8 ms·

Don't consider Roblox a traditional game. It's basically Gmod for kids and with official corporate support and a official way for developers to wring money out

Don't consider Roblox a traditional game. It's basically Gmod for kids and with official corporate support and a official way for developers to wring money out of its consumers with micro transactions. More platform than game. It's really easy for developers to develop a game, easily implement real money transactions, and have an audience.

shiftpgdn 6y ago
My 8 year old and 5 year old girls spend literally their entire allowance on Robux. They would spend literally the entire day playing if I allowed it. The developer toolset is crazy strong too, I bet they're not even 10% of the way with their market penetration.
- acomjean 6y ago
  My nieces the same.. very popular with the young ones. They even have an “among us” like game on there
  - worldsayshi 6y ago
    Feels like every moddable game platform with decent popularity has an among us clone nowadays.
    - kfichter 6y ago
      Brings me back to the days of gmod and TTT
    - shitloadofbooks 6y ago
      Among Us is already a clone of Mafia/Werewolf/The Resistance.
- bladegash 6y ago
  Same here, with daughters 4 and 7! They beg me for Robux on a frequent basis and 100% of their weekly allowance goes towards it. I have no doubt Roblux will continue to make mountains of money. The amount of people playing it is mind blowing and I’m sure there are additional ways to monetize their ecosystem. As a side note - it’s cool to see them play so well together and I even play with them too to engage with them on something they enjoy. On the other hand, I sometimes get concerned with how much they play and how addictive the micro transactions are for kids their age. Then again, I spent most of my days growing up playing games like EverQuest, WoW, learning to program, etc. , so it’s hard for me to judge.
  - uoaei 6y ago
    I see this sentiment often from parents. It baffles me. If you made decisions in your youth that you think were mistakes, you should be passing on the lessons of those mistakes. Not stepping back in non-judgment because "who am I to say". You are their parent!
    - jvanderbot 6y ago
      I think op was missing the implied " and I turned out ok "
    - nhumrich 6y ago
      I think it's less about "mistakes I made as a kid", and moreso, "I turned out great, so maybe they aren't mistakes"
      - aaronblohowiak 6y ago
        Or lessons well learned
    - bladegash 6y ago
      Yeah, sorry for the confusion - that sentence likely could have been more complete. As others mentioned, I feel as though I turned out fine and I regret next to none of that time spent.
    - pyuser583 6y ago
      I agree with you. My daughter spent 100% of her allowance on Robux. Now she doesn’t have an allowance.
    - m0zg 6y ago
      > you should be passing on the lessons One thing parents discover is that if it's between dopamine and "lessons", dopamine wins 100% of the time. My 16 year old right now is playing games instead of doing his homework. He's going to have 2 "F"s this semester, just like the last, and one before that, and one before that. Doesn't give a shit - never experienced any hardship (yet).
- lkxijlewlf 6y ago
  It is interesting to me that this is a commercial entity. It looks to me more like it should have been an open source platform. It kinda has that vibe to it.
chorsestudios 6y ago
I get that Roblox is a platform and not just another game on the App Store. It appears to be popular and addicting to children, but most children don't have money. Is all of their revenue coming strictly from children's allowances or is this something that has potential to appeal to older people?
- emcrazyone 6y ago
  ha, you don't sound like you have kids. My kids love Roblox... You're birthday is coming up, what do you want? Roblox gift card. Grandma wants to get you a birthday, xmas, ____ gift, what do you want? Get me a roblox gift card or robucks as they are called. My kids now design shrits and sell them online and take the money and spend it on roblocks. Roblocks is also a way for kids to connect online. For example, mine talk to their cousins that live in another state and their friends from a neighborhood we moved away from.
  - sushshshsh 6y ago
    A nice wholesome internet for kids story :) Back in my day we were using AIM in the 5th grade and joining friends of friends of friends of friends chatrooms, playing Gmod, or Habbo Hotek :)
mrspeaker 6y ago
It's a brilliant concept too - making games for it is really really run, because all the multiplayer stuff is built right in by default. Making reliable multiplayer games is tough: I'd love to see a serious API service that does the same thing for "real" game engine/libraries!
- sidlls 6y ago
  Check out https://www.manticoregames.com/ https://www.manticoregames.com/. I wouldn’t say it’s “prime time” as a competitor but it’s built on Epic’s tech.
- stu2b50 6y ago
  Yes, multiplayer is a good point. Roblox is an easy way to make games that are 1) Multiplayer (skipping all netcode, account systems, and so forth) 2) Have a secured, safe, and trusted way to make transactions If you were to try and make a multiplayer, microtransaction based game in Unity, that is a large amount of work, especially for a younger developer, and it's _critical_. Messing up payment code has huge consequences.
sergiotapia 6y ago
There's this VR game called Recroom. https://store.steampowered.com/app/471710/Rec_Room/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/471710/Rec_Room/ It's Roblox for the next generation, and extremely fun even to me when I tried it out as an adult. I hope Roblox expands into VR or recroom will eat their lunch. VR is the future and people spend HOURS in there playing all sorts of official games and community made games.
- sidlls 6y ago
  The only thing VR is going to eat in the next 5-10 years is (more) dirt. It’s still niche and I have yet to see any application to make it not niche. Including that.
  - echelon 6y ago
    VR is going to be as big as smart phones. It'll kill Hollywood, create new forms of entertainment, and entirely new economies will arise along the (Twitch, Patreon, OnlyFans)-axes. Why do you think Zuckerberg cares so much? It might be the smartest bet he's made since Instagram. Just watch.
    - mekkkkkk 6y ago
      It has the potential, but it is still so hampered by the physical constraints. You look like an idiot, you're not very comfortable, performance is meh, battery life is horrible and you need ample space to play in. Even if all of this was fixed tomorrow, many people have been burnt by previous generations, and don't have much hype left for VR. I've mothballed my Go, my friends sold their Rifts. Fun as a gimmick but as a main gaming/media platform unthinkable. While I agree that it's probably inevitable that it will become a staple device like a smartphone is today, I wouldn't hold my breath.
- stu2b50 6y ago
  Anything with VR has such an insane barrier of entry that I don't see it eating into anyone's lunch anytime soon. Roblox has the userbase it does because it's on every platform and runs on potatoes. How many kids (using a large range from ages 1-18) have VR setups in their homes?
ec109685 6y ago
How do they get away with being essentially a platform itself for multiple games and not run afoul of the same restrictions that prevent cloud gaming platforms being sold in the App Store?
- jzl 6y ago
  Because the app store rules are arbitrarily enforced at Apple's whim?
- modeless 6y ago
  That's a very good question. Also it seems that Roblox games are scripted in Lua. How do they get away with running downloaded user scripts inside their app? The App Store review guidelines prohibit this very clearly: > Apps should be self-contained in their bundles, and may not [...] download, install, or execute code which introduces or changes features or functionality of the app [...] There is only one narrow exception which clearly does not apply to Roblox for several reasons; for example it's only for HTML5 content. Tim Cook just testified to Congress that all developers are treated equally, but this seems like a clear case where an app that is "too big to fail" gets special treatment.
  - ec109685 6y ago
    And I for one think it is very good that Apple does not require them to break Roblox up into multiple games. It is nice having one game that I generally know what its content is like and mechanics are versus the crap that my kids want to download from the App Store.
  - titanomachy 6y ago
    I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. This seems like a reasonable question, and yeah Apple definitely breaks their App Store rules when needed if it will make them more money.
  - Kaveren 6y ago
    because most companies do not recognize roblox as a platform, they recognize it as a game. nobody realizes that the development of games on it is on a similar level to web development, it's like explaining social media to congressmen. it's not them getting special treatment purposefully. it's been on the iOS app store since 2012. apple's policy here is a bad one. if it were fully remove, true web browser diversity could come to iOS, and roblox could finally do JIT compilation of Lua, among so many other possibilities.

shiftpgdn 6y ago

My 8 year old and 5 year old girls spend literally their entire allowance on Robux. They would spend literally the entire day playing if I allowed it. The developer toolset is crazy strong too, I bet they're not even 10% of the way with their market penetration.

acomjean 6y ago
My nieces the same.. very popular with the young ones. They even have an “among us” like game on there
- worldsayshi 6y ago
  Feels like every moddable game platform with decent popularity has an among us clone nowadays.
  - kfichter 6y ago
    Brings me back to the days of gmod and TTT
  - shitloadofbooks 6y ago
    Among Us is already a clone of Mafia/Werewolf/The Resistance.
bladegash 6y ago
Same here, with daughters 4 and 7! They beg me for Robux on a frequent basis and 100% of their weekly allowance goes towards it. I have no doubt Roblux will continue to make mountains of money. The amount of people playing it is mind blowing and I’m sure there are additional ways to monetize their ecosystem. As a side note - it’s cool to see them play so well together and I even play with them too to engage with them on something they enjoy. On the other hand, I sometimes get concerned with how much they play and how addictive the micro transactions are for kids their age. Then again, I spent most of my days growing up playing games like EverQuest, WoW, learning to program, etc. , so it’s hard for me to judge.
- uoaei 6y ago
  I see this sentiment often from parents. It baffles me. If you made decisions in your youth that you think were mistakes, you should be passing on the lessons of those mistakes. Not stepping back in non-judgment because "who am I to say". You are their parent!
  - jvanderbot 6y ago
    I think op was missing the implied " and I turned out ok "
  - nhumrich 6y ago
    I think it's less about "mistakes I made as a kid", and moreso, "I turned out great, so maybe they aren't mistakes"
    - aaronblohowiak 6y ago
      Or lessons well learned
  - bladegash 6y ago
    Yeah, sorry for the confusion - that sentence likely could have been more complete. As others mentioned, I feel as though I turned out fine and I regret next to none of that time spent.
  - pyuser583 6y ago
    I agree with you. My daughter spent 100% of her allowance on Robux. Now she doesn’t have an allowance.
  - m0zg 6y ago
    > you should be passing on the lessons One thing parents discover is that if it's between dopamine and "lessons", dopamine wins 100% of the time. My 16 year old right now is playing games instead of doing his homework. He's going to have 2 "F"s this semester, just like the last, and one before that, and one before that. Doesn't give a shit - never experienced any hardship (yet).
lkxijlewlf 6y ago
It is interesting to me that this is a commercial entity. It looks to me more like it should have been an open source platform. It kinda has that vibe to it.

chorsestudios 6y ago

I get that Roblox is a platform and not just another game on the App Store. It appears to be popular and addicting to children, but most children don't have money. Is all of their revenue coming strictly from children's allowances or is this something that has potential to appeal to older people?

emcrazyone 6y ago
ha, you don't sound like you have kids. My kids love Roblox... You're birthday is coming up, what do you want? Roblox gift card. Grandma wants to get you a birthday, xmas, ____ gift, what do you want? Get me a roblox gift card or robucks as they are called. My kids now design shrits and sell them online and take the money and spend it on roblocks. Roblocks is also a way for kids to connect online. For example, mine talk to their cousins that live in another state and their friends from a neighborhood we moved away from.
- sushshshsh 6y ago
  A nice wholesome internet for kids story :) Back in my day we were using AIM in the 5th grade and joining friends of friends of friends of friends chatrooms, playing Gmod, or Habbo Hotek :)

mrspeaker 6y ago

It's a brilliant concept too - making games for it is really really run, because all the multiplayer stuff is built right in by default. Making reliable multiplayer games is tough: I'd love to see a serious API service that does the same thing for "real" game engine/libraries!

sidlls 6y ago
Check out https://www.manticoregames.com/ https://www.manticoregames.com/. I wouldn’t say it’s “prime time” as a competitor but it’s built on Epic’s tech.
stu2b50 6y ago
Yes, multiplayer is a good point. Roblox is an easy way to make games that are 1) Multiplayer (skipping all netcode, account systems, and so forth) 2) Have a secured, safe, and trusted way to make transactions If you were to try and make a multiplayer, microtransaction based game in Unity, that is a large amount of work, especially for a younger developer, and it's _critical_. Messing up payment code has huge consequences.

sergiotapia 6y ago

There's this VR game called Recroom. https://store.steampowered.com/app/471710/Rec_Room/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/471710/Rec_Room/ It's Roblox for the next generation, and extremely fun even to me when I tried it out as an adult. I hope Roblox expands into VR or recroom will eat their lunch. VR is the future and people spend HOURS in there playing all sorts of official games and community made games.

sidlls 6y ago
The only thing VR is going to eat in the next 5-10 years is (more) dirt. It’s still niche and I have yet to see any application to make it not niche. Including that.
- echelon 6y ago
  VR is going to be as big as smart phones. It'll kill Hollywood, create new forms of entertainment, and entirely new economies will arise along the (Twitch, Patreon, OnlyFans)-axes. Why do you think Zuckerberg cares so much? It might be the smartest bet he's made since Instagram. Just watch.
  - mekkkkkk 6y ago
    It has the potential, but it is still so hampered by the physical constraints. You look like an idiot, you're not very comfortable, performance is meh, battery life is horrible and you need ample space to play in. Even if all of this was fixed tomorrow, many people have been burnt by previous generations, and don't have much hype left for VR. I've mothballed my Go, my friends sold their Rifts. Fun as a gimmick but as a main gaming/media platform unthinkable. While I agree that it's probably inevitable that it will become a staple device like a smartphone is today, I wouldn't hold my breath.
stu2b50 6y ago
Anything with VR has such an insane barrier of entry that I don't see it eating into anyone's lunch anytime soon. Roblox has the userbase it does because it's on every platform and runs on potatoes. How many kids (using a large range from ages 1-18) have VR setups in their homes?

ec109685 6y ago

How do they get away with being essentially a platform itself for multiple games and not run afoul of the same restrictions that prevent cloud gaming platforms being sold in the App Store?

jzl 6y ago
Because the app store rules are arbitrarily enforced at Apple's whim?
modeless 6y ago
That's a very good question. Also it seems that Roblox games are scripted in Lua. How do they get away with running downloaded user scripts inside their app? The App Store review guidelines prohibit this very clearly: > Apps should be self-contained in their bundles, and may not [...] download, install, or execute code which introduces or changes features or functionality of the app [...] There is only one narrow exception which clearly does not apply to Roblox for several reasons; for example it's only for HTML5 content. Tim Cook just testified to Congress that all developers are treated equally, but this seems like a clear case where an app that is "too big to fail" gets special treatment.
- ec109685 6y ago
  And I for one think it is very good that Apple does not require them to break Roblox up into multiple games. It is nice having one game that I generally know what its content is like and mechanics are versus the crap that my kids want to download from the App Store.
- titanomachy 6y ago
  I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. This seems like a reasonable question, and yeah Apple definitely breaks their App Store rules when needed if it will make them more money.
- Kaveren 6y ago
  because most companies do not recognize roblox as a platform, they recognize it as a game. nobody realizes that the development of games on it is on a similar level to web development, it's like explaining social media to congressmen. it's not them getting special treatment purposefully. it's been on the iOS app store since 2012. apple's policy here is a bad one. if it were fully remove, true web browser diversity could come to iOS, and roblox could finally do JIT compilation of Lua, among so many other possibilities.