A few days ago, Roblox began rolling out its age verification requirement for chat in all regions, starting with a few regions including the U.S. The wider Roblox community has said their piece about the effect on Roblox as a whole, but the roleplay community in particular has taken a fatal hit. This post by an RP game developer hits every point I was going to make, but I would like to share something nonetheless.
Horrorbrew Hijinx has led me to where I am now. I am more confident as a writer now because of it and the wider morph RP community. I've made good connections with people my age through it, and I have so many memories that I'll cherish from it. Even if I wasn't really doing much, I really enjoyed being there and making memories with like-minded people on the Internet. This has been a fundamental experience for me as a person, and I can't thank it enough for pushing me forward
Experiences like this, like Horrorbrew Hijinx or any other roleplay game on it, have been snuffed out by this update. The very core component of roleplay, communication, has been fragmented to unusability. Sure, people might be making workarounds to the chat system, but I have no doubt in my mind that Roblox will be striking them down. I'm certain that large amounts of money have been spent to create this system, and from what I've seen of how they as a company react to things, they'll be sticking to their guns. This is the new system, and it will most likely be the only one going forward.
Until Roblox removes or heavily reworks their age verification system, Hijinx Happenings will no longer be updated. There's no reason to anymore. The age verification update has effectively killed roleplay games on Roblox, and leaves untold numbers of all ages looking for a new home. And people looking for an experience like it have crumbs, if even that. All that's left is a black hole for a small crowd to circle around.