People Make Games
9 HN recommenders · recommended in 14 months, 2021–2026
35:22 · 7.9M views · Dec 13, 2021
A People Make Games follow-up investigation into Roblox, built on stories from players and creators after the channel's first video. It covers the platform's treatment of young developers and its moderation.
Cited heavily in Roblox threads as a damning investigation into child labor, exploitation, and weak moderation, and suggested viewing for parents.
20 comments from Hacker News
Watch both People Make Games video about Roblox and try to argue that the company should not deserve all the public controversy it is getting. They are actively stalling any moderation and protection because their profit margin would be severely diminished. Children's safety versus money, the choice is oh so simple. [LINK] this video
The 'People Make Games' videos discuss this: this video Essentially, Roblox has made the decision that they are only responsible for interactions that happen on their platform. Parents may be letting their children develop games thinking that it's a cute hobby. Roblox knows that there are game companies wooing child devs and doing shady stuff that can be potentially harmful to them. They are not doing anything to stop the practices because they aren't technically on their platform . But the whole interaction is around making games for their platform. So they may potentially not be legally be at fault, but it does seem that they are making a lot of money, albeit indirectly, from turning a blind eye to companies extracting labor from young people, and in some cases abusing them. As a parent who is a developer and has kids who love Roblox, I think it's important that the situation be discussed and not swept under the rug. I like the idea of being able to develop and extend and open world like Roblox. I also think that when you market to kids, you have to meet a higher bar of responsibility in protecting them.
> Tech sufferers greatly from a "God Complex" syndrome, and it's exactly what will prevent it from getting better. I saw an excellent critique of Roblox the other day, which covered many aspects of their business and different kinds of abuse which are happening in and around their game. The most bizarre part was that they sent some questions to the company - and the company responded by saying they “clearly weren’t being objective” and essentially gaslighting the people making the video. I think the people in charge of Roblox seriously don’t see themselves as holding any sort of responsibility to the broader society that pays their bills. It’s like someone watched The Corporation and thought - “oh companies can get away with sociopathic behaviour? I want in!”. Doing harm to the world in the name of your bottom line doesn’t make you clever. It makes you the villain. (Video in question: this video )
Like most adults, most of what I know about Roblox comes secondhand from the media. Recently I saw[1] a pretty damning video about Roblox's lack of moderation and exploitation of its users. My basic perception at this point is that TikTok, Facebook, and Roblox all deserve each other. Hopefully they waste their money attacking each other until they mutually self-destruct. [1] this video
There are two video investigations from People Make Games into economic aspects of Roblox in particular child labor/exploitation and monopolistic aspirations via platform capitalism. 1. Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers ( [LINK] ) 2. Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper. ( this video )