Yup. In the fucking bin with the lot of it.

There’s probably close to infinite purchasable content in Roblox because premium users can create content that they can then sell, the company take a cut of that revenue too.

Roblox also isn’t a game in the strict sense... it is a client that you download games in. The company and players can make games, with players making the most content. Many of them are free but you can also charge people to buy games -if a player has spent money on objects to make their game (cosmetics to differentiate AI perhaps) then they might charge a nominal fee to recoup that.

Games can also have micro transactions in them, for things like extra storage space in that game, or extra items and cosmetics in that game. I believe this is where most of the outrageous purchases come from. It’s a unique ecosystem, basically a totally insular platform like the App Store except it’s all made with Roblox assets, and can be heavily curated by the developers.

The regular subscriptions tend to offer a player free Robux every day, but the capacity for whales is obviously there. In a weird twist on this stuff, you can actually make money from Roblox. Because you can charge people for items you’ve made or games you’ve made, you can after fulfilling certain criteria join a club that lets you trade the in-game currency for real money.

I imagine that the company are very careful about the image that Roblox presents to parents because of how it is effectively a microcosm of the entire app store industry within one game. Stories tend to bubble up about it every so often, but this is the biggest amount i’ve seen spent on it.

Not at all defending the practice of how this Roblox stuff works, but I think it’s important to know how and why money is spent on these things, and why it’s so popular.

What is the defense for time unlocks?

Cheers for that post Tempy.
It sounds really quite confusing for something primarily played by young kids. Seems to me like there should at least be some kind of payment restriction or auto notification warnings sent to parent's accounts.

nick_md wrote:

Yup. In the fucking bin with the lot of it.

So you've never enjoyed panini stickers or anything? No.

No time unlocks in any game? No.

All games should have 100% content available from the off? This is a daft statement. Nobody is saying that. Games just shouldn't be designed where the unlocking of content is facilitated by gambling mechanics. It's a rancid practice designed from the ground up to generate massive revenues for publishers.

I bet(!) that how players react to the free stuff is all being recorded and analysed and either companies will use it in the future to hunt whales or individuals are putting the experience on their CV so they can move to a developer where it isn't free.

Maybe I'm a bit inconsistent... or at least, presentationally, something like Rocket League which gives you a random cosmetic after a match (with no song n dance) feels more palatable even than Forza with its roulette wheels of ooh you nearly won a porche but here have a t-shirt instead.  Maybe there are ways that a bit of randomness in progress/reward is OK.  But I don't think loot boxes is it.

g.man wrote:

nick_md wrote:

Yup. In the fucking bin with the lot of it.

So you've never enjoyed panini stickers or anything? No.

No time unlocks in any game? No.

All games should have 100% content available from the off? This is a daft statement. Nobody is saying that. Games just shouldn't be designed where the unlocking of content is facilitated by gambling mechanics. It's a rancid practice designed from the ground up to generate massive revenues for publishers.

Are gambling mechanics bad if no money is involved? Are you saying chance should be removed from all games? (I know that's not what you're saying, because that would be ridiculous, but I'm using hyperbole to illustrate a point)

The panini angle sticks for me around my fifa consumption. There's definite obvious parallels. But, its still a gamble on something so it's gambling.

I've been on both sides, love and hate with FUT. I've been up and down and all around with it. And I'm sure it would be easy enough to find me contradicting myself. But I can also admit I've definitely spent 3 figures on fifa points since getting Fifa 20. There is enjoyment there for me, and I've never spent money I didn't have, but it's absolutely not for kids.

I don't want FUT outlawed, I'd just like it if it was very clearly spelled out for people exactly what it is. If that takes a govt mandated warning on the box, so be it.

There's a lot to FUT that people don't know, in here too. I'd be happy to stream it and answer questions if people want.

Christ, I'm only drawing a parallel to the same sport then. Then I collected players. Now I do too, that's it.

I do apologise DS if my posting of teams etc around that time fuelled that in any way.

People always bring in the argument that these Gatcha games are the same as football stickers but while the first seems easy to ban nobody would consider banning football stickers.

On some level they are similar but there are far to many details (the waiting, the material benefits of the item, the fact stickers can be completed and you can pay a reasonable fee to finish off the set) that make in game randomness far more challenging.

FUT would be less fucking awful if you could move over your cards each year. Or at least move over all your 'retired player' cards.

I'm assuming that's not possible. I don't really know.

g.man wrote:

Yup. In the fucking bin with the lot of it.

Ultimate Team is only like Panini if your mum threw out your collection every year and told you to start again.

tigersgogrrr wrote:

Ultimate Team is only like Panini if your mum threw out your collection every year and told you to start again.

Tbf there was a new album every year.