[nusl]

Hacker News is turning into every other platform over time it seems. More and more folks just see a headline and comment rather than understand that headlines are designed to mislead you for clicks.

These requirements make sense. They're additional verification steps in place for people trying to publish games for very young users.

[skrebbel]

I agree with you that the HN title is editorialized and misleading, but I disagree that these requirements make sense.

They only make sense if you think it's OK for kids to send face scans to scary faceless corporations. And even if you do that, you can't share your game with friends unless they also take a face scan! (cause that's what "Trusted Friend" means - it doesn't mean trusted by you, it means trusted by them)

[jan_Inkepa]

(Yes, I would recommend a change of title.)

The step is a significant one, and Roblox has taken one other measure recently, restricting chat a lot for minors (https://x.com/Roblox_RTC/status/2043723470899437623) . I think this is a move to satisfy people concerned with child safety, not a cash grab. I think RB hq probably know they're making tradeoffs of keeping parents happy, while devs will be annoyed/fewer. But everyone can still make games and play them with trusted friends. Likely damages the network effect (Roblox's multiplayer aspect being one of its best parts), but oh well.

[alt227]

'Trusted friends' is the key term here. To become one you need to have a paid subscription and to submit a face scan or id, which is what most people here are against.

I for one will not let my child submit a face scan to Roblox in order to become a 'trusted friend', and so now they wont be able to play the games made by their friends.

[rb2026]

subscription isn't tied to trusted friends.

age check via face scan or id for both parties is required, along with ~in-person pre-existing connections or parental permission.

[intended]

From what I know, Roblox has a strongly invested Trust and Safety team.

I’d be curious if this change came out of their efforts, or whether this is was to deal with compliance issues.

[watwut]

Literally demanding the subscription? The headline is correct - you have to have "an active Roblox Plus subscription".

[rb2026]

You need the subscription ($5/mo) to publish your game to users who are <16.

16+ audiences have no requirement.

[choo-t]

Which is the majority of the users[1], even more if you count that any user without age-check won't be able to access your game either.

[1]:https://www.statista.com/statistics/1190869/roblox-games-use...

[watwut]

Kids doing their first obby are <16 and their friends are <16. It is not like roblox was cool for teenagers.

It is also that your game goes away when you stop paying. Which means, pay forever or you cant show it off anymore.

[j16sdiz]

> These requirements make sense.

I think requirement 3 can make sense if we start painting everybody as potential criminal.

but requirement 2 never make sense to me. -- why need age check to publish to adult user?

[calgoo]

No this does not make sense for the platform. Roblox has some of that old Flash feel, where anyone can just create a game, no matter if you are 14 or 88. If you read the comments, most people are fine with the ID checks ( i would not, but fine) but are completely against the charging of a monthly subscription to publish games. All the people that would do it for fun, wont anymore now. Basically, the corporate greed machine has now turned the platform into a "professional" platform, where you pay-to-build.

As a side note, if someone is working on something similar, then now is the time to start talking about it! ;)

[skupig]

This is totally unrelated so I have to assume that you didn't realize your post looks like it has a random Nazi dog whistle in it, if you were wondering what that other person's comment means.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Words

[hofrogs]

Why is this flagged? These numbers in the middle of otherwise innocuous comment stand out like a sore thumb

[freedomben]

Holy shit, thanks for posting this. I was extremely confused by the other comments as well. Had no idea

[yieldcrv]

Its because of AI slop

I dont know Lua and never touched it, Claude was able to vibe code in pieces a whole 3D Roblox experience, all while I was working in domains I did understand in another terminal window

Taking the Apple approach makes sense as too many ideas guys are flooding the platform with vending machine slop

[bakugo]

This won't fix the AI slop problem. If anything, it will make it worse.

Vibe coders are far more likely to be willing to pay to submit their games, because just like their $200/mo AI subscription, they see it as a necessary expense on their path to get rich quick. People who just want to make things for fun as a hobby are less likely to pay.

[yieldcrv]

The serious ones, yes

Roblox is already an experiences cesspool and should have dropped the “every kid should be an entrepreneur” thing a long time ago. Roblox Studio is still accessible for tinkering.

[butlike]

Vibe coders are going to be a lot like influencers in that we're going to find out people aren't half as creative as they think they are, and no barrier of entry, like learning a programming language, will exemplify that.

With influencers, the old barrier of entry was getting a good camera and learning about lighting. Now that cameras are essentially shipped with a device everyone has on them at all times anyways, we see how low the low-hanging fruit actually hangs, as evidenced by most instagram reels which are insufferable.

[jimbob45]

In what way did you find the headline misleading from the actual content of the article?

[jan_Inkepa]

Here's an editorialized title in the other direction: On Roblox everyone can make games and play them with their friends.

Here's my suggestion for an amendement:

"Roblox devs will need plus membership to publish to young users"

[alt227]

But the term 'Roblox Devs' can also include other children. You seem to be missing the point a bit that kids used to be able to make games and share them with their friends for free. Now they need a paid subscription and a face scan to do that.

Yes it makes sense when you apply it to adults, but Roblox was made for kids to share and play with other kids. When you look at it from that angle it makes no sense.

[integralid]

>More and more folks just see a headline and comment rather than understand that headlines are designed to mislead you for clicks.

My personal policy is I don't click links I consider clickbait. I mean things that are intentionally misleading and vogue. But I sometimes check HN comments - I never comment about the post itself (since I didn't read it), but I sometimes respond to other comments (like I do now).

[tzs]

In the case the article's actual headline is "New Publishing Requirements & Evaluation Process for Games". The clickbait headline was supplied by the person who submitted the article to HN.

Your policy will lead to missing articles that you might have found worthwhile someone did a poor job of submitting them.

[hallole]

I'm not sure I understand, as every word in the title is true.

One of the "requirements" you refer to is possessing an active subscription. The age-cutoff is 16, but Roblox has historically been based around kids making games for other kids, which isn't feasible if a subscription becomes required.

[gib444]

More and more HN is turning into a PR outlet for companies

Upvoting gangs upvote the PR comment that downplays the article (the "actually, let me examine is why this is fine in very polished language" type comment)

So it's not like there a total imbalance of purely misleading headlines with no response to them

[mr_world]

What if you could only upvote after you've clicked the link?