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Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

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Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#41

Post by abrookewood »

ehsankia wrote: post #40
ramblerman wrote: post #37

I'm having a hard time understanding what roblox is, even when looking for a gameplay video. For an older analogy, would it be fair to compare it to something like TinyMUCK with graphics?

Same here. I generally am fairly well versed in games and tech, even the more obscure stuff, but I'm surprised about how little I've seen about this game over the years. I've heard the name here and there but never really looked into it. So far, it looks close to VR chat? I'd also like if someone could explain: 1. What the appeal is (I'm guessing mostly community?) 2. How do they monetize (purchasable cosmetic conten…

So it's a browser based gaming 'portal', that includes chat, profiles, cosmetic items etc and which allows users to create their own basic games. The appeal is that the games are fairly simple, often social and don't require a ton of investment (i.e. casual). They make money on in game currency which can upgrade both cosmetic and non-cosmetic items in both a users profile and in-games. Demographic is probably pre-teen, both genders.

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#43

Post by Bootwizard »

ramblerman wrote: post #37

I'm having a hard time understanding what roblox is, even when looking for a gameplay video. For an older analogy, would it be fair to compare it to something like TinyMUCK with graphics?

It's basically this generation's Second Life, but targeted at kids...seemingly without strict rules on user created content.

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#44

Post by earenndil »

shmerl wrote: post #28
quaquaqua1 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only does Minecraft work on Linux for me... on the same machine with some weird old intel integrated graphics drivers, opengl flat out doesn't work/isn't supported on Win10!! Nothing a jump drive and a .deb file can't fix! Thanks MS for having a heart.

For MS it's a major exception though (and only because they bought it already with Linux support). Their general gaming attitude is still quite anti-Linux.

It's more because it was written in java, and would be more work to not support linux than to support it. (Granted, it wouldn't be java if they hadn't bought it that way.)

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#45

Post by ghostcluster »

jandrese wrote: post #3
spaceisballer wrote: post #2

Well my anecdotal experience is that my kids saw videos on YouTube about other kids playing it and then they wanted to play it. I have no desire to play any of the games the popular games seem centered around nearly impossible “parkour” maps. But they love it and switch between it and Minecraft. I wonder how much of their playing base is just young kids.

Roblox is overwhelmingly populated with kids. Much more so than Minecraft from what I've seen. The one big advantage it has over Minecraft is that it's easier to play together with friends from school. The kids all exchange their Roblox handles and put them on their seemingly enormous friends lists.

Seems like this type of brain-dead simple feature -- frictionless joining of gameplay servers from a friends list -- would be something Mojang should consider adding to up their engagement.

Minecraft is interesting because, according to Google Trends, it had finally been slowly dying out in terms of search volume for years.. (https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=minecraf...)... until a few weeks ago! It has suddenly been spiking almost up to almost where it was in its peak of popularity in mid 2013. PewDiePie started playing it a bunch recently in his videos, so maybe that is the reason.. or maybe there is some other reason that it's been trending that Pewdiepie just picked up on. As not a regular Minecraft player I can only wonder.

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#46

Post by erklik »

ghostcluster wrote: post #45
jandrese wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roblox is overwhelmingly populated with kids. Much more so than Minecraft from what I've seen. The one big advantage it has over Minecraft is that it's easier to play together with friends from school. The kids all exchange their Roblox handles and put them on their seemingly enormous friends lists.

Seems like this type of brain-dead simple feature -- frictionless joining of gameplay servers from a friends list -- would be something Mojang should consider adding to up their engagement. Minecraft is interesting because, according to Google Trends, it had finally been slowly dying out in terms of search volume for years.. ( https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=minecraf... )... until a few weeks ago!…

Minecraft as a game has never progressed from where it started. There is nothing new in it (new items, new structures etc don't count, they provide the same experience, just colored differently) while a game like Terreria is done so well with fantastically structured gameplay and progression. After you've gotten to a certain level in Minecraft, the game becomes pointless.

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#47

Post by earenndil »

techntoke wrote: post #27
mastazi wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, however the original Minecraft (Java edition) does... What Bedrock features do you miss that aren't there in Java edition?

Mostly performance

Look at optifine https://optifine.net/home

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#48

Post by Hidios »

kimberlythomp99 wrote: post #34
integrii wrote: post #29

Both of my kids played a lot of Roblox until we banned it. They easily became obsessed and were violent when removed, even with a tightly controlled schedule. They would try to connect to offer WiFi networks to get access and would steal our phones to get access. We ended up having to detox them like it was a drug. Beyond that we found that the openly mod-able nature of the game allowed some remarkably disgusting 3D…

Video games can have a very similar reaction on the brain as drugs in the release of dopamine. This is my biggest fear raising my kids in this technology driven age.

> Video games can have a very similar reaction on the brain as drugs in the release of dopamine. This is my biggest fear raising my kids in this technology driven age.

Umm you stop eating food if you are completely starved of dopamine. Are you afraid of living in this... Food...driven world, considering they are much more easily available than games?

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#49

Post by wbl »

mastazi wrote: post #17
keithnz wrote: post #7

My 8 year old son switched to Roblox from Minecraft a while back, he loves it, he spends a lot of time in RobloxStudio making his own mini games. All seems quite cool, just make sure you turn on all the parental/privacy controls, there is a high amount of interaction with random other players.

I have to say that the parental controls are really strict, in particular the chat auto-moderation, to the point that any word or sentence that could be remotely considered inappropriate is censored. I suppose this is a good thing considering that most players are young kids.

Are you sure about that? http://habitatchronicles.com/2007/03/the-untold-history-of-t...

Re: Roblox hits 100M monthly active users, bigger than Minecraft

#50

Post by Rotdhizon »

integrii wrote: post #29

Both of my kids played a lot of Roblox until we banned it. They easily became obsessed and were violent when removed, even with a tightly controlled schedule. They would try to connect to offer WiFi networks to get access and would steal our phones to get access. We ended up having to detox them like it was a drug. Beyond that we found that the openly mod-able nature of the game allowed some remarkably disgusting 3D…

As someone in their early 20s who dabbles on Roblox with some frequency, this completely contradicts my own experience. Granted I only play games that show up in the popular games section on the homepage. I don't go out of my way to find the weird stuff. I suppose it is similar to the Elsagate stuff kids were getting into on Youtube, kids have a remarkable talent to go down rabbit holes you didn't know existed and find the disturbing content. Roblox also has a really bad problem with child/teen dating, so much so that they now have an in game report option specifically for dating behavior.

I imagine it is extremely difficult for the Roblox staff to moderate the disturbing content as they have their hands full around the clock. From people creating thousands of bot accounts to boost their games, security problems revolving around people getting their games/assets/money stolen, people constantly finding new ways to cheat in game, to the issues that you described. I'd also think that the people who engage in the behavior that you described are seasoned in what they do, knowing how to avoid the watchful eye of moderation and parents alike.

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