This was exactly what it said on the label. 5 stars for that less one for the off-hand mention of age verification. I have standard tech-head Mike Masnik-like concerns with age verification measures (data leaks would be much better if they included photos and were mostly children), especially once government gets involved (famous implementor of reasonable and up-to-date data regulations). So I don't like when they are brought up as an obviously positive development.
I did not think it was unclear, but in complete earnestness:
This post was what the heading promised with remarkably little editorializing, and that's neat.
Mike Masnik writes at Techdirt and has for a long time now been pointing out that there are problems with age verification systems. I know the majority view seems to be that they are necessarily a positive development, thus the acknowledgement that it's a very specific kind of tech nerd view to think otherwise. I won't try to speak for Masnik, but he is a good voice of caution and tradeoff recognition.
It is obviously not good for data leaks to include children's data and photographs but that is the kind of thing we're risking more of the more that tech companies want people to prove their ages, not to mention that anonymity, while risky, has proven to not necessarily be any less risky for people whose addresses and faces can be found online.
And the US government last addressed internet free speech concerns in the 90s and has since then tried a few times to manhandle the limited delineation of rights and protections that are there so as to make it unintentionally worse.
I'm tired of the assumption that "It protects kids" should be taken at face value when spoken by a company built on monetizing them.
I've actually done a podcast touching on how difficult content moderation is with Mike Masnick - the linked 'Content Moderation is Impossible' piece is heavily influenced by Mike. https://open.spotify.com/episode/31RE5Sq11euTIINp5haxIU
I don't think age verification systems are a perfect solution, but I also think that Roblox has very large/obvious problems that need to be addressed (and that the public will *demand* be addressed if they continue to grow).
Suspicious as I am of the privatized solution, the publicly-mandated alternatives would almost certainly be worse. Indeed, we'll get increasing chances to find that out as porn age verification laws go into effect and spread.
Hai, I'm here to yap on about Roblox from the perspective of the 17 year old one might've been afraid to ask!
Another big part of Roblox isn't just in creating games, but the fandoms (and types of people those fandoms gather) that really inspire people to develop creative skills to contribute to the fandom and express their love for it.
Often times, Roblox games will accrue fans who don't even play it, purely off of the story and characters originating from the game. It's a great platform for getting a passion project out there, and share your stories in game form.
This is the part of it I really love, how games that have aspects unique to the Roblox platform (such as Phighting!) can have so much love put into them, and how you can really see the dedication that the devs put into the game influences their fandom, and shows their appreciation for the platform.
Despite most of the playerbase being casual players who don't participate in fandom, I feel that one of the greatest appeals of Roblox is the community you can find. It always motivates me to be better at art, to further pursue music, because of the beautiful displays of creativity I find there.
Though, it is important to add. DO NOT DISREGARD THE POTENTIAL FOR PREDATORS!! Ever! It's such a problem within the community, that almost every month you can expect another dev team to be exposed for having nazis, predators, or both on their team.
The dev team of Forsaken, a game that got insanely popular, was not so recently exposed for being headed by a nazi, and being complacent in getting rid of other dubious individuals in their team. Please be aware of who your kids spend time with on the internet!
One very important thing you didn't mention about the graphics is that low-fidelity graphics lower the bar for casual creator entry. In much the same way that the PS2's graphical limitations put a cap on how much budget games had to devote to graphics in the 00's, a general low-fidelity style in a game lowers the time and resources that creators have to put in for graphics that look "fine" to players. So a single beginner with a good gameplay idea can execute their idea, devote a manageable amount of time to the graphics, and not be penalized in terms of player perception of the game. Of course, good visual design still helps, but good visual design doesn't necessarily cost time in the way that high-fidelity models and textures do.
Warcraft 3 was much the same: by the time of its golden heyday circa 2008 there were much better looking games on the market, but WC3 models and textures were simple and lo-fi enough to be handled by small teams and non-specialists, and this contributed a lot to the strength of its modding community.
I am still close friends with a group of guys met through Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne custom games. We meet up once a year. It's amazing looking back at the level of creativity there.
Probably over a decade ago now I used to play Roblox. Middle school to early high school. Loved the tycoon games, I would spend an inordinate amount of time sailing around an island chain on little boats "mining" different resources, loading them in my boat, and selling them to other islands to get a bigger boat.
I was surprised to learn the main game in the later seasons of Mythic Quest was based on Roblox and essentially a beat for beat comedic retelling of the issues inherent in the platform. I really did not grasp the reach and influence of Roblox until that show and even not until someone pointed "oh this is exactly Roblox." It's wild how it just sort of exists in the background for most people.
Hey, this didn't answer the question I had! :P Which is, if Roblox is just user-created games, what did it *start* with? Going by Wikipedia it seems like Roblox made games themselves for it for the first two years (and there were a few months where Roblox Studio wasn't ready yet so all the games were by Roblox). But just how many games did it start with and what were they?
Also: Can you really only get paid for things people buy *in* your game? You can't put a price on the game itself and get paid part of that? (I mean, I guess you could effectively do this in-game, but...)
Reading this gave me a strong sense of nostalgia for the digital worlds of my childhood 20 years ago: RuneScape, Minecraft, ToonWorld, that stupid pirate game whose name I can't remember.
This was exactly what it said on the label. 5 stars for that less one for the off-hand mention of age verification. I have standard tech-head Mike Masnik-like concerns with age verification measures (data leaks would be much better if they included photos and were mostly children), especially once government gets involved (famous implementor of reasonable and up-to-date data regulations). So I don't like when they are brought up as an obviously positive development.
what?
I did not think it was unclear, but in complete earnestness:
This post was what the heading promised with remarkably little editorializing, and that's neat.
Mike Masnik writes at Techdirt and has for a long time now been pointing out that there are problems with age verification systems. I know the majority view seems to be that they are necessarily a positive development, thus the acknowledgement that it's a very specific kind of tech nerd view to think otherwise. I won't try to speak for Masnik, but he is a good voice of caution and tradeoff recognition.
It is obviously not good for data leaks to include children's data and photographs but that is the kind of thing we're risking more of the more that tech companies want people to prove their ages, not to mention that anonymity, while risky, has proven to not necessarily be any less risky for people whose addresses and faces can be found online.
And the US government last addressed internet free speech concerns in the 90s and has since then tried a few times to manhandle the limited delineation of rights and protections that are there so as to make it unintentionally worse.
I'm tired of the assumption that "It protects kids" should be taken at face value when spoken by a company built on monetizing them.
I've actually done a podcast touching on how difficult content moderation is with Mike Masnick - the linked 'Content Moderation is Impossible' piece is heavily influenced by Mike. https://open.spotify.com/episode/31RE5Sq11euTIINp5haxIU
I don't think age verification systems are a perfect solution, but I also think that Roblox has very large/obvious problems that need to be addressed (and that the public will *demand* be addressed if they continue to grow).
If I may mildly necro:
https://www.theverge.com/tech/875309/discord-age-verification-global-roll-out
This is why I challenge the framing.
Suspicious as I am of the privatized solution, the publicly-mandated alternatives would almost certainly be worse. Indeed, we'll get increasing chances to find that out as porn age verification laws go into effect and spread.
Hai, I'm here to yap on about Roblox from the perspective of the 17 year old one might've been afraid to ask!
Another big part of Roblox isn't just in creating games, but the fandoms (and types of people those fandoms gather) that really inspire people to develop creative skills to contribute to the fandom and express their love for it.
Often times, Roblox games will accrue fans who don't even play it, purely off of the story and characters originating from the game. It's a great platform for getting a passion project out there, and share your stories in game form.
This is the part of it I really love, how games that have aspects unique to the Roblox platform (such as Phighting!) can have so much love put into them, and how you can really see the dedication that the devs put into the game influences their fandom, and shows their appreciation for the platform.
Despite most of the playerbase being casual players who don't participate in fandom, I feel that one of the greatest appeals of Roblox is the community you can find. It always motivates me to be better at art, to further pursue music, because of the beautiful displays of creativity I find there.
Though, it is important to add. DO NOT DISREGARD THE POTENTIAL FOR PREDATORS!! Ever! It's such a problem within the community, that almost every month you can expect another dev team to be exposed for having nazis, predators, or both on their team.
The dev team of Forsaken, a game that got insanely popular, was not so recently exposed for being headed by a nazi, and being complacent in getting rid of other dubious individuals in their team. Please be aware of who your kids spend time with on the internet!
One very important thing you didn't mention about the graphics is that low-fidelity graphics lower the bar for casual creator entry. In much the same way that the PS2's graphical limitations put a cap on how much budget games had to devote to graphics in the 00's, a general low-fidelity style in a game lowers the time and resources that creators have to put in for graphics that look "fine" to players. So a single beginner with a good gameplay idea can execute their idea, devote a manageable amount of time to the graphics, and not be penalized in terms of player perception of the game. Of course, good visual design still helps, but good visual design doesn't necessarily cost time in the way that high-fidelity models and textures do.
Warcraft 3 was much the same: by the time of its golden heyday circa 2008 there were much better looking games on the market, but WC3 models and textures were simple and lo-fi enough to be handled by small teams and non-specialists, and this contributed a lot to the strength of its modding community.
I am still close friends with a group of guys met through Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne custom games. We meet up once a year. It's amazing looking back at the level of creativity there.
Probably over a decade ago now I used to play Roblox. Middle school to early high school. Loved the tycoon games, I would spend an inordinate amount of time sailing around an island chain on little boats "mining" different resources, loading them in my boat, and selling them to other islands to get a bigger boat.
I'm sure my parents were utterly confused
Roblox is a scary place honestly
I simply won’t allow my children to play Roblox
I was surprised to learn the main game in the later seasons of Mythic Quest was based on Roblox and essentially a beat for beat comedic retelling of the issues inherent in the platform. I really did not grasp the reach and influence of Roblox until that show and even not until someone pointed "oh this is exactly Roblox." It's wild how it just sort of exists in the background for most people.
Hey, this didn't answer the question I had! :P Which is, if Roblox is just user-created games, what did it *start* with? Going by Wikipedia it seems like Roblox made games themselves for it for the first two years (and there were a few months where Roblox Studio wasn't ready yet so all the games were by Roblox). But just how many games did it start with and what were they?
Also: Can you really only get paid for things people buy *in* your game? You can't put a price on the game itself and get paid part of that? (I mean, I guess you could effectively do this in-game, but...)
Reading this gave me a strong sense of nostalgia for the digital worlds of my childhood 20 years ago: RuneScape, Minecraft, ToonWorld, that stupid pirate game whose name I can't remember.