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Comment by johnold | Hacker News Reader

Our family has decided to permanently disrupt Roblox at the house.

I find that the games my kids were playing were really just totally mindless. They involved no real skill or thought.

Most of the games consist of finding coins and then getting different skins for their character. Or even worse gaining “money” for time served and then buying things.

What’s up with the devs? These games are terrible and are just a waste land for our children.

The kids were bummed at first, but because there are so many other choices in gaming, they have recovered and not looked back.

Good riddance I say.

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> Most of the games consist of finding coins and then getting different skins for their character. Or even worse gaining “money” for time served and then buying things.

Isn't that actually the perfect description of real "adult" life in our society?

You’re not wrong, but do consider that while real life is, well, real. Part of a parents job is to prepare the kid for the real world, but also (maybe more importantly) provide this child with the tools to create the world they would like to exist in (which starts with the parents of course). I’m not saying it’s always possible, but i think its something a lot of parents consider.

Real life for me consists of very little time for friends, nature, or my community (if it wasn’t obvious my life is pmuch my family and my job), yet while my children will inevitably learn through my actions, I can try to use my words to express to them that there is another form of existence possible where they have time for those things I don’t.

Parenting can also a pretty fun exercise on cognitive dissonance at times... :)

A good friend of mine is a Roblox developer. He said the problem is the exact opposite. The first game he created was one he would want to play and got feedback that the game is too complicated for people who play Roblox and to make it easier. Now he makes easy games like you describe. Its what sells, so he builds it.

Why do games need skill or thought to be worthwhile? Quite often they're social spaces for my (8yo) son to play with his school friends, or meditative experiences when he's tired, or just silly jokes that he wants to show us - including some he makes himself. He can tell good games from bad, can recognise (and ditch) pay-to-win games really fast. It's a big place with its own culture and rules, and too interesting to write off.

Agreed based on what I've seen of Roblox lately. I haven't played Minecraft in a long time but it seems like a much better game for children, encouraging creativity and building things instead of just grinding for coins on a dopamine treadmill, though maybe that's changed under Microsoft

Nope, you're still on target with Minecraft.

> What’s up with the devs? These games are terrible and are just a waste land for our children.

Aren't those games made by other children? For those, the time is all but wasted. And that would explain the simple gameplay.

edit: Reading other comments, it seems I've been totally unaware of how much money is on the table in this game... So it's probably not other children creating most of the content.

No. Anyone can make simple roblox game, but the popular good ones are made by adult developers.

Just like kids prefer to read books written by adults, see pictures by adults, the adults are more likely to be able to make entertaining games for kids.

my kids like the games and the ones they play have things to do:

brookhaven: A neighborhood with houses you can place down and "own", cars, various items. etc. They run around making up scenarios and then acting them out

natural disasters: Small maps and rounds where various disasters happen and you have to survive (lightning, tornadoes, etc)

fashion famous: everyone dresses up according to the theme for the round and then everyone picks a winner

And there are a lot of shit games but they get bored of these quickly.

Thanks for pointing that out. I'm pretty strict with the level of quality of the screen time consumed normally. Roadblox kind of gets around that by being a platform with tons of stuff so harder to moderate. I think I'll block it today.

What does this have to do w/ the article about service being disrupted?

This is a common trend where someone posts an article about company or product X and top replies say "X bad". It's not on topic or adding anything to the conversation

Of course it's adding something to the conversation. I'm not a parent and like to hear their perspective

I'm a parent of a kid too young to be playing these games yet, and I appreciate seeing this sort of discussion and insight. I only hear, "My kid loves Roblox," from other people and had no idea until this thread that other parents didn't view it so positively.

So, on topic or not, I appreciate the discussion.

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