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Comment by jmyeet | Hacker News Reader

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jmyeet·

Roblox engages the exact same psychological manipulation that gambling does.

Would you let your children go nuts at a casino? Or online with sports betting or crypto slots?

The problem isn't the $5-10. It's the psychological manipulation.

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As a parent, if you sit down with your kid and curate (or at least actively check/approve) what they are playing on Roblox, it’s fine. Mine just uses it to socialize with her real life friends, who are also all there. She sticks to the wholesome stuff, it might as well be Minecraft.

Sure, but at that point, why not just Minecraft then?

She does! A lot of her friends left Minecraft though, but we still play together.

The problem is, most parents don’t.

I actually don't know very much about Roblox. I was under the impression that it was more like a storefront sort of thing, with 3rd party games being hosted there? Kind of like one of those 'old' flash game portals, except you buy the games and ingame items.

Where do the gambling tricks come in?

It sounds more like the same psychological manipulation that underpins the IRL world (at least the US) in the form of capitalism. Engineered towards adults to buy as much useless crap as possible.

Teach kids that it’s the same kind of manipulation as in their games (and how to spot it) and perhaps they will be better equipped to not get fucked by adult life.

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