Roblox Ryanair
robloxryanair.com
robloxryanair.com
- Their employee/staff portal (!)
- Careers site with job listings
- Social media/PR accounts
- Seasonal/special holiday schedules and timetables
- Terms and conditions, terms of carriage
- Corporate page
- Aircraft inventories
- Fiscal/financial results, stock tickers (?!)
- Corporate communications/news center/investor relations
Truly incredible
All of the above list, including entire airports and in-flight entertainment in the seatbacks.
And so, invariably they build job simulators: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uq0orHycjHI&t=12m41s
Or just, you know, entire (pyramid scheme) corporations: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hE6jxjKPNZQ&t=6m35s
I think you could have five characters total, so I had a little price triage cartel specializing in fish, made up of four characters, who all operated for the benefit of the fifth character, the one I actually played the game with.
It worked beautifully up to about level 45 or 50, after which it didn't scale any further.
https://www.robloxryanair.com/en-articles-360017683323
Including a school in the north of England (Roblox players at that school? Roblox players pretending to run a school?), and Ryanair Holdings, which is not the actual Ryanair Holdings, but another Roblox airline, headed by one Vladimir Lenin, who is also leader of The Soviet Union.
I still have absolutely no idea what i am looking at.
EDIT oh yeah they actually do have an airline, which fully realistically simulates the Ryanair experience of being penned in with a bunch of unruly freaks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhRD_hUZrcI
https://www.robloxryanair.com/_files/ugd/d969ac_0df5a87d394b...
They have (or had) accessories which players could purchase, and some hats/gear/character accessories had "limited" runs, which means they only sold so many or for so long (either X hats total, or as many as could be bought until a deadline). So there was a whole meta game of speculative investing, writing bots to capitalize on market inefficiencies (players could make trade offers of money+other acessories, as well offer them up on the marketplace for hard cash prices), etc. Similarly there was a market exchange rate for tickets to/from robux.
Groups would organize to do all sorts of things, like produce magazines (with in game self updating magazine kiosks), war groups to fight each other (with dedicated bases they could staff and enemies could raid), airlines where always big, Sci fi groups, clothing designers/"brands", etc.
In the early days, both the platform and average computer were limited, so there was a big hacker scene to bend and abuse the platform to your will. Privilege escalation (not on the host, but some roblox api calls/objects were protected), platform specific "malware" which infected models/levels and hid in various ways, dumping the source code of protected modules, a bunch of GUI hacks (because Roblox actively refused to implement basic things for a loooong time), doing special rituals because of how certain operations behaved, etc.
There was something for everyone, and a ton of fun for budding programmers. I never made a real game, but I had a ton of fun learning to make random stuff.
The "secret" for both those cases is likely that they were lazy and just used some low effort placeholder at first, then the game blew up and the style became too intertwined with the popularity to change.
Roblox looks actually ugly because it uses higher resolution assets without a common/appealing style to make them cohesive.
Most websites indeed looked very similar in 1996, but that was because of the currently accepted design aesthetics of the time, and had little to do with the browser itself.
However, ugly or not, most people don't care, and the gameplay itself was so interesting to its audience that it didn't really matter. Lots of things are more approachable and relatable specifically because they're ugly, and I think that applies to both Minecraft and Roblox. It's easier to imagine yourself making or participating in something that doesn't look like it took a genius to do. They made zillions of dollars and lots of people have fun with their games.
But that doesn't mean I have to like it.
Plus, that's what people are used to.
Being an open platform with user-generated-content it has content covering basically anything kids are interested in and can react very quickly to incorporate "content" from whatever is currently trending.
They've taken the Facebook / PHP "it sucks but we move fast and have a very low barrier to entry" ethos and applied it to gaming, aimed at a very young audience (my kids of 7 & 10 and all of their friends play it) and - with their horrific monetization - are killing it.
Free exploration, community and YouTube.
The way developers iterate on gaming concepts and allow players to be part of the evolution seems to be appealing.
Tower Defence games are one example, where there are many implementations.
The games evolve and change, sometimes rapidly, and the players and community come along for the ride. Then another new Tower Defence game comes along, a YouTuber showcases it, and they all go try out that one. Then the old game gets a big update, and they go back and try the old one again.
The games are often very similar to each other, or knock-offs of commercial games. They often use irreverent meme culture visuals and sound effects, which makes the games seem fun and disposable. None of it is taken very seriously, on the surface at least.
The key here is the community - all these games and their friends are on Roblox. They don't lose their friends if they switch games, and games are free to play, so their friends can easily join them without having to ask their Parents to buy the game for them!
When you look back at the early Roblox games, it's remarkable how primitive they are. However when you view todays games, it's equally remarkable for sophisticated and impressive the graphics are!
https://traveldudes.com/airline-review-why-you-shouldnt-be-f...
Interview explains…
I did find some human pics here[1] so I'm guessing they used some tool to robloxify the original assets.
[1](second last page) https://www.robloxryanair.com/_files/ugd/d969ac_89ba94baede4...
The fact that you need this disclaimer because your site looks like a real site down to every possible detail is a problem.
At no point does this look like a game. It is indistinguishable from a scam.
"Ryanair ROBLOX is a non-profit group which intends no infringement to the trademarks of Ryanair. We do not accept real cash and exist for the purpose of online gaming and enjoyment, as with other flight simulator games on ROBLOX and beyond, such as flight simulator games. We are passionate about Ryanair and working on components including this website have helped to develop the skills of our staff and passengers for future use in the industry.
We would comply with any copyright requests or simple complaints but have not received any to date. We are therefore in a position to keep operating, developing and expanding. The experience and knowledge gained by some staff, including in website development, may even be a bonus for future prospective careers within Ryanair. These are profoundly vast achievements, including website development, coding with Java, airline management and operation, creating SOPs, implementing trainings and more.
We hope that our consistent love and advertisement of Ryanair, if seen, will be welcomed! As we are a virtual airline, we pose no threat or harm."
They might actually do something legally about the trademark violation, but not what you'd expect from most companies.
Would you think it was strange if suddenly the New York Times only had pictures of dogs? That would raise some questions from me, for sure.
I understand how people fall for scams so often if this website is considered indistinguishable from a scam.