Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable • Hacker News Board

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

#451

Post by hipadev23 » Mon, Aug 19, 2024, 6:25 PM UTC

doctorpangloss wrote: post #70

TheRealPomax wrote: post #6

This feels like reading finance fan fiction (which it kind of is, given the author's profession?) and uses a lot of text to reach the part that lays out the actual problem: the average operating costs based on daily active users are $18 per user per quarter, and the average amount made is only $13. so either operating costs need to come down, charges need to go up, or they need (more, stable) external revenue (e.g. a…

You’re right. What else? Roblox games absolutely utterly suck. Little else matters.

> Roblox games absolutely utterly suck

There are hundreds of millions of users a month who strongly disagree with you.

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

#452

Post by mulmen » Mon, Aug 19, 2024, 6:25 PM UTC

draebek wrote: post #414

mrmetanoia wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've mentioned this in other comments, but I sat in with my nephews on a Roblox session, then stayed after to check things out on my own. There's an astounding number of adults on that platform saying some of the most horrible things. The games are like you say, and there's some that are indeed the model of what I expected: games that kids and amateurs made with their tools. Car jump games. Simple platforming. Basic…

I struggle to understand why people are so toxic with chat in video games. I don't go to the supermarket, or even the bar and hear people just casually chatting about "who hates [racial slur]?" There's John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory, which says that if you give normal people anonymity and an audience then they become (let's call them) assholes. I feel that, in order to buy this, you must accept that t…

> I feel that, in order to buy this, you must accept that there are a surprisingly large number of assholes, much larger than I want to believe

Why? The theory is that they become assholes, not that they started that way. The microphone is corrupting.

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

#453

Post by Muromec » Mon, Aug 19, 2024, 6:25 PM UTC

draebek wrote: post #414

mrmetanoia wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've mentioned this in other comments, but I sat in with my nephews on a Roblox session, then stayed after to check things out on my own. There's an astounding number of adults on that platform saying some of the most horrible things. The games are like you say, and there's some that are indeed the model of what I expected: games that kids and amateurs made with their tools. Car jump games. Simple platforming. Basic…

I struggle to understand why people are so toxic with chat in video games. I don't go to the supermarket, or even the bar and hear people just casually chatting about "who hates [racial slur]?" There's John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory, which says that if you give normal people anonymity and an audience then they become (let's call them) assholes. I feel that, in order to buy this, you must accept that t…

Thankfully multiplayers games without chat exits. It’s enough to get tea-bagged by a team winning a 1v3 without actually hearing them talk.

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

#454

Post by johnnyanmac » Mon, Aug 19, 2024, 6:26 PM UTC

jachee wrote: post #437

draebek wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I struggle to understand why people are so toxic with chat in video games. I don't go to the supermarket, or even the bar and hear people just casually chatting about "who hates [racial slur]?" There's John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory, which says that if you give normal people anonymity and an audience then they become (let's call them) assholes. I feel that, in order to buy this, you must accept that t…

I think you’ve run across one of the major, unfortunate reasons US elections are so close, from the … less-progressive … side of things.

Well that's easy to explain. Most voters skew older for historical reasons and older people tend to become more conservative as they age (again, for historical reasons).

This "gamer rage" is a more recent enabling by technological anonymity, as well as instantaneous, cheap global communication. Actions without consequences, but without needing millions to cover up the petty actions.

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

#455

Post by Muromec » Mon, Aug 19, 2024, 6:28 PM UTC

amclennon wrote: post #364

wavemode wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just gifting a game to the friends would be creepy lol well this certainly depends on how it's done. Walking up to them in a trench coat and handing them a disc? Probably creepy. But you could also just, like, send them a gift key on Steam...

Unless this person is literally Santa Claus, I suspect a lot of parents might question the motives of a grown man sending gifts to their children without their knowledge.

Just talk to parents. Maybe you will have lan party with them too.

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

#456

Post by johnnyanmac » Mon, Aug 19, 2024, 6:29 PM UTC

streamfan wrote: post #446

jjcm wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate Valve for having both an in-game skill score as well as a behavior score. Once your behavior is maxed out chat becomes an entirely different experience. Here's a chat log from a game I played yesterday: https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/7902208511/chat Some wholesome banter and that's about it.

I wholeheartedly disagree as someone with 8k+ hours in game. In fact most people in dota have maxed out behavior scores. You have to try pretty hard to be muted in the game or have behavior or communication scores lowered significantly. I can assure anyone that just because you're sitting at 12k doesn't mean your experience is going to be good or an "entirely different experience"

Is that simply cultural? DOTA is well over a decade old. If everyone's toxic and behavior is self-moderated, then toxic behavior is not just normalized but reinforced.

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

#457

Post by modeless » Mon, Aug 19, 2024, 6:30 PM UTC

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #443

modeless wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How were they getting away with it for the 10 years before that when they were still calling them games and were still clearly in violation? It's pretty clear that the name change is just a retconned excuse and has nothing at all to do with the real reason.

Well, they actually did get banned from the App Store at one point, but successfully appealed. Here's a key part of this: Executives also have kids and they want to play Roblox on the go!

Yes, favoritism by Apple execs is the most plausible explanation to me. I wonder if Phil Schiller owns any RBLX shares...

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

#458

Post by burnished » Mon, Aug 19, 2024, 6:31 PM UTC

draebek wrote: post #414

mrmetanoia wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've mentioned this in other comments, but I sat in with my nephews on a Roblox session, then stayed after to check things out on my own. There's an astounding number of adults on that platform saying some of the most horrible things. The games are like you say, and there's some that are indeed the model of what I expected: games that kids and amateurs made with their tools. Car jump games. Simple platforming. Basic…

I struggle to understand why people are so toxic with chat in video games. I don't go to the supermarket, or even the bar and hear people just casually chatting about "who hates [racial slur]?" There's John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory, which says that if you give normal people anonymity and an audience then they become (let's call them) assholes. I feel that, in order to buy this, you must accept that t…

Yes, it seems clear that a component of Gamer Culture is casual bigotry. It has been changing but that mostly means spaces have become more inclusive and new people are more inclusive. The pre-existing people didn't stop existing they just sort of got shoved out of places that started having standards around behavior.

An aspect of the Greater Internet Fuckwad theory is also the level of exposure behavior gets in an online context - so very many more people are present in a way that invites sharing and comment that just doesn't exist in a grocery store. Think about how unusual it would be for me to reply in depth to an offhand comment like this (that was not directed to me) at a bar. Or how many people you might socialize with in a tf2 or l4d lobby over the course of an hour compared to in a grocery.

There is also a component of self selection when it comes to the spaces you are comparing against; you probably wouldn't want to go to bars and groceries where that behavior was present well before you actually got to live examples.

In my experience individual communities can also have very different feels. For example I used to play League of Legends and eventually switched to Dota2 because it felt very consistent that at least one person would behave in an awful fashion in the league lobbies. Whereas when playing Dota that sort of behavior was the exception.

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

#459

Post by johnnyanmac » Mon, Aug 19, 2024, 6:32 PM UTC

consteval wrote: post #407

latexr wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Really depends on the genre nowadays. Fighters (mostly) still support local co-op (Nintendo in General is pretty good at couch co-op). Shooters are becoming less local co-op friendly, not even having split screen.

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

#460

Post by mulmen » Mon, Aug 19, 2024, 6:32 PM UTC

amclennon wrote: post #364

wavemode wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just gifting a game to the friends would be creepy lol well this certainly depends on how it's done. Walking up to them in a trench coat and handing them a disc? Probably creepy. But you could also just, like, send them a gift key on Steam...

Unless this person is literally Santa Claus, I suspect a lot of parents might question the motives of a grown man sending gifts to their children without their knowledge.

The key is “without their knowledge”. Seems like an easy thing to explain to a parent. Plus it’s reasonable you’d ask the parents so they have a chance to say yes/no to the game.