Roblox is a staple in many kids/teens’ childhoods. From the numerous games that people have regarded as nostalgic, it continues to provide a creative outlet for children to hang out with friends. One game that people regard as “iconic” is Royale High, formerly known as Enchantix High School. The game came out in April of 2017 and was immediately met with success due to how new the idea of a “dress up game with school” was to the platform. It has many iconic realms—such as Divinia Park, Earth, Sunset Island, Moonlight Square, Campus 1 & 2 and a few other realms that have unfortunately been discontinued and/or deleted. However, as the years grew and the game went through changes, so did the playerbase. The numbers really peaked during the holiday seasons (specifically Halloween/Eveningfall, Christmas/Glitterfrost, and Valentines/Everfriend) since realms would be decorated and the in-game shop had season-specific items for sale. But even seasonal items couldn’t save the game from having a downfall.

The creator, callmehbob/nightbarbie, has had a few controversies regarding false promises and inaccurate cultural representations. More specifically, during 2021, callmehbob tried to bring representation into Royale High during Black History Month and Lunar New Year but failed to make the new in-game items accurate. She released a set called “Cherry Blossom”, which mixed items from East Asian culture. Of course, the backlash from the release caused a stir within the community—not to mention the black hairstyles that were added since the head meshes for them didn’t even connect to Roblox heads. Plus, the stereotypical names for past black hairstyles that were only changed because players said something about them.

Another controversy that nightbarbie has had stuck with her is false promises. Not only does she have communication skills, but she struggles to commit to what she said she would put out. An example of this is when the masculine scale suddenly switched and made certain items not work on a male body. Callmehbob said she’d rework the system to how it was before, yet that never came through—and it’s been about two or three years since that was addressed. Then, she said that a set, the “Whimsy Witch” set, would receive sleeves with a Halloween update. That was three years ago. There’s obviously more instances where nightbarbie didn’t do what she said she would, but those are the ones most players (during COVID) remember most.

Then, the nail on the coffin, for me at least, was when toy-exclusive items dropped. To explain briefly, players can buy Royale High toy sets and redeem a code on either the box or the set themselves. Either way, there’s a code within each set that can be redeemed for in-game items. The items are tradeable but have really unreasonable prices, and the items have been seen as “cuter” than what’s in the game’s store for diamonds. This created another rift between the creator and the community because the trade values of all toy items made inflation hit Royale High hard, worse than when trading first dropped and honestly started the deep downfall of the game. Additionally, dorms coming out and being too expensive for new players also ripped the playerbase apart. For context, my dorm might’ve cost about two-hundred-thousand diamonds to decorate and get together.

But even after all of that had happened, Royale High has still managed to have a comeback. Of course, it was this year’s Halloween realm that brought some players back to the game. After the “Falling Leaves Festival” made a comeback—even though its appearance was new for many players like myself, nightbarbie decided to drop part two and bring back “Wickery Cliffs”, along with giving players ten new candy items. It brought back a lot of players, boosting the average from six-thousand to approximately thirty-thousand.

So, it’s safe to say that Royale High has many positives and negatives, but many hope that good communication and timely updates from callmehbob will restore the game back to its full potential. We hope to see a constant rise, and to not fall back on bad times and we hope that this new update will be the catalyst for a beloved game needed to stay afloat.