Absolutely a kids game, my 6 year old can’t get enough of it.
Telefrog knew it would eventually get bigger than Jesus.
My 7 year old is obsessed with Roblox, the Piggy sub-genre in particular, so I was not at all surprised to see this posted yesterday:
It’s actually quite incredible that Roblox has the footprint it does, and yet at the same time it’s almost a secret to the adult gamer community. Minecraft seems to get all the attention.
If you are a parent, you know of Roblox.
It’s not about the gamer community being oblivious to it. I think it’s much more akin to saying: If you are a parent, you likely know the title of the latest popular kids movie (think the straight to video kind) / TV series. If you aren’t, it’s not targeted at you. It might be big, but it just sits outside of your peripheral vision and holds no special interest to you.
My son, who is 8, made his own Roblox account. Good for him. Somehow he forgot what email he used and the password. But it’s still logged in on his iPad. If it ever gets logged out, that account and all his stuff is gone forever. I have no idea how to reset his password either, not without whatever fake email he used.
My daughter lost her roblox account too. She hadn’t played in a while but with the lock-ins she started up again. Had to create a new account though. But she and her friends get together online for hours and do fashion shows, run their diners, or play hide and seek. All while FaceTiming. They had a Preferred Player (or Starred, or Whatever it’s called for those who pay) come into their diner and I could hear them get all excited about the big tip thy were gonna get.
That absolutely makes sense. And yet I wonder how Minecraft broke into the mainstream with adults and yet Roblox hasn’t. I really don’t see a huge difference between them, especially as I’m recruited to help my son build a world in a very Minecraft-like “build mode” of the game (the aforementioned Piggy) he likes.
I’ve also checked out Roblox Studio, with an eye towards introducing him to 3D modelling and graphic design, and even game design, and it seems very well done. Watching YouTube over his shoulder, I’ve seen some pretty impressive games created in Roblox (eg Sirenhead that he showed me this morning).
Sure, the ever present monetization / Robux demands are crummy, but I see them as a necessary evil. And the small Robux purchase makes for a very effective reward to incentivize certain good behaviours…
Your experience is different than mine (from watching my kids). What I’ve seen of Roblox is terrible, janky games, with blocky, low-detail artwork (worse than Minecraft), generally filled with copyright-violating material. The games seem to fall in the categories of “jumping puzzles” and “creepy role-play” (like the really weird “get adopted simulator”).
One game the kids liked to play for a while was something called “normal elevator” which was apparently a game where you stand in an elevator, and the door occasionally opens to show you something – a cat picture, an axe-wielding maniac, or something else. Then the door closes, and you wait for it to do it again. Fun?
Omigosh! So much this. Super janky low-framerate glitch riddled messes most of the time. Minecraft, even in its early access days, performed better and had a more unified aesthetic.
As yet another bemused parent of kids who play the heck out of Roblox, I can’t really disagree with what you all are saying. One big thing to consider though is that, at the moment, this is one of my son’s few available social outlets. He has a standing weekly zoom call with a buddy and they play various Roblox sub-games together for a couple hours. My son always tells me excitedly when he has made a new friend and they go do whatever together. I know I’m supposed to be limiting screen time, but this is like a lifeline for him so I tend to go easy.
I think you really have to look at Roblox as a play space and necessarily a game. The kids are mostly just goofing around in a virtual place that has the ability to be interactive or “gamey”. In other words, it’s just a place for kids to socialize and play.
Yeah, that’s true. My kid does usually have a voice chat going with one or two other friends while they play, which makes it an acceptable activity (well, any gaming activity is preferable to them watching dumb youtube videos, but social gaming is much better yet).
My other kids does the same thing… but with Minecraft. So whatevs.
I think it’s more that Minecraft started with adults and got really popular with kids also, whereas Roblox (I presume) targetted children from the off.
Indeed. You just have to see the number of people on this very forum who dove into the early Minecraft alpha. It was a mix of Lego (in creative) and an infinite world to survive and craft in, rather than a set of activities targeted at kids. So the initial user base mixed both adults and children. And adults definitely could find fun and challenges there.
And it has only grown in complexity (modding the java code, ever expanding redstone contraptions and features, new blocks like hoppers, observers, … the nether and its expanding eco system, …). The gameplay and world building targets adults as much as kids.
One of the Youtubers our daughter and we follow (TangoTek) is currently implementing a deck building rogue like dungeon exploring game on HermitCraft that also brings in elements of the boardgame Clank. All that implemented with Redstone and other in game elements.
And then on top of that it has the huge amount of mod, minecraft competitive servers, MS run servers, … that allow kids to hang out. So it mixes its audiences quite well.
My daughter (and her older brothers before her) also used Roblox as a play and social space for years. Playing games with friends while chatting on voice apps and even making a few youtube story videos. But the games were always an excuse to get together or socialise. She also spent a lot of time on those job simulators where you would get a job as a waiter or cook and help run a virtual restaurant. All those mini games (and the costume contests and so on…) are there to let the players hang out or have fun playing mini games together.
I have looked at programming a game in Roblox with my daughter. The neat thing is that the language is basically Lua, which is fairly easy to learn. Still hard to make something very compelling through their studio though. So that project fizzled out for us. But it definitely also has some of that: “let’s get creative and learn new skills” aspect for those interested.
But Roblox as a whole firmly targets a younger player base. @Ephraim 's son will outgrow it before he outgrows Minecraft.
My kids play both Roblox and Minecraft. They scratch different itches.
Oh yes. For sure. that wasn’t the question as much as: why isn’t the Roblox juggernaut better known by adults gamers? And the simple answer is one is targeted specifically towards younger audiences (and so, parents are the ones that tend to know about Roblox). Buth both can be and are definitely enjoyed by younger audiences.
Any Roblox books around that would make a good xmas gift for a nearly 9 year old?
I ordered this one for my 7 year old. He isn’t loving it, perhaps it’s a bit too old for him but might be ok for a 9 year old.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1507205333/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awdo_btf_t1_5BpGFb782J5V2
You’re probably going to make them happier with a Robux gift card 😂
Thanks!
Oh yeah I am getting some of those as well, don’t worry… ;)
It’s just a bit hard to find physical cards here in Au, I guess printing out an email code will have to do. :)
edit: I was looking at this
https://www.amazon.com.au/Roblox-Annual-2021-100-Unofficial/dp/1405297026/
and this may be going a bit far since he is not into programming at all lol
https://www.amazon.com.au/Advanced-Roblox-Coding-Book-Unofficial/dp/1721400079/
So apparently most of my grade 3 students play roblox. I’m surprised it’s managed to fly under my radar for so long. I think I’ll just happily remain ignorant for now.