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The Roblox Microverse

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Re: The Roblox Microverse

#151

Post by brightball »

skrebbel wrote: post #45

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 t…

I had the same policy but now I just let them spend their allowance money on it if they want to. As long as it’s their money.

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#152

Post by joezydeco »

robocat wrote: post #118
joezydeco wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My son's best friend is pulling down $1K/year doing Lua scripting and object modelling for people on a subcontracting basis. He's 15. He acknowledges he could be pulling in a lot more money if he spent 2x or 4x the time on it. Or dropped out of high school, perhaps.

Any pointers to where they find the paying work?

Networking, just like a real-world side gig.

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#153

Post by EricMausler »

Jarwain wrote: post #140
dylan604 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it starts with a $2 hat, but quickly escalates into $2 hats 3x a day or even more expensive perks. Once you give into a kid about making purchases, it's a much harder fight to say no the next time. These games are designed on emotional responses in kid's brains just as much as FB's algo for its feed is.

Thus his comment on "limiting purchases for finance lessons". Give them a budget, let them do what they want with it, teach them that impulses are controllable and that there are tradeoffs, etc.

This is a trend I've been noticing, which doesn't seem very surprising when written out. Parents who try to approve every purchase end up in a never ending onslaught of requests compared to parents who simply give their kids money and let them spend it however.

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#154

Post by [deleted] »

dzdt wrote: post #30
csharptwdec19 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roblox is. This is just a near-NCAA tier play by the company to make money off child labor. Change my mind.

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]

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#155

Post by inthewoods »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #95

> 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.

Honest question (not a gamer) - did any of those platforms allow 3rd parties to develop games on their platforms?

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#156

Post by SteveCoast »

unfocused wrote: post #144

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 t…

I've noticed the $0 thing too, plus the enormous amounts of "stolen" IP in the games - assets, music, entire games...

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#158

Post by meddlepal »

watwut wrote: post #104
felideon wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-bronste...

Zynga was pretty bad company.

By what metric? It made a lot of money and thats the only thing that matters.

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#159

Post by alisonkisk »

unfocused wrote: post #144

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 t…

Isn't "playing roblox" like "playing iPhone"? It's not a game, it's a whole platform/ecosystem.

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#160

Post by alisonkisk »

wnissen wrote: post #149
rkalla wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity (I have 2 that are into it) what did they 'get' by you relenting and allowing them to spend Robux? Is it just cosmetics or are there certain games/modes/experiences that are only available if you pay?

Some of it is relatively benign cosmetic items for your avatar, like Fortnite. There is definitely a stigma associated with having "bacon hair" which is the default. Or the ability to play on a server with just your friends. Other times it is a shortcut to stuff that you could get by grinding. $5 gets you twice the XP (experience points) so you can unlock new weapons, levels, etc. Individual games sometimes take this…

Stigma? For not spending money? For me that's an instant cancel of the account and introduce my kid to a better class of friendsm
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