this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
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For everyone saying OP should let their kid play Roblox and just ban spending money... just no.
Roblox exploits child labor for profit and they have terrible scummy business practices. If you have even marginal ethical qualms about child labor and/or capitalistic exploitation of vulnerable people, you should be keeping yourself and your family away from Roblox. In your mind they should be in the same category as multilevel marketing, crypto scams and door-to-door religion peddlers.
Roblox really is the lowest of the low.
I actually think it's fair to call them child predators. They're exploiting kids for money instead of sexual gratification, but it's the same power dynamic. Child exploitation is their business model.
A lot of sexual child exploitation goes down there too, so you don't even need a roundabout definition of child abuse.
My son just turned 6 and I was thinking of looking at the game (he really likes actual Lego, and his buddies are into Minecraft and Roblox), but another parent at a bday party a few weeks back asked if we played, and then warned my that I needed to keep a close eye on it, because the suggested games algo was pushing really sketch things to his daughter.
So I started looking and decided the shopping aspect was something I didn’t want to expose him to yet. But these revelations are making me glad we haven’t yet used it and never will.
Do you have written sources for these? I’d like to educate myself but I can’t stand YouTube videos.
This guy's video could just as well be about foss development. Nearly every point has a direct parallel.
Nobody dangles a carrot of earning money in front of potential FOSS developers. Nobody goes into FOSS thinking they're going to get a big payout.
FOSS is not pay-to-play. There's no equivalent to Robux for FOSS developers.
FOSS developers are consenting adults who volunteer their time for freely distributed software projects, not kids creating content for a video game company that charges them for access and then makes a profit from their work.
This guy's argument would literally be that Mario maker is encouraging child labor because it doesn't pay kids who make levels in it.
Roblox sells the idea that you can actually make money with it, it has its own economy with job hunting and salaries. Mario Maker is just a community game.
That's an entirely different thing, because Mario Maker doesn't lure anyone with the bait of financial gain.
That's horrible. These 10 year olds are learning programming and game design skills for nothing. Good thing THAT was nipped in the bud.
This is addressed directly in the linked videos. Development for Roblox doesn't translate outside of Roblox.
Nearly everyone knows a bunch of skills "for nothing" or, worse, for fun! Gasp! Shocking, isn't it?
Also, did you know that modding is a thing at least since the 90s? You know, people that made modifications to games without expecting any financial return or job opportunities? People must be crazy if they're putting so much effort just to have fun and share it, amirite?
I couldn't stop myself from being sarcastic there, sorry. The utter cynicism struck me so hard I didn't know where to begin explaining how wrongheaded I think people are being about that. I would for sure prefer Roblox not encourage mtx so much but sheesh man. I don't think Timmy is trying to make the next Genshin Impact.
Intent makes a big difference. The value of Roblox as a platform and as a business is based on the work done by children to develop for it, and it was set up that way on purpose. They created an incentive model to encourage it.
Nintendo's value as a company is not based on kids creating Mario Maker levels, nor does Nintendo push kids to do so with the promise of earning money.
it would be if the word literally meant figuratively or mario maker psychologically tortured children into spending cash for the privilege
Considering the newest Mario game got a shitload of ideas from Mario maker levels, anyone who was good at mario making enough to be creative with the formula had their labor stolen as RnD for Wonder