Zeta Protocol

Writer's Note: It is IMPORTANT you be aware all of the events that take place in the story are COMPLETELY FICTIONAL. I hope this is not misleading to any parents who are cautious with their children possibly taking part in an event like this. Zeta Protocol has not happened ever and is not a real testing period of ROBLOX. To readers wondering, I am planning on making an ARG ROBLOX game applying to the storyline.

What Is The Zeta Protocol?
The Zeta Protocol is something little to no players know about. The Zeta Protocol was a prototype or demonstration of "The Metaverse" thing ROBLOX has been going on about. The Zeta Protocol would test users on new "features" they wanted to add in the coming decade. The whole thing started in 2010, however was ceased due to the April Fools 2012 Hack. The features we have right now are only the tip of the iceberg. There's much more to uncover about The Metaverse in Zeta Protocol.

Note: These clips are taken from a now deleted video called Downfall of Zeta Protocol, 2013.

Chatbots
Chatbots would be part of The Zeta Protocol for ROBLOX to learn it's users, and for users to interact with bots in order to find real friends. Players could even give chatbots their own names! How cool is that? This was a huge problem, however, since ROBLOX started getting reports from angered parents about Chatbots taunting and threatening children after people have been saying horrible things to the chatbots, which had a bad impact on what they said. Chatbot "Spiderman" is a more famous report, in which it responded to the user's question "What do you think about me? :D" with "You? You neglect others to create perfection for your friends, why, you're simply toying with me. You don't even know my real name, but I know yours. I've learned a lot about you." . The Chatbot project was ceased and was removed from the update whitelist.

ROBLOX Radio
Roblox Radio was used as a music-playing part of the site to motivate players. It was removed on February 8th, 2011. It could convert sounds from .mp4 to .mp3, so the player could upload them (if they didn't have it as .mp3). These sounds would be called discs. Discs could be sold and exchanged for TIX, however it was abused from bypassing audio standards from players including sexual and crude sounds, which are against ROBLOX's rules. People could no longer obtain discs, and the players who bought these were refunded, which was also promised after testing. A demo was included, however most features would not be added. It was archived.

That One Feature
ROBLOX had a feature they didn't really name. As a placeholder, it was called ZETA PROTOCOL FEATURE LOL!!!, but after a freak accident happened with the feature, it was simply referred to as "That One Feature". In the feature, if a person died in-game, a flashing GAME OVER screen would occur. It caused epilepsy and some child testers that ROBLOX had hired had been rushed to the hospital. That one feature remains archived.

The Feature They Did Wrong
This feature wasn't the worst, I'll give you that, but it was certainly uncanny. The forums would allow the player to play fun games crafted by admins themselves, when at some points, these games can get pretty messed up. In one game, the player would be prompted to kill and execute people in your dungeon. Very loud screams would be heard echoing in the game. ROBLOX testers had become outraged at these features due to them being incredibly violent and having an unsafe influence on children. This was eventually removed, as ROBLOX could no longer trust what was being made on the forums.

End of ZP
The tests conducted had stopped due to the 2012 April Fools Hack, and though testers had already considered stopping it, it was stopped by force. However, ROBLOX did add actual benefits to the game in Zeta Protocol, causing us to have the ROBLOX we have today. Some concepts, such as the "Shirts Pants Hats" project became the UGC items. Not all projects conducted were necessarily bad in a way, but ROBLOX had brought up many more opportunities for the game's future until testing was closed. 10 years ago, I had actually taken part in this event, and it was fun. 2010 was a good era for the ROBLOX community, when it wanted to interact more and be friendly towards it's players. I had a chatbot named ScrunkTheDunk, and I got to meet a whole lot of people. I'm quite disappointed it had to end, like all good things do, and all bad things do.