[0] https://youtu.be/_gXlauRB1EQ?si=Cwfswyot9_FT29Fy
That's a pretty extreme interpretation. Anyone who downloads the IDE can create and publish a game. If kids are using the tool, making fun games, and sharing them with other people, than I think that's a good thing.
Roblox is making money off various sorts of in-app purchases, but you can make an account for free, you can play games for free, and you can create games for free. It's not much of a nefarious plot.
It sounds like you might be lacking some context on this. Here's an article with more details: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2022/jan/09/the-trouble-wi...
Good grief, the article profiles 3 young developers who had to deal with serious problems but still falls short of "built on child labo(u)r".
Just more clickbait garbage.
Just clickbait no issues there lol.
https://www.techwontsave.us/episode/96_how_roblox_exploits_c...
Children are wielding powerful content creation tools on TikTok and YouTube as well. And for every feel-good story about self-made young creators, there are thousands more telling of addiction, depression and anxiety for those caught in these spiraling for-profit walled gardens.
I’m all for teaching kids to be coders and makers, but I’m not sure Roblox is the poster child for it.
You gloss over it as "making money off various sorts of in-app purchases", but roblox taxes a massive cut of transactions between users (more than half), on top of large upfront fees, and then pays out robux at 28-35% of what it costs to buy them.
If anything, the robux -> profit conversion rate was much worse back in the day (iirc engaging in it at all necessitated purchasing the highest subscription level, the now-defunct `Outrageous Builders Club'), and it was far more common for kids to waste their parents' money on `limiteds'.
the most widely-implemented roblox cheat feature (short of actual lua execution) was a button that would reskin you and another player to naked tones, then teleport their model to a doggystyle position. we used to sit around during sleepovers and scroll the catalog looking for games titled [18+ s3x rp] to mess around in.
on the flip side, fiddling with .rblx studio taught me lua and rudimentary 3D modeling at a ludicrously young age, and I made similar online acquaintances who went on to do very well with their learned skills.