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The only things I know about Roblox is it's mainly aimed at children and the people who prey on children. I've never heard one of my friends talk about playing

The only things I know about Roblox is it's mainly aimed at children and the people who prey on children. I've never heard one of my friends talk about playing it or have any interest in it. Am I way off base here or is that other people's view or experience of it? The idea of it interests me and from what I know it's sort of a Minecraft meets endless mods-type of thing which is appealing to me overall (new Minecraft isn't interesting to me but the original was something I loved). I feel like if I were (much) younger Roblox might be where I spend an unhealthy amount of time but as it stands now it doesn't seem like a place for me.

kevin42 3y ago
Roblox has a pretty sophisticated chat filter, and is really popular among younger kids. There are a lot of simple games that appeal to little kids. A large percentage of young kids in my extended friends and family play it.
- T3RMINATED 3y ago
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NBJack 3y ago
You are correct. It is very simplistic, though there are exceptions, and aimed squarely at kids. It's also a petri dish of pay-to-win mechanics that I suspect would make the app stores blush.
math-ias 3y ago
The Minecraft comparison is really good. Roblox is for kids. That audience of children attracts seedy actors who want to make money. I’d like to draw an analogy from redstone (Minecraft’s imitation of circuitry) to the ability to create games in Roblox. Both are incredibly accessible to beginners. Both can be a learning rabbit hole. And I think both have flowering communities of creators pushing each other forward. I think today Roblox doesn’t need kids to make games the same way Minecraft is fine if no one uses redstone. That being said it’s clear the team puts an incredible amount of effort in maintaining the developer experience. For example, here’s documentation for sending a message from a server to a game client. https://create.roblox.com/docs/reference/engine/classes/RemoteEvent https://create.roblox.com/docs/reference/engine/classes/Remo... Skimming this I see … - a possible introduction to the actor model - blocking behavior - how to read signatures - how to reason about the client/server model - and look at the switch at the top, how mature APIs change by deprecating behavior! I played Roblox a decade ago and it was an on-ramp to a lifelong love of everything computer science. I don’t think it’s the majority’s experience with the brand. But that’s my anecdote.
- joshstrange 3y ago
  Thank you for sharing. I’m glad to hear that it sparked your interest in computer science. I imagine had I been a little younger when Minecraft came out (re Redstone) or young when Roblox came out I’d have been similarly enthralled by the possibles. I was in college when Minecraft came out and had been writing code for 3-4 years at that point so I felt things like Redstone to be limiting but as a kid I would have loved it.

kevin42 3y ago

Roblox has a pretty sophisticated chat filter, and is really popular among younger kids. There are a lot of simple games that appeal to little kids. A large percentage of young kids in my extended friends and family play it.

T3RMINATED 3y ago
[dead]

NBJack 3y ago

You are correct. It is very simplistic, though there are exceptions, and aimed squarely at kids. It's also a petri dish of pay-to-win mechanics that I suspect would make the app stores blush.

math-ias 3y ago

The Minecraft comparison is really good. Roblox is for kids. That audience of children attracts seedy actors who want to make money. I’d like to draw an analogy from redstone (Minecraft’s imitation of circuitry) to the ability to create games in Roblox. Both are incredibly accessible to beginners. Both can be a learning rabbit hole. And I think both have flowering communities of creators pushing each other forward. I think today Roblox doesn’t need kids to make games the same way Minecraft is fine if no one uses redstone. That being said it’s clear the team puts an incredible amount of effort in maintaining the developer experience. For example, here’s documentation for sending a message from a server to a game client. https://create.roblox.com/docs/reference/engine/classes/RemoteEvent https://create.roblox.com/docs/reference/engine/classes/Remo... Skimming this I see … - a possible introduction to the actor model - blocking behavior - how to read signatures - how to reason about the client/server model - and look at the switch at the top, how mature APIs change by deprecating behavior! I played Roblox a decade ago and it was an on-ramp to a lifelong love of everything computer science. I don’t think it’s the majority’s experience with the brand. But that’s my anecdote.

joshstrange 3y ago
Thank you for sharing. I’m glad to hear that it sparked your interest in computer science. I imagine had I been a little younger when Minecraft came out (re Redstone) or young when Roblox came out I’d have been similarly enthralled by the possibles. I was in college when Minecraft came out and had been writing code for 3-4 years at that point so I felt things like Redstone to be limiting but as a kid I would have loved it.