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Roblox is minting teen millionaires

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Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#151

Post by yieldcrv »

hsuduebc2 wrote: post #85
yieldcrv wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But they are not doing enough to protect children from predators and that's a huge legal and regulatory risk. I run a studio that makes Roblox experiences and this is Discord's problem, and will immediately become Telegram's problem the decade where parents and policy makers figure out its Discord's problem their kid went into an experience within Roblox so I can see that's the branding, the parent paid the kid's a…

Interesting. If you don't mind me asking. If I understand the business correctly, the brands are inquiring to design specialized worlds in Roblox so kids can play in them and look at ads?

that's not my business, the economy is pretty vast with several key verticals

the experiences I'm involved with just have their own things to purchase as part of the game loop. it's much more akin to a vending machine.

never involved with any brand, at least that wasn't roblox native, and by roblox native I mean influencers that may as well be a brand of their own.

if you followed the "metaverse" concept from earlier in the decade, there was Meta's attempt, there were crypto and NFT based attempts, although that's all said to have died, the metaverse is happening within Roblox. the point if that if you had a grasp of what the metaverse was supposed to be, you can use that understanding to understand what Roblox is

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#152

Post by globular-toast »

gmueckl wrote: post #8
SoftTalker wrote: post #2

This is so far out of the realm of what I do with computers that I'm not even really sure what Roblox is. I guess sort of a virtual game world? Seems crazy that there's so much money in it.

In very simple terms, Roblox is an MMO based exclusively around user generated contents (games, items, assets...), including its own virtual currency, microtransactions, marketplaces and convertibility to/from real money. Roblox as a company takes pretty hefty cut from all transactions. There has been a silent shift in the gaming market over a long time now. Roblox is one aspect of it. Another is the absolutely massi…

In even simpler terms it's the current "shut the kids up" tax that parents pay.

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#153

Post by taberiand »

dyauspitr wrote: post #144
intrasight wrote: post #17

"According to the company, their monthly player base includes half of all American children under the age of 16." - Wikipedia 2 decades in the making, they are really hitting their stride. But they are not doing enough to protect children from predators and that's a huge legal and regulatory risk.

I hate it. What a waste of a perfectly good generation.

The generation that's going to enter adulthood in the age of unchecked climate change and AI taking over their careers?

I say let them enjoy themselves while they still can.

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#154

Post by wj »

jameson wrote: post #91

Roblox is slot machines for kids Games are filled with loot boxes that drop exquisite items on chance. It's a repeated cycle of charging robux only to spend on another slot machine. US regulation is far behind protecting children from such scheme. Japan disallows many forms of such loot boxes due to addictive nature.

I have called them casinos for kids elsewhere due to the bright colors, flashing text, and money counters going up, up, up on the screen.

And also because my kids can spend tens of dollars in minutes on it.

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#155

Post by mothballed »

globular-toast wrote: post #152
gmueckl wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In very simple terms, Roblox is an MMO based exclusively around user generated contents (games, items, assets...), including its own virtual currency, microtransactions, marketplaces and convertibility to/from real money. Roblox as a company takes pretty hefty cut from all transactions. There has been a silent shift in the gaming market over a long time now. Roblox is one aspect of it. Another is the absolutely massi…

In even simpler terms it's the current "shut the kids up" tax that parents pay.

It's not to shut the kids up, it's to shut them in so that all the Karens that rat your ass out the minute your kid is spotted outside on their own won't be able to kick off an investigation based on a phone call that it's illegal for you to even see the complainant of in the report.

Society basically expects you to hide your kids if you can't watch them every second, the externality society imposes on parents is the costs of boarding them up inside.

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#156

Post by nananana9 »

nomel wrote: post #50
intrasight wrote: post #17

"According to the company, their monthly player base includes half of all American children under the age of 16." - Wikipedia 2 decades in the making, they are really hitting their stride. But they are not doing enough to protect children from predators and that's a huge legal and regulatory risk.

> But they are not doing enough to protect children from predators My understanding is that the recent improvements are face scans, and communication limited to people within a few 4 year windows. They've also increased moderation of chat significantly, especially for the lower age windows. What low hanging fruit do you see? What's the "ideal" system? Seems like a hard problem, if any sort of cooperative communicatio…

Please don't make excuses for literal evil p*dophile megacorporations. There is plenty of low hanging fruit, and even if there wasn't, this issue is important enough that if they can't fix it they should go out of business.

1. They can just disable chat for non age verified accounts. Done. Problem fixed. Oh, but they'll lose money, won't they? That takes precedence over child safety.

2. The community is willing to help. You can find examples of independent actors uncovering tens of thousands of NSFW communities and accounts and submitting them to Roblox with detailed descriptions of the activities of each one, only for Roblox to perma-ban AND SUE the people doing the investigations, and not ban the offending accounts.

3. They can build an actual strong safety team. A $40B company can afford to throw a few million dollars per year to hire 200 people to do that same investigatory work. This is typical tech firm behavior, where they believe every problem can be automated away, and they're not willing to do the minimal amount of manual labor.

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#157

Post by otherme123 »

CrzyLngPwd wrote: post #142

My grandsons would come and stay, bringing tablet devices with them, and would prefer to stay glued to them the whole time. Since we banned their use, they now play outside with my other grandchildren, on the rope swing, the zip line, or exploring in the woods making dens and forts, using their imaginations. Children should not be playing computer games, or scrolling on any social media, IMO.

I have heard a number of parents saying their kids are "good behaved" when they are silently glued to a screen, while roaming outside, making noise and playing are bad behaviours, specially when they break things or get a bruise.

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#158

Post by sghitbyabazooka »

stavros wrote: post #150
amiga386 wrote: post #38

Roblox turns a blind eye to child exploitation (whether being creeped on by adults, or being exploited by teens/adults to make games) and makes a fortune out of it. If it weren't online, it'd be illegal and people would be in jail. Also, Roblox's favourite thing - other than sitting back and rolling in the cash that their playerbase generated for them - is puff pieces in the news talking about how people who make gam…

Isn't there a secondary market for Robux that then sells for much better prices?

that also has a cap, you're not getting more than $6 per 1000 robux there, which is a little under double the official rate but still only 2 thirds of what users actually paid for said robux. not including the risk of the platform banning you.

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#159

Post by CrzyLngPwd »

otherme123 wrote: post #157
CrzyLngPwd wrote: post #142

My grandsons would come and stay, bringing tablet devices with them, and would prefer to stay glued to them the whole time. Since we banned their use, they now play outside with my other grandchildren, on the rope swing, the zip line, or exploring in the woods making dens and forts, using their imaginations. Children should not be playing computer games, or scrolling on any social media, IMO.

I have heard a number of parents saying their kids are "good behaved" when they are silently glued to a screen, while roaming outside, making noise and playing are bad behaviours, specially when they break things or get a bruise.

Worse still, they are so well-behaved, with their tablet and headphones on, watching YouTube or playing games.

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#160

Post by mikkupikku »

3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #75
mikkupikku wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he thinks he can get that with a ten year grind, why would he stop short? 10 years isn't long compared to most careers so maybe he should go longer and get a bigger house or something. Of course roblox will probably fall out of fashion and stop being so profitable by then. Milk that cow for all it's worth.

We all die in the end. At some point, an additional dollar is not improving your life.

A ten year grind, starting as a teen no less, leaves you with a lot of life left to live. And it's not like he won't be able to live a little while in the middle of that grind.

Honestly the people criticizing the kid for this are probably just jealous of his self-made opportunity.

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