Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers

Post by sillysaurusx » Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 8:18 PM UTC

johnny53169 wrote: post #134

sillysaurusx wrote: post #81

See Carmack's rebuttal: https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1428483898896535562 > I have been impressed by the number of real world economic and business issues that Roblox is exposing my younger son to, both in the experiences and the larger ecosystem. There is a lot of thinking in terms of effort, reward, and risk. "You seem to be ignoring the thesis of the video. For the vast majority of their creators, their…

> If the most legendary game developer of all time thinks Roblox is fine, are you sure he's mistaken? If he was the most legendary game _designer_ sure, but in that area he hasn't been very relevant in a while, as a programmer I don't see what special insight he has. He seems like a nice guy and he is obviously one of the best developer ever, but I don't get the near cult he has

Post by kortilla » Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 8:22 PM UTC

duxup wrote: post #161

ATsch wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it is. That is what they make their money off of, the difference between what they earn off of the labor of the video creators and the money they pay out. If nobody uploaded videos, youtube could not sell attention just like if no steelworkers arrived, the steel mill can not sell steel. That applies to all social media/user generated content platforms. Now, you might argue that this does not feel like labor becau…

I feel like that really distorts my relationship / expectations with YouTube and just turns just about anything into 'labor'.

Post by kortilla » Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 8:26 PM UTC

tyleo wrote: post #120

rtkwe wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roblox takes their 75% cut out of each sale then if you ever manage to accumulate the 100,000 Robux needed to cash out ($1000 worth for what Roblox sells it for) you only get $350. They're double dipping their cut. You should really watch the video it lays out the case very well. If it's meant to be educational it shouldn't be marketing itself as a way to make money or charging kids to promote their app. It would hav…

I’ll have to watch the video. It looks like there is some missing context in the article alone. Still not sure how I feel. On the fence but leaning more good than bad. The thing I cant get past is “what else would a kid do with their time?” Even if its not a great way to make money, it seems like a better use of time than what I did. It just seems like it still provides a strong learning opportunity. I think there ma…

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 8:35 PM UTC

MrStonedOne wrote: post #157

majormajor wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The threshold to cash out seems high, but the percentage cut is curious, and I'm not convinced "exploitative" is the right word. It's a high cut, but is there anything else that makes it anywhere as close to make a game and share it with your friends? It seems to be in an entirely different league as any of the app stores or PC game development, so a higher cut there would make sense. The "it's just for fun!" argumen…

from what i can tell, its 30% at transaction time, then 65% at withdrawal time. That is not necessary.

Post by alex_munroe » Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 8:38 PM UTC

donmcronald wrote: post #37

only_as_i_fall wrote: post #14

>Second, there’s the matter of how extensively Robux (Roblox’s in-app currency) are used to navigate the creator economy. Roblox creators are paid first by receiving a cut of Robux that comes from the sale, which they can use to purchase other Roblox experiences, in-game assets, cosmetics, etc. That means once a developer enters the Robux economy, their money is all spent inside the Roblox system until they’re able t…

There’s probably a long tail where a tiny fraction of devs make more than that. Free labor!