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

matthewball.co

481–490 of 590 posts

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

#482

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…

In games where you're shooting others, how can you justify that? Either you are bad or they are bad. When you're in a team, it's normal that the team talks about justification.

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

#483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like they use JavaScript and this might qualify for the HTML5/JavaScript exception that Apple has. Also it seems like they are a lot less powerful than Roblox scripts, and there isn't an in-game store allowing you to purchase them without using Apple's in-app purchase flow.

For transparency I lead the Minecraft Scripting team. You can purchase content that runs behavior packs from the store, but it's all through soft currency purchased with per-platform stores. Link to some of the content: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/catalog As for the "not as powerful as Roblox", we're working on it :)

Neat! And you can do those purchases inside the iOS app?

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

#484

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…

> "Are the number of racist idiots just much greater amongst Gamers™?"

You have clearly never read the comments on newspaper websites back when they still had them. Sturgeon's Law applies to human beings in general.

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

#486
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…

You should find abandonedware games for him to network play on.

Right around the time of the mobile phone gaming took a very, very sharp turn to pure sociopathy. It had always been flirting with it, but now the mbas are full on putting as much sociopathic addiction rigging, social bullying, and manufactured demand as possible.

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

#487
post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I upvoted you but after thinking about it actually, you will find that this will attract kids that are friends for the money and start weird dynamics in the social bubble of his son. But your idea is right! Maybe he could have done gaming sessions at his house or who knows what to better spend this money on other games.

> this will attract kids that are friends for the money and start weird dynamics in the social bubble of his son From the amount of money sunk into this one game it sounds like there are already weird money dynamics in his social bubble.

Yah, but Roblox weird money dynamics is that he's showing up and is overpowered in the games because he's paying to win, but fellow kids likely view him as exceptionally skilled :P

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

#488

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 think that unfortunately there are just a larger number of assholes than we would like to believe, and they particularly manifest when playing video games. Playing video games is something people due for a release, and what they are releasing isn't always pleasant. For every person that openly acts like a asshole out in public there are at least 2 secret assholes who understand the society expects them to be on their best behavior, but once they are anonymous then the vitriol can flow freely.

With that said I think the percentage of assholes by percentage of population is always going to be higher in video games with voice chat simply because it becomes a outlet for a certain type of person.

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

#489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about? Last I saw apple mostly won their lawsuits in the US and our government is so captured by late stage capitalists I doubt we're going to see any serious revision of their monopolistic behavior. Lucky you that the EU actually does stuff to big tech.

I think (hope) that what the EU does will spread to the US eventually as well.

Don’t forget about the large amount money being dumped into lobbying on behalf of big tech. It’s effective here due to capitalistic society and government benefit from it ( taxes, money contributions, competing market like( China,EU, etc)). Makes sense for these changes to take place in EU, lobbying isn’t as effective nor the incentives for politicians and government bodies.

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

#490
post #274
post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been running my own (not-for-profit, for people over the age of 21) server for the past 5 years. We're basically just a Vanilla+ server, we have no problems finding new people to join (thanks to /r/MinecraftBuddies)

My kids love Minecraft. They often run a curseforge mod (create?) and then open a port so they can play together inside the home LAN. But, I don't really understand how this works, and I would love to host it in a way that their cousins in another state could join. Do you know how I research this? I get a bit confused between the curseforge mods, the java edition. Should I start by downloading a JAR of the server and…

First off, it's generally a good idea not to port-forward your own home router outside of defaults (Even if it's just 25565; I created a nightmare scenario for the ISP guy back at my parent's house when I was around 13 doing this).

There's tons of options to host servers in the cloud with near absolute control. I used to use a SaaS company called Minehut (https://app.minehut.com/) before I got into cloud computing and using AWS EC2 (https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/gametech/setting-up-a-minecraft... - like $8/month).

If they're interested in learning the nitty-gritty on cloud computing and hosting (they probably do if they're already learning Curseforge), then get them into the AWS method. If you want something one-and-done, opt for Minehut.

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