The problem with Roblox (and the wider gaming industry)

I started playing Roblox sometime after 10 and before 14, don't remember when, don't really care. I was never a big fan of any large games on the platform, after the first year of playing I tended to stick to games with less than 4k players. From the beginning I could really never play without friends. There was really no single player games really worth my time, and when the few that were popped up, they got old pretty fast.

Now for the record I've held most of these opinions since I started playing, this is just one of the best opportunities I've had to get them out. This is also not a hit piece on people who enjoy playing any of the games mentioned here, I understand why you do and I don't judge you. As I only had one experience with a creep (indirectly), I'm gonna avoid the plethora of online safety issues they have. Chances are you know about it, it's a rather high profile thing, and pretty much everyone online was (and still are) talking about it. It's horrible and I hate it but I lack the experience to actually speak on it, and I think most rational people already agree their safety and privacy protocols have to change.

I quit Roblox a bit ago now, over the summer. The reason I'm doing this retrospective is because this week a friend tried to get me back on, and like a dumbass I tried to make it work. I got on for like 15 mins and was so disgusted with what I saw I immediately got off after helping them get the thing they wanted. I respect people who still play, but to me it feels dystopian and disgusting. I've already had huge issues with microtransactions in games, but I forgot how bad slop games were. Every time a game comes out and gets popular, Roblox "devs" flock to imitate it on Roblox (sucking the soul out and filling it with cashgrabs in the process). And then there's the brainrot games that never had a soul in the first place, lazy people copy a successful cashgrab "game" but something is lost every time each is copied. Now with AI being baked into the platform, that's getting worse and worse.

All the games I used to enjoy have either sold out to survive and become cheap cashgrabs, died because they didn't, or both. I want to say Roblox is doomed, but because it's filled with barely disguised gambling and other addictive timesucks aimed at children, so they'll be profiting for years to come. The sad thing is is this is just the most obvious of these platforms. I have plenty separate issues with Fortnite, but they share plenty of the issues I have with Roblox. Most games kids can afford without spending relatively large amounts of money have filled themselves with microtransactions as well, and even the bank breaking games are starting to try the same things.

Now I'm not saying gaming is dead. Indie devs will rule the industry after the average consumer finally gets mad that the gaming corps are fucking them in the ass. But seeing people just accept a game like GTA VI being priced so crazy for a game that not only would take a third of a terabyte and the emptying of ones wallet to play but also wouldn't even receive a physical disc is absolutely insane to me (not to mention after they're done robbing the world and taking in billions they could just revoke your license to play at any given moment and still make out like bandits). I'm not gonna go into my problems with GTA VI or any other big games given the topic of this entry is Roblox, but I think you see what I'm getting at. People (KIDS) are becoming complacent to being screwed over and made a product just because they want to have some fun playing games.

I'm lucky I have some friends who agree with me, but at the same time many people around me enjoy Roblox too much to quit and find an alternative. And even if they did, there's not many direct Roblox alternatives that have survived/they would enjoy. Sadly this is an entry where I don't really have a (realistic) solution so uh, stay positive folks ヽ(ヅ)ノ