Those of you who were online this Thursday evening and Friday morning had a sneak peak of our ROBLOX badges feature. We have had heavy traffic this Friday morning. Coupled with the new statistics and badges pages, our database machine started pegging at 100% and http://www.roblox.com/ went to a slow crawl.  We are fixing right now and have taken the badges pages offline. In the interim, all statistics that go towards badges are still being gathered.

For those of you who are curious about badges (and missed the unintentional sneak preview), I’ll repeat the descriptions of the first round of badges here.  Kudos to Matt and Erik for getting this cranking.

You will also notice our adoption of the terms “Knockout” and “Wipeout” as standards for one-on-one combat. We feel knockout and wipeout are a good balance of descriptive, fun and parent-friendly.

Homestead Badge – 100 visits to your place

The homestead badge is earned by having your personal place visited 100 times. Players who achieve this have demonstrated their ability to build cool things that other Robloxians were interested enough in to check out. Get a jump start on earning this reward by inviting people to come visit your place.

Bricksmith Badge – 1000 visits to your place

The Bricksmith badge is earned by having a popular personal place. Once your place has been visited 1000 times, you will receive this award. Robloxians with Bricksmith badges are accomplished builders who were about to create a place that a thousand people wanted to explore. They no doubt know a thing or two about putting bricks together.

Friendship Badge – 20 friends

This badge is given to players who have embraced the Roblox community and have made at least 20 friends. People who have this badge are good people to know and can probably help you out if you are having trouble.

Combat Initiation Badge – 10 knockouts

This badge is given to any player who has proven their combat abilities by accumulating 10 victories in battle. Players who have this badge are not complete newbies and probably know how to handle their weapons.

Warrior Badge – 100 knockouts

This badge is given to the warriors of Robloxia, who have time and time again overwhelmed their foes in battle. To earn this badge, you must rack up 100 knockouts. Anyone with this badge knows what to do in a fight!

Bloxxer Badge – 250 knockouts and knockouts > wipeouts

Anyone who has earned this badge is a very dangerous player indeed. Those Robloxians who excel at combat can one day hope to achieve this honor, the Bloxxer Badge. It is given to the warrior who has bloxxed at least 250 enemies and who has tasted victory more times than he has suffered defeat. Salute!

– Builderman