this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Everyone is like "well no shit" but I honestly didn't know. I don't play the game. It's good to hear about, especially for parents.

[–] dack 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, people online have been talking for a long time about how exploitive Roblox is. However, it's still very popular and I know many parents who let their kids play it. I think most parents just think it's like Minecraft, and don't realize the effect micro transactions has.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'm a bachelor in my 30's, Roblox wouldn't have been targeted at me, but my children...which I don't have. So the first I heard of Roblox was a Youtube video essay titled something to the effect of "I made a video about how exploitative Roblox is, and then it got worse."

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Every single roblox game is designed to maximize micro transactions into blantent money extracting games.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Not neceserally but I think it has the same issue as say the google play store. IE roblox promotes the games do the best at extracting profit. There's lots of games that are well thought out that don't make much money. and they are burried somewhere on page 50+ hidden between a bunch of thrown together test projects etc...

[–] kmkz_ninja -2 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] Shapillon 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What's battlebit got to do with it?

[–] kmkz_ninja 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Isn't it a roblox game? Or is it just syled like it?

[–] Shapillon 2 points 1 year ago

It's a standalone game sold on steam, I don't think it's affiliated to roblox in any way shape or form ^^

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does battlebit even have micro transactions?

[–] kmkz_ninja 1 points 1 year ago

Isn't that my point? (If battlebit counts as a roblox game)

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

Yeah, no kidding.

[–] woelkchen 28 points 1 year ago

Good. Fuck Roblox.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

What are the micro-transactions for? Are you at a huge disadvantage by not spending money? What is the game even about? I thought it was just a bunch of kids derping around and building things.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Roblox is a sandbox game sort of like Minecraft, but with way more power given to third-party developers and users to develop and distribute content in it. What you'd consider mods for other games are the whole point of Roblox, and MTX can be implemented by those third-party developers using "Robux" as a currency. The MTX can be your usual MTX fare of skins and power-ups, but also often abused for less ethical purposes, like gambling mechanics. The fact that Robux can be cashed out for real money via official and unofficial methods mean that's it's ripe for abuse.

Update: Also, I wasn't aware of this before the article, but apparently gambling sites have figured out a method to link a Roblox account to their external sites, and then use the user's Robux wallet as currency in their illegal online casinos.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Update: Also, I wasn't aware of this before the article, but apparently gambling sites have figured out a method to link a Roblox account to their external sites, and then use the user's Robux wallet as currency in their illegal online casinos.

Wow, that's fucking wild!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

The way I understand it, it's basically a game engine that kids can use. I don't think Roblox itself is actually a game; you use it to make games.

Don't know what the microtransactions are for, however.

[–] PrejudicedKettle 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Roblox is a platform where some users create games and other players play them. It's grown to be a pretty powerful platform/engine, but is now significantly more complex than it used to.

Roblox has the ability for users to add micro-transactions to their game. Essentially, users get a small portion of the micro-transactions back as real-world currency. It's up to users/developers who make those games to choose what players get in exchange for these micro-transactions.

As far as I can tell, the quality of games has dramatically increased since I quit. My guess would be that the users/developers making games are now adults, and the players/spenders are still kids.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

A galaxy brain way to use children as labor to make shitty games. And the kids even have fun doing it.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I hope it expands to other companies like blizzard and EA. Loot boxes are predatory and no fun.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I think the critical part here is that 3rd parties can cash out in-game currency, which makes money laundering possible. With big game publishers the money can only flow into their own pockets with microtransactions.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I hate Roblox. Their Android game somehow goes around Google account settings and allows kids to buy "Robux" for real money without authentication for payments (and, of course, makes this easy to do by accident). Furthermore, this real money can go into a temp account without an email address, so if you delete the app without creating a proper account, your money is unrecoverable. Their "customer support" is very unhelpful. We try to be liberal yet sane when it comes to technology for kids, but Roblox is prohibited for our children.