I’ve tried a few times to sort of, understand Roblox. It reminds me of Fortnite, which I like, and it’s sort of a virtual world, which I enjoy, so it feels like I could at least be able to be into Roblox a little.
I think a lot of my hangup with it has been that the avatar customization is so weird and clunky. The base body is this weird ugly blocky dude. You can get some custom bodies and parts, but there is no clear way to know what items are compatible. Plus, it all costs money to actually use.
In my case, it, sort of costs money.
Early on in my Google Play Pass subscription they had these monthly coupons that amounted to, $5 off any purchase in Roblox (and Pokemon Go, and Hearthstone), so I accumulated a small pile of “free” Roblox bux. I say “Free” because it still charged tax, so they were like, 30 cents for $5 in Robux.
I have not really used any of it since I can’t really get into using Roblox.
So why bring up Roblox? Well, there was an announcement on the Aurora Discord that there was some sort of Aurora map, through something called Tastemaker. Don’t worry, I don’t rerally get what all that means either. But it’s Aurora, and I decided to check it out. Which… Initially wasn’t very exciting.
My first trip, it just drops you into some sort of shopping hub. There was not much to do, but I did find some Aurora themed merch shirts, and bought one for my avatar, which resulted in also buying a new base avatar. At least all this stuff is super cheap, “free Robux” or not.
The thing is, the main event wasn’t open until the 12th, something called the Runaway Forest. Runaway, of course, being, probably Aurora’s most popular song, the video takes place in a snowy forest. It is the 10th Anniversary of All my Demons Greeting Me as a Friend, though Runaway was released in 2015.
Anyway, I finally had a chance to explore the Roblox Runaway Forest a few days after it opened. And it way… still a little.. kind of boring. You get dropped into this little patch of snowy trees. I wandered ahead some, and found a scrap of paper to collect and was told, there were ten more to collect. So I sent about looking for them. I found, one additional page before hitting the far side of the map, which just opens into a wide open ice field.
I should add in here, I also spent my first “trip” here, without moving my camera, because, as I said, I don’t really play Roblox. After figuring out I could zoom all the way in to “mouselook” with my camera, I started exploring more around the edge, though I mostly just, found more trees. I also eventually figured out that you can right click and hold to move the camera, which I could have sworn I had tried.
Eventually I made my way near the center, where I came across a small clearing I had somehow completely managed to avoid during my initial stumbling. The clearing didn’t add a lot though. There were three dresses on one side, clicking on each one would activate Aurora talking about her design inspiration for each dress. It should be noted, that they did look like clothing she had probably worn, recreated as mediocre 3D models, they were not any of the outfits from the Runaway Video. Though there was one similar to the solid green outfit.
Then I noticed off to one side was a little Roblox Aurora, who just told me I needed to find more book pages. Opposite the dresses was a shop selling Aurora items for use in Roblox. I bought the Warriors and Weirdos sword, the wings, and the jellyfish hair. I passed on the face paint and any more shirts. On a side note, I later found the new items were also available now, outside the forest in the hub area. They had not been available originally.
The Moth Wings are kind of fun, because they let you fly. They are kind of bland because they, don’t animate at all. It’s just kind of, a flat graphic. I think that’s a Roblox limitation though. You also need the flight of the wings in order to collect one of the pages, but there is a “trial” you can use in the forest area.
After collecting the pages, the map redirects you back to Roblox Aurora to turn in the quest. Which grants, a copy of the All my Demons.. book. I guess? It added it on top of my wings on my back, and clicking a little inventory icon makes you hold it, but it doesn’t seem to do anything. Also the hold is incredibly jank, which is just part of why I can never get into Roblox. What even is this?
I think the weirdest part was the lack of music. Maybe it’s a bug? This seems to be an official project, the hub island seems to be run by a music label. It’s “Runaway Forest”, at the very least maybe loop Runaway in the background.
Also notable, I am not sure what’s going on with these items, but after leaving the zone, I went to customize my avatar with my new Jellyfish hair and W&W Sword, only to be greeted with a message that these items were pending review. It says if they don’t pass review, I will get a refund, so, that’s nice I guess. I kind of want the items though.
One last note, I also explored around the Tastemakers hub. There were several booths that seemed to just be custom items to buy. I found a tent with some random individual items inside from other artists, including Nikki Minaj, which I only mention because she was the only artist there I recognized. HOWEVER, there was a sort of, jump pad thing, that launches to a small island and I found a fun bonus.
Sigrid merch!
I bought a… well., a Jellyfish shirt, which has nothing to do with Aurora’s Jellyfish hair, the hair is just called that because it was her main look for ages and consists of two long front strands that resemble jellyfish tentacles. The Sigrid shirt was just a replica of one of the IRL shirts she put out promoting the soing Jellyfish from her latest album. Which is also amusing because it means, these are fairly current.
Also the Sigrid shirt was also “under review”, so I can’t actually wear it apparently.
Anyway, I also visited a pretty awesome Sonic the Hedgehog game that I was going to also write about but this is getting long so I’m going to save that for later.
