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Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers

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Re: Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers

#61

Post by all2 »

rtkwe wrote: post #52
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…

> But to withdraw it, they need to have raked in roughly $1,000 worth of Robux. It's even worse than that. They sell robux at one rate and cash them out for developers at a very different rate. That $1,000 worth of Robux becomes $350 when you go to extract it. So they're taking cuts twice, once on the actual sale and again whenever you try to turn it into real money instead of their scrip.

They need a stable-coin.

Re: Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers

#63

Post by thenayr »

happyopossum wrote: post #18

My kids (and I) certainly don't see it as exploitation - they love learning to create games, and would be happy to do it even without any chance of payout. I don't think the $1k minimum payout is crazy either, as the overhead of paying 10s of thousands of kids $11.32 would kill margins (leading to Robux having to take a higher %age). I'd have to think most kids are in the same boat as mine - if their games ever earn…

The $1k minimum is kind of the entire argument here though, they are exploiting free labor and making massive profits off of it.

So you're basically saying "It's totally fine if Roblox keeps up to $999 in profits from millions of developers (potentially children) because they haven't hit the $1k min."

I'm almost certain ANY of these kids would be happier with $100 in cold hard cash in their pockets than they would be with $100 of robox currency. Right now they just have no option.

Re: Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers

#64

Post by rib3ye »

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…

It's obvious that the company is trying to create clear distinctions between hobbyists and professional devs. A low cash-out threshold seems like bait, where as a higher threshold discourages would-bes from thinking it will be easy money and filling the catalog with garbage.

Though I do concede... the catalog is filled with a lot of garbage.

Re: Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers

#65

Post by pjc50 »

all2 wrote: post #61
rtkwe wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But to withdraw it, they need to have raked in roughly $1,000 worth of Robux. It's even worse than that. They sell robux at one rate and cash them out for developers at a very different rate. That $1,000 worth of Robux becomes $350 when you go to extract it. So they're taking cuts twice, once on the actual sale and again whenever you try to turn it into real money instead of their scrip.

They need a stable-coin.

Sounds like they already have one.

Re: Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers

#68

Post by code_duck »

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…

I had a blog or two that used Google AdWords circa 2008. I got very close to the $100 limit but never reached it - so Google just kept my $90. I wonder how many people and how much revenue that applies to.

Re: Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers

#69

Post by micromacrofoot »

dreyfan wrote: post #7

This is no more exploitative than someone trying to make it big on Youtube, Twitch, or Spotify and gaining zero traction. If the content someone creates on these platforms doesn't capture an audience, the hosting platform doesn't generate any revenue and neither does the creator. It's completely free to produce the content (minus your time) and the platform hosts it for free, even though 99% of it never receives any…

8 year olds, dude

Re: Roblox faces criticism for 'exploiting' young game developers

#70

Post by code_duck »

the_jeremy wrote: post #48
midwestemo wrote: post #38

Earlier 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.

When? This was the level I failed to meet for AdWords when I had a blog around 2007. What Google or other companies were doing in 2005 is so long ago that it’s hardly relevant.
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