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

matthewball.co

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

#321

Post by mrmetanoia »

GNOMES wrote: 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…

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 shooters. But then there are games that seem like they're some dark pattern mobile devs side projects lol Games where you do nothing but collect stuff or pets and there's lots of gratification devices happening and suddenly there's just a literal pay wall. Just the worst of f2p gambling addiction built right into player built roblox games over and over and over again.

But on to the adults, my favorite example was joining a 'shooter' game that was really just a shooting gallery of sorts but it had voice chat enabled and wtf there's some eastern european accent going off on gay people and talking about how the targets should have sombreros so 'we' can shoot "lazy" Mexicans.

That experience was replicated through a few games and I just wrote Roblox off completely as infested with people trying to help kids find hate based ideologies or get them addicted to gambling. I warned their mother, she didn't listen til she got her credit card stolen.

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

#322

Post by latexr »

GNOMES wrote: post #316
ToucanLoucan wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Seriously don't understand how Roblox isn't being investigated for predatory practices. Because if you held game companies responsible for deliberately fostering addiction in their customers to earn a profit, we'd have scores of industries behind them in line to be brought to heel the same way and the stocks for tech companies, game companies, tobacco companies, casino companies, alcohol companies, etc. etc. would…

Understand your point, but Epic (Fortnite) and games like Fifa have gotten sued or major slap on the wrists for the same practices

> major slap on the wrists

That doesn’t make sense as a concept. The point of the slap on the wrist is that it’s ineffective/insufficient punishment to change behaviour. You’re essentially saying they got a big small penalty.

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

#323

Post by Rohansi »

teamonkey wrote: post #243
BlueTemplar wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely the user interface runs locally ? Or has Roblox been careful to ban interface development in LUA ?

My assumption is that the server either directly tells the client what to display or it converts the “client” code to some kind of bytecode that doesn’t require a lua interpreter. Or perhaps the lua code is sanitised by the server such that the lua code run on the client is not the same as submitted by the user. Many App Store games do have an embedded scripting system of some kind, just not one that can run code dir…

Bytecode or not it is still running code inputted by an end user on iOS devices.

The whole point of Apple's rules here are to force app functionality and features to be reviewed when submitting an app to the app store. Anybody can go and make complete games ("experiences") in Roblox and they will immediately be available on iOS without being reviewed by Apple. It's a full game engine that lets you write custom code, use custom assets, and replace everything. Take a look at Frontlines (https://www.roblox.com/games/5938036553/FRONTLINES) as an example of a game that looks nothing like Roblox.

If you were to release an iOS app and push new features and content to it OTA then you risk being kicked off the store if you get caught because you bypassed their review process and the store page may not be accurately describing the app anymore.

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

#324

Post by justinclift »

dagmx wrote: post #296
sitkack wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those APIs are paid for by the owner of the phone. Charging developers (and the consumer) 30% to allow someone to distribute an app is utterly ridiculous. Framing it like Apple built these things and you are only paying 30% is in deep sycophant territory.

1. You assume they’re paid for by the owner of the phone. That’s not necessarily reflective of a companies income stream. Microsoft also charge for commercial access to their SDKs for example, and every company has different business models. 2. Then what does steam offer for 30% that isn’t just distribution? The majority of steam games do not use Valves tooling for matchmaking or their engine. 3. Can you go without n…

> Or are you that childish

:(

> Microsoft also charge for commercial access to their SDKs ...

Is that a new thing, or just for specific products? Asking because I've previously used some of their Azure SDK stuff before and that didn't seem to have a charge for SDK access.

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

#325

Post by judge2020 »

Quarrel wrote: post #259
thomas34298 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the same argument could be made for Twitter/X. The app stores by Google and Apple specifically disallow pornographic material, yet the app is full of it. Once you're big and important enough, the rules mostly don't apply for you anymore. Of course, if they tried to circumvent the app store tax directly within the app, there would be consequences, but as long as Google/Apple can make a profit, it's okay it see…

> I think the same argument could be made for Twitter/X. The app stores by Google and Apple specifically disallow pornographic material, yet the app is full of it. Reddit is allowed too. imgur, snap, etc. I assumed you're fine as long as your raison d'être wasn't porn and the content was user generated / supplied.

To add, Tumblr was lambasted for them not properly policing their porn[0], accidentally allowing CSAM, and Apple being the one to inform them of this error. it's what led to them banning all 18+ content, arguably sealing the platform's fate of irrelevancy.

0: https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/20/18104366/tumblr-ios-app-...

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

#326

Post by GNOMES »

latexr wrote: post #322
GNOMES wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Understand your point, but Epic (Fortnite) and games like Fifa have gotten sued or major slap on the wrists for the same practices

> major slap on the wrists That doesn’t make sense as a concept. The point of the slap on the wrist is that it’s ineffective/insufficient punishment to change behaviour. You’re essentially saying they got a big small penalty.

Paying fines while still racking in cash. Basically the cost of doing business.

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

#327

Post by rvba »

iosjunkie wrote: post #300
skeeter2020 wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's " + tc"?

I'm reading that as $700,000 or more total compensation.

What's total compensation?

Doea this mean 700k base salary (real cash) + bonus (stock options)?

On a side note, do senior engineers get company cars?

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

#328

Post by justinclift »

dagmx wrote: post #308
justinclift wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> building a platform almost from scratch) Are you meaning iOS there? Of so, please remember they pulled significant amounts of code from Open Source Software in order to lighten their development load. :)

But they also contribute significantly to that same open source so how do you balance that out? Again, I’m not saying they’re above criticism but I am saying this feels like a very one sided presentation of facts.

> ... how do you balance that out?

Not sure what you're asking?

"Significantly" doesn't seem to be correct. At least, not for the (GPL licensed?) stuff that's been stuck on ancient versions for many years.

Though they have (from my rough memory) made some contributions back to FreeBSD where it seemed to make sense.

All that aside, the point is that they didn't build their platform "almost from scratch".

They assembled a lot of pre-existing pieces (many OSS), then built on top of that. It's a common way of doing things.

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

#329

Post by rvba »

raister wrote: post #66

Roblox is a huge problem for me, as a parent of a 8y kid. Let me explain: I try to block violent apps in his tablet using Google's Family app, however, Roblox internally keeps 'offering' my kid almost any game, whatever if there's violence, drugs, killing others, and so forth. It's a headache and a source of fights, so, I thank the responsible (/sarcasm).

Lots of people here played Doom or Mortal Combat

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

#330

Post by loloquwowndueo »

TheRealPomax wrote: post #320
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because something that sucks is popular doesn’t invalidate the claim that it sucks (and Roblox does suck hard). Junk food is terrible for your health and is also very popular.

Except "bad for your health" is an objective biological fact, whereas saying something sucks is entirely subjective, so that argument too is invalid from the outset. You think it sucks, vastly more people don't. You're welcome to your opinion, but that's all it is.

Except the detrimental impact of Roblox is objectively and widely documented in various links in this thread and elsewhere on the inter webs. Kids don’t think junk food sucks, I guess millions of parents trying to keep them healthy are just going by their “opinions” as well?
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