As we all know, Roblox is garbage tier gameplay structured around psychological cues to get children to fill an endless pit with fake money bought with real money.
So I banned my kid from it. He used it a little bit socially with a few friends of his. What online or local multiplayer games should I help him to replace it with? (He’s 10, so please don’t recommend Diablo 4 or anything else that has quite that much gore)
He and his friends have an Xbox Series X|S at home.
Edit: keep your judgemental shit out of here. His whole social group (5 kids he knows from school) got banned on the same day. Me and the other parents are trying to be nice and replace it with better quality games so it isn’t just a punishment.
Edit2: Thanks guys. I got him Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge
For everyone saying OP should let their kid play Roblox and just ban spending money… just no.
Roblox exploits child labor for profit and they have terrible scummy business practices. If you have even marginal ethical qualms about child labor and/or capitalistic exploitation of vulnerable people, you should be keeping yourself and your family away from Roblox. In your mind they should be in the same category as multilevel marketing, crypto scams and door-to-door religion peddlers.
Roblox really is the lowest of the low.
I actually think it’s fair to call them child predators. They’re exploiting kids for money instead of sexual gratification, but it’s the same power dynamic. Child exploitation is their business model.
A lot of sexual child exploitation goes down there too, so you don’t even need a roundabout definition of child abuse.
My son just turned 6 and I was thinking of looking at the game (he really likes actual Lego, and his buddies are into Minecraft and Roblox), but another parent at a bday party a few weeks back asked if we played, and then warned my that I needed to keep a close eye on it, because the suggested games algo was pushing really sketch things to his daughter.
So I started looking and decided the shopping aspect was something I didn’t want to expose him to yet. But these revelations are making me glad we haven’t yet used it and never will.
Do you have written sources for these? I’d like to educate myself but I can’t stand YouTube videos.
This guy’s argument would literally be that Mario maker is encouraging child labor because it doesn’t pay kids who make levels in it.
Intent makes a big difference. The value of Roblox as a platform and as a business is based on the work done by children to develop for it, and it was set up that way on purpose. They created an incentive model to encourage it.
Nintendo’s value as a company is not based on kids creating Mario Maker levels, nor does Nintendo push kids to do so with the promise of earning money.
That’s an entirely different thing, because Mario Maker doesn’t lure anyone with the bait of financial gain.
That’s horrible. These 10 year olds are learning programming and game design skills for nothing. Good thing THAT was nipped in the bud.
This is addressed directly in the linked videos. Development for Roblox doesn’t translate outside of Roblox.
Roblox sells the idea that you can actually make money with it, it has its own economy with job hunting and salaries. Mario Maker is just a community game.
Considering the newest Mario game got a shitload of ideas from Mario maker levels, anyone who was good at mario making enough to be creative with the formula had their labor stolen as RnD for Wonder
it would be if the word literally meant figuratively or mario maker psychologically tortured children into spending cash for the privilege
Factorio provided you want a group of kids that you never see again that can all program their own PLC devices
Terraria, for something crafty-buildy with combat and very cartoony/2d blood and gore. 1-8 players.
Don’t Starve Together, survival crafting in a hand-drawn Tim Burton-esque style. 2-6 players.
Awesomenauts, 3v3 fast paced competitive game in the style of Saturday morning cartoons. 3-6 players.
Deep Rock Galactic, coop shooter where you play space dwarves and shoot bugs while doing missions together. Gore may be a bit strong for your liking, but it’s very stylized and only against bugs and robots. 1-4 players.
Risk of Rain 2, shooter where you try and escape a planet together with lots of different ways to play. 1-4 players.
Age of Empires 2, old school fast-paced medieval strategy game modernized with new graphics and such. 1-8 players.
Valheim, viking survival crafty buildy game in which you explore and conquer a dangerous world together. 1-10 players.
Cassette Beasts, technically not multi-player yet but they’re adding it as a free update January. It’s a Pokémon-esque game where you’ll all be trainers in the same overworld together capturing beasts and taking down challenges together. 1-8 players when it comes out.
All of these games are rated T for teen, but it sounds more like you’re opposed to M rated violence and language than T levels. They’re all also insular in that this friend group doesn’t need to involve other people to play together and can either play with or against each other or the computer.
Some really solid recommendations here. Thanks a ton. I’ve heard of Deep Rock Galactic but it didn’t pop into mind. And Risk of Rain 2 looks great.
DRG does have a touch of profanity if you’re concerned about that, btw.
I just want to avoid the porn games on steam, and any super-gory shit like dead space. I thought Diablo would be fun for him but it is a bit too much right now. It was different when super pixelated back in the D2 days.
Deep Rock Galactic has mtx packs but they’re cosmetic, and there’s a large selection of cosmetics that you can unlock within the game itself.
Risk of Rain 2 has one proper expansion, with another on its way, and no mtx.
Try Minetest - https://www.minetest.net/
It’s a FOSS voxel engine, so they can play multiplayer with their friends for free. MineClone2 is a Minecraft clone on Minetest, so even if their friends don’t have Minecraft, they can still play with friends.
For paid games, consider indie games, as they’re less likely to be micro-transaction bullshit. Raft, Stardew Valley, Two Point Hospital are good options. Not so much multiplayer, but Stardew supports it. Multiplayer wise, maybe Among Us if the parents are comfortable with that.
I haven’t seen Splatoon being recommended here, it’s a ton of fun and has no micrograms actions. You can but your kid a Switch for cheap nowadays.
Categorically disagree. I am a grown arse adult. Splatoon 3 tilts me like no other game, due to some very deliberate FOMO game design decisions and a very poor matchmaking algorithm. Whilst there’s no real money store in the game, it has a lot of other problems that make it just as bad as Roblox imo
Can you elaborate a bit? I played Splatoon 2 until Nintendo started charging for the online but, as far as I know, Splatoon 3 only has a free battlepass.
Am I missing anything?
Honestly it’s a combination of the battlepass system and the stage design causing constant, very fast-paced combat. The stages are too small, so players are funnelled into the middle of the stage. This also causes spawncamping if the matchmaking is even slightly unbalanced (which it is most of the time), as one wipe will allow a team to push all the way into spawn.
Previous Splatoon games were very good about this - most stages were abstract shapes, with a lot of terrain, meaning combat was rare, and the game encouraged painting over fighting as painting would net the most points on a per-match basis. Splatoon 3’s new maps are all thin, straight lines, which forces players into that central killzone.
The battlepass, along with some very poor decision making around the results screen, which shows the winning team celebrating, means that losses feel bad. The matchmaking similarly punishes winstreaks by forcing losestreaks, usually matching you against people above your skill level, but on a team with players below your skill level. Whilst this is very addictive, it makes losing feel genuinely awful, and a losing streak causes tilting due to the FOMO of the battlepass.
Hope this writeup makes sense. I view Splatoon 3 as a genuinely bad game because of these factors, and greatly prefer Splatoon 2.
I think I understand what you mean, I only played Splatoon 2 so I don’t have much to add, I don’t think there is much of a population left sadly.
Seconding splatoon. Very kid and adult friendly, and basically no micro transactions (unless you count amiibo). No other game has kept my attention like it has for the last year
Just rediscovered Battlefield Heroes through the fanmade Rising Hub.
Pretty sure it’s the perfect kinda game for a group of 10 year olds to play and socialize on.I recommend Astroneer - a solo / multiplayer survival game about collecting resources, refining stuff and building up bases on several planets. It’s hecking fun in multiplayer and it doesn’t have combat. There’s a ton of things to do and if the kids are good at communicating with each other they can quickly conquer the game. The only microtransactiony stuff it has is cosmetics (but it’s not being pushed upon you in any way), but you can unlock some of these through progression as well.
I play Fortnite with my kid and some friends. We’ve configured comms so he can only chat with approved friends from RL.
Fortnite has a reputation for getting kids to buy cosmetics, but it isn’t justified. We’ve been playing for a year or so and my guy hasn’t asked to buy anything.
It’s very approachable, so your kid may be able to convince his friends to play too.
Yeah that’s already a staple
Golf with friends
Sniper Elite Five is fun. It only has gore when you are shooting Nazis and it is always morally good to shoot Nazis.
Shooting nazis is acceptable. I’ll get him Wolfenstein one of these days when he’s a little older.
The next step is becoming a better parent. That’s a shit move and you can’t stop your kid from playing it behind your back. You simply taught them to find and learn new ways to gaslight and evade you in order to keep playing with their friends.
You sound like exactly the kind of kid who needed his Xbox taken away.
Gaslighting, toxicity, oh come on. I’m supposed to expect my kid to lie to me?
Just giving my kids into the embrace of peer pressure isn’t love, it’s evading confrontation. Give them a place of trust and understanding, with clear rules they can understand and follow. If my kids are getting their way bending and evading the rules we set, then it’s way too late.
We often say yes, but sometimes we have to say no, and our kids are fine with that.
Says the person with no kids.
How many kids do you have?
Three more than you.
How old are they?
Why?
Wondering what kind of parent you may be. Read through your post history and you sound sane and competent up until approximately minutes ago.
I am large, I contain multitudes.
Roblox is full of different kinds of games, right? Why don’t you find out the kinds of games he likes there and find recommendations based on that? It’s a start at least. I would imagine most of the Roblox games are clones of better games anyway.
He and his entire friends group on roblox got banned from it in a single day. We’re trying to not be jerks by providing a better game to replace it with. But from what I saw - he was playing some game where he stands there and pokes at a robot that gets bigger while things around it die. Not very stimulating.
The answer is whatever his friends are playing.
Coincidentally they got banned from Roblox at the same time! One of them dumped $50 in an afternoon on the game then had the audacity to ask for more money. So his whole social circle got booted from that cesspit on the same day. Me and their parents are trying to find good substitutes.
This is some good context. I’m not too familiar with roblox but I understand it’s more of a platform than a single game. How are they accessing microtransactions? If that can’t be prevented than that’s a bigger problem.
From my understanding, that kid was given an apple giftcard so it didnt actually hit his parent’s credit cards. I monitor my kid’s microtransactions and I give him opportunities to earn money he can use for microtransactions of his choosings.
Roblox is a money-grubbing cesspit filled with manipulation. Even if you do close off the MTX route, it opens the door for someone to send a virus and say it’ll get you free Robux (the Roblox in-game currency)
That kid is now known as the kid who got Roblox banned among their group of friends, not a nice thing to known for. This will be seen as a punishment by them regardless of how you frame it especially once the other kids at their school become aware of it.
Ouch. Good luck navigating this one as your kids get older.
I’m not so sure about that. My kids had other kids in their class playing Fortnite - in second grade!
And if my kid were 10 and all his friends were playing Diablo IV or GTA my answer would be a steadfast no.
Some games you could consider -
- Krunker
- Minecraft java edition
- Stardew valley
- Terraria
- Starbound
- Dorfromantik
- Cities skyline
- Goat simulator
Couple of issues with this list:
- OP said their son in his friends use Xbox Series X/S, so that effectively removes Krunker and Minecraft Java Edition. That said, I believe Minecraft Bedrock Edition is available for XSX.
- Stardew Valley is great, but the son’s social group has 5 people. Stardew Valley only supports up to 4.
- Cities Skylines does not have multiplayer.
Can’t speak for Dorfromantik, because I haven’t played it, but the rest seem like great choices.
Easy solution for Stardew Valley. Unfriend one.
Joke aside, Factorio multiplayer would be nice to teach some logical thinking, but it’s only on PC
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everybody should play
