Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse • Hacker News Board

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

#91

Post by swed420 » Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 5:41 PM UTC

stronglikedan wrote: post #76

dimal wrote: post #63

We have a culture where we’ve been told for decades that market forces and the profit motive are sufficient for running a society. That the market will find a way to give everyone what they need efficiently without problems. We’ve dispensed with ethics as a basis for human interaction, and the results are exactly what one would expect: a dystopia. And the people making the most money off this system insist that it’s…

> Capitalism needs constraints. I'd just be happy with one constraint and that is to forbid the crony capitalism that is rampant today.

> I'd just be happy with one constraint and that is to forbid the crony capitalism that is rampant today.

But "regulated" capitalism inevitably leads to crony capitalism.

What we've arrived at can barely even be called capitalism, and old school capitalism paved the way:

https://web.archive.org/web/20220331174542/https://nymag.com...

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

#92

Post by parasubvert » Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 5:42 PM UTC

opinion3k wrote: post #80

iamnothere wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this different from a LAN party? I spent countless hours engrossed in DOOM deathmatches and Starcraft games as a kid. I don’t really see the difference. The problem outlined in the article is about moderation of spaces where kids are present. You seem to be trying to draw some broader conclusion that video games are harmful.

You probably bought or pirated the games you played at the LAN party, maybe once and some DLC. You probably played with at least a few people you knew and the games had a goal - capture the flag or the bases or something - that often you had to work with a team to accomplish. Roblox is designed from the ground up to sell Robux. Not to promote fun games or anything interesting in the least. The games are complete brai…

If you think DOOM and CS aren't brain rot, you might be just falling into nostalgia. Shooting demons and other players and spraying bloody gibs is absolute brain rot.

I play Roblox with my 9 year old, and no, they're not anymore brain rot than DOOM or Quake deathmatches were. Capture the flag or tower defense was almost never the point. It was being first in a deathmatch.

Quite frankly today's Roblox games tend to be a lot more enlightening, innovative and entertaining. Not all of course but many.

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

#93

Post by parasubvert » Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 5:45 PM UTC

endymion-light wrote: post #18

I looked at Roblox recently as a nostalgia trip as I was active in the community over a decade ago when I was a kid. Genuinely insane that it's legal. Full dark gambling patterns, insane access. I think the only reason it's not been regulated is that people haven't looked closely, but it's as if someone took the worst of gacha games and decided to base their childrens platform on it.

Tbh making Roblox illegal feels like the same moral panic that our parents had around metal music, hip-hop, and arcades.

My kid plays Roblox, I prevent her from talking to others, and I police the Robux purchases. It really is a fun platform. The problem is for parents that aren't technical, or are negligent and don't know how to police it.

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

#94

Post by zzzeek » Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 5:45 PM UTC

iamnothere wrote: post #19

zzzeek wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree, in any other field if a product cannot be made safe for consumers, you just don't produce and sell it. The world does not need to have a Roblox app (my 11 year old would disagree very much)

> in any other field if a product cannot be made safe for consumers, you just don't produce and sell it I’ll keep this in mind the next time I pick up some acetylene or muriatic acid.

Acetylene is being marketed to children as something fun to play with ?

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

#95

Post by parasubvert » Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 5:47 PM UTC

dimal wrote: post #90

Hmm. This was on the front page, generating lots of discussion. Now it’s hidden. What’s up HN? How is this not a relevant article here?

it usually devolves into a mess of a comments section because it's about freedom vs. control / moral panic vs. apathy.

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

#96

Post by akho » Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 5:47 PM UTC

iteria wrote: post #54

tjungblut wrote: post #15

I'll probably get DV to oblivion for this, but I have to constantly wonder where those parents come from that need to forbid their children to roam freely on the internet. Didn't they grow up in an age unrestricted web either? By now we must have two generations of unhinged children grown up with unsafe World of Warcraft, MSN, Whatsapp and ICQ. Oh and the p0rn... I mean, seriously, do you guys have nothing else to do…

Here's the thing, my parents did forbid me: by denying me access. Kids have way, way more access to the internet than I ever did. When I was a kid, the only computer was in a communal area ans needed explicit permission by virtue of mandating that no one be using the phone. And then when I was older and we had broadband, it was still banned by virtue that my parents didn't think it was great for me to spend all my ti…

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

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

#97

Post by parasubvert » Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 5:48 PM UTC

jswelker wrote: post #74

Parents do need to be more involved in keeping kids off this stuff. But it is going to be a lot easier to coerce a handful of exploitative companies to clean up their acts than to coerce millions of individuals parents to do better.

Same as it always was. Reminds me of Tipper Gore with the panic to put explicit lyrics labels on records.

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

#98

Post by iamnothere » Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 5:48 PM UTC

opinion3k wrote: post #80

iamnothere wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this different from a LAN party? I spent countless hours engrossed in DOOM deathmatches and Starcraft games as a kid. I don’t really see the difference. The problem outlined in the article is about moderation of spaces where kids are present. You seem to be trying to draw some broader conclusion that video games are harmful.

You probably bought or pirated the games you played at the LAN party, maybe once and some DLC. You probably played with at least a few people you knew and the games had a goal - capture the flag or the bases or something - that often you had to work with a team to accomplish. Roblox is designed from the ground up to sell Robux. Not to promote fun games or anything interesting in the least. The games are complete brai…

> The games are complete brainrot - trying to find servers to get money measured in the billions to spend on rare items to collect to increase the money you earn per second to get more things, etc. And of course if you spend Robux - you can pointlessly accumlate fake billions even faster!

There’s at least two whole genre of games like this: idle games, and the more aggressive gacha games (which more often let you pay to win). I guess the differentiator with Roblox is the social aspect.

I do think pay to win is a problem, FWIW.

> So the games are completely pointless and are nothing like playing Counterstrike or Doom or starcraft at a LAN party.

Those games are pointless too though? As are nearly all games.

There’s legitimate criticisms of Roblox moderation and the business model. But games are games, and I feel like criticism of some Roblox-specific issues are getting entangled with normal gaming behavior. I get that you may not love to see kids who ignore you when they’re engrossed in a game, but that’s just how games are. Limit game time if it’s a problem, and/or make them earn their own money for pay-to-win junk. You’re the parent.

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

#99

Post by vegadw » Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 5:52 PM UTC

iamnothere wrote: post #42

vegadw wrote: post #33

There's a natural tension between freedom and protection here. Anyone on HN is aware of all the debate for and against section 230. We're also probably the crowd most vocally against ID verification laws for adult sites or just age verification for non-adult content, like YouTube or Discord. I, personally, am in the "Parents gotta parent" camp, but know that doesn't cover all the problems, plus only addresses childre…

> The services should provide a friends-only mode, and that should be the default. This isn’t such a bad idea, although maybe it should depend on the type of game. As a kid the only place I played games with random people was Quake servers and Battle.net. This wasn’t really an issue, as there’s not much time to socialize when you’re blowing up your opponent. But Roblox seems to be primarily a social meta-game with ma…

That makes a lot of sense to me: You only get chat with people you know. You can still even have mixed people-you-know and stranger lobbies, but you have to explicitly make them "someone you know" to do it.

That would likely mean everyone just sends chat requests at the start of each game though, which is more annoying, like a cookie popup.

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

#100

Post by wartywhoa23 » Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 5:52 PM UTC

Pet_Ant wrote: post #50

andsoitis wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what have they replaced Fortnite with? more physical play or something digital?

Physical play is nigh impossible. It means getting other kid's parents to let them out. And then you need to spend your full-time supervising them. Can't just let them out with their bikes on the streets. I think the problem is that either you can give children freedom to explore the world, or you can make them accountable for their actions. Can't have both, and parents will protect their kids by not letting them get…

I'd been riding bikes with my friends around the block since the age of 6. Parents didn't chase us around and minded their own business instead of nanomanaging us into absolute snowflakes that modern children have become. We played tag at building sites, jumping gaps meter wide and five deep, made explosives out of match sticks, bolts and nuts, and showed up at home just to check in and have a quick lunch. We did a bunch more things many parents would deem insane these days (and even our own, should they know)...

And yet every single one of my friends managed to survive this now-impossible freedom and came into adulthood with a bunch of wonderful warm memories of our childhoods, free of any stigmas or psychological trumas.

This modern fear-based attitude towards childhood is beyond sick.

Now before anyone says "but pedophiles and terrorists" - mind you, that was 80's USSR, Chikatilo had still been at large, the gossip was there but wasn't amplified enough to put everyone into scared trance like modern mass-media does.

Literally nothing has changed in the society since then, maniacs were around just like they are now, but the attitude towards the outside world has been so blown out of proportion today, that parents are eager to outsource the upbringing to strangers in online games out of fear of strangers and dangers outside.