this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
369 points (98.2% liked)

Games

16745 readers
1081 users here now

Video game news oriented community. No NanoUFO is not a bot :)

Posts.

  1. News oriented content (general reviews, previews or retrospectives allowed).
  2. Broad discussion posts (preferably not only about a specific game).
  3. No humor/memes etc..
  4. No affiliate links
  5. No advertising.
  6. No clickbait, editorialized, sensational titles. State the game in question in the title. No all caps.
  7. No self promotion.
  8. No duplicate posts, newer post will be deleted unless there is more discussion in one of the posts.
  9. No politics.

Comments.

  1. No personal attacks.
  2. Obey instance rules.
  3. No low effort comments(one or two words, emoji etc..)
  4. Please use spoiler tags for spoilers.

My goal is just to have a community where people can go and see what new game news is out for the day and comment on it.

Other communities:

Beehaw.org gaming

Lemmy.ml gaming

lemmy.ca pcgaming

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
all 42 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] hoshikarakitaridia@sh.itjust.works 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Everyone is like "well no shit" but I honestly didn't know. I don't play the game. It's good to hear about, especially for parents.

[–] dack@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, people online have been talking for a long time about how exploitive Roblox is. However, it's still very popular and I know many parents who let their kids play it. I think most parents just think it's like Minecraft, and don't realize the effect micro transactions has.

I'm a bachelor in my 30's, Roblox wouldn't have been targeted at me, but my children...which I don't have. So the first I heard of Roblox was a Youtube video essay titled something to the effect of "I made a video about how exploitative Roblox is, and then it got worse."

[–] Yewb@kbin.social 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Every single roblox game is designed to maximize micro transactions into blantent money extracting games.

[–] TheFogan@programming.dev 7 points 1 year ago

Not neceserally but I think it has the same issue as say the google play store. IE roblox promotes the games do the best at extracting profit. There's lots of games that are well thought out that don't make much money. and they are burried somewhere on page 50+ hidden between a bunch of thrown together test projects etc...

[–] kmkz_ninja@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] Shapillon@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What's battlebit got to do with it?

[–] kmkz_ninja@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Isn't it a roblox game? Or is it just syled like it?

[–] Shapillon@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

It's a standalone game sold on steam, I don't think it's affiliated to roblox in any way shape or form ^^

[–] Yewb@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does battlebit even have micro transactions?

[–] kmkz_ninja@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Isn't that my point? (If battlebit counts as a roblox game)

Yeah, no kidding.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

Good. Fuck Roblox.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

What are the micro-transactions for? Are you at a huge disadvantage by not spending money? What is the game even about? I thought it was just a bunch of kids derping around and building things.

[–] jayandp@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Roblox is a sandbox game sort of like Minecraft, but with way more power given to third-party developers and users to develop and distribute content in it. What you'd consider mods for other games are the whole point of Roblox, and MTX can be implemented by those third-party developers using "Robux" as a currency. The MTX can be your usual MTX fare of skins and power-ups, but also often abused for less ethical purposes, like gambling mechanics. The fact that Robux can be cashed out for real money via official and unofficial methods mean that's it's ripe for abuse.

Update: Also, I wasn't aware of this before the article, but apparently gambling sites have figured out a method to link a Roblox account to their external sites, and then use the user's Robux wallet as currency in their illegal online casinos.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

Update: Also, I wasn't aware of this before the article, but apparently gambling sites have figured out a method to link a Roblox account to their external sites, and then use the user's Robux wallet as currency in their illegal online casinos.

Wow, that's fucking wild!

[–] Psythik@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago

The way I understand it, it's basically a game engine that kids can use. I don't think Roblox itself is actually a game; you use it to make games.

Don't know what the microtransactions are for, however.

[–] PrejudicedKettle@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Roblox is a platform where some users create games and other players play them. It's grown to be a pretty powerful platform/engine, but is now significantly more complex than it used to.

Roblox has the ability for users to add micro-transactions to their game. Essentially, users get a small portion of the micro-transactions back as real-world currency. It's up to users/developers who make those games to choose what players get in exchange for these micro-transactions.

As far as I can tell, the quality of games has dramatically increased since I quit. My guess would be that the users/developers making games are now adults, and the players are still kids.

[–] PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago

A galaxy brain way to use children as labor to make shitty games. And the kids even have fun doing it.

[–] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I hope it expands to other companies like blizzard and EA. Loot boxes are predatory and no fun.

[–] AnAngryAlpaca@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

I think the critical part here is that 3rd parties can cash out in-game currency, which makes money laundering possible. With big game publishers the money can only flow into their own pockets with microtransactions.

[–] Whirlybird@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago

This has no resemblance to anything companies like blizzard and ea do.

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 10 points 1 year ago
[–] lud@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 3 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/_gXlauRB1EQ

https://piped.video/vTMF6xEiAaY

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

[–] HerbalGamer@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do we still do Pikachu faces?

[–] demlet@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Yes, for $.99

[–] moormaan@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago

I hate Roblox. Their Android game somehow goes around Google account settings and allows kids to buy "Robux" for real money without authentication for payments (and, of course, makes this easy to do by accident). Furthermore, this real money can go into a temp account without an email address, so if you delete the app without creating a proper account, your money is unrecoverable. Their "customer support" is very unhelpful. We try to be liberal yet sane when it comes to technology for kids, but Roblox is prohibited for our children.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Forget the kids and ignore the odds. Any game taking real money is a scam.

(No that doesn't mean buying games. No that doesn't mean subscriptions. No that doesn't mean expansions. No that doesn't mean card games. No that doesn't mean arcades. Jesus Christ, do people find a lot of ways to get mad about nonsense, whenever I say this.)

Nothing inside a video game should cost real money. Absolutely fucking nothing. All possible forms are abuse, built on how games by definition invent value for worthless elements that can be arbitrarily granted or withheld. That is what makes them games.

The business model is intolerable - and if we allow it to continue, there will be nothing else. It's the dominant strategy. Your disgust and non-participation will never outweigh some tiny fraction of people getting taken for obscene quantities of real money in exchange for incrementing a variable. It's in free mobile trash. It's in $70 "AAA" flagship-franchise titles. It's in single-player, multi-player, subscription MMOs - it's in everything. There is zero incentive for them not to try robbing you like this. Companies that don't rob you will make less money than companies that do.

Only legislation can fix this.

Ban the entire business model. (No that doesn't mean games. No that doesn't mean content. Jesus Christ, am I tired of dealing with pearl-clutching nonsense, just to say "fuck lootboxes.")

Overt abuse gets disguised. It's still abuse. All they're getting better at is how deep the hooks can slide before people notice.

Content is the bait on this hook. All it's doing is disguising the abuse. The abuse remains. The abuse is the entire point. The abuse is the only part that makes money.

This business model is a threat to the entire medium, and the only real solution is dead simple. We will be fine without it. We will only be fine, without it.

[–] traveler@lemdro.id 0 points 1 year ago

This is retarded as fuck. As a parent what the fuck you’re doing?