Russian Ban On Roblox Gaming Platform Sparks Rare Protest (reuters.com) 64
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Several dozen people protested on Sunday in the Siberian city of Tomsk against Russia's ban on U.S. children's gaming platform Roblox, a rare show of public dissent as popular irritation over the ban gains some momentum. In wartime Russia, censorship is extensive: Moscow blocks or restricts social media platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube while distributing its own narrative through a network of social media and Russian media. Russia's communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said on December 3 it had blocked Roblox because it was "rife with inappropriate content that can negatively impact the spiritual and moral development of children."
In Tomsk, 2,900 km (1,800 miles) east of Moscow, several dozen people braved the snow to hold up hand-drawn placards reading "Hands off Roblox" and "Roblox is the victim of the digital Iron Curtain" in Vladimir Vysotsky Park, according to photographs provided by an organizer of the protest. "Bans and blocks are all you are able to do," read one placard. The photographs showed about 25 people standing in a circle in the snow, holding up placards. In Russia, the ban on Roblox has triggered a debate over censorship, child safety in relation to technology and even the effectiveness of censorship in a digitalized world where children can bypass many bans in a few clicks.
In Tomsk, 2,900 km (1,800 miles) east of Moscow, several dozen people braved the snow to hold up hand-drawn placards reading "Hands off Roblox" and "Roblox is the victim of the digital Iron Curtain" in Vladimir Vysotsky Park, according to photographs provided by an organizer of the protest. "Bans and blocks are all you are able to do," read one placard. The photographs showed about 25 people standing in a circle in the snow, holding up placards. In Russia, the ban on Roblox has triggered a debate over censorship, child safety in relation to technology and even the effectiveness of censorship in a digitalized world where children can bypass many bans in a few clicks.
Re:Recognizing addiction. (Score:5, Informative)
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Russia's ban on Roblox has nothing to do with children, aside from being a convenient scapegoat. It is banned because it allows uncensored speech, and totalitarian dictatorships can't have that.
If that theory holds water, ask why the hell it was ever allowed in the first place in a totalitarian dictatorship.
Is this when we hear Russia was on a "break" and went full whore acting as a democratic republic last summer, and doesn't want to talk about that body count?
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Probably because it's become popular enough for the ones in charge to take note of it. Just because it's a dictatorship doesn't mean it's a competent government
Re:Recognizing addiction. (Score:4, Insightful)
Nothing in the putinland is about "self-regulation", everything is about regime preservation, even if they, the people, are by and large sick of it.
But there is only so much one can do against an army of 7 million armed thugs set against a population of about 100-110M, a full half zombied into stupor by vodka and state propaganda. Of which you appear to be one nut.
Roblox is a gaming platform, like Fortnite (Score:5, Insightful)
several dozen people braved the snow to hold up hand-drawn placards reading "Hands off Roblox"..
You mean several dozen hardcore addicts.
Let's stop bullshitting here already. It's already sickening enough realizing we're rapidly approaching that point in society where everyone is a digital addict, dismissed under the guise of "social" media that makes humans anything but social.
If you're a parent of a child, ask yourself; if entire countries start banning children from social media, will you remove your own child from it? If not, understand why you won't. Look in that mirror. Hard.
You've never used it. The Roblox FUD has to stop. It's a simple gaming platform that makes it very easy for amateurs to clone and customize existing games. Most of the games suck, a few are fun, but it's mostly mindless fun teens and pre-teens. This was a simple power move to cut off American soft power. American teenagers make fun low-effort games that you get to play for free because you're Russian and broke. It's no more social media than Halo, Fortnite, or Steam. You can see your friends online and chat with them, but it's focused on simple games.
I think a difference between Roblox and everything else is 2-fold:
1. It's popular among girls and boys, whereas Fortnite, Call of Duty and Halo are sausagefests.
2. It's not designed to be a social media site, like Twitter or Facebook. It's not designed for politics, just playing obbys and various clones of about 5 game types. Most of the games the kids go nuts for have absolutely not point...I don't get it, but I'm old.
It's common sense when your dictator leader bans news and sharing platforms. When he goes after mindless children's games, it's kinda shitty and rubs you the wrong way. Yeah, you know you can't go on a site that bashes him...but one that lets you adopt pets and survive 99 nights in a deer infested forest? WTF? What are the rules now? You can get why Twitter is banned, but not why "Steal a Brainrot" is.
Twitter isn't fun. It's not entertainment. Roblox is. Part of a successful dictatorship is your subjects knowing the rules and being able to follow them. Most can tolerate an authoritarian if they know how to avoid his wrath....especially Russians who are very used to authoritarianism. But when your dictator is unpredictable, it's very scary.
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several dozen people braved the snow to hold up hand-drawn placards reading "Hands off Roblox"..
You mean several dozen hardcore addicts.
Let's stop bullshitting here already. It's already sickening enough realizing we're rapidly approaching that point in society where everyone is a digital addict, dismissed under the guise of "social" media that makes humans anything but social.
If you're a parent of a child, ask yourself; if entire countries start banning children from social media, will you remove your own child from it? If not, understand why you won't. Look in that mirror. Hard.
You've never used it. The Roblox FUD has to stop. It's a simple gaming platform that makes it very easy for amateurs to clone and customize existing games.
Roblox is a game that abuses micro-transactions under the guise of "Robux" to get children addicted early to the mindset of micro-transactions being perfectly acceptable in life. Not to mention item artificial scarcity selling addicts on FOMO sales tactics.
But this should be pretty easy to prove your theory. Challenge yourself to go find a child who loves playing Roblox. A real seasoned vet of the game. Ask to use their profile, and then give all their items away and delete their account.
A "fun game", w
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Roblox is a game that abuses micro-transactions under the guise of "Robux" to get children addicted early to the mindset of micro-transactions being perfectly acceptable in life. Not to mention item artificial scarcity selling addicts on FOMO sales tactics.
But this should be pretty easy to prove your theory. Challenge yourself to go find a child who loves playing Roblox. A real seasoned vet of the game. Ask to use their profile, and then give all their items away and delete their account.
A "fun game", will NOT be what you're thinking about when dealing with the fucking meltdown happening in front of you. You will then know what addiction far too young, looks like.
This is a shitty argument. Individual games on Roblox associate save data to your account and is non-transferable. I used to play Roblox way more when I was a teen, but if someone deleted my whole account, then I'd be pretty pissed too. Not because I lost any valuable items or anything mind you (I don't have any). I'd be pissed because I have just lost hundreds if not thousands of hours worth of play time on many games.
If I went up to someone playing any game they enjoy (online or offline) and just wiped al
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Roblox is a game that abuses micro-transactions under the guise of "Robux" to get children addicted early to the mindset of micro-transactions being perfectly acceptable in life. Not to mention item artificial scarcity selling addicts on FOMO sales tactics.
But this should be pretty easy to prove your theory. Challenge yourself to go find a child who loves playing Roblox. A real seasoned vet of the game. Ask to use their profile, and then give all their items away and delete their account.
A "fun game", will NOT be what you're thinking about when dealing with the fucking meltdown happening in front of you. You will then know what addiction far too young, looks like.
This is a shitty argument. Individual games on Roblox associate save data to your account and is non-transferable. I used to play Roblox way more when I was a teen, but if someone deleted my whole account, then I'd be pretty pissed too. Not because I lost any valuable items or anything mind you (I don't have any). I'd be pissed because I have just lost hundreds if not thousands of hours worth of play time on many games.
If I went up to someone playing any game they enjoy (online or offline) and just wiped all their progress and achievements, they'd almost certainly be quite pissed at me. That argument of "It's clearly not a fun game if they get pissed at you" doesn't work, especially with games that are designed around gradually building up progress like Factorio or Cities: Skylines.
I wonder if you’re actually old enough to remember the default behavior of video game consoles when the power was switched off. By a parental figure. After hours of dedicated gameplay.
My argument stands. Addictive behavior is so well documented at this point that you will come off as an addict yourself if you try and deny or dismiss it this hard. The reaction of a child with a deleted account, says it all. Total fucking meltdowns followed by depression, is not what a “fun game” should
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I wonder if you’re actually old enough to remember the default behavior of video game consoles when the power was switched off. By a parental figure. After hours of dedicated gameplay.
So you're proving yourself wrong and your argument stupid. Things are persistent now. They don't go away when the power goes off. FFS do you have the slightest clue about this? You must be trolling to be that uninformed? Wow you got me.
Yes. I do. Played video games off and on for literally decades now. I'm also well aware of the lengths addicts will go to in order to deny the obvious. Are you? Do you feel any child is addicted, or is "child" your lame excuse here? As if addicts don't ever grow up to become even better addicts. You DO know why we don't allow children to drink alcohol, right?
As these discussions evolve from "innocent" games to banning children from social media altogether, let's see if you're smart enough to recogniz
Skeptical that Russia cares (Score:2)
several dozen people braved the snow to hold up hand-drawn placards reading "Hands off Roblox"..
You mean several dozen hardcore addicts.
Let's stop bullshitting here already. It's already sickening enough realizing we're rapidly approaching that point in society where everyone is a digital addict, dismissed under the guise of "social" media that makes humans anything but social.
If you're a parent of a child, ask yourself; if entire countries start banning children from social media, will you remove your own child from it? If not, understand why you won't. Look in that mirror. Hard.
You've never used it. The Roblox FUD has to stop. It's a simple gaming platform that makes it very easy for amateurs to clone and customize existing games.
Roblox is a game that abuses micro-transactions under the guise of "Robux" to get children addicted early to the mindset of micro-transactions being perfectly acceptable in life. Not to mention item artificial scarcity selling addicts on FOMO sales tactics.
But this should be pretty easy to prove your theory. Challenge yourself to go find a child who loves playing Roblox. A real seasoned vet of the game. Ask to use their profile, and then give all their items away and delete their account.
A "fun game", will NOT be what you're thinking about when dealing with the fucking meltdown happening in front of you. You will then know what addiction far too young, looks like.
The points about Robux is fair. The microtransactions are very tacky, but not heinous. It's a "free" site...thus they have to pay their bill somehow and they don't presently advertise...so yeah, they sell you pointless outfits as well as game hacks. I've never spent a penny, but my kids have. IMO, paying for access to content is a fair way to pay the bills...and for optional costumes? that's honestly even better because I am smart enough to never pay for them. However, as adults, we have to realize th
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The Roblox FUD has to stop. It's a simple gaming platform that makes it very easy for amateurs to clone and customize existing games.
It's also a pedo smorgasboard with zero attempt at reining any of it in. If you've got a pre-teen kid on there, go and have a look some time at the stuff they're exposed to, and what they get invited to.
Re: Roblox is a gaming platform, like Fortnite (Score:2)
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The bad stuff could be unevenly distributed, but it's certainly not something I'd want a kid playing in their bedroom with the door closed.
Is Roblox really more of a risk than other online games in that regard? I don't think I'd feel more comfortable letting my (hypothetical) young kids play unsupervised on open Minecraft servers, for example.
No, but it's popular with girls (Score:2)
The bad stuff could be unevenly distributed, but it's certainly not something I'd want a kid playing in their bedroom with the door closed.
Is Roblox really more of a risk than other online games in that regard? I don't think I'd feel more comfortable letting my (hypothetical) young kids play unsupervised on open Minecraft servers, for example.
As someone who has spent way more time than I'd like in both Minecraft and Roblox, no...it's no more risky. It's probably a lot less risky because Roblox is the first platform I've seen that's really popular with young girls and girls like to tattle. So the jackassery that goes on in Fortnite, Halo, or any other shooter gets reported faster in Roblox.
I think the noise is based on 2 things:
1. Old people like to ban things they don't understand because conservative media needs a demon. If you're 75
It's like Bear and Shark attacks, scary, but rare (Score:2)
The bad stuff could be unevenly distributed, but it's certainly not something I'd want a kid playing in their bedroom with the door closed.
Yeah, somewhere in the world, someone has been mauled or killed by a shark or bear....very scary, very rare. We still go into the woods and go into the beach. Every year, someone near me gets bitten by a shark once or twice in the summer. That same year, there were easily a billion (non-unique) swimmers in that area.
Either you understand probability or you don't. Life is risk. There's no way to avoid all risk beyond killing yourself now. You're like those people that think their plane is going to
Just like WalMart? Target? Chick-Fil-A? (Score:2)
The Roblox FUD has to stop. It's a simple gaming platform that makes it very easy for amateurs to clone and customize existing games.
It's also a pedo smorgasboard with zero attempt at reining any of it in. If you've got a pre-teen kid on there, go and have a look some time at the stuff they're exposed to, and what they get invited to.
Sentence 1: They have AI moderation and boot players for inappropriate conduct, when it's reported. My kid have been booted for swearing.
Sentence 2: I was on last night playing 99 nights in the forest with both of my pre-teen children and several times in the last month. I've been playing various games with them for nearly 5 years. Again, teenagers act like teenager and they're fucking obnoxious...but no different than Halo or Call of Duty or games I've actually played online extensively, like Fortnite
Convincing us all the worst about Russia now? (Score:4, Insightful)
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In the US beer riots would probably be the equivalent. The gov't can take away everything else (in some cases are), but touch the beer and all Hell breaks loose.
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* It does say a lot about priorities of people of russia, and
* It does show that Putin's tolerance for protesting this kind of issues is probably higher.
Not sure that this changes anything in my view of it.
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He might be allowing it as a ruse to paint all protestors as spoiled brats.
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This almost seems to be convincing us that the absolute worst statements about Russian culture today are accurate. Invade another country, continue that invasion with warcrimes and drafting of young men to be sent as cannon fodder, barely a whimper.
These are things the citizens would only hear through the news, and Russia is currently a dictatorship, so they do not have a free press.
But interfere with a videogame platform, and now we have a protest. Pretty despicable priorities.
This is something that directly affects people and they can see it with their own eyes, so they know it's happening.
This is why freedom of the press is a cornerstone of democracies.
Putin might make a deal (Score:1)
..."Kill 10 Ukrainian soldiers, and you get your game back."
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..."Kill 10 Ukrainian soldiers, and you get your game back."
Ukraine is doing something like that... Ukrainian computer game-style drone attack system goes ‘viral' [theguardian.com]
System rewards soldiers who achieve strikes with points that can be used to buy more weapons in an online store.
The number of Russian casualties in September is double the number from last October, in part because the Kyiv government doubled the rewards for killing Russian infantry from six to 12 points, reflecting changing battlefield priorities. ... killing an enemy drone operator now earns 25 points and using a drone to capture a Russian soldier attracts 120 points
A BBC article, Kill Russian soldiers, win points: Is Ukraine's new drone scheme gamifying war? [bbc.com] notes:
Google: Ukraine earn points [google.com]
Off too the meat grinder. (Score:2)
Anyone taking bets on how long until the protesters are conscripted to die in Ukraine?
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No "conscripts" are sent to Ukraine, the Russian propaganda will tell you and they will be technically correct.
It is a two-step process. You're conscripted first and only then, as a conscript at the mercy of your squad officer, are you begin being pressured (the ruzzkie army way) into signing a "contract" and becoming a mercenary, on your own volition. Apparently, it is still not impossible to refuse a contract, although it is certainly a very unpleasant process for the conscript and requires a lot of backb
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Conscripts have been sent to war from day one even without being coerced to sign a contract. The "russian warship go fuck yourself" cruiser was full of conscripts. And since russia officially annexed a large swath of Ukraine by adding these areas into the "constitution", it is perfectly legal to send conscripts there.
Wartime Russia? (Score:2)
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Ironically those still alive have good job prospects because of the busy war economy and because their competition died. There's not a lot to buy, but they can brag about their grand promotions.
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So the rumors are true then, Putin has an account.
scourge (Score:4, Insightful)
There is no story about ruzzians that I do not find disgusting, the only good ruzzian is a dead ruzzian. Trump believing that he can negotiate a business deal with them, involving Exxon Mobile buying the rights to some oil fields for a bargain and putin caring about doing business is cute. putin has Trump and all other Americans figured out. Americans want to do busuness, rhey are all about making money. Certainly it seems to be a rational thing to do. Except putin doesn't care about making money, to him money is not made in business deals, it is taken from whoever makes it, he just takes it, business is for chumps.
putin looks at Trump and the rest of them and understands how to manipulate them easily to achieve his own goals, which are not business goals. putin wants Ukraine, the whole thing and should Ukraine fall he wants the rest of Europe, all of it.
Europeans don't get it but really it shouldn't be that difficult. There is another force they are familiar with tbat has the same goal of world domination - islam. The muslim brotherhood and putin are really very similar concepts. Both want to dominate, both use the weaknesses of democracies and the business approach as jiujitsu of sorts against the West. The West does not understand this because it cannot wrap its head around such concepts, it makes no sense to the Western sensibilities, the West is too rational but also short sighted and too full of itself. The West cannot imagine being outplayed by ruzzians or the islamists. The West is wrong on all counts in this game, it does not recognize its own shortsightedness and its own narcissism.
ruzzians are a scourge, a plague, so are islamists. The West is not ready for this war.
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I read it with a Russian bot account accent.
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There is no story about ruzzians that I do not find disgusting, the only good ruzzian is a dead ruzzian.
Good job, comrade!
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https://t.me/nevzorovtv/30663?... [t.me]
https://t.me/nevzorovtv/30664 [t.me]
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Mind you, in Russia an anti-war protest right now leads to 15 years behind bars.
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afaic all ruzzians are the scourge, a good ruzzian is a dead ruzzian. I definitely wouldn't hire one, don't want to be associated with one, be near one physically.
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100% racist to ruzzians, as I said, these are not creatures I want to be around or associated with. AFAIC they are not humans, some sort of cocroach lizzards.
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I'm sure Putin is signing a proclamation for the Russian Bot Account of the Year award for them. Maybe they'll receive a personal tour of Lubyanka, with a commemorative Markov bullet.
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do you suffer from reading comprehension disability of some sort?
I don't know about that Re:scourge (Score:1)
Pavel Chekov and Susan Ivanova are cool. Sometimes a bit hot on the trigger finger, but cool.
Roblox v Ukraine (Score:1)
[Russia bombs maternity ward in Ukraine]
Russian citizens: Meh. Not great, not terrible.
[Russia bans kids video game]
Russian citizens: *triggered* OMG! Protest this travesty! Roblox is the victim!!!11