Even as someone whose job it is to cover games, it is impossible not to have a few blind spots. I can hold my own in a discussion about League of Legends, know the history and general pulse in the Destiny community, and keep up with the latest goings on in Fortnite out of curiosity, but I couldn’t tell you almost anything about Roblox before this week. I knew it was both a game and a creation engine that was quietly one of the most popular games in the world, but that’s about it. As a 33-year-old man, I ignorantly assumed I was out of the game’s demographic without ever giving it a shot.
I spent this past week righting that wrong to see for myself if Roblox really is something just for the younger generation. At the very least, I wanted to see if I could understand the appeal of the game even if it wasn’t for me. I have come away not only fully understanding why Roblox is the cultural phenomenon it is, but it feels like the next evolution of one of my most formative eras in gaming.
The new Flash games
Between the ages of 8 and around 13 or 14, I was obsessed with Flash games. I loved my console games, don’t get me wrong, but I could only get a new N64 or PS2 game so often. Flash games were free and endless. I spent an embarrassing number of hours after school and on weekends browsing through sites like AddictingGames, Newgrounds, and Kongregate to see what new experiences awaited me. Before the big indie explosion on consoles, this was the wild west of gaming. Anyone with a vision and the dedication to make a game could, no matter how weird. I won’t lie and say they were all amazing — I can’t tell you how many generic tower defense games, basic puzzlers, and lifeless 2D platformers I must have played — but every now and then I would stumble upon a game that was a clear passion project that had real talent behind it.
Sadly, Flash games started to fall out of favor a bit, and eventually the entire platform was shut down. Browser games didn’t go away, but they weren’t the only game in town anymore. Indies were able to sell themselves on consoles, PC, and mobile instead of putting themselves on a site for free. Some still make games for the love of it, and if I had more time I would love to spend hours checking out the free games on places like Itch.io, but I assumed the heyday of that era was in the past.
The Flash era isn’t dead; it has just transformed and calls itself Roblox.
I had no idea what to expect when I launched Roblox for the first time, but I certainly wouldn’t have guessed to be greeted with what looked strikingly like the layout of a browser game site from my past. Instead of booting into a game, I was greeted with a bespoke window with headings for Today’s Picks and Recommended For You, plus a sidebar for ways to find whatever experience I was after. It was honestly a little overwhelming at first, but the fact that I could dive in and out of experiences just as easily as if they were browser games was my first clue as to why Roblox had captured so many players.
Despite being built with the same blocky characters, there’s an impressive amount of creativity and variety on offer. I could jump from an FPS or third-person hack and slash to an RTS, trivia game, or open world survival crafting game on a whim. No matter what your favorite genre is, someone’s made it in Roblox. Especially if that genre is anime games, because oh boy are there a ton of those.
There is a bit of a language to Roblox that even the best games expect players to come in understanding. Even the most well-produced games aren’t particularly well tutorialized, but it doesn’t take long to get a grasp of the basics and then figure out the nuances of any specific game. Coming in cold, however, means that it leaves your first impression with the game up to chance based on what user-created game you click on first. Even a basic official introductory experience for first-time users before throwing them to the wolves would go a long way.
Why Roblox feels like an evolution of Flash games is twofold: the scale of these games and the monetization. The first is easy enough to explain; some of these games are full-fledged games. While I don’t recall any Flash game lasting more than 2-3 hours at most, I could see the threads in some Roblox games stretch on for a dozen or more hours. That leads right into the second point, which is where the illusion broke for me. Again, I can’t speak universally since every creator approaches it differently, but most of the most popular games I played were anything but subtle about pushing me to spend Robux on items and cosmetics. Pay-to-win is a very real thing in Roblox to a concerning degree. I don’t begrudge creators from monetizing their work — some of these games are clearly high quality and deserving of some compensation — but the method sets a terrible precedent. Even when I found a game I could see myself enjoying for a few hours I would be hit with roadblocks that were designed not to be overcome naturally, but through my wallet. I don’t know if Flash games would’ve evolved into this type of pay-to-win model, but they certainly would move towards monetization.
Just jumping around and sampling Roblox games for a half hour or so before bouncing to the next one is a great experience. I totally understand how the breadth of experiences all within one singular — and free — game available on any device would capture such a sweeping audience of young players. If you are a creator, the tools and opportunity for millions of people to enjoy your game might be one of the best ways to show off your talent in an era where it is becoming increasingly hard for games to get noticed. If it weren’t for the acceptance of using monetization as the main form of progression design, I could see myself sticking around for the long haul in some of these games. That’s just not a system I can support and I hope that it isn’t training players to accept that as the norm in other games.
