Its not really surprising, this is a platform designed solely for the purpose of keeping kids glued to their screens and spending money. And they are excellent at it. My kids are obsessed with it to the point where I have been planning a complete ban on gaming for a couple weeks to try and break the addiction. I know several (4) other families who's kids are going through the same thing. My kids are constantly asking for money as well to buy things in game, constantly to the point that it really reminds me of a drug addiction.
Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers
191–200 of 227 posts
Re: Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers
#192>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…
Worth noting that, since the currency can also come from a handful of other sources (e.g. trading cosmetics), each cash-out is manually reviewed to ensure that the currency only comes from approved sources (sale of assets, games, products). Because of this, reducing the minimum payout does not scale, and at some point becomes infeasible. The article and video, of course, both fail to mention this.
Maybe throwing more manpower at the problem will let them reduce the minimum rate. Or they could work on altering their infrastructure to support a more automated system, possibly eliminating the minimum rate entirely.
Re: Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you transfer it? If so, seems like it would be hard to prevent secondary markets from forming.
No, they don't have a way to move anything other than games. Probably specifically to avoid the chance of a secondary market forming. Trying to police real world trading is hard so they just cut off the chance for it entirely. https://en.help.roblox.com/hc/en-us/articles/203313090-Can-I...
I was wrong there is a trading system this is just about moving items between accounts. Some places implement balanced trade requirements to get around RWT.
Re: Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers
#194If they were forced to change, I feel like the most likely outcome would be to remove the chance of renumeration for young developers, to sidestep any possible legal implications altogether. To turn experience-making, for kids at least, into a purely hobby effort. Maybe that's not bad, but I figure the same negative pressures would still exist, for the most part.
It would be interesting to see the company's reaction to a completely free, hobby Experience becoming the most played (and unpaid) game on the platform. It's unlikely, but fun to imagine.
Re: Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers
#195Earlier 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…
Microsoft MakeCode (here's MakeCode Arcade[0], just one aspect) is a terrific gaming platform which teaches standard Typescript (using a Scratch-type interface). It doesn't offer monetization of any kind so they can honestly advertise for the pure creative, maker, and educational markets. And they do! [0] https://arcade.makecode.com/
Yeah there’s definitely a cool niche there for an easy to use tool to build games in a way that deals with the mess of networking and servers that isn’t just siphoning all the money away from the users at every turn.
Re: Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
> YouTube will pay you as soon as you make something like $20 iirc. Isn't it $100? https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1709871?hl=en
Used to be lower.
Not for youtube. I made a video and got stuck at $85 or so which has been sitting there. And the gate to get any ad revenue at all has been raised so I'd have to get pretty serious to get the hours watched to earn the remaining $15
Re: Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers
#197It's the epitome of what people have come to expect from Silicon Valley bro culture to exploit child programmers instead of paying them cash.
Roblox developer business model should be renamed Dickensian Development.
Re: Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
uh, yes? if your business model relies on exploiting children, you shouldn't be allowed to operate as a business. or maybe don't pay kids whose work attracts people to your platform in your in-game digital currency. pay them, like, actual money that they've earned.
I feel like we'd then have the same article: "Adults can make money but they don't let kids who create content make any money!"
One could argue that this would fall into child labor laws, which exist for a reason.
Re: Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers
#199>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…
Worth noting that, since the currency can also come from a handful of other sources (e.g. trading cosmetics), each cash-out is manually reviewed to ensure that the currency only comes from approved sources (sale of assets, games, products). Because of this, reducing the minimum payout does not scale, and at some point becomes infeasible. The article and video, of course, both fail to mention this. Maybe throwing more…
> Because of this, reducing the minimum payout does not scale, and at some point becomes infeasible.
Err, wat? This check could trivially be automated, and in fact I'd be very surprised if it wasn't already. All they have to do is maintain a separate (hidden) counter of "cashout-able" currency in their account, which only increases when the money comes from an eligible source (and decreasing so that it never goes above the visible "real" currency).
If Roblox claims this is a manual check, well, that's very probably just a bullshit lie.
Re: Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers
#200Earlier 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.
Roblox taking a 151/200 AKA 75.5% total cut matches what I've heard from friends in the games industry.