15 ms·

The Roblox Microverse

173 points by Kinrany 6y ago

NDizzle 6y ago
My 8 and 10 year olds give out their Roblox user names to friends. Most recently at a softball tournament, my little short stop traded names with a few players that she befriended on other teams. I'm not sure if there is any grand meaning to this, I just thought I'd share a thing I noticed.
aduitsis 6y ago
This is supreme nitpicking, but the author being quoted about the term "metaverse" is Neal Stephenson, not "Neil Stephensen".
- EricMausler 6y ago
  If I was Neal, I would not consider this a nitpick
juskrey 6y ago
All I can say is roblox banned in our home network: the whole user experience is targeted to make children judge each other using wrong incentives and extort money from parents. On the other hand I have no problems paying children for games with honorable practices of one time purchase or reasonable subscriptions (which usually end in a month in any case when children get bored)
- quornxypt 6y ago
  Can you expand on how the experience is targeted to make children judge each other? Has this been something your kid(s) experienced on the platform? Just curious.
  - juskrey 6y ago
    My daughter have asked me several times if I can spend at least something because other children somehow see she is not a paying user and segregate on that basis
    - mmkos 6y ago
      Wow, if it's true then that's such a vile design, particularly for a game designed for children. However, I'm more inclined to believe that it's just something your daughter may have said to convince you to buy something.
      - juskrey 6y ago
        How would you expect children to spend money in game if not by convincing parents to buy something? Of course she received a series of 40 second lectures on how that works in life in general, and why I don't want to enclose her in virtual fraud simulation - she'll have much better ways to do that.
        mmkos 6y ago
        I was unnecessarily vague. What I meant was that it could have been something your daughter made up, just so you'd buy her something.
        juskrey 6y ago
        I understand what you have said here. If lies happen, that likely mean things are much much worse than they look. You don't teach children how to properly intake drugs, you teach them how to properly avoid toxic things in general.
        nvader 6y ago
        I appreciate this comment, and feel like I learned something about parenting from it.
        ManifestTendy 6y ago
        Ditto on liking this comment. The devil's advocate may be that, given the parallels to regular social challenges (and that 'digital' challenges may actually become more important in the future), Roblox offers a decently monitored, low-risk space to explore. The game itself doesn't and doesn't have to incentivize social buying pressure. I believe it's just the natural order of things that can be considered signs of status. Because you have complete control over the avatar unlike your body, perhaps the condition is worse. As VR or 'microverses' evolve it's something to observe. I suppose I was interested in having a powerful status symbol. I can't imagine why else I took so much time as a kid to learn the Roblox 'economy', how to trade, and then get scammed out of it in the end (the greatest lesson). I don't know if this what you meant by toxic or not, but it seems I've been drawn to that same experience with our fun little stonk market this past year.
  - lallysingh 6y ago
    There's a fashion show game where kids judge each other's outfits.
    - ethbr0 6y ago
      So... grade school?
    - meheleventyone 6y ago
      Although that's actually fun and pretty harmless. Designing to a theme is a pretty common thing from Minecraft Build Battles through to Fashion Famous. The former tends to be worse because you get a lot of trolls building sexually explicit and racist stuff.
    - notsureaboutpg 6y ago
      People are missing that you need to pay money for the outfits in Roblox. Real outfits are already an expense to keep kids from being judged in school. Why add digital ones?
    - dagw 6y ago
      At least in the version of that game my daughter plays, most of the outfits can be earned in game and traded with other players. My daughter has never bought an outfit from Robux. The point of the game isn't to have the most expensive outfit but to design an outfit that best matches the given theme.
- ceejayoz 6y ago
  My kids haven't asked to spend a penny, and the play I overhear seems to be largely collaborative - "come visit my theme park and see this cool rollercoaster".
- mempko 6y ago
  My child is literally making a roblox game right now. I just showed him lua. He is 10. Roblox is a huge gateway into programming. He started on scratch, and now roblox. Next generation of programmers will have learned programming using roblox as kids. I'm impressed with their IDE.
  - jimmyvalmer 6y ago
    Humblebrag alert: Yes, I was blown away by what my 12yo was doing with Lua because of his Roblox obsession. As mindless and addictive as Roblox looks, there's a very important silver lining here.
  - juskrey 6y ago
    I love lua, but roblox ide and general way how it works have made an impression of gimmick only used to bait parents into "my kid is learning programming", when in fact the system is pretty dull and feels too artificial.
    - samatman 6y ago
      A smart ten year old can write a game and sell it for money, that trumps your subjective aesthetic impressions. All Roblox games are made the same way. Those should be what sets your impression of the system, not looking at the screen and curling your upper lip.
      - juskrey 6y ago
        Sorry, I was on that other side of the game, which was cheating money out of me, pretending it's teaching my children something, while they and all their virtual friends were engaging in toxic gangs and "parties" built on parents money
antidaily 6y ago
Is anyone making money off Roblox? Tried to make some gear so my son could make money and stop asking me for Robux. Failed miserably. Anyway, I'll be buying stock.
- csharptwdec19 6y ago
  Roblox is. This is just a near-NCAA tier play by the company to make money off child labor. Change my mind.
  - antidaily 6y ago
    No doubt about that. You have to have a premium account just to make and list items for sale.
    - ethbr0 6y ago
      This is different than Apple, how? Platforms take cuts. At least the money is out in the open and explicit, unlike TikTok's questionably-declared influencer payments.
      - antidaily 6y ago
        I'm just agreeing that Roblox is making money.
  - dzdt 6y ago
    I think a negligible fraction of Roblox games are child created. The focus is either Roblox-created games like Bloxburg or indie adult-created games. Children (with their parent's credit card info) are the target consumers, not target creators.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
- joezydeco 6y ago
webwielder2 6y ago
Totally ignorant perspective with perhaps no basis: Seems like Roblox must be successful despite its games, not because. I'm sure there are gems as there are with any user-generated platform, but surely most of the 18 million games are about what you used to get on Xbox Live Indie Games: sloppy little experiments made by, well, kids.
- ceejayoz 6y ago
  > little experiments made by, well, kids I think that's spectacular.
  - foobarian 6y ago
    Not only can a kid go from download to having a playable game created from a template in probably less than 30 minutes, but that game has world class multiplayer support and is available on the Roblox platform for anyone to join and explore. And there is no fragmentation like with Minecraft Bedrock/JE.
- jayd16 6y ago
  And Myspace was often hideous but that didn't matter. It seems like a solid platform for young creators. They never played the classics anyway, so the million clones is probably not an issue.
- deelowe 6y ago
  When I watched my kids play Roblox, I realized it is a social media platform that happens to use games as the medium. Roblox shouldn't be compared to Games Platforms any more so than early YouTube should be compared to Television.
  - tootie 6y ago
    Roblox (and Minecraft) have fulfilled the dream of products like Second Life.
  - twic 6y ago
    A colleague's kids use Fortnite this way. It's a place to hang out where you can also do stuff.
an_opabinia 6y ago
Roblox games are really clunky to make on PCs, let alone phones. You'll never be able to make one on a phone. It's crazy clunky. A third person character running around with virtual joysticks: so clunky. Roblox has been around longer than smartphones have, it has always been a port, much like Minecraft. Which sure, kids play. Roblox is probably setting back the arrival of the metaverse, not advancing it. Whatever that means. If you actually make and play games you don't talk about things that way. You're more aware of stuff like Dreams or Garry's Mod, you've touched stuff like Unity and Unreal and Flash. You kind of get that Roblox isn't competing with Grand Theft Auto but with YouTube Poop. Literal puppet shows. Like what are we even talking about. As an aside, the biggest threat to Roblox is if parents spent money. I don't mean in Roblox. Surely, you guys understand, that the appeal of Roblox compared to Disney+, arguably the finest destination for 8 year olds, is that, on the face of it, Roblox is "free." It's a catch 22 really: the audience where they would anticipate all their revenue growth would never waste money on Robux, they would just get a Disney+ subscription.
- freewilly1040 6y ago
  > would never waste money on Robux Why do you assume that? My nephew is obsessed with Roblox and has asked for Robux for his birthday, which he will probably get.
- whywhywhywhy 6y ago
  >A third person character running around with virtual joysticks: so clunky. This doesn't bother kids, it's all they know. I cringe watching my niece and nephew playing Minecraft and Roblox on their phones with touchscreen controls but they don't care and can use it fine even if it looks clunky and painful to me.
- matthoiland 6y ago
  I "waste" a lot of money on Roblox - $30-40/mo. It's where all my kids friends are, and it's a safe space on the internet that I trust as a parent. They build theme parks, space stations, small businesses – it's amazing, silly, and safe.
  - 6y ago
ryanmarsh 6y ago
I now have 5 or so years experience with Roblox in the house. I've helped my kids make games and I have to say, VC is missing out big time. Roblox (or the concept) has an enormous TAM. Roblox corp is struggling with DX DevRel and moderation. It's an absolute fucking zoo and the tools are shit. Major game publishers have had their accounts taken over by scammers, or just shut down by Roblox because of scammers trying to steal their accounts. Somebody who understands product, gaming, and devrel could really knock this out of the park. Please do it, so I can go back to making games with my kids.
- felideon 6y ago
  Well, fwiw, they did just hire Manuel Bronstein who led product at Zynga, YouTube, and Google Assistant: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/joining-roblox-manuel-bronstein/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/joining-roblox-manuel-bronste...
  - watwut 6y ago
    Zynga was pretty bad company.
    - meddlepal 6y ago
      By what metric? It made a lot of money and thats the only thing that matters.
- meheleventyone 6y ago
  There's a heap of new products in the space. We're building dot big bang (https://www.dotbigbang.com https://www.dotbigbang.com) which is web based so you can play and make multiplayer games on your smart fridge amongst other devices. If you're interested you can learn more about the company and project here: https://controlzee.com/ https://controlzee.com/
  - Kinrany 6y ago
    What are the other products?
guidoism 6y ago
Roblox pisses me off so so much as a parent. There are some good games but it's mostly wading through an ocean of shit. And the vast majority of games that are popular are clickers that incentivize children to pay money to get more for each of their clicks. And it's full of scams. Kids spend $10 for a hat or something in the game and it doesn't end up working in all the games and there's no recourse. It's a true free-for-all wild-west. What we can learn from it is: 1. Making games easy to make and distribute. It's honestly amazing what kids are doing these days. I give Roblox a lot of credit for this. 2. Roblox has become an awesome way for kids to communicate with each other, they share their username at the playground.
- marianov 6y ago
  related: is there some resource to know what a game/social network concerns may be? My small kids requested: Minecraft, Roblox, Among Us, tik tok , Hogwarts Mystery and the list goes on. My due diligence process is overbooked.
  - webwielder2 6y ago
    https://www.commonsensemedia.org https://www.commonsensemedia.org
  - CharlesW 6y ago
    > related: is there some resource to know what a game/social network concerns may be? If you search for "roblox parents" you'll find several good resources.
  - notsureaboutpg 6y ago
    I have always used https://www.pluggedin.com/ https://www.pluggedin.com/ It's run by a Christian org but to their credit they seem to be the only group that actually cares about what kids see and hear in movies and tv. And they cover the most popular movies and tv really quickly.
  - Scramblejams 6y ago
    If you go for Roblox, I recommend using the parental controls to enable curated games only. It wasn't on by default for my <13 yo, which annoys me to no end. If you don't turn it on, you'll end up with your kids in games with freeform sketching and all sorts of questions you weren't planning to answer until later. :-)
jcpham2 6y ago
I've taught my children about pay-to-win and robux youtube.com / googlevideo.net / 1e100.net banned
thunderbong 6y ago
I'm also a parent who's child plays Roblox a lot. I don't know much about PC games, so can the parents here suggest some better alternatives?
- airstrike 6y ago
  Retrogaming
- duggable 6y ago
  My kids play Minecraft on the switch (creative mode), and they absolutely love it. I think it's a bit addicting, but I don't mind since it's essentially virtual legos.
- doctor_eval 6y ago
  I’m a parent who plays roblox (mostly Arsenal) with my kids :)
- watwut 6y ago
  Roblox costs less money and those games are actually targetted at kids. Really, new games cost a lot and steam discounts on aggregate cost more. Plus, competitive online pc gaming is something I dont want my kids near to. Mostly because of culture and addictive nature of it. Speaking of addiction, worst are MMO like games, things like league of legends or world of warcraft. I dont want my kids to play any of that, these games tend to consume whole person. Roblox is safe and age appropriate.
- RGamma 6y ago
  Just for reference: https://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/windows/ https://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/windows/ has a huge database of video games. Also, assuming your child plays with real life friends I don't know how much sense it would make to suggest alternatives to Roblox (group dynamics, network effects and all), but something like Terraria, Starbound, Minecraft or even Garry's Mod would fit here. See also searching by tags on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?tags=3859,3810 https://store.steampowered.com/search/?tags=3859,3810 (here: Sandbox, Multiplayer)
HDMI_Cable 6y ago
Does anyone know why the game for kids switched from Minecraft to Roblox? I remember both of them being around when I was younger, yet everyone chose Minecraft. Today, it’s the opposite.
- foobarian 6y ago
  The multiplayer piece is night and day compared to Minecraft. Doing any kind of social gaming in Minecraft requires a sysadmin setting up servers and upgrading Java plugins. It's a double benefit because game creators don't have to reinvent the multiplayer wheel. I think it's a brilliant setup and why my kid prefers to play Roblox with her friends instead of other socially fragmented games. Edit: and don't even get me started on the Bedrock/Java Edition schism!
- watwut 6y ago
  Multiplayer for free. You don't have to run server. Plus, it is many different games, not just one that is not for everyone. Minecraft was popular, but there were many kids that found it boring. Yet plus, all kids that I know who play minecraft had it explained by someone. It could be other kid, but basically, game is not self explanatory and is difficult to figure out at first.
  - asdff 6y ago
    Minecraft experienced severe feature creep over the years. It started as a very simple game: place or break different colored blocks which all have the same properties on a finite sized map, and in a few years got to the point where people were making CPUs in game with redstone. It got too big and overwhelming for people new to the franchise who haven't been dripped these updates over the years, imo.
    - watwut 6y ago
      The issue is not many features. It is surviving first night, knowing how to set creative so that you dont have to be surviving and creating all elements from first principles. Kids need to be told how to move around, how to select blocks, etc.
fredfoobar 6y ago
The optimist in me is very excited for the possibilities in this game in the future.
skrebbel 6y ago
We have Roblox (kids age 5 and 8). From the start I made a hard "no Robux" rule, which has worked out well so far. This has had a very nice and totally unintended side effect: the kids self select against games that are only fun if you pay. Eg my youngest likes the clicking simulators. Many of those are awful "pay to win" schemes but some actually have fun game dynamics (not unlike the Paperclip Simulator html game that's an HN favorite[0]). Those are the ones he returns to. These are the games that are more creative in nature, the games that are more challenging and so on and so forth. I feel that at least 7 out of 10 times I check on them, they're doing a game that involves creation, economics, collaboration, and often multiple of those. [0] https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/index2.html https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/index2.html
- jimmyvalmer 6y ago
  I'm fairly sure you're aware that more than 9 out of 10 kids would find Robux-free Roblox immensely more appealing than whatever economic simulations your preternaturally moderate children are taken with.
  - skrebbel 6y ago
    Ok I'm not sure what "preternaturally" means, but yes I agree that Robux are an awful scam and Roblox would be better without them. That said I'm also not nuts and I realize that Roblox would likely not exist without them. I'm advocating for picking all the VC-funded (and user-generated) freebies off the platform and giving nothing back. It's like using YouTube with an ad blocker. That said, I'm not sure I parsed your comment right, so just to clarify: when I say "economic" I mean stuff like "Pizza Tycoon" where you run a restaurant and need to buy stuff with fake money to get more customers etc etc. That's not Robux money, that's 100% in-game fake money that you earn by selling pizzas. Even the better clickers have this dynamic, where you click to get some kinds of points and then you can use the points to buy/build stuff that auto-generates clicks etc. It's not unlike the economies in Starcraft (yeah I'm old) and the likes.
    - jimmyvalmer 6y ago
bastardoperator 6y ago
Roblox seems to have nearly doubled their value during the pandemic. Will this hold water once kids are back in school?
magikaram 6y ago
As a recent college grad, I remember when I used to play Roblox as a middle school student with my best friend back in the day. I tried for nostalgia's sake to see how the game is present day. While I am somewhat lacking in understanding some of the changes, and road that the game has gone down now, it still appears to be a good online community for those who need an easy game to get around. I might still have the Roblox Studio tool (circa 2012/13) installed on an old Pentium 4 laptop.
dannyphantom 6y ago
I will buy this company when it is listed tomorrow.
indigochill 6y ago
Is the distinction here between Roblox and Second Life that Roblox has official apps on mobile and console (that seems to be where he refers to it as a "metaverse")? I've generally been under the impression Roblox is basically Second Life for kids.
jonheller 6y ago
I used to push back had on my kids wanting to buy hats, pets, etc in Roblox. Seemed like a waste of money and I hate microtransactions. Then I realized that this is literally the only game they play, and it's free. Compare that to me at that age, buying Nintendo games for $50 a pop, why am I hesitant to support these creators with a $2 hat? I still limit purchases just for general personal finance lessons, but otherwise let them spend money here like they would on actual paid games.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Makes me think of collectible card games. If I hadn't spent my own pocket money as a kid on MTG, Star Trek CCG and Pokemon, there's no way in hell I would let my kid buy into an obvious scam CCGs are. But I did spend money on them and enjoyed it, so I'm not so sure now.
  - HenryBemis 6y ago
    We had an unfulfillable mania to complete our collection (which we now know is was VERY difficult/expensive due those 1-2-5 cards that were super rare). Supporting the developers with a couple of dollars didn't hurt anyone. As long as the kids won't try to "complete the collection of all hats). That would teach them to control their spending, understand that they can't just 'buy what they see' (as some young adults get to do on their first paychecks), and chores-chores-chores!
  - Al-Khwarizmi 6y ago
    Why do you think it's an "obvious scam"? I played MtG for many years. I spent money, sure, but nothing obsessive and I got a lot of enjoyment out of it: the game is interesting and always changing, I went to tournaments, met people, and then there was the economy: trade, trying to predict cards whose price would go up, etc. I remember doing arbitrage at some point when a card appeared in a preconstructed deck for €X and was selling for like €X+5 (it didn't last much, of course). I also learned some foreign languages because I had cards in various languages. I think it was money well spent, and I have no doubt it would be a good experience for my kid as well. I still have the cards, they have a resale value. More than I spent on the game, as some have become difficult to find. Of course, this could change (I don't really think they'll become worthless because MtG is not just any CCG, it's quite iconic due to its history, but it could happen), but at the very least they are a physical item that remains there and can be played with. When my son grows, he will probably enjoy them, regardless of their value. Loot boxes for games that give you a virtual item that you can't even sell or gift and will probably be worthless in 4 years when the server closes... now that's a scam, unless in exceptional cases (small one-time purchase to support devs, etc.). I don't spend money on that and I wouldn't let my kid either.
acehw 6y ago
I wanna play Roblox on Debian Linux and distros based on Debian. Why can't I? it supposedly works on ChromeOS
- Railworks2 6y ago
  Roblox has made repeated statements on this, latest from their Roblox Developer Con 2020. In short, not enough demand that requires more support for players. There has been repeated demands for this but every year is a no. Here is one of those threads https://devforum.roblox.com/t/proper-support-for-the-linux-platform/56544/ https://devforum.roblox.com/t/proper-support-for-the-linux-p... ChromeOS works because it uses the Android version of Roblox.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
pueblito 6y ago
It feels like Roblox is being pumped for the stock issue tomorrow.
TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
> In short, Roblox isn’t a game at all: it is world in which one of the things you can do is play games, with a persistent identity, persistent set of friends, persistent money, all disconnected from the device that you use to access the world. That is the transformational change. Second Life, The Sims Online. We’ve been here before. Those platforms didn’t nail it like Roblox, but Roblox did not transform anything.
- TrainedMonkey 6y ago
  Roblox got mass adoption by integrating with educational platforms. Massive quantitative change is often qualitative enough to be transformational.
- villasv 6y ago
  Second Life and The Sims Online are wildly different from Roblox. You're right that the particular sentence you've picked doesn't capture what Roblox did different, but it did transform the building of virtual experiences.
- emmelaich 6y ago
  You can add MUDs and MOOs to that list.
- karpour 6y ago
  VRChat is becoming one of those platforms. Creating is easy and I spend way too much time playing a faithfully recreated 3D VR of Among Us in there!
- throwaway744678 6y ago
  Remember that sweet time when marketing departments of (aspiring to be) trendy companies where rushing to create their "digital presence" in Second Life... Yes, we will interview candidates, meet our business partners, talk to our customers in there, etc. We had a good laugh.
  - EamonnMR 6y ago
    We had a professor who held office hours in second life.
modeless 6y ago
Can someone explain to me how Roblox doesn't violate Apple's "no app stores in the App Store" rule? And the rule against running non-JavaScript code not bundled with the app? And probably a bunch of other rules too? The article mentions it but has no sensible explanation. It seems impossible to justify. Apple gets to pick winners and losers by selective enforcement of their own rules. Pretty nice for Roblox if Apple prevents anyone from releasing a competitor!
- villasv 6y ago
  > Can someone explain to me how Roblox doesn't violate Apple's "no app stores in the App Store" rule? The games available inside Roblox are impossible to ship as an independent app on the App Store without re-implementing the entire Roblox platform. It's a middle ground between Minecraft selling maps and an actual app store.
endergen 6y ago
For the step 2 and 3 phase, I think it should be mentioned how important games becoming free was for mass adoption. As much as I as a former game dev did not love the model of free and then upselling. I might just be old school at this point. Free and then upgrading avatars has grown on me.
remoquete 6y ago
I struggle to differentiate Roblox from Second Life by reading Ben’s description of it. But then again, being the earliest doesn’t equate to being the best.
- throwaway744678 6y ago
  Didn't use Roblox, nor Second Life, but my understanding is that Roblox is much more oriented towards gaming.
damontal 6y ago
If you’re a parent with a kid that plays Roblox make sure you lock your account down. Creating an account in the iOS app doesn’t require an associated email address. If your kid somehow forgets their password you might not be able to reset it without an associated email address. If their account gets stolen which happened to my daughter and you don’t have an associated email address it can be a real headache to unlock the account and get it back. Also make sure you have two factor authentication enabled. I know this is pretty mundane advice but the fact that Roblox lets you create an account without an email address or an associated phone number for 2FA means you can find yourself with a real headache if your kid gets locked out of their account for whatever reason.
- geomark 6y ago
  I'm interested in how you got the account back. My kid lost access to the email address on the account. It wasn't stolen, it was a school email address at an old school. Replies from Roblox support have been very slow and not helpful - just instructions on how to recover using the email on the account (as if they never read the original support request).
  - damontal 6y ago
    I had to provide Roblox support with receipts from the iOS App Store showing purchases made for the account. I think there’s an id in the receipt that they can match against the account. I’m not sure what they could go if no purchases were made on the account though.
RGamma 6y ago
Let's see how long this stays benign until chasing growth targets sinks the ship.
kongcode 6y ago
First off, I consider myself pretty liberal in my views and open to online gaming in general. However, as a parent and grandparent, I think Roblox is HIGHLY dangerous for kids. I've watched my granddaughter play some games that were completely ripe with players looking to exploit her. Music playing with Rated-XXX lyrics - referring to varied sexual acts. Games based on pets (wolves) wanting to "ride" each other and playing what seemed like a pornographic soundtrack in the background. I'm talking about true porn, moaning, foul language, you name it. She is no longer allowed to play the game at our home. I would have to spend all my time policing her online play and dealing with her disappointment at not being able to play specific games. I don't see how parents can allow their kids to play Roblox. It is wide open to exploitation - there is no restriction, control or protection offered for children. And to top it off, 99% of gameplay requires purchasing virtual items. Just bleh, shock and a big nope for my family. Roblox should be ashamed at the platform they have created.
unfocused 6y ago
Interesting. I just talked to the experts - my 7 year old and 9 year old. They play Roblox sitting side by side on the couch, right beside me. They spend $0 and I just asked them, are you looking to buy anything, and they said "No" you don't need to, but they do know a kid who has spent $100 and is addicted to it (their words, not mine...could be exagerated). Then again, the 9 year old also has a steam account, and they buy all their games from their $5/week allowance. It's their choice. We do not control what they spend money on. They made a couple of bad purchased, and cried, and regretted it, but it taught them to be careful. So I guess, you can say, there are ways to letting kids play Roblox and controlling their spending. And to be fair, it really depends on the kid. Some resist buying impulsively better than others. Also, as an aside, they try to add kids that they know in real life. They get their video time from 6:15pm until 7:15pm on weekdays. They pick their video time. Whether watching Planet Earth, Youtube, Steam, Roblox, it doesn't matter. BUT, they get 1 hour. Essentially we are trying to give them power of choice, and ability to fail. It's not perfect, but...I guess we're just learning as we go along.
- SteveCoast 6y ago
  I've noticed the $0 thing too, plus the enormous amounts of "stolen" IP in the games - assets, music, entire games...
  - sjg007 6y ago
    The remixing makes it fun. There is a lot of creativity inside roblox and extends into youtube too.
- alisonkisk 6y ago
  Isn't "playing roblox" like "playing iPhone"? It's not a game, it's a whole platform/ecosystem.
  - unfocused 6y ago
    True. They try different games. I tried asking them what they would recommend to other kids, but they said Arsenal, sports games, and Natural Disaster...they were not helpful! Either way, they only play a few times a week, so maybe 3 hours a week. They usually play other stuff as well.
sabujp 6y ago
d/ld roblox yesterday, it's impossible to play some of the popular ones on a tablet, no idea what's going on with pigs running around hitting people on the head, uninstalled immediately
tomerico 6y ago
The important thing about Roblox is that it's part of a larger trend of platform that enable a competitive creator environment that bubble up the "best" content to the top (like TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit). Roblox does it for games, and perhaps in the best way we've seen so far. This perspective can also give us a sneak peek into will replace Roblox in the future. If you look at the YouTube --> TikTok transition, the main differences are that TikTok's content is entirely recommended, and that the content itself is more shorter (i.e. faster to trigger the dopamine response). The new gaming platform will likely be similar - a faster, quicker experience that will initially cater to kids but will eventually capture adults as well (and the content will evolve to support that). Side note: It's absolutely incredible how much the comment section here is filled with parents either complaining or seeking validation for their ways of raising their kids. It shows how the transition to digital consumption is polarizing and challenging to our conventional wisdom.
twic 6y ago
> Step 0 — Pre-Internet: The primary way to distribute video games was on consoles, which were controlled by the console makers; computer gaming was more open, but still required significant distribution capabilities. This was the newspaper era of video game publishing. Makes you think - what if someone had figured out a way to run games on PCs? Or even on those 8-bit micros we all had back in the day.
concretemarble 6y ago
If anyone is interested in what Roblox is capable of, check out the following games: Roblox Hellreaver https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tMpXnRG19U&ab_channel=PoptartNoahh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tMpXnRG19U&ab_channel=Popta... and Waterloo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS4KBNTocQY&ab_channel=PixelatedApollo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS4KBNTocQY&ab_channel=Pixel... One of the benefits of Roblox is it's extremely unopinionated in aesthetics and gameplay mechanics, which is quite different from Minecraft. Combined with zero upfront cost developing/publishing/operating and large platform user base, it opens up lots of possibilities for developers.

173 points by Kinrany 6y ago

My 8 and 10 year olds give out their Roblox user names to friends. Most recently at a softball tournament, my little short stop traded names with a few players that she befriended on other teams. I'm not sure if there is any grand meaning to this, I just thought I'd share a thing I noticed.

aduitsis 6y ago

This is supreme nitpicking, but the author being quoted about the term "metaverse" is Neal Stephenson, not "Neil Stephensen".

EricMausler 6y ago
If I was Neal, I would not consider this a nitpick

juskrey 6y ago

All I can say is roblox banned in our home network: the whole user experience is targeted to make children judge each other using wrong incentives and extort money from parents. On the other hand I have no problems paying children for games with honorable practices of one time purchase or reasonable subscriptions (which usually end in a month in any case when children get bored)

quornxypt 6y ago
Can you expand on how the experience is targeted to make children judge each other? Has this been something your kid(s) experienced on the platform? Just curious.
- juskrey 6y ago
  My daughter have asked me several times if I can spend at least something because other children somehow see she is not a paying user and segregate on that basis
  - mmkos 6y ago
    Wow, if it's true then that's such a vile design, particularly for a game designed for children. However, I'm more inclined to believe that it's just something your daughter may have said to convince you to buy something.
    - juskrey 6y ago
      How would you expect children to spend money in game if not by convincing parents to buy something? Of course she received a series of 40 second lectures on how that works in life in general, and why I don't want to enclose her in virtual fraud simulation - she'll have much better ways to do that.
      - mmkos 6y ago
        I was unnecessarily vague. What I meant was that it could have been something your daughter made up, just so you'd buy her something.
        juskrey 6y ago
        I understand what you have said here. If lies happen, that likely mean things are much much worse than they look. You don't teach children how to properly intake drugs, you teach them how to properly avoid toxic things in general.
        nvader 6y ago
        I appreciate this comment, and feel like I learned something about parenting from it.
        ManifestTendy 6y ago
        Ditto on liking this comment. The devil's advocate may be that, given the parallels to regular social challenges (and that 'digital' challenges may actually become more important in the future), Roblox offers a decently monitored, low-risk space to explore. The game itself doesn't and doesn't have to incentivize social buying pressure. I believe it's just the natural order of things that can be considered signs of status. Because you have complete control over the avatar unlike your body, perhaps the condition is worse. As VR or 'microverses' evolve it's something to observe. I suppose I was interested in having a powerful status symbol. I can't imagine why else I took so much time as a kid to learn the Roblox 'economy', how to trade, and then get scammed out of it in the end (the greatest lesson). I don't know if this what you meant by toxic or not, but it seems I've been drawn to that same experience with our fun little stonk market this past year.
- lallysingh 6y ago
  There's a fashion show game where kids judge each other's outfits.
  - ethbr0 6y ago
    So... grade school?
  - meheleventyone 6y ago
    Although that's actually fun and pretty harmless. Designing to a theme is a pretty common thing from Minecraft Build Battles through to Fashion Famous. The former tends to be worse because you get a lot of trolls building sexually explicit and racist stuff.
  - notsureaboutpg 6y ago
    People are missing that you need to pay money for the outfits in Roblox. Real outfits are already an expense to keep kids from being judged in school. Why add digital ones?
  - dagw 6y ago
    At least in the version of that game my daughter plays, most of the outfits can be earned in game and traded with other players. My daughter has never bought an outfit from Robux. The point of the game isn't to have the most expensive outfit but to design an outfit that best matches the given theme.
ceejayoz 6y ago
My kids haven't asked to spend a penny, and the play I overhear seems to be largely collaborative - "come visit my theme park and see this cool rollercoaster".
mempko 6y ago
My child is literally making a roblox game right now. I just showed him lua. He is 10. Roblox is a huge gateway into programming. He started on scratch, and now roblox. Next generation of programmers will have learned programming using roblox as kids. I'm impressed with their IDE.
- jimmyvalmer 6y ago
  Humblebrag alert: Yes, I was blown away by what my 12yo was doing with Lua because of his Roblox obsession. As mindless and addictive as Roblox looks, there's a very important silver lining here.
- juskrey 6y ago
  I love lua, but roblox ide and general way how it works have made an impression of gimmick only used to bait parents into "my kid is learning programming", when in fact the system is pretty dull and feels too artificial.
  - samatman 6y ago
    A smart ten year old can write a game and sell it for money, that trumps your subjective aesthetic impressions. All Roblox games are made the same way. Those should be what sets your impression of the system, not looking at the screen and curling your upper lip.
    - juskrey 6y ago
      Sorry, I was on that other side of the game, which was cheating money out of me, pretending it's teaching my children something, while they and all their virtual friends were engaging in toxic gangs and "parties" built on parents money

antidaily 6y ago

Is anyone making money off Roblox? Tried to make some gear so my son could make money and stop asking me for Robux. Failed miserably. Anyway, I'll be buying stock.

csharptwdec19 6y ago
Roblox is. This is just a near-NCAA tier play by the company to make money off child labor. Change my mind.
- antidaily 6y ago
  No doubt about that. You have to have a premium account just to make and list items for sale.
  - ethbr0 6y ago
    This is different than Apple, how? Platforms take cuts. At least the money is out in the open and explicit, unlike TikTok's questionably-declared influencer payments.
    - antidaily 6y ago
      I'm just agreeing that Roblox is making money.
- dzdt 6y ago
  I think a negligible fraction of Roblox games are child created. The focus is either Roblox-created games like Bloxburg or indie adult-created games. Children (with their parent's credit card info) are the target consumers, not target creators.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
joezydeco 6y ago

webwielder2 6y ago

Totally ignorant perspective with perhaps no basis: Seems like Roblox must be successful despite its games, not because. I'm sure there are gems as there are with any user-generated platform, but surely most of the 18 million games are about what you used to get on Xbox Live Indie Games: sloppy little experiments made by, well, kids.

ceejayoz 6y ago
> little experiments made by, well, kids I think that's spectacular.
- foobarian 6y ago
  Not only can a kid go from download to having a playable game created from a template in probably less than 30 minutes, but that game has world class multiplayer support and is available on the Roblox platform for anyone to join and explore. And there is no fragmentation like with Minecraft Bedrock/JE.
jayd16 6y ago
And Myspace was often hideous but that didn't matter. It seems like a solid platform for young creators. They never played the classics anyway, so the million clones is probably not an issue.
deelowe 6y ago
When I watched my kids play Roblox, I realized it is a social media platform that happens to use games as the medium. Roblox shouldn't be compared to Games Platforms any more so than early YouTube should be compared to Television.
- tootie 6y ago
  Roblox (and Minecraft) have fulfilled the dream of products like Second Life.
- twic 6y ago
  A colleague's kids use Fortnite this way. It's a place to hang out where you can also do stuff.

an_opabinia 6y ago

Roblox games are really clunky to make on PCs, let alone phones. You'll never be able to make one on a phone. It's crazy clunky. A third person character running around with virtual joysticks: so clunky. Roblox has been around longer than smartphones have, it has always been a port, much like Minecraft. Which sure, kids play. Roblox is probably setting back the arrival of the metaverse, not advancing it. Whatever that means. If you actually make and play games you don't talk about things that way. You're more aware of stuff like Dreams or Garry's Mod, you've touched stuff like Unity and Unreal and Flash. You kind of get that Roblox isn't competing with Grand Theft Auto but with YouTube Poop. Literal puppet shows. Like what are we even talking about. As an aside, the biggest threat to Roblox is if parents spent money. I don't mean in Roblox. Surely, you guys understand, that the appeal of Roblox compared to Disney+, arguably the finest destination for 8 year olds, is that, on the face of it, Roblox is "free." It's a catch 22 really: the audience where they would anticipate all their revenue growth would never waste money on Robux, they would just get a Disney+ subscription.

freewilly1040 6y ago
> would never waste money on Robux Why do you assume that? My nephew is obsessed with Roblox and has asked for Robux for his birthday, which he will probably get.
whywhywhywhy 6y ago
>A third person character running around with virtual joysticks: so clunky. This doesn't bother kids, it's all they know. I cringe watching my niece and nephew playing Minecraft and Roblox on their phones with touchscreen controls but they don't care and can use it fine even if it looks clunky and painful to me.
matthoiland 6y ago
I "waste" a lot of money on Roblox - $30-40/mo. It's where all my kids friends are, and it's a safe space on the internet that I trust as a parent. They build theme parks, space stations, small businesses – it's amazing, silly, and safe.
- 6y ago

ryanmarsh 6y ago

I now have 5 or so years experience with Roblox in the house. I've helped my kids make games and I have to say, VC is missing out big time. Roblox (or the concept) has an enormous TAM. Roblox corp is struggling with DX DevRel and moderation. It's an absolute fucking zoo and the tools are shit. Major game publishers have had their accounts taken over by scammers, or just shut down by Roblox because of scammers trying to steal their accounts. Somebody who understands product, gaming, and devrel could really knock this out of the park. Please do it, so I can go back to making games with my kids.

felideon 6y ago
Well, fwiw, they did just hire Manuel Bronstein who led product at Zynga, YouTube, and Google Assistant: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/joining-roblox-manuel-bronstein/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/joining-roblox-manuel-bronste...
- watwut 6y ago
  Zynga was pretty bad company.
  - meddlepal 6y ago
    By what metric? It made a lot of money and thats the only thing that matters.
meheleventyone 6y ago
There's a heap of new products in the space. We're building dot big bang (https://www.dotbigbang.com https://www.dotbigbang.com) which is web based so you can play and make multiplayer games on your smart fridge amongst other devices. If you're interested you can learn more about the company and project here: https://controlzee.com/ https://controlzee.com/
- Kinrany 6y ago
  What are the other products?

guidoism 6y ago

Roblox pisses me off so so much as a parent. There are some good games but it's mostly wading through an ocean of shit. And the vast majority of games that are popular are clickers that incentivize children to pay money to get more for each of their clicks. And it's full of scams. Kids spend $10 for a hat or something in the game and it doesn't end up working in all the games and there's no recourse. It's a true free-for-all wild-west. What we can learn from it is: 1. Making games easy to make and distribute. It's honestly amazing what kids are doing these days. I give Roblox a lot of credit for this. 2. Roblox has become an awesome way for kids to communicate with each other, they share their username at the playground.

marianov 6y ago
related: is there some resource to know what a game/social network concerns may be? My small kids requested: Minecraft, Roblox, Among Us, tik tok , Hogwarts Mystery and the list goes on. My due diligence process is overbooked.
- webwielder2 6y ago
  https://www.commonsensemedia.org https://www.commonsensemedia.org
- CharlesW 6y ago
  > related: is there some resource to know what a game/social network concerns may be? If you search for "roblox parents" you'll find several good resources.
- notsureaboutpg 6y ago
  I have always used https://www.pluggedin.com/ https://www.pluggedin.com/ It's run by a Christian org but to their credit they seem to be the only group that actually cares about what kids see and hear in movies and tv. And they cover the most popular movies and tv really quickly.
- Scramblejams 6y ago
  If you go for Roblox, I recommend using the parental controls to enable curated games only. It wasn't on by default for my <13 yo, which annoys me to no end. If you don't turn it on, you'll end up with your kids in games with freeform sketching and all sorts of questions you weren't planning to answer until later. :-)

jcpham2 6y ago

I've taught my children about pay-to-win and robux youtube.com / googlevideo.net / 1e100.net banned

thunderbong 6y ago

I'm also a parent who's child plays Roblox a lot. I don't know much about PC games, so can the parents here suggest some better alternatives?

airstrike 6y ago
Retrogaming
duggable 6y ago
My kids play Minecraft on the switch (creative mode), and they absolutely love it. I think it's a bit addicting, but I don't mind since it's essentially virtual legos.
doctor_eval 6y ago
I’m a parent who plays roblox (mostly Arsenal) with my kids :)
watwut 6y ago
Roblox costs less money and those games are actually targetted at kids. Really, new games cost a lot and steam discounts on aggregate cost more. Plus, competitive online pc gaming is something I dont want my kids near to. Mostly because of culture and addictive nature of it. Speaking of addiction, worst are MMO like games, things like league of legends or world of warcraft. I dont want my kids to play any of that, these games tend to consume whole person. Roblox is safe and age appropriate.
RGamma 6y ago
Just for reference: https://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/windows/ https://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/windows/ has a huge database of video games. Also, assuming your child plays with real life friends I don't know how much sense it would make to suggest alternatives to Roblox (group dynamics, network effects and all), but something like Terraria, Starbound, Minecraft or even Garry's Mod would fit here. See also searching by tags on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?tags=3859,3810 https://store.steampowered.com/search/?tags=3859,3810 (here: Sandbox, Multiplayer)

HDMI_Cable 6y ago

Does anyone know why the game for kids switched from Minecraft to Roblox? I remember both of them being around when I was younger, yet everyone chose Minecraft. Today, it’s the opposite.

foobarian 6y ago
The multiplayer piece is night and day compared to Minecraft. Doing any kind of social gaming in Minecraft requires a sysadmin setting up servers and upgrading Java plugins. It's a double benefit because game creators don't have to reinvent the multiplayer wheel. I think it's a brilliant setup and why my kid prefers to play Roblox with her friends instead of other socially fragmented games. Edit: and don't even get me started on the Bedrock/Java Edition schism!
watwut 6y ago
Multiplayer for free. You don't have to run server. Plus, it is many different games, not just one that is not for everyone. Minecraft was popular, but there were many kids that found it boring. Yet plus, all kids that I know who play minecraft had it explained by someone. It could be other kid, but basically, game is not self explanatory and is difficult to figure out at first.
- asdff 6y ago
  Minecraft experienced severe feature creep over the years. It started as a very simple game: place or break different colored blocks which all have the same properties on a finite sized map, and in a few years got to the point where people were making CPUs in game with redstone. It got too big and overwhelming for people new to the franchise who haven't been dripped these updates over the years, imo.
  - watwut 6y ago
    The issue is not many features. It is surviving first night, knowing how to set creative so that you dont have to be surviving and creating all elements from first principles. Kids need to be told how to move around, how to select blocks, etc.

fredfoobar 6y ago

The optimist in me is very excited for the possibilities in this game in the future.

skrebbel 6y ago

We have Roblox (kids age 5 and 8). From the start I made a hard "no Robux" rule, which has worked out well so far. This has had a very nice and totally unintended side effect: the kids self select against games that are only fun if you pay. Eg my youngest likes the clicking simulators. Many of those are awful "pay to win" schemes but some actually have fun game dynamics (not unlike the Paperclip Simulator html game that's an HN favorite[0]). Those are the ones he returns to. These are the games that are more creative in nature, the games that are more challenging and so on and so forth. I feel that at least 7 out of 10 times I check on them, they're doing a game that involves creation, economics, collaboration, and often multiple of those. [0] https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/index2.html https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/index2.html

jimmyvalmer 6y ago
I'm fairly sure you're aware that more than 9 out of 10 kids would find Robux-free Roblox immensely more appealing than whatever economic simulations your preternaturally moderate children are taken with.
- skrebbel 6y ago
  Ok I'm not sure what "preternaturally" means, but yes I agree that Robux are an awful scam and Roblox would be better without them. That said I'm also not nuts and I realize that Roblox would likely not exist without them. I'm advocating for picking all the VC-funded (and user-generated) freebies off the platform and giving nothing back. It's like using YouTube with an ad blocker. That said, I'm not sure I parsed your comment right, so just to clarify: when I say "economic" I mean stuff like "Pizza Tycoon" where you run a restaurant and need to buy stuff with fake money to get more customers etc etc. That's not Robux money, that's 100% in-game fake money that you earn by selling pizzas. Even the better clickers have this dynamic, where you click to get some kinds of points and then you can use the points to buy/build stuff that auto-generates clicks etc. It's not unlike the economies in Starcraft (yeah I'm old) and the likes.
  - jimmyvalmer 6y ago

bastardoperator 6y ago

Roblox seems to have nearly doubled their value during the pandemic. Will this hold water once kids are back in school?

magikaram 6y ago

As a recent college grad, I remember when I used to play Roblox as a middle school student with my best friend back in the day. I tried for nostalgia's sake to see how the game is present day. While I am somewhat lacking in understanding some of the changes, and road that the game has gone down now, it still appears to be a good online community for those who need an easy game to get around. I might still have the Roblox Studio tool (circa 2012/13) installed on an old Pentium 4 laptop.

dannyphantom 6y ago

I will buy this company when it is listed tomorrow.

indigochill 6y ago

Is the distinction here between Roblox and Second Life that Roblox has official apps on mobile and console (that seems to be where he refers to it as a "metaverse")? I've generally been under the impression Roblox is basically Second Life for kids.

jonheller 6y ago

I used to push back had on my kids wanting to buy hats, pets, etc in Roblox. Seemed like a waste of money and I hate microtransactions. Then I realized that this is literally the only game they play, and it's free. Compare that to me at that age, buying Nintendo games for $50 a pop, why am I hesitant to support these creators with a $2 hat? I still limit purchases just for general personal finance lessons, but otherwise let them spend money here like they would on actual paid games.

TeMPOraL 6y ago
Makes me think of collectible card games. If I hadn't spent my own pocket money as a kid on MTG, Star Trek CCG and Pokemon, there's no way in hell I would let my kid buy into an obvious scam CCGs are. But I did spend money on them and enjoyed it, so I'm not so sure now.
- HenryBemis 6y ago
  We had an unfulfillable mania to complete our collection (which we now know is was VERY difficult/expensive due those 1-2-5 cards that were super rare). Supporting the developers with a couple of dollars didn't hurt anyone. As long as the kids won't try to "complete the collection of all hats). That would teach them to control their spending, understand that they can't just 'buy what they see' (as some young adults get to do on their first paychecks), and chores-chores-chores!
- Al-Khwarizmi 6y ago
  Why do you think it's an "obvious scam"? I played MtG for many years. I spent money, sure, but nothing obsessive and I got a lot of enjoyment out of it: the game is interesting and always changing, I went to tournaments, met people, and then there was the economy: trade, trying to predict cards whose price would go up, etc. I remember doing arbitrage at some point when a card appeared in a preconstructed deck for €X and was selling for like €X+5 (it didn't last much, of course). I also learned some foreign languages because I had cards in various languages. I think it was money well spent, and I have no doubt it would be a good experience for my kid as well. I still have the cards, they have a resale value. More than I spent on the game, as some have become difficult to find. Of course, this could change (I don't really think they'll become worthless because MtG is not just any CCG, it's quite iconic due to its history, but it could happen), but at the very least they are a physical item that remains there and can be played with. When my son grows, he will probably enjoy them, regardless of their value. Loot boxes for games that give you a virtual item that you can't even sell or gift and will probably be worthless in 4 years when the server closes... now that's a scam, unless in exceptional cases (small one-time purchase to support devs, etc.). I don't spend money on that and I wouldn't let my kid either.

acehw 6y ago

I wanna play Roblox on Debian Linux and distros based on Debian. Why can't I? it supposedly works on ChromeOS

Railworks2 6y ago
Roblox has made repeated statements on this, latest from their Roblox Developer Con 2020. In short, not enough demand that requires more support for players. There has been repeated demands for this but every year is a no. Here is one of those threads https://devforum.roblox.com/t/proper-support-for-the-linux-platform/56544/ https://devforum.roblox.com/t/proper-support-for-the-linux-p... ChromeOS works because it uses the Android version of Roblox.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

pueblito 6y ago

It feels like Roblox is being pumped for the stock issue tomorrow.

TedDoesntTalk 6y ago

> In short, Roblox isn’t a game at all: it is world in which one of the things you can do is play games, with a persistent identity, persistent set of friends, persistent money, all disconnected from the device that you use to access the world. That is the transformational change. Second Life, The Sims Online. We’ve been here before. Those platforms didn’t nail it like Roblox, but Roblox did not transform anything.

TrainedMonkey 6y ago
Roblox got mass adoption by integrating with educational platforms. Massive quantitative change is often qualitative enough to be transformational.
villasv 6y ago
Second Life and The Sims Online are wildly different from Roblox. You're right that the particular sentence you've picked doesn't capture what Roblox did different, but it did transform the building of virtual experiences.
emmelaich 6y ago
You can add MUDs and MOOs to that list.
karpour 6y ago
VRChat is becoming one of those platforms. Creating is easy and I spend way too much time playing a faithfully recreated 3D VR of Among Us in there!
throwaway744678 6y ago
Remember that sweet time when marketing departments of (aspiring to be) trendy companies where rushing to create their "digital presence" in Second Life... Yes, we will interview candidates, meet our business partners, talk to our customers in there, etc. We had a good laugh.
- EamonnMR 6y ago
  We had a professor who held office hours in second life.

modeless 6y ago

Can someone explain to me how Roblox doesn't violate Apple's "no app stores in the App Store" rule? And the rule against running non-JavaScript code not bundled with the app? And probably a bunch of other rules too? The article mentions it but has no sensible explanation. It seems impossible to justify. Apple gets to pick winners and losers by selective enforcement of their own rules. Pretty nice for Roblox if Apple prevents anyone from releasing a competitor!

villasv 6y ago
> Can someone explain to me how Roblox doesn't violate Apple's "no app stores in the App Store" rule? The games available inside Roblox are impossible to ship as an independent app on the App Store without re-implementing the entire Roblox platform. It's a middle ground between Minecraft selling maps and an actual app store.

endergen 6y ago

For the step 2 and 3 phase, I think it should be mentioned how important games becoming free was for mass adoption. As much as I as a former game dev did not love the model of free and then upselling. I might just be old school at this point. Free and then upgrading avatars has grown on me.

remoquete 6y ago

I struggle to differentiate Roblox from Second Life by reading Ben’s description of it. But then again, being the earliest doesn’t equate to being the best.

throwaway744678 6y ago
Didn't use Roblox, nor Second Life, but my understanding is that Roblox is much more oriented towards gaming.

damontal 6y ago

If you’re a parent with a kid that plays Roblox make sure you lock your account down. Creating an account in the iOS app doesn’t require an associated email address. If your kid somehow forgets their password you might not be able to reset it without an associated email address. If their account gets stolen which happened to my daughter and you don’t have an associated email address it can be a real headache to unlock the account and get it back. Also make sure you have two factor authentication enabled. I know this is pretty mundane advice but the fact that Roblox lets you create an account without an email address or an associated phone number for 2FA means you can find yourself with a real headache if your kid gets locked out of their account for whatever reason.

geomark 6y ago
I'm interested in how you got the account back. My kid lost access to the email address on the account. It wasn't stolen, it was a school email address at an old school. Replies from Roblox support have been very slow and not helpful - just instructions on how to recover using the email on the account (as if they never read the original support request).
- damontal 6y ago
  I had to provide Roblox support with receipts from the iOS App Store showing purchases made for the account. I think there’s an id in the receipt that they can match against the account. I’m not sure what they could go if no purchases were made on the account though.

RGamma 6y ago

Let's see how long this stays benign until chasing growth targets sinks the ship.

kongcode 6y ago

First off, I consider myself pretty liberal in my views and open to online gaming in general. However, as a parent and grandparent, I think Roblox is HIGHLY dangerous for kids. I've watched my granddaughter play some games that were completely ripe with players looking to exploit her. Music playing with Rated-XXX lyrics - referring to varied sexual acts. Games based on pets (wolves) wanting to "ride" each other and playing what seemed like a pornographic soundtrack in the background. I'm talking about true porn, moaning, foul language, you name it. She is no longer allowed to play the game at our home. I would have to spend all my time policing her online play and dealing with her disappointment at not being able to play specific games. I don't see how parents can allow their kids to play Roblox. It is wide open to exploitation - there is no restriction, control or protection offered for children. And to top it off, 99% of gameplay requires purchasing virtual items. Just bleh, shock and a big nope for my family. Roblox should be ashamed at the platform they have created.

unfocused 6y ago

Interesting. I just talked to the experts - my 7 year old and 9 year old. They play Roblox sitting side by side on the couch, right beside me. They spend $0 and I just asked them, are you looking to buy anything, and they said "No" you don't need to, but they do know a kid who has spent $100 and is addicted to it (their words, not mine...could be exagerated). Then again, the 9 year old also has a steam account, and they buy all their games from their $5/week allowance. It's their choice. We do not control what they spend money on. They made a couple of bad purchased, and cried, and regretted it, but it taught them to be careful. So I guess, you can say, there are ways to letting kids play Roblox and controlling their spending. And to be fair, it really depends on the kid. Some resist buying impulsively better than others. Also, as an aside, they try to add kids that they know in real life. They get their video time from 6:15pm until 7:15pm on weekdays. They pick their video time. Whether watching Planet Earth, Youtube, Steam, Roblox, it doesn't matter. BUT, they get 1 hour. Essentially we are trying to give them power of choice, and ability to fail. It's not perfect, but...I guess we're just learning as we go along.

SteveCoast 6y ago
I've noticed the $0 thing too, plus the enormous amounts of "stolen" IP in the games - assets, music, entire games...
- sjg007 6y ago
  The remixing makes it fun. There is a lot of creativity inside roblox and extends into youtube too.
alisonkisk 6y ago
Isn't "playing roblox" like "playing iPhone"? It's not a game, it's a whole platform/ecosystem.
- unfocused 6y ago
  True. They try different games. I tried asking them what they would recommend to other kids, but they said Arsenal, sports games, and Natural Disaster...they were not helpful! Either way, they only play a few times a week, so maybe 3 hours a week. They usually play other stuff as well.

sabujp 6y ago

d/ld roblox yesterday, it's impossible to play some of the popular ones on a tablet, no idea what's going on with pigs running around hitting people on the head, uninstalled immediately

tomerico 6y ago

The important thing about Roblox is that it's part of a larger trend of platform that enable a competitive creator environment that bubble up the "best" content to the top (like TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit). Roblox does it for games, and perhaps in the best way we've seen so far. This perspective can also give us a sneak peek into will replace Roblox in the future. If you look at the YouTube --> TikTok transition, the main differences are that TikTok's content is entirely recommended, and that the content itself is more shorter (i.e. faster to trigger the dopamine response). The new gaming platform will likely be similar - a faster, quicker experience that will initially cater to kids but will eventually capture adults as well (and the content will evolve to support that). Side note: It's absolutely incredible how much the comment section here is filled with parents either complaining or seeking validation for their ways of raising their kids. It shows how the transition to digital consumption is polarizing and challenging to our conventional wisdom.

twic 6y ago

> Step 0 — Pre-Internet: The primary way to distribute video games was on consoles, which were controlled by the console makers; computer gaming was more open, but still required significant distribution capabilities. This was the newspaper era of video game publishing. Makes you think - what if someone had figured out a way to run games on PCs? Or even on those 8-bit micros we all had back in the day.

concretemarble 6y ago

If anyone is interested in what Roblox is capable of, check out the following games: Roblox Hellreaver https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tMpXnRG19U&ab_channel=PoptartNoahh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tMpXnRG19U&ab_channel=Popta... and Waterloo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS4KBNTocQY&ab_channel=PixelatedApollo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS4KBNTocQY&ab_channel=Pixel... One of the benefits of Roblox is it's extremely unopinionated in aesthetics and gameplay mechanics, which is quite different from Minecraft. Combined with zero upfront cost developing/publishing/operating and large platform user base, it opens up lots of possibilities for developers.