Roblox players get ‘Bring Back Billy’ trending due to character removal
RobloxRoblox players are trending ‘Bring Back Billy’ on social media in response to the withdrawal of the UGC character Billy from the platform. This comes just a few days after Roblox announced that UGC creators would be able to create their own characters and sell them in the avatar shop. Here is what the community had to say.
Roblox has helped give rise to a new economy in which user-generated content is valued and exchanged for virtual goods. The platform’s revenue-sharing model provides an avenue for artists to monetize their work by sharing a cut of the proceeds from the sale of user-generated content (UGC) items they’ve made.
In a recent announcement, Roblox granted members of its existing UGC Program the ability to create their own complete avatar bodies and heads for the Roblox Marketplace. Through this, creators can create their own custom characters for their games or to sell them in the Avatar Shop as assets.
Shortly thereafter, creators went wild creating characters from other games, such as Pikmin or the most recent meme trend depicting “Billy the Stickman.” Billy, a fully-modeled character, was introduced to the market by a developer named mPhase, who enabled players to obtain it for free, resulting in a viral trend.
However, shortly after it was withdrawn from the platform by Roblox, players began a social media trend titled ‘Bring Back Billy’ demanding its return.
Roblox players call for return of Billy as ‘BringBackBilly’ goes trending
Millions of Roblox users have purchased Billy since he became available as a free UGC item in the Roblox Avatar Shop, and they’ve had a blast using him to create comedic TikToks and try out all sorts of outrageous antics, like jumping across an obby or spinning indefinitely.
It gave the user an advantage in games where height was a factor, and the character was often a bit taller than the default Roblox avatar. Soon enough, the character and all its assets were deleted from Roblox because its dimensions did not comply with the site’s guidelines.
Seeing just how much fun it was to play as Billy, players took to social media with the hashtag “BringBackBilly” to petition for his reinstatement. One such user said, “They should just make Billy the default avatar.”
Another one chimed in, “Supposedly Billy got deleted because people say it didn’t meet the size requirements, but why did Roblox let it be uploaded in the first place?” A third added, “I was legit crying when I heard it was deleted.”
Even though Billy is now unavailable for purchase, smaller UGC developers are jumping on the bandwagon to bring the character back in their own style through the Avatar Shop. Those who aren’t able to get it from the Avatar Shop can still test out the avatar in a new Rockndr-created game called “Test Billy Avatars” on Roblox.
The game is essentially an empty room in which numerous players can take on the role of Billy and have fun with the character. As of yet, no news has come from Billy’s creator or Roblox, but fans are holding out hope that Billy will return soon.