It has nothing to do with the long-standing grooming/pedophile scandal on the platform, and their ham-fisted legal reaction to it. Or the overly draconian and poorly-implemented age verification checks. Or their push to turn Roblox into a dating platform. Or any number of other stupid strategic decisions they've been making.
ETA: Interesting insight from my kid. Fewer new games are making it on to Roblox because of the stupid age restrictions (you have to be she verified to use Studio), and the fact you now have to pay 1,000 Robux to publish a game, and you have to get a certain number of 16+ users to sign in to our like your game. So naturally fewer viral games are appearing, because they've narrowed the wider new games spigot.
Older teens probably think this is a little kids game and they want to play "real" games, my assumption. And adults... most of them are annoyed by kids in the lobbies... how would this work with adults and little 7 year old kids... Other than predatory reasons, I don't think it makes even sense. Maybe they are afraid of the kids growing up and stop playing it, and want to provide something so they don't leave... no idea.
It could work if there is a clean cutoff with a second app, that is not for children and marketed as such. But man, that would be a nightmare to handle too..
Exactly. It's a stupid idea on their part. Roblox has it's niche. But they are now abandoning that niche in the hope of making more money. And their greed is hurting them. A tale as old as time.
The other day a friend asked me for games recommendation for her young kids, "anything to get them off the roblox". Having grown up with Monkey Island and Incredible Machine, I really feel sorry for this gen kids and their always-online and ever-screaming lobbies.
The children gaming market is huge and roblox has it all pretty much to itself. The "problem" for their leadership is that the machine must grow. Being on top with no competition, that's not good enough. Sustainable long term business with clean nose is somehow considered to be a failed business model. Both stupid and greedy, the worst combination to have as stewards of biggest online communities for children.
It's a little sad to see what happened to it. It used to be a fantastic way to get kids into programming. There's still Scratch or easy-to- get-into game engines I suppose, which is how I learned myself. Still, I have fond memories of creating stuff in Roblox.
14 Comments
ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world · 48 pts · 18d
Yeah, a lack of viral games. Riiiiiight!
It has nothing to do with the long-standing grooming/pedophile scandal on the platform, and their ham-fisted legal reaction to it. Or the overly draconian and poorly-implemented age verification checks. Or their push to turn Roblox into a dating platform. Or any number of other stupid strategic decisions they've been making.
ETA: Interesting insight from my kid. Fewer new games are making it on to Roblox because of the stupid age restrictions (you have to be she verified to use Studio), and the fact you now have to pay 1,000 Robux to publish a game, and you have to get a certain number of 16+ users to sign in to our like your game. So naturally fewer viral games are appearing, because they've narrowed the wider new games spigot.
Basically: Roblox hurt itself in its confusion.
Zen_Shinobi@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 18d
Came here to say this!
Roblox has been so bad that even Chris Hansen did an investigation into it.
thingsiplay@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 18d
Really? I never looked into Roblox, as I thought its just for kids.
ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 18d
Yeah, it is. So the company is trying to 'broaden their market share' by attempting to appeal to older teens and adults now.
thingsiplay@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 18d
Older teens probably think this is a little kids game and they want to play "real" games, my assumption. And adults... most of them are annoyed by kids in the lobbies... how would this work with adults and little 7 year old kids... Other than predatory reasons, I don't think it makes even sense. Maybe they are afraid of the kids growing up and stop playing it, and want to provide something so they don't leave... no idea.
It could work if there is a clean cutoff with a second app, that is not for children and marketed as such. But man, that would be a nightmare to handle too..
ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 18d
Exactly. It's a stupid idea on their part. Roblox has it's niche. But they are now abandoning that niche in the hope of making more money. And their greed is hurting them. A tale as old as time.
thingsiplay@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 18d
Where did we see this before: Short term greed kills long term success.
Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip · 16 pts · 18d
How is Roblox possibly worth enough money that it can lose $70B in value and not be worth -$69.98B?
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech · 13 pts · 18d
You mean the games that they depend on children making? Are they really mad that their free unpaid child labor isn't doing enough?
lacethespace@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 18d
The other day a friend asked me for games recommendation for her young kids, "anything to get them off the roblox". Having grown up with Monkey Island and Incredible Machine, I really feel sorry for this gen kids and their always-online and ever-screaming lobbies.
The children gaming market is huge and roblox has it all pretty much to itself. The "problem" for their leadership is that the machine must grow. Being on top with no competition, that's not good enough. Sustainable long term business with clean nose is somehow considered to be a failed business model. Both stupid and greedy, the worst combination to have as stewards of biggest online communities for children.
Opisek@piefed.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 18d
It's a little sad to see what happened to it. It used to be a fantastic way to get kids into programming. There's still Scratch or easy-to- get-into game engines I suppose, which is how I learned myself. Still, I have fond memories of creating stuff in Roblox.
jlow@slrpnk.net · 4 pts · 18d
🎉🍿
mx_smith@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 18d
It’s because they changed how you can publish games, you have to pay them to be a developer on their platform now.
Malyca@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 18d
Or it's the pedophiles