Roblox ‘operates illegal gambling ring that preys on children’: lawsuit
Roblox ‘operates illegal gambling ring that preys on children’: lawsuit
Rachelle Colvin, a California resident, and Danielle Sass, who lives in New York State, filed suit against Roblox in San Francisco federal court.
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.
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."
Every single roblox game is designed to maximize micro transactions into blantent money extracting games.
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...
Yeah, no kidding.
Good. Fuck Roblox.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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/spenders are still kids.
A galaxy brain way to use children as labor to make shitty games. And the kids even have fun doing it.
I hope it expands to other companies like blizzard and EA. Loot boxes are predatory and no fun.
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.
I highly recommend watching these videos from People Make Games:
- Investigation: How Roblox ls Exploiting Young Game Developers
- Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper (this one covers the gambling)
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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.
Talk about a click bait title.
The lawsuit alleged that Roblox was in violation of its own terms of service, which states that “experiences that include simulated gambling, including playing with virtual chips, simulated betting, or exchanging real money, Robux, or in-experience items of value are not allowed.”
According to the lawsuit, Roblox users, most of whom are minors, “first purchase Robux through the Roblox website, using either their own money, a parent’s credit card, or gift cards they possess.”
The minor then “navigates to one of the” three aforementioned sites’ “virtual casinos” that “exist outside the Roblox ecosystem,” according to court papers.
“Then, the user links their Robux wallet on Roblox’s website to the gambling website,” the court documents alleged.
“And finally, once the minor-user’s wallet is linked, the gambling website converts the minor user’s Robux into credit that can only be wagered in their virtual casinos,” according to the lawsuit.
“The gambling credits function just like chips in a brick and mortar casino,” the defendants alleged in court papers.
“Users ‘buy in’ using their Robux, obtain chips, gamble until they lose their money or wish to cash out, and, if they increase their credits, they cash those credits out in exchange for Robux,” the lawsuit alleged.
“This entire exchange of Robux occurs on the Roblox platform with Roblox’s knowledge and active support, and Robux never leave the Roblox ecosystem unless and until they are cashed out for fiat currency,” according to court documents.
Please point out the click bait, I'm not seeing it