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Roblox players to start seeing video ads in its virtual realms

reuters.com

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Re: Roblox players to start seeing video ads in its virtual realms

#61

Post by Dylan16807 »

gowld wrote: post #38
YurgenJurgensen wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't it way worse than that? While it may be a bit sensational, "Casinos for children built with child labour who were paid in company scrip" isn't a technically inaccurate description of Roblox.

That can describe every game in the world. It's a game, a closed world, not real life substistence farming.

Most games don't use real money to buy in. So it doesn't describe them in the same way.

"Scrip" here is something that takes real effort to get, and is sort of money, but rips you off when you use it. Not something completely unconnected to the real world.

Re: Roblox players to start seeing video ads in its virtual realms

#62

Post by fidotron »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #60
fidotron wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are, and have been for years. Cable TV programming, by which I mean deciding what is broadcast on what channel when, has long (decades) been a question of identifying the audience for the ads coming in, working out what they want to see, showing it, and billing the advertiser. You may even create whole new channels for this target group. Most consumers get it backwards thinking ads exist to fund channels - chann…

> identifying the audience for the ads coming in, working out what they want to see, showing it, and billing the advertiser. You may even create whole new channels for this target group. That's broad targeting. Miles away from hypertargeting/surveillance. > back in around 2000 in the UK satellite market (which relied on modems in STBs phoning home as the backchannel) That is a problem, but is also not cable TV. Are c…

Next up you will be confused that store loyalty cards have been marketing analytics the whole time.

Re: Roblox players to start seeing video ads in its virtual realms

#63

Post by nomel »

BaculumMeumEst wrote: post #31
edvards wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have ads everywhere. Teaching kids on how to handle ads is rather reasonable.

This is the worst comment I have ever read on hackernews.

Reality: ads are a fundamental of US commerce that kids will see.

(Assuming >= 8 yo or so) With this reality, I think reducing ads, but also getting them to understand ads, is a better approach than a silly dream of never letting them see an ad.

It's pretty easy to approach this positively, to help them learn. You make a game of pointing out the manipulation, have them identify it, and they learn to see them for what they are. You can do the same for news, where they (very) quickly learn to identify half truths, lying by omission, etc. Kids are pretty great at this sort of thing.

I personally think kids should know that people are often trying to trick them. But, that's something they'll eventually figure out it, with your help or not.

Re: Roblox players to start seeing video ads in its virtual realms

#64

Post by nomel »

ryandrake wrote: post #35
idle_zealot wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or we could stop normalizing mass manipulation on an unprecedented scale.

It's crazy the extent to which targeted ads have been normalized as "a part of life"... to the point where we have people defending targeting children, with "Well they get targeted with ads elsewhere, too." We are in one of the more terrible universes in the multiverse.

The crazier twist is that a good majority of the people on this site depend on targeted ads for their livelihoods, with a reasonable portion directly contributing to the number of ads.

Re: Roblox players to start seeing video ads in its virtual realms

#65

Post by Dylan16807 »

fidotron wrote: post #62
Dylan16807 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> identifying the audience for the ads coming in, working out what they want to see, showing it, and billing the advertiser. You may even create whole new channels for this target group. That's broad targeting. Miles away from hypertargeting/surveillance. > back in around 2000 in the UK satellite market (which relied on modems in STBs phoning home as the backchannel) That is a problem, but is also not cable TV. Are c…

Next up you will be confused that store loyalty cards have been marketing analytics the whole time.

Do you really need to be an ass instead of just saying yes or no with some proof?

For most of the existence of cable, there was no way for it to send a signal back. It is not fundamentally based on tracking. The targeting you described in detail is not tracking.

Re: Roblox players to start seeing video ads in its virtual realms

#66

Post by milesvp »

lyk2005 wrote: post #24
milesvp wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I refuse to let my kids play Roblox. "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy ...". That place is full of kids scamming each other, and I've not heard many good things about the company either. I was once trying to tell my child about this in a public setting, and a nearby older kid was just smirking knowingly about all the things I was talking about. Gambling, theft, foul language. Frankly, it…

How do you partake in the real world without it warping your personality? Being scammed of your virtual items is not that different to being scammed of real money once you are an adult. Growing up with multiplayer games, Roblox can be categorized as an immersive sim with a virtual adult world inside of it that can teach kids a great deal about life. I myself got interested in money from Runescape, where I was scammed…

I mean, the logical extreme is to let them hang out in an opium den... I'm pretty sure that will likely have some pretty extreme psychological repercussions. I can tell you from personal experience, letting a young child watch some graphic movies can cause enough damage to probably need therapy. Knowing what experiences is age appropriate is a very important job for a parent, and each child is very different. And for the record, I tend to feel we over shelter our children as a society.

But you are very correct with your experience with Runescape, I can only guess at the age you got into it. I certainly would have loved the game in my mid teens, and it would have been a good playground. I'll likely be keeping an eye out for similar playgrounds as my kids get older. I do want them to have some of the villainy experience in settings where the consequences are small to none. Do it too young, that is where the warping tends to happen.

Re: Roblox players to start seeing video ads in its virtual realms

#67

Post by fidotron »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #65
fidotron wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Next up you will be confused that store loyalty cards have been marketing analytics the whole time.

Do you really need to be an ass instead of just saying yes or no with some proof? For most of the existence of cable, there was no way for it to send a signal back. It is not fundamentally based on tracking. The targeting you described in detail is not tracking.

I mean you simply went off showing you don’t know what you are talking about, then ask a stupidly basic question and when it gets the snarky answer it warranted claim the other person is an ass?

Re: Roblox players to start seeing video ads in its virtual realms

#68

Post by nineplay »

autoexec wrote: post #56
nineplay wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We use Roblox for family game night. It might not be as bad as you think. I think its a cool platform for burgeoning game developers. Anyone can publish a game, we put together a little obby just for the fun of it. We're back to the days where a couple of creative, motivated people can make a fun game, share it with people, and possibly make a pile of money.

We don't need roblox for that and never have needed them for that.

We don't _need_ anything for family game night but Roblox won out of all the choices. Take a chance sometime and play 'epic mini games'. It's like a mini-arcade where we can all play together.

Re: Roblox players to start seeing video ads in its virtual realms

#69

Post by nineplay »

613style wrote: post #47
nineplay wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Exploitation of children developers That's a pretty extreme interpretation. Anyone who downloads the IDE can create and publish a game. If kids are using the tool, making fun games, and sharing them with other people, than I think that's a good thing. Roblox is making money off various sorts of in-app purchases, but you can make an account for free, you can play games for free, and you can create games for free. It…

> That's a pretty extreme interpretation. Anyone who downloads the IDE can create and publish a game. If kids are using the tool, making fun games, and sharing them with other people, than I think that's a good thing. It sounds like you might be lacking some context on this. Here's an article with more details: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2022/jan/09/the-trouble-wi...

"The trouble with Roblox, the video game empire built on child labour"

Good grief, the article profiles 3 young developers who had to deal with serious problems but still falls short of "built on child labo(u)r".

Just more clickbait garbage.

Re: Roblox players to start seeing video ads in its virtual realms

#70

Post by CatWChainsaw »

edvards wrote: post #28
babypuncher wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't make it OK.

We have ads everywhere. Teaching kids on how to handle ads is rather reasonable.

How about we have a Purge Day against marketers, advertisers, sales teams, greedy shareholders, and anyone who actively enshittifies every single aspect of life? How about we normalize that instead? Because as brutal as it is, maybe sociopaths wouldn't sociopath if there were real risks to their life and limb incited by their being pieces of shit. :)
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