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Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

matthewball.co

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Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#401

Post by endtime »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #209
endtime wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My kids use Roblox. There _are_ parental controls you can enable through Roblox. When my twins turned nine, I had to enable 9+ games for them. I believe the age cutoffs are 9+, 13+, and 17+. I think anything with drugs should be 17+, and realistic violence/blood might be 13+? Not totally sure. (Disclaimer: I'm a Roblox employee, but speaking only on my own behalf, and don't work on anything related to age guidelines.…

I have my kid’s set to “all ages” (the most “restrictive” category with the most “appropriate” content) and he does get gun violence, disturbing and scary games, and games based on non-kid characters (The Amazing Digital Circus). Sometimes a game is shown and when kid tries to access it he gets a “this game isn’t allowed by your age category” or some such. This is an unbelievably dishonest way to tempt kids into cont…

Happy to route the feedback. Obviously we should be filtering out games that aren't accessible to a given user.

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#402

Post by mrguyorama »

alvah wrote: post #111

"...at a minimum, they will substitute a 30% fee with a 4% credit card processing expense..." Which large corporation is paying anything close to 4% for credit card processing? Based on what's available to me in my small business, I'd be astonished if anyone doing any significant volume was paying as much as half of this percentage.

Roblox has INSANE fraud patterns and chargebacks

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#403

Post by endtime »

ckdarby wrote: post #217
endtime wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a pretty senior IC at Roblox, and my new hire offer was 40% cash / 60% RSUs. It's now closer to 33/67 with refresher grants. Roblox pays very competitively (see levels.fyi). The apparent strategy is to try to hire lots of long-tenured L6+ Googlers (seriously, it's crazy how many former Googlers I work with).

Not a good sign for Roblox. Yes, many smart people, but they weren't industry changing (Google almost never loses) and they didn't get or turned down Google's renewal program to retain talent. Looks like a lot who wanted the high pay, but coast along and leverage their past experience to not be dared questioned.

> coast along and leverage their past experience to not be dared questioned.

This has not been my experience at all.

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#404

Post by guax »

nsxwolf wrote: post #390

They have the craziest most difficult interview process I've ever seen, like beyond quant level. But I don't know why. My kids play it and it feels like the jankiest most busted-ass 3D engine that ever existed. I'm sure all the secret sauce is doing all this stuff at scale, but what do Leetcode hards in 20 minutes have to do with that?

Most interview "rituals" are about gatekeeping and not actual talent acquisition. I'm unfamiliar with theirs but it sounds like it from the descriptions and company output.

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#405

Post by bradjohnson »

gruez wrote: post #369
bradjohnson wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's extremely easy to find yourself, but here: https://qz.com/96793/chinese-students-and-their-parents-figh...

If that's what the other guy was referencing, then it's a misleading characterization of the situation. The original comment was: >Meanwhile, Chinese and Korean kids widely DEMAND pay to win, and see people who complain about Pay2Win as "Losers in life", because, to them, it's just two valid paths, and if someone pays to win at a game, then it's just a mark of status. Btw, did you also know that parents in central ch…

Ok, I was just providing a link for you. If you wanted to discuss whether cheating is good in this specific scenario, you should have put that as your comment to the parent.

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#406

Post by wmeredith »

GNOMES wrote: post #312

My kiddo has easily spent 500+ on Roblox across birthday/Xmas gift cards/chores. I can't stand that almost all of the games seem to have a pay to win aspect, or are heavily advertising every chance they get. As a gamer dad, I try to show my kid better games to play, but because they aren't free, his friends can't play. Just drives him to keep playing and wanting more Robux. It's compounded when his favorite Youtubers…

I'm a gamer and I always play the games my kids are playing to see what's up. Roblox was banned in my house after I messed around with it on my own for 30 minutes. Most of the games on the platform are pay to win skinner boxes and they have a pedophile problem. https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024-roblox-pedophile-pro...

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#407

Post by consteval »

latexr wrote: post #318
GNOMES wrote: post #312

My kiddo has easily spent 500+ on Roblox across birthday/Xmas gift cards/chores. I can't stand that almost all of the games seem to have a pay to win aspect, or are heavily advertising every chance they get. As a gamer dad, I try to show my kid better games to play, but because they aren't free, his friends can't play. Just drives him to keep playing and wanting more Robux. It's compounded when his favorite Youtubers…

> As a gamer dad, I try to show my kid better games to play, but because they aren't free, his friends can't play. Considering how much you said your kid has spent, that money could’ve been spent on buying copies for all their friends and you’d still have plenty left over.

Many games don't even require separate copies. This is a fairly new phenomenon.

I mean, I'm fully grown and I still get together with friends and play Mario Party and Smash. I just bought extra controllers and boom, good to go.

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#408

Post by consteval »

Aerroon wrote: post #378
micromacrofoot wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

both should be regulated, this type of predatory gambling-like behavior shouldn't be allowed for kids under a certain age

So, no social media and no video games for kids? Man am I glad that I grew up before tomorrow when everything is going to be restricted.

> So, no social media

When I was a kid, everyone was absolutely riddled with self-doubt and insecurity. Jealousy and bullying was the norm. There wasn't a soul in my middle school who didn't deeply, deeply hate themselves.

This was before social media. Imagine that, but now kids ALSO get to form unrealistic expectations and envy at home on their devices.

> no video games for kids?

What are you talking about? You can still get your friends together and play mario party or super smash or kirby or whatever. That never went away, we still have co-op games where it's free to play for the other kids.

We just shouldn't have gambling for the kids. Probably.

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#409

Post by peanut-walrus »

They have positive cash and are paying their employees well. That's what a company should be doing rather than paying peanuts and hoarding wealth like a dragon. Especially as it seems they are actually profitable, just hiding it with accounting.

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#410

Post by consteval »

danans wrote: post #389
xhkkffbf wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, it's mixed. The states now get such a huge chunk of tobacco money that they're incentivized to keep people smoking. The more they smoke, the more the state gets.

> The more they smoke, the more the state gets. The state "gets" tobacco tax revenue to help pay for the burden of medical treatment for those with smoking related illnesses. Lung cancer isn't free to treat.

Yes, I'm sure all that money is perfectly tracked and the system is perfectly efficient so there's no money being burned somewhere along the way to line someone's pocket.
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