General Minecraft + Roblox (I don't get the fascination!)

[JayAgostino]

My son introduced me to both Minecraft and Roblox about two weeks ago. Maybe I'm just too old, but I couldn't wrap my ahead around the concept of either one of them. Are there any younger members here who might be able to explain it a little better to me?

I want to be able to play both of those games with him, but I just can't figure it out.

 

[Herdfan]

My daughter. 22, loves Minecraft. Also don't see the fascination with it.

 

[DT]

Minecraft (and Roblox for that matter) is about the building and creation, and even creating a bit of a story and narrative. They simplified the graphics so they sort of get out of the way of creating worlds, and also to keep the game engine unburdened.

Think of Minecraft like Lego, the basic units are very simple but can be combined into unlimited, and sometimes very complex creations, and in-game, all sorts of fabrication options, with managing resources, dealing with other players, organizing groups, but again, super simple. It can be very community driven, there are huge worlds where people build massive constructs together.

Our little G used to play all the time, and we'd occasionally play together, usually some kind of non-competitive, co-op, free build type mode. Heck, she even had (I think still does in storage), Minecraft character plushies

 

[Nycturne]

Minecraft (and Roblox for that matter) is about the building and creation, and even creating a bit of a story and narrative. They simplified the graphics so they sort of get out of the way of creating worlds, and also to keep the game engine unburdened.

Think of Minecraft like Lego, the basic units are very simple but can be combined into unlimited, and sometimes very complex creations, and in-game, all sorts of fabrication options, with managing resources, dealing with other players, organizing groups, but again, super simple. It can be very community driven, there are huge worlds where people build massive constructs together.

The bolded bit is very accurate, and why I wound up playing it as an adult. It's also a good way to get a family playing video games together in a cooperative way.

I've picked up a surprising amount around architecture and aesthetics from trying to construct buildings (a bit of a weak area for me). Playing with redstone machines lets me solve a little puzzle outside of work.

 

[Cmaier]

The bolded bit is very accurate, and why I wound up playing it as an adult. It's also a good way to get a family playing video games together in a cooperative way.

I've picked up a surprising amount around architecture and aesthetics from trying to construct buildings (a bit of a weak area for me). Playing with redstone machines lets me solve a little puzzle outside of work.

Yeah, i love minecraft. Built myself a little city, with working elevators, etc. Fun.

 

[Renzatic]

I like Dragon Quest Builders 2.

 

[Colstan]

My nephew is obsessed with Roblox. All of his friends play it, so there's some peer dynamics at work, as well. He's also at that weird age where he flips between Roblox and GTA. We give him "Robux" gift cards as presents for Birthday/Xmas. I built him a low-end PC specifically just to play Roblox, whereas he has an Xbox for everything else.

That's where the real gold is. A graphic designer can spend five minutes making an outfit skin for Roblox characters. They then charge 500 "Robux" for that skin, and make millions of dollars for almost no work. While the "AAA" titles with flashy graphics get all the headlines (and resultant griping about Apple "not caring about games" with the Mac), the real treasure is in "Robux" and nickel and diming family members for it. Exploiting the psychology of peer pressure and virtual game currency is how companies find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It's ingenious (and insidious) how they transfer real world currency into pretend Robux, which can only be used within the game, meanwhile making it feel like it's not real money that is being spent. Of course, there are entire scams that attempt to exploit kids with "free Robux" offers. Nigerian princes were bad enough, but now parents and grandparents have to watch out for an entirely new type of predator, which are targeting kids using a virtualized market they are unfamiliar with.

 

[Huntn]

I have played Minecraft, the draw is building and creating and there have been some truly amazing things built using blocks.

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That said, what holds it back are blocks and no angled pieces. There are other voxel games out there that have angled pieces and some amazing things things have been crafted by players. I toyed around with both Space Engineers and Emprion-Galactic Survival. I created a very large ship, 5000’ long, but quickly came to realize that due to the game engine limits, it would be no more than a static display. If I can find some images, I’ll post.

Empyrion – Galactic Survival

empyriongame.com

Even in this image, you can see the limits of block building.

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