. Instead of
opting to create a greater visual immersion by means of VR or AR, Roblox is seeking to improve
as a social platform - a logical step considering their large active user base.
The third path that Roblox has been paving for their future is that of advertising and
collaboration with celebrities. While this has been done for a long time on the small scale
(largely NERF and Lunchables partnerships), Roblox's jump in popularity has given it more
power in negotiating advertisements, as well as a more attractive means of advertisement. A
November 2021 Heller House article discusses a Roblox presentation to investors about
advertising on the platform. "Brands have been on the platform for many years. And when they
first came on, they created virtual items or branded missions and scavenger hunts to integrate
into existing experiences" says VP of Brand Partnerships Christina Wootton. "Many of the
[brands] started to come on and they saw engagement numbers they've never seen before. And
now we have so much demand" (Heller House). Heller House likens Gucci's and Cartoon
Network's advertising forays into Roblox to MasterCard's forays into a 2004 Facebook. On a
tangential note, recently Apple enabled a privacy policy that "Facebook parent Meta said…will
decrease the social media company's sales this year by about $10 billion" (Leswing). Advertisers
on Facebook will inevitably be hurt by this too. It seems that Roblox is well equipped to further
expand into the realm of hosting advertisements, although much like with their marketplace, they
will have to take special care to ensure that it is not predatory. Heller House states that Roblox
has a very competitive cost per click and cost per play compared to more established advertisers
- almost 100x less. Additionally, advertising itself is very different in Roblox than it is on
Facebook, Amazon, and other internet hubs. So far, advertising has come not in the form of
ingame billboards or excessive pop ups on the front page of the popular games tab. Instead, a
special strategy oriented on creating "Experiences" (Roblox's term for games) that are also
advertisements has been prevalent. Gucci's inroads into Roblox were in the form of virtual items
in the marketplace and a game showcasing a garden and articles of clothing. This synthesis of
games and advertising is novel and its effect on sales is not yet entirely clear, but it seems like a
better alternative to in-your-face pop ups and garish billboards in virtual worlds. A large
audience and a cheap advertising platform, Heller House concludes, means that Roblox could
become the next hub of marketing and online advertising, which would signal the creation of a
large, novel stream of revenue.
So, keeping in mind the problems Roblox faces as well as their various present endeavors, what
good options does Roblox have to further their success? One way Roblox may continue on is to
carry on with their status quo, which is to slowly develop all of their projects listed earlier. It
seems likely that advertising will be a very significant revenue stream for Roblox, and they've
already partnered with some very notable brands, like Gucci and Warner Bros. This will help
alleviate investor pains about negative earnings over time. Similarly, furthering Roblox as a
metaverse could help increase engagement with the platform, which ties back to advertising.
More time spent on Roblox would mean ads are viewed more, resulting in more revenue both for
Roblox's users and the company itself. Additionally, this slow fiscal expansion could alleviate
the tension caused by developer exchange, with higher fiscal profits by Roblox potentially
signaling higher payouts for the platform's game developers. However, the time span is unclear
here, and while this approach might work in the long run, a few more bad quarterly earnings
reports and possibly a drop in daily active users due to the lifting of pandemic restrictions could
be very bad news. It might mean that Roblox would have to downsize its operation or risk losing
even more money, and while this scenario is unlikely, it is still a possibility. The approach also
fails to really address the issues with the marketplace, and for a company the size of Roblox, not
all press is good press.
A second option Roblox has is to expand as an educational program, which is something briefly
touched upon in the Four Week MBA article as Roblox's vision for the metaverse. After all,
Roblox is built on the foundations of a complex physics engine, and programming for games is
done in Lua, which makes the platform's use as an educational tool very useful. This
education-first approach would require that the website be made safer, and special care should be
taken to improve the marketplace and to try and dissolve any sort of black market. Roblox's asset
as an educational tool cannot be understated, and several games centered around teaching users
the Lua programming language already exist. It is not far-fetched to imagine a Roblox staff-held
competition for the creation of educational games. This approach will result in a safer website
overall, as well as more user engagement, as a few schools may adopt this new, virtual curricula,
especially for subjects like physics where the 3D virtual environment can be conducive to
learning. However, there are a couple of issues that plague this educational approach. Making the
website much safer runs the risk of compromising the up and coming advertising revenue stream.
Additionally, it heavily relies on the collaboration of schools with this program. Just because
educational games and physics simulators can exist on the platform does not mean that people
will flock to them, and this could hamper revenue.
Finally, Roblox could go for an age-tiered system for its users and ramp up on advertising, as
well as allow for a greater diversity of games. This is something that Roblox has been working
towards, but it is unclear if they are willing to follow through with it. In an October 2021
Tekdeeps article, the initial steps that Roblox has taken in this direction are laid out: "Roblox
reported this month that for the first time, more than half of its audience is over 13. The company
recently announced new tools that aim to bring older users to the platform. Among them: more
realistic avatars; the ability to restrict access to games for children under 13 or even 17 years old;
voice chats available to those over 13. To verify your age, you can upload a photo of yourself
with a government-issued ID" (Tekdeeps). This separation between Roblox's younger and older
players could allow Roblox to take a more aggressive approach in regards to advertising and
relieve scrutiny from the collectible items market. By restricting younger audiences from
impulse trading valuable collectibles and some forms of advertising while ramping it up for older
users, a sweet spot between safety and revenue can be reached. The addition of voice chat also
furthers the idea of a Roblox metaverse, and promotes player interaction. Ultimately, this age tier
system can result both in a safer and more profitable Roblox, as well as further Roblox's
endgame goal of becoming a social metaverse. However, this scenario might cause problems
within the playerbase, and if done improperly could cause an exodus from the platform. Too
many restrictions on younger users or too much advertising towards older users could result in
dwindling player numbers. The room for error is low.
I believe that with a competent staff team and proper leadership, the best choice for Roblox is the
third, despite the potential risk it poses. Roblox has already made strides towards it, and it seems
that the logical conclusion to their latest actions is precisely what the third option entails. While
some aspects of separating out age groups may be difficult to implement, it is a safe way to
increase profits while making the platform safer as a whole. Additionally, it has the promise of a
more interactive online experience, as evidenced by the introduction of the voice chat. While
some players may dislike the changes the implementation of the third option may bring, I believe
that the long term advantages to that approach outweigh the negatives. Finally, the tiered age
system can help Roblox develop into something much greater than a game creation and hosting
service. There's already been instances of the game development platform being used for interior
design creation, and it is not hard to imagine Roblox becoming a place to host one's design
portfolio in the future. This diversification could help Roblox maintain its long term relevance,
and the tiered age system might help foster a more job-oriented community of users on the
platform. It is also likely that Roblox may just stick to the status quo though, and with some luck
they will enter the post-pandemic era much stronger than they entered. While a “boring" option,
they have a large enough user base and enough inertia due to the massive influx of new users to
survive and maybe thrive without any major overhauls. However, the perfect storm and rough
waves persist, and we will have to wait and see what Roblox chooses to do, and how it ends up.
What Makes Humans Human?
I've seen many conversations about what differentiates humans from other animals and other homonid
species, and I wanted to posit a hypothesis that I've been mulling over for the better part of two
years. I believe that humans are unique because of their ability to take risks and put themselves
in disadvantageous situations with no clear benefit. Simply put, the ultimate human trait is
irrationality to the point of it being bold and in-your-face. However, there are certain nuances
to this argument that are important to understand before I delve in.
First and foremost, not all humans are like this. It's very easy to live your life as a rational
being, to settle into a routine and to live a predictable life. In fact, most people do live their
lives this way, and this isn't particularly a bad thing. We've cultivated the seeds of society by
tilling fields, not by setting off in a raft across a massive sea in search of something. We've
built major cities generation by generation - in some places in East Asia, you can find family-owned
businesses that trace their roots hundreds, maybe even a thousand years back. And this legacy of
being able to stay in place and grow, much like a tree, is impressive on its own.
But the seeds of society and our civilization do not spread slowly and methodically, and we do not,
for the most part, just grow in place. Human irrationality has also created incredible mobility.
We see this in history - human migration. Why did humans move into places that they could've
reasonably predicted would be tougher to survive. What drove people across the far northern
East Russia - Alaska land bridge? Perhaps it was the hunt, but I doubt that is the only reason. Nor
would be the many excursions of the Polynesians, who set out to colonize the South Pacific, even
with the risk of their ship not hitting any shore but instead the ocean floor.
A common theory as to why Neanderthals never achieved parity with Homo sapiens is due to the risk-
taking nature of us humans. We have sailed through dangerous waters and thus found greener pastures.
And since the 20th century (though certainly before then as well) we've begun to tackle seemingly
unassailable challenges. The reason we've traversed both poles and climbed the tallest peaks of the
continents? Prestige. Hardly something rational, considering the dangerous task at hand. It's not a
noble either. The "because it's there" attitude is something that is uniquely human, uniquely Homo
sapien.
Perhaps other species dream, have consciousness, are rational and smart. I can't exactly prove it to
you. Scientists have revealed that there are species that have complex social hierarchies, networks
as global as our own (ants are a good example of this). But I am hardpressed to find any that try to
assail the unassailable simply because it can. That, I believe, is a uniquely human trait.
postscriptum - Perhaps this irrationality and "because I can" attitude that humans possess is one of
the great "hurdles" of intelligent and sentient alien life. It's not too unlikely to imagine aliens
with great techonlogy and a worldwide mega-city who never really bother moving outwards, simply because
they lack what we have.
A Mixed Bag: Introspection and analysis of what makes a good engineer
A short essay written for a recent writing class. Relevant (and in my opinion, good enough) to share
Reading Ian Bogost's 2015 article "Programmers: Stop Calling Yourselves Engineers" has made me
reexamine what exactly makes a good engineer, and to look at the qualities I have that I believe
will be vital to my career. Bogost places the title of engineer upon a towering pedestal, and
underscores its importance. Specifically, the use of engineering as a means of completing or
contributing to a monumental task that has a sizable impact on our lives. I believe that when
Bogost envisions engineering feats, he thinks of the Roman aqueducts, or the mass production of
ammonium fertilizer. "Engineering claims an explicit responsibility to public safety and
reliability, even if it doesn't always deliver. (2)" This, I believe, is the core tenet of
engineering as a real-world discipline. The structures we build, the inventions we patent, should
be robust, thought out, and built to last. This is critical because if it were not so, the world
around us would be unreliable and dangerous, with no guarantee of safety. So, the main job of the
engineer is not just to create and to contribute to the world of the future, but also to ensure
that this world does not rapidly fall apart. Bogost takes an extreme approach with regards to
ensuring reliability and starts pointing fingers at the tech industry and Silicon Valley.
"..the technology industry can 'engineerwash' - leveraging the legacy of engineering...to engender
trust, competence, and service in the public interest." Bogost is right to point out the recent
shortcomings of software engineering: he mentions a couple of data breaches, the bricking of
iPhones, and what he perceives as the "release and then fix" mentality that would simply not work
in other engineering fields (at least, according to him). It is the "fix later" mentality and how
it is at odds with one of the key tenets of engineering - reliability, that is the core of Bogost's
anti-software-engineering sentiment. It also underscores Bogost's ignorance of iterative design, and
it seems as if he believes that the result of every engineering endeavor should be a finished
product - stamped with the seal of "this will work." However, this is seldom the case in any
engineering field.
Bogost's hardline approach to software engineering and his disdain for the people within it is where I
draw the line, as he allows his ignorance in prototyping lead him to make "in-bad-faith" conclusions and
generalizations about the people in the field. Software engineering is difficult, especially when
establishing use cases. When civil engineers construct a bridge, it is clear that it'll be used by either
cars or pedestrians. Possibly, it could be used by trains. But that's just three use cases, and thus the
main focus of those engineers is to figure out the optimal balance between construction cost and
structural integrity, not how someone can try and break the bridge. Software engineers have to account
for the misuse of their product by the end user, a task that is surprisingly difficult. A jokey metaphor
for this is an engineer who creates a bar, then walks into it and orders 1 beer, 0 beers, -1 beers, 999…
beers, and so on, and everything works. When a customer walks in and asks where the bathroom is, the bar
bursts into flames. This separation between developer and end user is why the software industry can never
really let go of "release and then fix." Additionally, the software developers have to worry about things
such as cybersecurity, especially if they're working for a corporation that stores sensitive data. (Most)
civil engineers don't particularly worry about having their bridge blown up, but software engineers have
to consider the possible data breaches that malicious third parties can do on their site - more user
misuse cases. To release an unbreaking piece of software is a near impossible task, and one that would
take many years to develop in the first place. I believe that iterative design, something that Bogost seems
to disdain especially in software, is one of the most important parts of engineering. It's not just for
small-scale prototyping either - after the I-35W bridge collapsed in Minneapolis and the cause was determined
to be inadequate load capacity due to gusset plates that were too small (National Transportation Safety Board),
many similar bridges were inspected and for some, that same issue was found and fixed. A sort of way to update
the bridge. Being able to build a robust system to begin with is excellent, but the ability to revise it and
improve it as time goes on is more important, both in the physical and digital worlds.
Ultimately, my engineering values are focused around both the creation of a system built to last and being
able to update and improve the system as time passes, as well as to constantly ideate and experiment on a
small scale. As a future chemical engineer, safety is paramount, and I intend for my approaches to problems in
this field to have a thoughtful and adaptable safety-first approach. When I will design the chemical reactors
of the future, it is vital that they actually contribute to that future - an impossible task without meticulous
preplanning. It is my responsibility to make sure the professional projects I work on contribute positively to
society. However, not all endeavors can be this vast and important. I am a believer in the ideals of rapid
prototyping, especially with all the amazing tools engineers have at their disposal, as it allows one to set an
engineering idea into motion very easily. While Bogost may not like it, sometimes, engineering is doing some
testing on Fusion 360 and then 3D printing a cool new part into existence without the "it shall work for years"
mentality. It can always be improved and revised later. Sometimes, robust design and engineering conflict,
sometimes, it is necessary that they work together. Both will help shape the world of the future.
- National Transportation Safety Board. "Highway Collapse of I-35W Highway Bridge Minneapolis, Minnesota
August 1, 2007."" Dot.State.Mn.Us, 14 Nov. 2008, dot.state.mn.us/i35wbridge/pdf/ntsb-report.pdf.
- Bogost, Ian. "Why Computer Programmers Should Stop Calling Themselves Engineers."" The Atlantic, 5 Nov. 2015,
www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/11/programmers-should-not-call-themselves-engineers/414271.
What Led to the End of 'Old Roblox'?
There's always been a debate as to when old roblox died. Some people argue that it was when the
forums were removed. Others claim that it was far, far before, and that old roblox died back in
2012 when all these "new players" started showing up. I would argue, though, that the killing
blow to old roblox and the replacement of good-natured fun by generic corporatism happened with
the removal of Tix, or Tickets.
So what is a Tix? Many people who are newer to roblox have either never heard of them or have
heard it mentioned in passing and given it no thought. After all, the boom of roblox can be
traced as starting at 2018, when plans for an IPO started to be drawn up and well after Tix
were in their proverbial graveyard. Tix were an alternate currency to Robux, and acted as a
means to purchase unique items and had a variable exchange system into Robux.
To make things clear before I delve deeper, the death of Tix was inevitable. Tix were based off
visits to one's game by other people - one per (unique?) player who joined the world you had
created. This was a good incentive to create fun games - people visit, you get paid, everyone
wins. Towards 2015 and moreso 2016, people figured out ways to farm Tix, and that basically
spelled "the end" for the venerable currency. It, of course, was removed under the guise of
"confusion for new users." Now, its Robux only.
This actually isn't the only reason Tix are gone. Roblox always wishes for a monopoly on the
currency exchange, they impose a 30% tax on any sort of sale. Tix were a way to bypass this,
because you could exchange them into Robux and back without paying that cut. And now, Roblox
has their monopoly, and with a speculative, red-hot limited items market (that has simply
staggering volumes of exchange) their profits are massive. Naturally, this has had ramifications.
These ramifications, I believe, are one of the main reasons old roblox vanished.
Nowadays, developers are incentivized by a system called "Developer Exchange," or DevEX for
short. It's an exchange system of robux into cash, and it rewards game developers who create
popular games. But it also incentivizes a pay-to-win (or at the very least, freemium) type of
game. This is so blatantly obvious today, where the front page is saturated with games that
have too many gamepasses, most of them cheap enough that you only need a single $4.99 purchase
of 400 robux - "it's just 5 dollars, it can't hurt." The Roblox game scene is severely lacking
in good, entirely free to play, fun games. There's simply no incentive to do it outside of a
passion project.
This is not to say that all the games on the front page are bad. There are some that you can
certainly play and enjoy without spending any money. But now, they're few and far between.
So, the death of Tix pretty much marked the end of the "play to have fun, not to fill our
pockets." Not to say that people didn't fill their pockets before, but nowadays, if your dream
is to create the next big thing on Roblox and translate that success into real life, you might
have to.
1/26/22What the Future Holds
This website, at least the backbone structure of it, is basically complete. It holds the things
I publish and share, has some nice navigable menus - one can argue that it is finished - only
the informative parts of it shall be updated. However, this isn't true, and I wanted to discuss
with you, my readers, my greater plans for dnauminator.xyz and what I intend to do here.
Sure, first and foremost this site is a compilation of notes. School notes on subjects that I
find interesting and engaging. The site's purpose in the future, though, will be something more
important - my ONLY internet porch. Over the next couple of months I intend to decouple myself
from the runaway train of social media for two primary reasons - my studies and my future
wellbeing. Of course, with this departure from a myriad of sites, it'll be hard to keep in
touch with the people who stay on them, so I intend to expand this site to include a private
messaging system or a forum to those who want to talk.
My vision for this forum is sort of two-fold. People email me saying they want to join the forum,
I think on it, and decide if they're in or not. If you're approved, thats fold 1 - you get to
talk to me directly on my website. But that's just direct messaging - one of my fondest memories
of the internet come from group forums. It's the main appeal of places like Discord that have all
but replaced this unfortunately dying system. So, I intend for there to also be a public forum
for approved members - threads where friends and I can discuss anything and everything.
I intend to release this forum update either during spring break or some time in the middle of
May, since I have to create not just a forum but a secure login system for approved users. Should
be a fun programming project though, and I'll keep you guys posted. :-)
1/20/22