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by nineplay 778 days ago
> Exploitation of children developers

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.
3 comments
bgun 778 days ago
I do agree that “exploitation” is a bit of an extreme take, but it isn’t an innocent business either. Hosting and profiting from a platform/marketplace for social content creation has, and will, trend toward preferences for viral, controversy-generating, and addictive content. Profit-sharing incentives to creators are meager but drive incredible lock-in behavior.

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.

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Dylan16807 778 days ago
The ability to do many things for free does not excuse the exploitation any time sales are involved.

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.

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613style 778 days ago
> 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.

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...

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nineplay 778 days ago
"The trouble with Roblox, the video game empire built on child labour"

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.

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omnimus 778 days ago
You have company built around user generated content made mostly by children that they sell and the company takes 70% cut.

Just clickbait no issues there lol.

https://www.techwontsave.us/episode/96_how_roblox_exploits_c...

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