Not really. The lower tiers are only less efficient on platforms that require purchase through an app store or other payment processor that takes a large cut. Buying through a gift card or through the Roblox website or non-Microsoft Store PC app gives more Robux for the same price <https://www.roblox.com/upgrades/robux>. These increased rates are also balanced to prevent the lower tiers from being less efficient: the package for 800 goes to 1000, whereas 10 000 goes to 11 000.
other platforms don't give you unlimited game servers, near-infinite scalability with no initial cost, a potential player base in the hundreds of millions, etc
1. Kids under 9 can use chat with parent consent, for kids over 9 don't even need that. After 13, there's no option to even disable it for parents [1].
2. Suing multiple youtubers who come to you with evidence of child abuse on your platform does not square with "they do" in any concievable universe [2] [3]
> To use Communication features like Experience chat, Voice chat, and Party chat, all users must successfully complete an age check.
your words were "They can just disable chat for non age verified accounts". which they have. all "non age verified accounts" cannot use chat.
i have never attempted to assert that Roblox is a completely safe platform, or indeed that their safety team is as effective as it could be - however, your flippant statements were provably untrue with any research.
as for Schlep - while i applaud his stated aims, he was effectively "baiting" predators, offering to move conversations off-Roblox through platforms like Discord to bypass the moderation enforced by Roblox. in general, i fundamentally hate the idea of predator hunters; it seems so strange to monetize justice in this way, especially when it seems they care more about the content than the outcome of their "cases"
I should've worded this better. By "non-verified accounts" I mean basically mean "accounts that haven't been verified by an ID check". This is the only means that I consider an actual verification, face/photo scan is a PR stunt and malicious compliance.
I assume I don't have to try too hard to convince someone on this forum how easy photo/video verification is to bypass. Look at Australia, it's happening en masse right now.
Most age verification systems guard against children pretending to be adults. If we're talking about social media, this is a fairly low stakes thing, and false positives aren't too critical - sure, a teen will bypass the Instagram age-check and use Instagram, big deal.
Here you're trying to guard against the exact opposite - adults pretending to be children. Not only are the stakes way higher as there's no legitimate reasons to try and bypass the system, you also don't have access to the only reliable method - government ID checks.
Edit: I can concede the point about Schlep, as what he does is dangerous and I could see someone "follow in his footsteps" and ge thurt. However you have to keep in mind that he's never the first to talk to these people -- there's so many of them that he's literally had dozens of them approach him. I was mainly thinking of Ruben Sim, who compiled a large database of NSFW accounts without any real world interaction, and was banned and sued for it.
yeah, i agree with your points on age verification. ironically, the main backlash from the Roblox community was that they were even rolling out verification in the first place - not that it didn't go far enough! i'm sure you'll agree it's a tricky problem to solve - if communication is fully banned, then many children will simply move to lesser-moderated platforms.
i'm not a Ruben Sim fan. while his list of "ERPing" accounts is a good idea, and it's amazing to see real games implement blocks on these players, i find his opinions on the furry community strange and a bit obsessive
I think one approach would be that all communication features could be opt in, by parents. but, that doesn't actually "solve" anything, since predators just make child accounts for themselves, and opt in.
sounds like your solution would have to be "no children communicate on the internet".
playing Roblox got me into game development, and helped to teach me the basics of general programming. i did have previous experience from Python etc, but Roblox gave me a breeding ground for actually doing something with those skills.
Fair enough, and you certainly shouldn't feel any shame for it. I apologise if I came across as if I were a shill or paid promoter (not the first time I've been accused as such), I've just been part of this debate for a long time and have written a lot on this particular topic.
even tiny roblox games make money. i developed for a small game (~10m plays) a few years back and i still earn a decent residual from player revenue, even as the game slowly loses traction
I made a roblox game years ago with no more than like 2 concurrent players at a time. The game's ideas were immediately copied by a much bigger game (this turned me off the Roblox platform for good).
I still got enough robux to DevEx just from premium roblox subscribers playing the game. (If I cash it out i would get a few hundred dollars. Which is nothing for me today but absolutely a lot of money for an aspiring teenage developer.)
I think game ideas can get copied everywhere but it happens much faster on Roblox and there is almost no recourse for the smaller developer who got copied.
The platform doesn't care when someone makes a copy, there's no way for players to push back and actually hurt the developer making the copy (unlike Steam where trying to do it will get you bombarded with negative reviews and buried by the algorithm), and superficial visual quality and marketing attracts players more than actual gameplay quality.
If we are talking about game mechanics, they get copied all the time, of course. If it's about superficially reproducing a game including the assets, I don't think any big players on PC or consoles steal ideas from indie/smaller developers. That is despised and likely not allowed by the platform, if not challenged in court.
(I have no idea about what happens on mobile platforms)
Curious, how does the game monetise, do you have loot-boxes in-game or something? Or is it enough that people play it? What kind of game mechanics are possible to build around?
Did you you have previous game making experience? I've toyed with the idea of trying to make it a small project for me and my kids but I thought it might be a bit beyond them (and then ultimately become just my project)
i had experience, mainly with web development; that being said, Roblox Studio is very intuitive for building and UI design, as is Lua (specifically Luau).
my advice is to just start building something. the Toolbox has thousands of 3D models which make the initial experience easier and more fun, and there are hundreds of YouTube tutorials teaching you the basics of Roblox scripting.
also use the excellent DevForum, which has thousands of explainer posts:
enough money to cash out via DevEx, Roblox's developer program, every month or so ($110). it's absolutely not a salary - there are barely five people playing at any given time - but given i've done nothing in a year, it's appreciated.
edit: looked at the old stats online. a few years back that game was pulling $1,500+ with no effort each month
fascinating article. while i certainly sympathise somewhat with Alex - it is clear his actions are at least in part a consequence of mental conditions - i can't help but feel like being caught wasn't his plan as the article seems to suggest, and he wanted chaos upon the prison's opening, as some kind of strange payback or revenge
Partly agree, the hiding of his "escape kits" with weapons do not make sense if he wanted to be cought doing it. Because then they are removed (he knew of the camerss) and he would not get power from them, but be helpless again in prison (to be raped again etc.)
So maybe there was a subconscious plan to get in prison after he prepared everything. Or maybe just a "insurance". Or maybe indeed a bigger plan, mass breakout, .. or having all those options. Being in prison shaped him. He tried to control it (one of his quotes are "placing the kits was therapeutic"). Or he was indeed just really insane and orchestrated a plot/game setting like in D&D. Might be a mix.
from my (limited) experience of ChatGPT versus Claude, i get the same. ChatGPT will always add another "prompt" sentence at the end like "Do you want me to X?" while Claude just answers what i ask.
looking at my history recently, Claude's most recent response is literally just "Exactly the right move honestly — that's the whole point."
https://www.roblox.com/my/account#!/billing
you will receive the exact amount you would get from the equivalent conversion rate of the closest "package"
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