We played Roblox for a week to see what all the fuss was about.
Its a nice place to visit, but we wouldnt want to live here.
In case you havent heard, Roblox is pretty popular.
The multiplayer social gaming platform is one of the most-played video games in the world right now.
And justlast year,Roblox was the fourth highest-grossing mobile game, raking in US$1.3 billion.
Its noGenshin Impact,but its certainly in the big leagues.
What the heck is a Roblox, and why do so many kids out there love it?
What the heck is a Roblox?
It resembles a social media app in some ways - both creators and players can engage with one another.
Robloxs biggest appeal is the fact that its a social game.
During the pandemic, kids were logging onto host birthday partiesthat werent possible in the real world.
You dont have to play with friends, either.
you’ve got the option to wander around hub worlds and chat with strangers.
Roblox is a community-driven game.
Its filled with a chaotic variety of mini-games with varying levels of depth.
Oh, my sweet summer child.
You use Robux to get cosmetics, play certain minigames or play on private servers.
No wonder the games so high-grossing, eh?
Upon booting up Roblox, the first thing youre asked to do is create a character.
Precious minutes of progress lost.
I swallowed my ambitions and decided to stick with the default character for now.
Roblox initially let me down.
All that success has to go back into improving the game at some point, right?
To make it even better,it wasn’t even particularly appealing.
There is a Home page and a Discover page but the difference between the two isnt immediately clear.
Both are filled with an exhaustive list of minigames to try.
There is a sense of curation in Dreams that is missing here.
Games are sorted into categories like Most Engaging or vaguely titled genres like Platformer Obby.
Roblox favours quantity over quality, which means that finding fun games to play can take some work.
It is an interesting way to tune into whats trending with the younger generation, though.
So thats where my little cousins sudden obsession with axolotls came from.
Let’s talk about those games
Robloxs appeal is not lost on me.
It contains a multitude of mini-games that cater to different types of players.
Another game was just about punching things.
You just walk around a featureless map filled with anime-inspired characters like Demon Slayers Rengoku and punch him.
Seems a bit cruel, but Im sure theres a niche there.
Its important to remember that these games werent made by Roblox Corporation.
Video games about making video games are nothing new, of course.
Dreams hit the same sweet spot.
All you need is a phone or a tablet to access a massive library of games free of charge.
As it turns out, Roblox doesnt need to match the quality of Genshin Impact.
It doesnt even have to come close.
Roblox does have a dark side.
The takeaway
Diving into Roblox like this has been an educational experience.
Clearly, theyre doing just fine.
