Roblox

"It’s free"

Actually, it's about ethics in ... Video games

Cutscenes

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“”Oof!

—The roblox death sound before a certain someone threatened to sue.[1]

Roblox is a video game platform for the young’uns developed in 2006. Development is currently managed by the Roblox Corporation. It had relatively few games for most of its history until experiencing a huge surge in users during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roblox games are created in a software called Roblox Studio where the game logic is coded in the Lua programming language. Roblox virtual currency is known as Robux. There used to be another currency called Tix that can be converted into Robux while a small amount was earned daily until around 2016 where Roblox removed it in order to monetize Robux more. Their monthly/yearly subscription service is known as Roblox Premium, formerly builder’s club where benefits can be bought for a subscription fee including monthly Robux and other in-game benefits.

What started as a virtual Lego-like platform turned into a steaming pile of political, religious, and development drama. Often fueled by the poor moderation system, there has been an extensive history of controversies often extreme enough where small impacts can be seen in the real world. Nevertheless, Roblox continues to grow as a dominant platform in the gaming industry with 216 million monthly active users and 70.2 million daily active users as of 2024.^[2] This large player count contributes to some of the top Roblox games even beating the most popular games in other gaming platforms such as Steam. Over 50% of children in the U.S. play Roblox.^[3]

Background and development[edit]

Roblox started development in 2004 by company co-founders David Baszucki and Erik Cassel. The beta stage was known as DynaBlocks until the company name change in 2005. Roblox officially was released into the public in 2006.^[4]

In 2007, in order to be compliant with the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), Roblox introduced a safety feature called safe chat, which restricted how users under the age of 13 can communicate.^[5]

In 2013, Roblox launched the Developer Exchange program, allowing developers to exchange Robux (the platform's virtual currency) for real money. This initiative encouraged more developers to create content for the platform.^[6]

In November 2018, Roblox gutted the ability to play as a "guest" where account registration was not required.^[7]

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Roblox experienced a significant surge in users and engagement as people turned to online platforms for entertainment and social interaction.

In October 2021, Roblox faced the longest downtime of about three days. While people pointed fingers at their collaboration with Chipotle Mexican Grill in a game event, Baszucki responded to the speculation that it was a fatal bug that overwhelmed their backend servers.^[8]

On March 12, 2021, the Roblox corporation went public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as $RBLX.^[9]

Controversies[edit]

Moderation[edit]

Roblox moderation has been known to be very shitty. Moderation is often in the hands of bots and minimum wage outsource workers in places such as India where often the punishment does not fit the violation, sometimes the violation not being punished at all. At the same time, there are 216 million monthly active users on the Roblox platform which is quite a burden to any moderation team of any size.^[2]

The bot used to automate some aspects of moderation (e.g. chat, usernames, and images) is an AI-powered software called CommunitySift by Microsoft that also aids in filtering Roblox's chatting sytem.^[10]

In May 2020, a hacker bribed an employee working for Roblox in India to gain access to the moderation panel. It revealed some aspects about the censorship, including that it was outsourced to a company called iEnergizer, a company that specializes in game outsourcing and customer service.^[11]

On the bright side, though overdue, in July 2023, Roblox introduced a feature where you can attach screenshots to their report system, making it easier for moderators to determine rule violations.^[12]

Sexual content[edit]

As a result of such poor moderation action, it is not difficult to find games, clothing, groups, and other assets that are related to sexual content. Inappropriate usernames can also be found that reference sexual acts and objects.

Pedophilia[edit]

Roblox has a well extensive list of child predators that persisted on the platform where it took a very long time for some of them to be apprehended by the authorities or not at all. These individuals lurked within the virtual realms, exploiting the platform's communication features to target vulnerable users. Oftentimes, they direct their targets to other platforms so that Roblox is left unable to take action for off-site behavior due to their community guidelines.^[13]

One notable case was a middle-aged man (Shane Penczak) who posed as a young teenage girl going by the username xboxdiamondgirl2683 on Roblox and by xboxdiamondgirl on Discord. He coerced a young boy into sending explicit photos in exchange for electronic Robux gift cards while exploiting the computer illiteracy that his (Penczak's, not the boy's) mother had while still living in her home.^[14][15] In a separate instance, a man named Arnold Castillo who created a Sonic the Hedgehog knock-off on the Roblox platform was found to have groomed a teenager using the site.^[16] His real identity was actually identified by groups of minors themselves, a year and a half before federal police; about this, an FBI agent commented: "Seeing what those children did, as far as compiling all this and their ability to identify Mr. Castillo, well, they might want to submit some applications to the FBI one day."^[17] He was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.^[18]

Political extremism[edit]

There have been trolls who use Roblox as a virtual playground to probe the red lines of their extremism. This is mainly done for recruitment so that the extremist ideologies can spread.^[19] Examples of such extremist and racist content can be seen in usernames and clothing that reference neo-Nazi coded dog whistles.

One example of such trolls is self-proclaimed members of Proud Boys making their avatars look like the founder Gavin McInnes.^[20]

An August 2019 investigation by NBC News revealed over 100 accounts linked to far-right and neo-Nazi groups. It had to take pressure from the press such as NBC for Roblox to remove them.^[20]

During the George Floyd protests, some players darkened their avatars' skins, ostensibly as a show of solidarity with African Americans. However, this protest faced criticism with the accusation that it was a "virtual" blackface.^[21]

Religious involvement[edit]

Jesus oof'd for our sins.^{[note 1]}

As a result of government-mandated lockdowns implemented across the world during the COVID-19 pandemic which led to the suspension of in-person gatherings such as masses and religious processions, there were some youth organisations who resorted to virtual events in lieu of mass gatherings in an effort to express their religious convictions. In Poland, it has became popular for children to attend virtual masses held in Roblox. One of the groups who hold these masses is the "Archdiocese of Gniezno". While most of the children and youths behind the group are not ordained ministers, there have been a few priests and Christians who commended this trend for helping spread the faith in the face of a pandemic.^[22] Virtual church events and processions have also become popular in the Philippines, such as a virtual Traslación set up by devotees of the Black Nazarene in place of the actual Nazarene procession which was suspended in 2021 due to the above-mentioned lockdowns.^[23][24]

Exploitation of child labor[edit]

A YouTube channel called People Make Games has published a video in which they have claimed to investigate the Roblox Corporation’s practices regarding child labor and game development. They found that Roblox would promise children tremendous sums of money when they monetize their recreations, whereas as in reality they were giving them little-to-no money in return by having high revenue cuts, a trade rate in offering Robux lower than the rate for buying Robux, and lack of strategies to make their games effectively discoverable. They compared it to scrip.^[25]

Roblox then raised suspicions by requesting the channel to take down the video, which then prompted them to investigate deeper regarding the issues faced in the Roblox platform. In addition to child endangerment and safety, they also dived into the issue of sexual predators, gambling, and hacked accounts.^[26]

Reports from other media corroborate the idea of child labor in Roblox as a business model.^[27][28]

Compliance with Chinese censorship[edit]

In July 2021, Roblox partnered with Chinese company Tencent to enter the lucrative Chinese market by releasing a restricted version of Roblox called LuoBuLeSi (罗布乐思). Consequently, they had to comply with Chinese censorship laws, despite the company being aware of Tencent's past failures.

Roblox published a guide that developers must follow in order to get their user-generated content (UGC) into Chinese markets. Many developers were frustrated with how restrictive the guidelines were and the censorship and privacy invasion that the Chinese government is well known for. One example of such rule is the prohibition of "disrespecting Chinese history and culture".^[29]

It did not last long, though, with Roblox closing down Chinese servers and LuoBuLeSi in December of that year.^[30]

Corporate ran games[edit]

There has been a recent shift towards games on the platform that are developed by corporations, such as with Mattel subsidiary American Girl running a server themed after their doll line^[31] as well as British footwear brand Clarks coming up with their own based on their children's shoe mascots,^[32] leading to concerns about the decreasing presence and support for indie game developers in Roblox. Some of these games are mainly partnerships that mutually benefit both Roblox and the company behind the game. These partnerships often appear in the events category of the Roblox menu. Nevertheless, these and other corporate games are not immune to backlash from the Roblox community.

A well known outlier to the partnership based games is Adopt Me!, one of the most popular Roblox games owned by a company called Uplift Games, which consists of a team of 40 people that earns roughly 60 million dollars a year from the microtransaction system of Roblox games.^[33]

Gaming "Metaverse"[edit]

Roblox, after totally not taking inspiration, grabs the "metaverse" label and popularized it as the platform grew despite pushing features that are not wanted by the community such as the "rthro" avatars in an attempt to appeal to a more mature audience as for most of its existence, Roblox was mainly known as a kids game.

In the end, in June 2023, Roblox gave up on the "metaverse" bandwagon as they planned to find more partnership deals.^[34]

In the end[edit]

It is still a silly kids platform, so most of the top games should be fine for enjoyment. Just manage your expectations and don't let your children end up becoming the target of creeps, alright?

See also[edit]

• Ruben Sim - One of the only few people whom Roblox has sued.

Notes[edit]

References[edit]