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Comment by klipklop | Hacker News Reader

I am surprised that Congress has not really found out about Roblox and dragged the execs into a hearing. If they only knew what went on with that platform. There are so many dark patterns that directly target children.

Of course it would be all grandstanding and nothing will be fixed, but I am really surprised they are missing out on "owning" one of the more shady tech companies.

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My 8 year old son was not psyched when I told him “no Roblox”…

…instead I dragged out a bunch of old Xbox 360/One games and let him enjoy a world free of microtransactios, casino inspired skill trees and loot boxes, and weird sex predators.

At first he resisted, then he fell in love with Portal and Command and Conquer and forgot about Roblox.

I feel bad for kids now that are just getting sucked into these engagement hacked “games”. No fun.

When I get kids they will be playing Half Life and early Need for Speeds.

And mine will be studying ancient Hebrew, Greek and Latin and reading the Torah, Homer and Virgil. Anyone allowing children near electroludograms designed to be addictive before they're familiar with actual classic cultural artifacts is simply irresponsible. Of course, I am not so ignorant as to forget the Orient. I have already arranged for my second child to be shipped to China at birth to provide government financial incentives to a local couple. I've told them I'll take her back when she's caught up on the last 3000 years or so of Eastern human capital.

You can bypass that by just getting them into Warhammer 40k. :-)

It's this kind of backseat parenting entitlement that makes me never want to have kids. It feels likes it's a free pass for strangers to tell you anything they feel akin to extremist religious fanaticism.

It's great you want to culture your kids. But many bright young individuals grew up without any of that.

There's also a ton of studies that show video games help with problem solving cognition, so I'd be curious your thoughts on that.

Did you perhaps miss an element of irony? I know parents who have sent their kids to Latin charter schools, I know parents who send their kids to learn Hebrew. But I haven't so far met any who sent a child to China to help someone qualify for a government bonus.

I mean, isn't the solution exactly the one you did?

I keep reading all these problems regarding gaming, but what people forget to include is that all these problems are about *multiplayers gaming*.

There is a whole giant universe of single player games out there that's beautiful and free from dark patterns. And a small universe of couch coop games.

I'm also surprised at the lack of copyright enforcement on the platform. The number Disney related games is surprising given their reputation for protecting their IP.

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