Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft • Hacker News Board

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#221

Post by Cpoll » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 10:26 PM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #186

Nextgrid wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I miss the old first-person shooters and the concept of self-contained servers (instead of a global user profile system). Games last for a couple hours, and everyone starts at zero and gets weapons & perks as the game continues (so newbies aren't stuck with bad guns while level 100+ players dominate the server). In 30 minutes of playtime or so you'll have earned enough points (by killing enemies, etc) to be able to a…

How is that different from new shooters? In Fortnite, PUBG, Call of Duty etc you also start from 0 in each match. Leveling up gives you cosmetics only.

CoD is the odd one out, as levelling gets you weapons. But I don't think that's the issue, you unlock them all in a few dozen hours, a weekend for the average teenager.

The issue is modern matchmaking doesn't have the same community-building effect as joining the same few servers every day, getting to know the people you're playing with.

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#222

Post by IG_Semmelweiss » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 11:29 PM UTC

saiya-jin wrote: post #96

weq wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isnt just games. Lets be frank. We can become addicted to anything given the right physiological triggers. Capitalism has optimised itself to the point where you are nothing more then meta data. Its at the point where a team of accredited people can sit infront of the meta data, and your product, and they can design ways to trigger dopamine responses. Putting "any" kind of "modern product" in your childs hand wi…

Well take an inspiration from ultra-rich - don't cheap out on raising your kids and entertain them with potentially addictive games on phones/tablets/computers. They don't expose their kids to any of this till age 7-8 IIRC. I see it so many times around us - parents are tired, so here ya go kiddo, play with a phone so daddy/mommy can rest. Kids get addicted quickly, then when you take their game away they go mental,…

No.

First, the super rich can afford it: they have full-time nannies that can help raising children.

Second, an exhausted parent is not going to be parenting. Everyone needs a break.

Third, your approach would have left Bill Gates a nobody. Instead , he was "addicted" to computers. Many high performing and successful individuals are so because they have in effect an addiction which makes them go beyond the ordinary person.

This clues you in on to what is next: parenting does not stop because you turned the TV or Xbox on. It means work:

- work to select and make sure your child can only watch YouTube clips that are beneficial : for example advanced math, learning a foreign language , etc (so that by age 4 he is fluent in at least 2 New disciplines)

-discipline so that you reinforce the learned material, for example sit down to review math, only speak to a child in the foreign language you are trying to teach, practice the sport he sees on a videogame

-patience to review video games so hes only playing games that will help him learn (Crusaders Kings, Europa, MS simulator, etc)

Parenting doesn't stop with videogames. My niece could type faster than her mach teacher because of Minecraft. If she had been my daughter, she would probably been a sysadmin by age 16 (server rental anyone?)

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#223

Post by bonestamp2 » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 2:22 AM UTC

Yajirobe wrote: post #87

bonestamp2 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kids are going to have problems regardless of parenting quality. It's not a parent's job to keep kids away from all hazards, the job is to help them learn and grow by allowing them enough space to encounter problems (without any serious risk of course) and then to guide them into realizing why those things were wrong and helping them correct those problems. It sounds like they're excellent parents and doing the job p…

They banned the game and then you say: > It's not a parent's job to keep kids away from all hazards

Those are two different points in the timeline though. The kids encountered that hazard because the parents didn't keep them from all hazards. But, it is the parents job to keep them away from things after they become a problem. It would be poor parenting to let them keep playing the game if it has become a problem.

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#224

Post by jonnydubowsky » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 2:50 AM UTC

wil421 wrote: post #173

sky_rw wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was only allowed 2 hours of Sega Genesis play, which was just enough to get to the final boss in Sonic and die. Never beat it. In hindsight this prepared me for the 2 constants in the real world: Never having enough time, and constant disappointment.

Rookie mistake. You have to leave the Sega on come back the next day when you have your allotted time. God forbid someone vacuums and uses your plug.

This reminds me of when my brother and I beat Legend of Zelda and left the end segment on the tv for a few days to bask in the glory

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#225

Post by integrii » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 6:56 AM UTC

koonsolo wrote: post #103

integrii wrote: post #29

Both of my kids played a lot of Roblox until we banned it. They easily became obsessed and were violent when removed, even with a tightly controlled schedule. They would try to connect to offer WiFi networks to get access and would steal our phones to get access. We ended up having to detox them like it was a drug. Beyond that we found that the openly mod-able nature of the game allowed some remarkably disgusting 3D…

My own son had this period where he was obsessed with playing on the XBox. When I tried to limit his time, he became agressive. So I said "Wow, if XBox has this influence on you, maybe you should stop completely. What do you think?". His smart reaction was to show that he could play a limited time, and be good afterwards. Now I don't have any problems with him. The thing with kids is that you will not be there all th…

Good feedback and I agree. We have Roblox several chances. Each time it became out of control. We definitely do not hover-parent.

To be clear, my kids have an xbox1, ps4, xbox360, two gaming PCs, a Vive VR headset, their own macbooks, a switch, their own dedicated Chromecast TVs, and one even has a pixel 3a. Roblox is the only thing we have ever had to perma-ban. Fortnite got a one week hold once, but Roblox had to go forever.

They play fortnite, Minecraft, and lots of other stuff. Unfortunately, as soon as I find out my daughter joined a server where lego looking avatars were walking around with massive hard penises doing sex acts on each other, we were done with moderation and guardrails.

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#226

Post by vnnkov » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 10:06 AM UTC

spaceribs wrote: post #125

koonsolo wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My own son had this period where he was obsessed with playing on the XBox. When I tried to limit his time, he became agressive. So I said "Wow, if XBox has this influence on you, maybe you should stop completely. What do you think?". His smart reaction was to show that he could play a limited time, and be good afterwards. Now I don't have any problems with him. The thing with kids is that you will not be there all th…

As a kid, when gay marriage was legalized in Massachusetts, one of the anti-advocates made the statement on the radio: "I am the gatekeeper for what is appropriate for my child, and the state telling my child that homosexuality is an appropriate lifestyle infringes on my role as a parent". I asked my Dad what he thought of that statement, and he responded that gatekeeper was the completely wrong approach to parenting…

> The role is closer to a bodyguard or the secret service, you protect from harm and provide context when appropriate, but leave enough room to explore without your biases.

I and my wife chose to be "support" in a gaming style. So far so good.

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#227

Post by b_tterc_p » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 1:00 PM UTC

tapland wrote: post #198

b_tterc_p wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like most people would put pictures of children’s feet in the absolutely not ok bucket

If you feel that it's in the same bucket as sending full frontal nudes with identifiable face, that's your decision to make as a parent. Your kids are going to send pictures to other people.

I’m not sure how you imagine communicating such things to a child. Do you have a flip chart with full frontal nudes in red and feet pictures in orange? It’s not like there’s anything more prohibitive than “absolutely not ok”. Both are beyond that. Your argument sounds like needing to clarify that Fentanyl is worse than heroin, and that if I don’t make it clear that fentanyl is worse, they’re going to do both?

If you can prevent either, you should prevent both.

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#228

Post by smaryjerry » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 2:06 PM UTC

skyfallkavu wrote: post #172

ulkesh wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it's even worse because Roblox support is pure crap. Not only does it take a minimum of 3 days to reach anyone, they also have nothing in place to verify an account holder in case the account was compromised. They require the original email address and cannot verify in any other way. We had to completely ban Roblox as well, even using OpenDNS to block it, but that just led to the use of other networks. We're now…

I wouldn't like to tell someone else how to parent, especially since as mentioned earlier all children are different. But, a small story. I had a friend back in university who's parents did the same. Completely locked down with no internet access unless it was explicitly with her parents observation well into her late-teens. She found freedom when she went away to university, and with that freedom she didn't know how…

I think you see why her parents locked down the access. She was probably failing high school and the lockdown at least got her into college.

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#229

Post by smaryjerry » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 2:09 PM UTC

wizzard wrote: post #33

integrii wrote: post #29

Both of my kids played a lot of Roblox until we banned it. They easily became obsessed and were violent when removed, even with a tightly controlled schedule. They would try to connect to offer WiFi networks to get access and would steal our phones to get access. We ended up having to detox them like it was a drug. Beyond that we found that the openly mod-able nature of the game allowed some remarkably disgusting 3D…

Roblox games are 95% garbage in my experience. Apparently there are a few good ones, because somehow they are allowed to sell merch in toy stores — but those are certainly not the ones my kids encounter. All I ever see them play is some variation on running around jumping on buttons, while half the screen is covered in ads trying to get them to do IAPs.

Most games are free copies of other popular full games and most use copyrighted music in them. I'm surprised they haven't had a big copyright crackdown. As far as I know only the pokemon roblox game was shutdown due to copyright. Nintendo is notorious for that though so no surprise.

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#230

Post by tapland » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 6:27 PM UTC

b_tterc_p wrote: post #227

tapland wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you feel that it's in the same bucket as sending full frontal nudes with identifiable face, that's your decision to make as a parent. Your kids are going to send pictures to other people.

I’m not sure how you imagine communicating such things to a child. Do you have a flip chart with full frontal nudes in red and feet pictures in orange? It’s not like there’s anything more prohibitive than “absolutely not ok”. Both are beyond that. Your argument sounds like needing to clarify that Fentanyl is worse than heroin, and that if I don’t make it clear that fentanyl is worse, they’re going to do both? If you…

It seems unlikely that your child knows about every fetish adults have, and if they happen to send pictures of their feet to someone they have not done anything bad, they have not broken any unspoken general rule, there isn't a lot saying that is a thing you shouldn't do or any obvious signs as to why it would be bad. It hasn't exposed them in a dangerous way, but they have been victims to an adult going online and asking children for feet pictures to satisfy themselves.

Your reply implies that the child has been taught why it's just as bad to send a picture of their feet as of their hair as of their ankle as of their entire body as of anything. Or that they have parents who wouln't agree to them doing things that seem totally reasonable to them, and just freak out without any explanation.

Children are taught what nudity is very early. They aren't taught people's weird kinks. The difference between the two cases I mentioned is much greater than that between fentanyl and heroin. Both are not ok, but they are not even close in terms of possible adverse effects. You can't judge everything assuming the child has knowledge of the intentions of the abuser online. If your child sends the pictures because 'it's just feet, it can't hurt me' that's a much better reason, even though the child hasn't finished developing it's brain than 'my dad doesn't want me to send any pictures'.