Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper.

To add, there is a nice documentary here[1] which also has a followup[2] that show even more of the issue at hand. Kids making games and only getting 24.5% of the profit is one thing, but everything else that Roblox does is much worse. [1] [link] [2] ▶ this video

in “Roblox October Outage Postmortem” · View on HN

The 'People Make Games' videos discuss this: ▶ this video Essentially, Roblox has made the decision that they are only responsible for interactions that happen on their platform. Parents may be letting their children develop games thinking that it's a cute hobby. Roblox knows that there are game companies wooing child devs and doing shady stuff that can be potentially harmful to them. They are not doing anything to stop the practices because they aren't technically on their platform . But the whole interaction is around making games for their platform. So they may potentially not be legally be at fault, but it does seem that they are making a lot of money, albeit indirectly, from turning a blind eye to companies extracting labor from young people, and in some cases abusing them. As a parent who is a developer and has kids who love Roblox, I think it's important that the situation be discussed and not swept under the rug. I like the idea of being able to develop and extend and open world like Roblox. I also think that when you market to kids, you have to meet a higher bar of responsibility in protecting them.

in “The trouble with Roblox, the video game empire built on child labour” · View on HN

> Tech sufferers greatly from a "God Complex" syndrome, and it's exactly what will prevent it from getting better. I saw an excellent critique of Roblox the other day, which covered many aspects of their business and different kinds of abuse which are happening in and around their game. The most bizarre part was that they sent some questions to the company - and the company responded by saying they “clearly weren’t being objective” and essentially gaslighting the people making the video. I think the people in charge of Roblox seriously don’t see themselves as holding any sort of responsibility to the broader society that pays their bills. It’s like someone watched The Corporation and thought - “oh companies can get away with sociopathic behaviour? I want in!”. Doing harm to the world in the name of your bottom line doesn’t make you clever. It makes you the villain. (Video in question: ▶ this video )

in “Twitter’s founder admits that shutting down the API was “worst thing we did”” · View on HN

I don't like that Nintendo does this. I don't care who does it, it's wrong. That said, of all the people doing this, it seems to me Nintendo is among the worst targets to go after. They were, to my eye, dragged into this almost against their will, and if anything they've been backing off from it. It certainly hasn't wormed its way in to their mainline games the way it is well into worming its way in to almost every other major publisher out there's games. Again, I don't say this to defend them. It's wrong for everyone. What I am saying though is that this is not a very target rich environment, and there are target-rich environments elsewhere. There are companies that seem to be entirely based not only on exploitative mechanics, but exploitative mechanics specifically targeted at children, like Roblox. [link] and ▶ this video , the People Make Games investigations into them, for instance. Although there is an interesting strategy for Nintendo to pursue here where they get sued, and then basically deliberately construct a precedent-setting loss to knee-cap their competition on this front. There's a lot of competition for Nintendo out there surviving on the basis of these cheap drug hits of monetary injection whose ability to develop good games on their own merits are clearly well into the process of atrophy, and Nintendo would probably stand to benefit even if they have to pay some millions of dollars in settlement payouts to impose those restrictions on them. If those mechanics wer

in “Nintendo sued for “immoral” Mario Kart lootboxes” · View on HN

Here's more than you wanted to know: - People Make Games: Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers. [link] - People Make Games: Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper. ▶ this video I think you're right that it's something that can be used in good or bad ways, and the thrust of the argument is that there aren't the kind of safeguards you'd hope for to stop kids falling to one of the bad ways. Like how we keep kids out of Casinos (or used to at least, now we just ship casinos to kids in their FIFA games).

in “Roblox tried to sue me for $1.6M [video]” · View on HN

Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers [link] Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper. ▶ this video

in “Game Design Mimetics (Or, What Happened to Game Design?)” · View on HN

I was just getting at the illusion of choice. At the end of the day it's all owned by the same handful of small groups. Found out yesterday that Blizzard apparently owns King. Tencent owns a cut of Activision Blizzard, as well as a slice of basically every gaming company. [link] Note that I'm not even criticizing or otherwise knocking these business practices, I'm simply making some observations. My use of the term bullshit was particularly to describe the illusion of choice. Not that it's anything new. [link] I think the world would be just fine without fortnite, but I will say unreal engine is pretty nice to have. Probably just a matter of time until Microsoft owns unreal engine as well. Tangentially relevant due to Tencent involvement: [link] ▶ this video

in “Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard” · View on HN

It's a tough issue, for sure, because the playing field is just so unequal. To even be able to approach these issues in a more equal way you'd probably have to start a lawsuit and go through a process of discovery because the corporation is bound by all these bizarre legal, financial, and political motives that don't apply when people are interacting with each other. This leads to corporations responding to such requests in a way that's inherently against the interests of the public answering these questions. Without a system in place that further aligns and incentivizes companies interests with their users the only way you can really approach this in a more equal manner is something like a lawsuit. Many times the problem is incredibly complex and while some people, even C level people may be all for providing this transparency it breaks down at scale and the company is at the end of the day beholden to its own interests and perpetuating itself. I recently saw this video on YouTube about some of the shadiness going on with Roblox: ▶ this video The official answers they are giving is basically meaningless legalese and that's becoming more and more common. As I said before since Roblox isn't entering into this conversation in good faith the only way to force that conversation would be legal actions. Any kinds of laws further aligning the needs of clients/the general populace against the needs of big corporations/political elite have a really hard time passing because the system is s

in “Be curious, not judgmental” · View on HN

Roblox turns a blind eye to child exploitation (whether being creeped on by adults, or being exploited by teens/adults to make games) and makes a fortune out of it. If it weren't online, it'd be illegal and people would be in jail. [link] ▶ this video

in “Roblox Is Minting Teen Millionaires” · View on HN

Remember, Roblox is toxic and exploits young people. - Roblox Isn't a Game | Psychology Today // [link] - Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers - YouTube // [link] - Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper. - YouTube // ▶ this video Roblox is Darker Than You Think (ft. Ruben Sim) - YouTube // [link]

in “Roblox Requires Age Checks for Communication, Ushering in New Safety Standard” · View on HN

The article doesn't even directly mention Schlep [link] whom Roblox kicked off the platform for catching pedophiles. Roblox Is Threatening to Sue Me For Protecting Kids (Schlep) [link] Roblox, Take a Seat (ft: Chris Hansen) [link] #freeschlep It was awesome seeing the kids on Roblox revolt against Baszucki for doubling down on supporting pedophiles. The leadership team at Roblox is so entirely tone deaf, if I were the the board, I'd remove them all. I watched Baszucki and This is in addition to the money laundering and dystopian hellscape that is the whole game publishing platform that has been documented here on hn. Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers [link] Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper. ▶ this video My own child says that no parent should allow their child on Roblox. Smart kid.

in “Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well” · View on HN

Roblox has been on a constant downward trend. They’ve been doing some pretty awful stuff, including exploitation of children developers [0], unregulated market which encourages kids to gamble, lackluster moderation allowing kids to be harassed or worse, [both 1] and allowing manipulative and predatory games on their site [2]. [0] [link] [1] ▶ this video [2] [link]

in “Roblox players to start seeing video ads in its virtual realms” · View on HN

Cool, sell your soul to a corporation that literally exploits minors [1][3]. Of course they can afford to pay Silicon Valley salaries, given that most of the game development is done by sub-subcontracted child labour [2]. [1] [link] [2] ▶ this video [3] [link]

in “Unity to lay off 8% of its workforce” · View on HN

According to this The Verge [0] article: “Instead, Meta is leaning towards introducing in-app tokens that would be centrally controlled by the company, similar to those used in gaming apps such as the Robux currency in popular children’s game Roblox,” according to the FT. Roblox has built a huge business selling Robux, and Meta could try to emulate some of that success on its own platforms." And let us not forget how incredibly manipulative and insidious Roblox is: "Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper." ▶ this video [0] [link] edit: typo

in “Meta plans ‘Zuck bucks’ virtual coins for Facebook and Instagram users” · View on HN