Unlimited Games, but No Games

Written By: Jayden Zhang

So there I was. Sitting upon a felted chair, looking into a world beyond my own. I feather the left side of my mouse. The white bar follows the black line. Before long, my in-game avatar swings his hand up in victory. Following its motion, a long, dark, fish flies out from the water. Decent, but not quite what I need yet. I once again cast my virtual line. It has been three hours. 

Ah yes, the joys of Roblox. A community-made free-to-play pseudo-sandbox game engine featuring a digital marketplace and avatar customization (and probably quite a few more adjectives as well). That description is rather redundant though, for most of you readers probably recognized its name instantly. What had begun as a basic startup physics engine in 2006 boasting that catchphrase “adventure awaits…”, has transformed into a global phenomenon, hated and loved by children and adults alike. 

I assume it’s time to address the elephant in the room. Roblox has, in the very recent years, come under fire for a certain unsavory community to say the least. The game’s free-to-play model, bright colors, blocky artstyle, and thorough communication tools have garnered it a reputation for being a haven for bad actors and young children. While this label is not completely representative, as I have observed many simply use the program to interact with friends, it still leaves quite a mark. Unless you’re below the age of 12, enthusiastically talking about Roblox will earn you some questioning glances. 

Well, surely the games are worth the bad press right? They must have effort and thought put into them. 

Roblox’s Steal a Brainrot game

No. They’re bad. They’re really bad. Or at least the most popular ones are. Steal a Brainrot has inflicted horrors upon the platform in a manner similar to bacteria multiplying inside its host. The platform has been swarmed with hastily made attention-snatchers churned out by AI which serve to do nothing but nab in-game currency from children who know nothing better (I apologize for the long sentence). Yet, these games are incredibly in demand, just searching for “steal a” on the roblox website regales me with Steal an Egg, Steal Fish Eggs, Steal a Chicken, Steal a Seed, and the new flavor of the month, Steel a Verity, all of which have more than one thousand active players. While well made games do exist, they seem to be buried under the constantly shifting waves of AI slop. Thus, this article’s moniker comes to play, “unlimited games but no games”. Or even echoed from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1734 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner “Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.”

Then why is the platform so popular then? It’s almost impossibly successful, even removing the large portion of the audience who are children. One explanation is that some simply revel in the chaos. They descend, covered within layers of irony, finding joy among the indolent and repulsive (I write as I watch one of my “connections” lovingly nicknamed “LowTierGod” begin his journey on Roll Anime to Fight). Another explanation, which I prefer, is that Roblox, for many, is reminiscent of a simpler time. Eight years ago, in the wonderful world of 2016, Roblox was heralded as the forefront of creativity, it was at its, to say, “peak”. Murder Mystery 2, Work at a Pizza Place, and Prison Life; some may swoon at the very mention of these names, and indeed these games offered social interaction that had never been mainstream before. However, it was less of the games themselves which appeal to people now, but rather the feeling of freedom, the feeling of bathing in youth and the innocence from adult problems and responsibilities. Still, though, the third and most likely interpretation is that the game simply appeals to everyone. Just scrolling through my friends list. I can see people playing mafia, hunting ghosts, or even fighting in an underground reenactment of WWI. There is something for everyone, as long as you spend enough time digging past the piles of AI shovelware. After discovering your own niche, It’s quite easy to find yourself addicted.

However you look upon Roblox, with disdain or with reverence, all can agree that it is incomparable to any other piece of media. Being a platform which is composed almost entirely of works by other players all across the globe, it is hard to rigidly define anything. Even if I made any conclusion now, in a few minutes a thousand new releases would immediately make it irrelevant. My final sentiment is that, just like in life, in Roblox you must choose what deserves your time, and what must be irrelevant.