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> Disney+, arguably the finest destination for 8 year olds Do we really want another generation addicted to consuming big-budget media? Especially now that mo

> Disney+, arguably the finest destination for 8 year olds Do we really want another generation addicted to consuming big-budget media? Especially now that most of that media is encumbered by DRM that makes free computing platforms much less attractive? Mind you, I'm not sure that Roblox is the answer. But it might be better, since it at least puts more focus on creating rather than consuming.

an_opabinia 6y ago
> since it at least puts more focus on creating rather than consuming. My point is, there's no focus on creating. You're imagining Minecraft, but you don't make stuff in Roblox. You can make stuff in Roblox Studio, but there are hardly any 8 year olds doing that, because you have to write Lua, and 8 year olds categorically cannot do that. Unless they're prodigies, in which case, they will thrive doing many things, and creativity expressed in Roblox is the symptom and not the cause of their gifts. What do kids actually do? There's a lot of "casual" role playing games, clicker games, shooter games and things that feel like Counter-Strike custom maps from the early 2000s. It feels a lot like a Steam Workshop page. Clunkiness abounds, stuff that even older children will not play.
- mwcampbell 6y ago
  > because you have to write Lua, and 8 year olds categorically cannot do that. Unless they're prodigies How do we know this is true? How many more 8-year-olds would program if they had been given a chance? My guess is that most are never given a chance to try. I learned Applesoft BASIC on an Apple IIGS when I was 8. But I was lucky to be in a home with a computer that came with a disk that had an intro to programming on it. I think that's more relevant than any innate skill I had.
- antiterra 6y ago
  I'm pretty sure there are a number of Roblox games that allow you to build things like buildings or logic circuits. Enough to say that "you don't make stuff in Roblox" needs qualification, at the very least.
antiterra 6y ago
My kids astound me by having little to no awareness of what toys there are to buy, and I'm convinced this is because of commercial-free streaming (and perhaps the dearth of print catalogs.) Maybe it's a devil's bargain, but a bit of DRM feels worth being free from a materialist/consumerist monkey on your back.
- mwcampbell 6y ago
  Interesting. I don't have any kids myself, but I know that my nieces (6 years old and under) really like the whole Frozen franchise. Their parents and grandparents have bought them Elsa dresses, toy microphones that let you sing along with one of the songs from Frozen 2, and I don't know what else. So the consumerism is definitely still there. Then again, my nieces and nephew watch a lot of YouTube in addition to paid streaming, and I've been told that when they watch YouTube, the adults in the room have to be careful that the kids don't watch lots of videos that are just promotions for products. I guess what I would prefer is that the kids spent more time creating or at least playing rather than watching. But then, they're not my kids.

an_opabinia 6y ago

> since it at least puts more focus on creating rather than consuming. My point is, there's no focus on creating. You're imagining Minecraft, but you don't make stuff in Roblox. You can make stuff in Roblox Studio, but there are hardly any 8 year olds doing that, because you have to write Lua, and 8 year olds categorically cannot do that. Unless they're prodigies, in which case, they will thrive doing many things, and creativity expressed in Roblox is the symptom and not the cause of their gifts. What do kids actually do? There's a lot of "casual" role playing games, clicker games, shooter games and things that feel like Counter-Strike custom maps from the early 2000s. It feels a lot like a Steam Workshop page. Clunkiness abounds, stuff that even older children will not play.

mwcampbell 6y ago
> because you have to write Lua, and 8 year olds categorically cannot do that. Unless they're prodigies How do we know this is true? How many more 8-year-olds would program if they had been given a chance? My guess is that most are never given a chance to try. I learned Applesoft BASIC on an Apple IIGS when I was 8. But I was lucky to be in a home with a computer that came with a disk that had an intro to programming on it. I think that's more relevant than any innate skill I had.
antiterra 6y ago
I'm pretty sure there are a number of Roblox games that allow you to build things like buildings or logic circuits. Enough to say that "you don't make stuff in Roblox" needs qualification, at the very least.

antiterra 6y ago

My kids astound me by having little to no awareness of what toys there are to buy, and I'm convinced this is because of commercial-free streaming (and perhaps the dearth of print catalogs.) Maybe it's a devil's bargain, but a bit of DRM feels worth being free from a materialist/consumerist monkey on your back.

mwcampbell 6y ago
Interesting. I don't have any kids myself, but I know that my nieces (6 years old and under) really like the whole Frozen franchise. Their parents and grandparents have bought them Elsa dresses, toy microphones that let you sing along with one of the songs from Frozen 2, and I don't know what else. So the consumerism is definitely still there. Then again, my nieces and nephew watch a lot of YouTube in addition to paid streaming, and I've been told that when they watch YouTube, the adults in the room have to be careful that the kids don't watch lots of videos that are just promotions for products. I guess what I would prefer is that the kids spent more time creating or at least playing rather than watching. But then, they're not my kids.