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Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

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Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#371

Post by voxic11 »

foobazgt wrote: post #272
squeek502 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any Mods you create for Minecraft: Java Edition from scratch belong to you (including pre-run Mods and in-memory Mods) and you can do whatever you want with them, as long as you don't sell them for money / try to make money from them https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/eula

Is that legally enforceable? If a mod doesn't contain code / assets from the game itself, what legal rights does Microsoft have over the distribution of that mod?

Yes courts have found that game mods, even if they don't directly include any content from the original game in their distributable, count as derivative works under copyright.

> The ruling continues to apply to the legal status of video game modding, with mods viewed as derivative works that require the consent of the copyright holder. While this may legally limit the creation of mods, machinima, broadcasts, or even cheats, many game developers have authorized and encouraged some of these activities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Star_v%2E_FormGen_Inc%2E

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#372

Post by ndriscoll »

socalgal2 wrote: post #133
lenerdenator wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're people, but they're not politicians or regulators with the ability to do anything about it. At a certain point, you need to have a statute that says "thou shalt not offer cybersex and online gambling to children", and you need someone with the statutory authority to charge Roblox with doing so and penalize them after due process. Either we don't have that statute, or the people with the statutory authority do…

> you need someone with the statutory authority to charge Roblox Roblox didn't put up the content. Some user did. The user should be charged.

They created the system that allows it. StarCraft had user generated content, but no real gambling because the games ended within an hour or so, and no state was kept.

If they want to create a platform for children gambling and facilitate the payments, yes let's figure out how to send them to prison. They're not stupid. They know all of the reasons why they have a $60B market cap. That's 2/3 of Nintendo for making a "free" game.

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#373

Post by beAbU »

ErroneousBosh wrote: post #288
massysett wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I let my kid play Roblox for a couple of weeks and I was absolutely horrified by all the inducements to seek Robux. So I removed it from her iPad, which is locked down. She gets along just fine without Roblox.

My son plays Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 on the Playstation sometimes, if all his homework is done and his room is tidyish. No inducements to buy in-game currencies, no weird people chatting to my child online, no deeply profoundly unsettling user-generated content. About the only downside is that I occasionally have to remind him that his teacher probably doesn't really want to hear about Screaming Females or Rough F…

Man... Pro skater 2. That game's soundtrack/playlist is forever burned into my memories.

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#374

Post by falcor84 »

etskinner wrote: post #282
hedora wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be trivial to implement well. Give the parents a console where they can paste in usernames. Most classes already have parents whatsapp groups or similar, so it’s easy enough to broadcast the usernames, or create a shared google doc. Console access could also be required to create new accounts. The article says it is currently trivial for kids to just create an adult account and bypass all the parental cont…

Parents have whatsapp groups for their kid's classes? That's news to me. When did that become the norm?

I saw it become a thing more than a decade ago

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#375

Post by prophesi »

recursive wrote: post #200
prophesi wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP, but for me I'm wary whenever I see in-game currency (Minecoins). Thankfully there are no gambling mechanics tied in to Minecoins directly, but the server ecosystem is still rampant with gambling just the same[0]. [0] https://feedback.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/community/posts/3600...

I agree regarding in-game currency. I find it distasteful. But in my mind, paid mods are a different thing that can exist independently. I don't find those distasteful. I find their existence slightly positive.

For sure. But the unofficial non-paid mods for Bedrock allow for gambling mechanics, so long as it's not linked to real world currency, which I still find problematic for a game marketed towards kids. Link I posted is from years ago claiming that featured servers in Bedrock almost all have gambling, and nothing has changed since then.

Java edition is a lot more wild west and next-to-impossible to enforce their EULA due to the nature of distribution and installation of Java edition mods.

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#376

Post by ErroneousBosh »

beAbU wrote: post #373
ErroneousBosh wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My son plays Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 on the Playstation sometimes, if all his homework is done and his room is tidyish. No inducements to buy in-game currencies, no weird people chatting to my child online, no deeply profoundly unsettling user-generated content. About the only downside is that I occasionally have to remind him that his teacher probably doesn't really want to hear about Screaming Females or Rough F…

Man... Pro skater 2. That game's soundtrack/playlist is forever burned into my memories.

The PS4 remake is excellent. Sure, the maps have been restyled a bit, but the warehouse looks just as good as you remember, and you remember it as looking a hell of a lot better than it really did.

THPS1 is forever intertwined with having a few pints with my wee sister, pick up a curry and some beer on the way round to hers, then watch The West Wing, then beating her boyfriend at Tony Hawks', drinking beer, and eating curry until the small hours of Sunday morning.

In the early 2000s, we really did have it all, didn't we?

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#377

Post by jajuuka »

geephroh wrote: post #46

If you haven't listened to the interview[1], it's is absolutely bananas. Baszucki might want to think about dialing back on the ketamine a bit. 1. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/podcasts/hardfork-roblox-...

Yeah that was a little cringe. Once he starts laying out on the sarcasm thick you tell he's pissed. He runs one of the biggest games out there and the audience is majority children and they have been in the news a lot for not doing enough to protect their kids that play their game.

I'm more shocked he's been around in the industry for 20 years and still hasn't learned media discipline. All he had to do was be a little empathetic and explain how they were doing everything they can do keep kids safe. Would have just been another run of the mill CEO interview.

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#378

Post by danny_codes »

maksum wrote: post #280
pupppet wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't buy this. Roblox like most games these days employ dark patterns to keep kids hooked, the real world can't compete with the online casino. We had Nintendo, but those games had an ending. Today's online games don't end.

Can’t both be true? It can be true that Roblox keeps kids hooked through shady practices but if not them, kids would have sought other places. Club Penguin, RuneScape, WOW, Xbox Live, all served similar functions for myself growing up, I don’t find it hard to believe I would have ended up on Roblox

None of those platforms are for gambling.

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#379

Post by akho »

HaZeust wrote: post #213
akho wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your kid has that private device because you gave it to them.

I left this [1] comment a few weeks ago, and I already knew people like you would have dogged on GP for giving their child this level of access and autonomy, just like I knew the HN thread from the other day about homeschooling was going to dog on people who allow their child to go to public school - because teaching children self-sufficiency, self-assurance, and confidence to deal with bad influences is a relic of a…

The linked comment seems to imply that you have no kids of your own, and generally identify with a child still. That's fine, but not a good look for this kind of conversation.

Children should not have easy access to addictive drugs, digital or pharmaceutical. That exposure does not build agency, it does the opposite. You cannot expect a child to be able to resist the combined effort of a multi-trillion dollar industry toward building maximally addictive things.

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#380

Post by WesleyJohnson »

Analemma_ wrote: post #279
WesleyJohnson wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It goes beyond that though. There are games and in-game content that aren't being reviewed. There are claims of player skins where the characters are wearing a t-shirt with an actual photo of Charlie Kirk's death (the shot to the neck). Anyone can make a Roblox game and publish it, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of moderations or verification going on. And you don't need to "talk", voice or text. You can emote, t…

> There are claims of player skins where the characters are wearing a t-shirt with an actual photo of Charlie Kirk's death (the shot to the neck). Gambling and facilitating sexual predation is probably worth regulating, but I don't find tasteless jokes a sufficient cause for intervention. Nor is this even a remotely new phenomenon. I was on Newgrounds as a pre-teenager when people were making wacky flash games about…

That is where content rating should come in, and games should be reviewed by Roblox staff before being approved. Then, Roblox age restrictions could play a role in keeping a 7-year old from a seeing photos of a murder.
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