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by 2001zhaozhao12 hours ago|

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I agree with this. For the last ~4 years I have been working to turn my Minecraft server into a free browser game on a custom engine.

Though in Roblox's case, there's two additional factors helping the success of games on its platform besides being free to play

- Roblox has become the de-facto portal from which lots of people play games by default, especially on mobile devices like tablets where discovery for other games (that aren't P2W and can spam ads) is very poor

- Multiplayer games are exceptionally easy to develop on Roblox. (With a standalone game you have to grind on an engine for years like what I'm doing. I'm developing thousands of LOC per weekend with a multi-agent setup and there is just so much necessary complexity that launching an alpha build will take months.)

by foobarian8 hours ago|

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I would also add it's easier to download and set up than Minecraft. I still have nightmares about setting up various Microsoft and Xbox accounts and trying to help my kid play with her friends. IMO that Roblox doesn't have this friction is huge

by Root_Denied4 hours ago|

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In this day and age Prism launcher [0] will handle Minecraft and any modpacks you want to use. The only caveat is pointing it at your download folder so it can open the tabs for any mods that need a manual download and it will import them, but that's hardly difficult.

Minecraft (Mojang/Microsoft) have also made it clear that with them moving from OpenGL to Vulcan they're maintaining the ability for Minecraft to run on Mac as well as Windows/Linux, which is fantastic.

My bet is that the real different lies in mobile devices - iPads/tablets and phones are something that kids have more access to than laptops or desktops, and lots of people don't bother with parental controls.

[0] - https://prismlauncher.org/

by Thlom2 hours ago|

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Sure, but I still need a Microsoft account of some sort to play Minecraft? And parental controls still exists inside Microsoft or Xbox (is that the same account??). I spent a couple days just trying to make it possible for my daughter and her friends to be connected on Minecraft. And then you need to figure out what a launcher is, that Prism even exists. And you get a completely different experience on iPad where Prism doesn't exist. It's stil a hassle compared to Downloading free Roblox and start playing and having the same experience across devices.

by kgwxd1 hours ago|

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My 9 yo has alt accounts I didn't setup, that's how easy Roblox is. I have MC/Microsoft account info for like 10 people, mostly family/friends kids, in my password manager because their parents were fine with them playing, but didn't want to deal with account management. Every sleep over starts with me logging everyone in on the various available devices, with their parents on standby to help with the multi-factor shitstorm that ensues.

Roblox is getting pretty bad though with age verification, and they will NOT help recover a lost/hacked account no matter how much money was spent on it. 5 year account, likely thousands of dollars in robux spent on it, kid clicked a bad link and it's gone. Roblox just responds they can't help, even though the original email address was verified, and used 2 factor auth through its history. They used to be helpful, they don't care anymore.

by vasco7 hours ago|

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That whole schpiel is why Minecraft isn't free. That people are willing to go through that. There's a lot of free games.