[xoxoy]

On the one hand I think this will do really well in public markets and will probably buy some on the first day.

On the other as someone who doesn’t play and doesn’t have kids it’s a bit unsettling seeing some of these engagement numbers eg average daily play time is 2.5 hours per active user. That sounds like a massive time suck. Perhaps one could justify this as inciting creativity and there’s a social aspect to it but spending hours a day on this can’t be healthy long term.

[kenjackson]

For a lot of kids this is their social time during Covid. My son hops on after HW, has a Discord for talking, and they all meet up in Roblox or Fortnight. Mostly Roblox.

I haven't noticed anything unhealthy yet. He has a learned a lot about scams, understanding valuations and trading (it's like a mini stock market around virtual goods), and just hanging out with his friends.

One of the most interesting things I've noticed is that in this virtual world -- boys and girls hang out together. He has about 12 core friends -- and it's almost an even split girl/boy. Which I think would not have happened in the "real world".

[bentcorner]

My daughter has played a bunch and the platform admittedly does a pretty good job catering to all genders. I've seen her play fashion games, and on the same platform she's invited me to also play zombie shooters and gun-games. It's a good lesson in inclusive design.

[phoe-krk]

Games like Roblox and Minecraft have an inherently social aspect to them in addition to being mostly creativity-based. Not only they allow to emulate some of the social contacts that are currently impossible due to the pandemic, they also make some things possible at all due to the flexibility of the game engines that does not exist in reality. (Compare e.g. asking the question of "Do you know how to make TNT? I need some for an experiment" on a Minecraft server and on a busy airport.)

[xoxoy]

there’s a balance. 2.5 hours spent on average means there’s kids spending much longer on this each day. i get there’s a creativity aspect to it but it still seems like a lot of time, to the point where it’s likely bordering on addiction level.

[Cyph0n]

I feel you haven’t played MMOs or online games in general. Yes, they can become a time sink, but there are worse time sinks out there ;)

Edit: Note that I and others from my generation grew up spending hours playing MMOs, and we turned out fine. As responsibilities come up to the forefront, the majority of people adapt.

I think the more concerning trend is social media addiction. With games, there is at least an interactive element. Social media use is as passive as you can get.

[mrlala]

>but spending hours a day on this can’t be healthy long term.

If you think this is some new phenomenon that kids spend a whole 2.5 hours/day on a game... well, I'm not sure how to break this to you.

Kids used to watch an insane amount of TV each day forever. Then they moved to console games in the early 90s.. and also computer games. It's been what 50/60 years of TV and 30+ years of consoles/computer games.

If anything, things in the last ~10 years are better because kids have a good option to not just sit in front of the TV and watch whatever is on and all these ads.. they can be into games that are mentally challenging. And they have all these options to have voice chats with friends, so it's way more social than ever.

So just in general the argument is "this can't be healthy in the long term" seems to imply that it's some new phenomenon..

[cma]

> Perhaps one could justify this as inciting creativity and there’s a social aspect to it but spending hours a day on this can’t be healthy long term.

I wonder how that number changed with the pandemic. Also, it sounds better than one-way TV kids grew up watching for similar amounts of time each day.

[xoxoy]

yeah dunno. honestly i’m a little terrified of what growing up in the age of social media and hyper addictive gaming does to someone. pretty glad I grew up at a time when the biggest thing was just Myspace.

[rahimnathwani]

> average daily play time

> is 2.5 hours per active user

This is only for users who are active in a given day. Maybe MAU is 10x DAU, and an average user spends 2.5 hours every week-and-a-half.

[xoxoy]

given the other engagement metrics presented that is doubtful.

[rahimnathwani]

Which other metrics specifically?

The S-1 mentions many times (i) DAU, (ii) total hours. But a quick skim didn't find either (iii) MAU, or (iv) # registered users.

The statement to which I replied ("average daily play time is 2.5 hours per active user") would only be true if DAU/MAU (aka 'stickiness') is over 95%.

For comparison, leading messaging apps that you imagine every user using every single day (like WhatsApp and WeChat) have DAU/MAU ratios of ~70%.

If we assume stickiness of 40% (still high!), then average daily usage per (monthly) active user is more like 1 hour.