I banned my kid from Roblox.... what next?

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

CrypticCoffee, (edited )

Try Minetest - 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.

Surp,
@Surp@lemmy.world avatar

Gary’s mod, Minecraft

can,

gmod is great. Another game with several other games inside.

realitista,
@realitista@lemmy.world avatar

Videos I look at seem rather violent with a lot of guns. Are these included by default or addons? My son’s 6 and just getting into minecraft but I don’t want to turn it into an FPS for him.

sbv,

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.

WetBeardHairs,

Yeah that’s already a staple

SPRUNT,

No Man’s Sky is fantastic now.

spuncertv,

Sea of thieves is great, but only plays 4 at any given time. It also has alcohol and some T rated violence, but it depends on what your boundaries are for the kids.

Gabu,

Hello, fellow pirate! I would argue nobody could actually take the violence on Sea of Thieves as being T-rated - it’s a bunch of goofy, heavily deformed people fighting with swords that don’t draw blood.

FigMcLargeHuge,

This is a good suggestion. I like this game as well. There’s a lot of customization that can be done without paying extra for it, but I am an old fart and don’t care to have all that crap in my game. Give everyone the same pair of pants and lets go. Time to go change the onion on my belt.

ArmainAP,

Was he interested in developing games in Roblox or just playing them? If he was interested in development, consider showing to him Godot. Do a simple tutorial together, maybe a multiplayer that he can send and show off to his friends.

Pietson,

Something like scratch is probably a much easier introduction.

BaroqueInMind,
@BaroqueInMind@kbin.social avatar

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.

I guarantee your parents did the same shit to you, and you perpetuate that toxicity.

Nougat,

Says the person with no kids.

BaroqueInMind,
@BaroqueInMind@kbin.social avatar

How many kids do you have?

Nougat,

Three more than you.

BaroqueInMind,
@BaroqueInMind@kbin.social avatar

How old are they?

Nougat,

Why?

BaroqueInMind,
@BaroqueInMind@kbin.social avatar

Wondering what kind of parent you may be. Read through your post history and you sound sane and competent up until approximately minutes ago.

Nougat,

I am large, I contain multitudes.

Chozo,

You sound like exactly the kind of kid who needed his Xbox taken away.

datendefekt,
@datendefekt@lemmy.ml avatar

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.

can,

The answer is whatever his friends are playing.

WetBeardHairs,

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.

can,

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.

WetBeardHairs,

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.

schmidtster,

Wait so you let them use the money how they wanted and now you’re mad at them for spending it how they wanted and how you told them…?

That’s a fucked up lesson and a half, you clearly didn’t learn your lesson and are now teaching the kid they will be punished for following instructions.

Well fucking done.

WetBeardHairs,

My kid didn’t do the microtransaction fuckup. He just got addicted to a shitty game that me and his friends’ parents also hated. One of his friends burnt a pile of cash which instigated all of us saying that it is time to end it. I mentioned this several times now in the thread.

schmidtster,

Yeah you mentioned the kid spent their gift card how they wanted with permission from their parents, and you do the same thing, and is now being punished for it. Thats shitty parenting, you’re not banning them because they spent a little money.

This was just the excuse you needed, be a better parent and don’t make up shit.

WetBeardHairs,

deleted_by_moderator

    •
    schmidtster,

    You started you post off just making fun of the game, we know your biased intent here.

    You said a kid blew a gift card, and you let your kid spent money on microtransactions already. This is called a parallel, you don’t seem to comprehend you let your kid already do this as well…. What difference does the game make? You already let it happen, fornite, Roblox, Minecraft no difference. Yet you took offense to one single game.

    The issue here is your parenting, it has nothing to do with the game, you said it yourself lmfao.

    WetBeardHairs,

    deleted_by_moderator

    •
    Kyatto,

    That other commentor is a child or clearly never grew up. The internet is definitely not the same as when I was younger, kids don’t have the understanding of money or knowledge of predatory psychological techniques that are used to make vulnerable people, or children, part ways with what they have earned.

    You sound like a great dad who’s taking an interest and involvement in your kids hobbies and I love that. There needs to be some sort of course, or game would probably be better, designed to teach children about the sort of things we see these days.

    Personally I’m pretty susceptible to that sort of stuff so I use adblock and try to shy away from gacha type things. Microtransactions are hell.

    520,

    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)

    xaxl,

    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.

    datendefekt,
    @datendefekt@lemmy.ml avatar

    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.

    Coskii, (edited )
    @Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    It would be helpful to understand what types of games the kid was playing in the first place to suggest alternatives. I ripped this answer from quora on how to see which games within roblox your child was playing

    • Game History: Roblox used to have a “Game History” feature that allowed users to view a list of recently played games. This feature showed the last few games you played, but it was limited in terms of historical data. It’s worth checking if this feature is still available in your account settings.
    • Roblox Account Activity: You can check your Roblox account’s activity feed, which may show some information about recent game interactions and achievements. However, this feed typically doesn’t display a comprehensive game history.
    • Roblox API: Some third-party websites and tools may offer services that attempt to retrieve and display more extensive game history data by accessing Roblox’s API. Be cautious when using third-party services and make sure they are reputable and secure.

    I went looking for any kind of account tracker and to no one’s surprise they are mostly about account value from items, not so much about worlds/experiences they have been on.

    Most of the responses I’ve seen on here are just suggesting games which may or may not be to your kids looking purely based on those games being generally accepted as good.

    ElusiveClarity,

    My brother and I started playing Grounded together as a way to just chill and catch up throughout the week. We were shocked with how much content was actually in the game. It’s like Valheim mixed with Honey I Shrunk The Kids, 4 player online coop, base building, survival. It has a storyline so there’s always a sense of direction and it syncs the world with everyone regardless of who plays so it’s easy to just come and go. I could definitely see a group of 10 year olds getting sucked into this.

    WetBeardHairs,

    Oh that looks really good. Thanks for the recommendation.

    LeylaLove,

    Is this what we’re doing instead of actually parenting? Roblox sucks, but you know what sucks even more? Being left out of the friend group because your parent is digging their heels in on some issue they can’t understand. Plus, where is the brightline for this? Would you ban your kid from playing Fortnite because of the skins? Counter strike when he’s older? Clash of clans?

    You could play Roblox with him and explain what’s wrong with the games. You could help build his taste to not like the games that want to charge him out the ass and let him move past Roblox on his own. You can help him learn to make games and help him learn enough to want to move to something else. Otherwise, you’re just going to seem like an asshole. Because from reading this, you clearly just watched some video essay on Roblox and dug your heels in based on that.

    WetBeardHairs,

    Would you kindly fuck off? I am allowed to parent my children how I see fit. I provide him plenty of high quality games and multiple gaming systems and I want to make sure that his limited video game time is at least stimulating.

    LaGG_3, (edited )
    @LaGG_3@hexbear.net avatar

    You were asking for advice, and she gave you some solid suggestions. IDK why you’re getting so bent out of shape.

    Edit: Adding this article to maybe give you some more detail. Play the game with your kid and see what about it they enjoy. If you want to introduce them to better games, you’ll need to have an idea about what they like.

    WetBeardHairs,

    Is this what we’re doing instead of actually parenting?

    No, that wasn’t advice. That was judgemental and without cause. I am asking for game suggestions because this isn’t meant as a punishment - it is meant to let the kids have an upgrade. But I guess I didn’t tiptoe around everyone’s overly sensitive feelings over here.

    LaGG_3,
    @LaGG_3@hexbear.net avatar

    You gave absolutely no context about what kinds of things your child enjoys in video games. Go figure that out first. If you don’t know that, and you’re taking the game he enjoys away he’s 100% going to see it as a punishment.

    WetBeardHairs,

    Thanks for presuming I don’t know what my kid enjoys. Why do you have to be such a dick with the personal attacks? I am asking for advice on multiplayer games. You’re being a dick. I bet you make a lot of friends that way.

    Nougat,

    Pay no attention to the people who don't have kids. You're doing just fine. The fact that you're asking honestly makes you a better parent than many.

    Kids, as you well know, are gonna figure out unimaginable ways to get themselves in trouble. I've had to tell more than one of my kids, "I'm gonna let you make all the mistakes you want, and I'm gonna be there to pick you up, but I am not going to let you make permanent mistakes." When it comes to advertising, microtransactions, OnlyFans (yes, OnlyFans), the lesson is "these things exist for one purpose, and that is to separate you from your money as much as possible." If you are paying for something, stop and consider whether you can get a substantially similar thing for free, or at least for a lot cheaper.

    From reading your other comments, it sounds like you and the other parents all agreed together to drop the hammer on all the kids at once. That is a good idea, and it's great that you have lines of communication open to your kid's friends' parents. That's going to be important when they're older and driving cars, and having access to intoxicants and mall ninja shit.

    To your actual question - I saw someone mention Minecraft, that is a fantastic choice. There are "skins" and shit that can be bought, but the game itself it absolutely fully playable and enjoyable without anything beyond the initial game purchase. Running a private server is pretty easy, and I would recommend it, so that the friend group always has a place they can go where the annoyances of the internet-at-large are excluded. Besides that, a kid who is motivated to modify his own Minecraft server is going to be driven to figure out how to do it, and that kind of skill will be super useful for oh so many things throughout life.

    If they like arena combat games, Crossout is pretty fun. World of Tanks is okay, but the grind curve is steep. War Thunder is fun for planes and ships, but I am not a fan of their tank play mechanics. All of those are free to play, yes you can buy stuff, but you absolutely do not have to.

    There's a single player game that I have to mention: The Long Dark. Winter survival, and there's also a storyline mode. The storyline is really good, and the map is absolutely vast. While it's not one they would be able to play together, it's a great exploration and survival game, and I would be remiss if I didn't point it out.

    WetBeardHairs,

    The Long Dark is brutal.

    LeylaLove,

    You know what’s more stimulating than any individual game you’ll have him play? Making his own choices on what to play. And like I said, brightline, what is and isn’t stimulating to you? Are shitty flash games banned for being too simple minded?

    Parenting is your kid learning from you. They’re not learning why you’re banning Roblox, and if you explain it to them they don’t really understand. My kid is starting to not fuck with Roblox anymore because of how pay to win some of the games are. He had to do a lot of chores for those Robux and instantly wished he had the money for better things a couple days later when he wanted a plushie at the store. When I told him he could have gotten that plushie if he hadn’t gotten Robux, he stopped wanting Robux. He learned the value of money, and learned to prioritize the things he wants, and coincidentally doesn’t want to play Roblox like he used to. I didn’t have to be the bad guy because most kids have things they want more than Robux. All I had to do was make him choose.

    Seriously, download and play Roblox with him. There are a million different games on there, you can even filter games on the site. Some of the games are actually really fucking good. Meet him where he’s at, set rules so he has to play Roblox with you. You can actually monitor what he’s playing and doing, while getting in some bonding time. Because your Dad playing tag or whatever dumbass things we were into as kids was way usually way cooler than playing Dad’s game. You’re going to be

    GarbageShoot,

    You made the correct choice getting rid of Roblox and you don’t deserve to get flak for it, but

    I am allowed to parent my children how I see fit

    This is a shitty way to view the question. As someone with unique authority over the child, you are obliged to do your best at doing right be them.

    “But I am!” you say

    Then say that instead of this children-as-property shit

    LeylaLove,

    That’s what I’m more upset about. The logic behind these decisions that has been expressed simply isn’t sound parenting. This kid just got his favorite toy taken away, and while it isn’t meant as punishment, it will feel like punishment. The logic expressed in the post is regurgitated out of a video essay, and makes it sound like Dad doesn’t even know why he’s taking it away. My situation was a little bit different, adopting someone else’s kid who had an entirely different life before me, but I feel like the shock therapy of just banning it with video essay logic is weak even if they are fully your children. As someone who was on it as a kid, I don’t like Roblox overall. However, I’ve found just teaching him why I don’t like Roblox has been more effective than just pulling it away and giving a poorly thought out explanation why. Now he’s come to the conclusion of the emptiness of Roblox himself, I didn’t have to force it.

    Kids are smarter than we give them credit for. Giving them the information on their level and giving them choice usually pays off with kids. They can usually understand way more than we expect them to as long as we can break it down for them. It’s one thing to be the weird kid who can’t play Roblox because your parents don’t want you to, it’s another thing to be the kid who just doesn’t want to play Roblox. I’m saying that this is a situation where you can have your cake and eat it too, and that’s by educating your kids to make good decisions and give them ample opportunity to practice that skill.

    GarbageShoot,

    The marketplace of ideas tends to be a much weaker force than “what are my friends playing?” I’m all for treating kids as people, but that also means understanding that people mostly choose what lets them get on with their peers the most easily.

    WetBeardHairs,

    Why do you think I am not trying to be the best parent? Do you know my child? No? Then you don’t know what is best for them. In this case, it is the best. Roblox is garbage tier games on a platform made by exploitation of children for the exploitation of children. Just because I am man enough to call that out and make the tough decisions doesn’t mean people need to personally attack me for it. Dangers to our society evolve - it’s like slapping a crack pipe out of the hand of a family member… just digitally.

    GarbageShoot,

    This is a reading comprehension issue. Look at what I said more carefully, I am implicitly supporting the idea you are trying to help your kid and telling you to argue from a standpoint of human benefit rather than sovereignty. With the rise of Christian nationalism, we’re only going to see an uptick in “children are the property of the parent” style reasoning, and we should all be fighting it.

    520, (edited )

    I don't think you quite understand how bad Roblox is.

    Think of the most predatory games you can imagine.

    Roblox is far fucking worse.

    Not only is it a money grubbing game like the worst of mobile free-to-play games, it encourages content creators to exhibit the same behaviours and does nothing about blatant fraud on the platform. Something it's money obsessed nature actually encourages and rewards.

    If the shit that goes on in Roblox went on in Facebook to nearly the same degree, Meta would be raked over the coals for it; even Meta haven't stooped so low.

    Lunar,

    No Man’s Sky?

    WetBeardHairs,

    We actually tried it on gamepass and my son was only kind of interested. Thanks for the recommendation though

    robot_dog_with_gun,

    give him an apple 2 and make him learn how to use a command line

    WetBeardHairs,

    Not until after he can patch RCT1’s assembly

    Tathas,

    Pshtt, not until he dies of dysentery once or twice.

    Grebgreb,
    @Grebgreb@hexbear.net avatar

    Minecraft

    sooper_dooper_roofer,

    everybody should play minecraft

    the16bitgamer,

    What might be a good idea is to try Game Pass for a few months and see what they settle on. Then for Birthdays or Christmas, get them the games they played the most. Not sure how parental controls are like on it, but I hope they exists.

    That being said, outside of Nintendo, there aren’t many Online games which don’t demand their users to pay for cosmetics with fake in game currency. See CTR Nitro Fuelled, Fortnight, Call of Duty, Overwatch and Minecraft skins.

    With that said if changing your system isn’t an option, Minecraft Bedrock Edition the only game I am familiar with. There is a skin store, but you can’t earn in game currency from just playing (from my knowledge). So if they don’t have access to the credit card, they won’t be tempted, plus the base game has enough options that you can customize your character well enough.

    If you can get a switch (and friends have one already), Splatoon 2/3, Mario Kart 8, and Animal Crossing are all friendly non-microtransaction laden games.

    WetBeardHairs,

    Has Nintendo made their online system any less crappy lately? Do they have voice chat or is it still “Use discord”? I say this as a lifetime player of Nintendo games. In the meantime, I’ve got like 3 years of Game Pass because I did the xbox live upgrade to get it for cheap.

    JungleJim,

    As a diehard Nintendo fan, not really

    WetBeardHairs,

    Dangit, Nintendo.

    the16bitgamer,

    Technically you can voice chat with friends over discord the Nintendo Switch online app.

    But yeah I use anything that isn’t their service for voice chat.

    WetBeardHairs,

    Seems like it would be hard to use a wired headset to listen to the game sounds/music and voicechat at the same time.

    Kyatto,

    Possible, but janky

    female to 2 male headphone y splitter

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