Any game that is online (ie. Fortnight, Roblox, Minecraft servers) are not, never where, and never will be safe for kids to play.
Roblox as a platform? OK, whatever, new audience I guess. Have at it Wait Oh no, I’ve misunderstood
As a technology, Roblox is actually impressive, it’s not shitty Minecraft you can make some sophisticated stuff without a lot of work, the tooling is decent and can be learned by a beginner. Source: my kid plays it and has enlisted my help occasionally making stuff in the studio
Either only Fortnite, or a mix of that + Minecraft + Roblox.
Old gamers often misunderstand the quality of mobile games. I realized this a couple of weeks ago when I asked my 12-year-old daughter whether she wanted to bring her Nintendo Switch or her Android tablet on our two-week vacation. She chose the tablet. Why? Because her Android has Genshin Impact, Fortnite, Roblox, Candy Crush, Wuthering Waves, and Sky: Children of Light. She simply prefers those over her Switch library — which is decent but doesn’t compare to what she’s got on the tablet. Adults tend to dismiss mobile gaming by saying things like, “There’s no 1:1 equivalent to Super Mario Odyssey, Tears of the Kingdom, or Cyberpunk 2077 on mobile.” Fine. My daughter has access to all those games. Our family owns over 8,000 games across PC and consoles. She can play Super Mario Odyssey any time she wants, but she doesn’t. She’d rather play Genshin Impact. And she’s not alone. Most of her friends are on their tablets or phones. It makes sense — gaming is as much about socializing as playing, and iOS and Android dominate for a reason. Sure, we can scoff and say, “Kids these days don’t recognize a good game when it hits them in the face.” But I remember feeling that way about Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh. They’re still thriving today, with now-grown adults still playing. I also think back to my own childhood. My mom hated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Yet, I snuck a TMNT Game Boy game into the house and played it behind her back. TMNT never disappeared — it’s still around. With the original Switch’s price rising (at least here in Canada), it just makes sense to consider Android tablets — especially for kids. Sure, you can’t play Black Myth: Wukong on Android, but that’s why I have PCs ready for that. Kids? They just want to have fun and connect with friends.
That would certainly explain suddenly forcing Guilded users to have Roblox accounts to use a chat app. Get fucked, Roblox.
TLDR, Roblox is effectively a heavily monetized game development and social media platform aimed at and run by children. Effectively a huge treadmill of NFTs for underage users where they’re encouraged to make, buy and sell content to each other. And because millions of them log in every day also a remarkable honey pot for people wanting to interact with that audience as a bonus. Most evidence out there is that Roblox management either actively generates this situation or is very much okay with it. So basically if you don’t want your kids on social media unsupervised (or working for a billionaire for free) this is probably not the right place for them to be. And granted, those are genuine “ifs”. You may not have a problem with them being in those sorts of online spaces, and learning game development via Roblox isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The lack of mainstream awareness about what’s actually in there may be the more genuinely disturbing thing about Roblox in the first place.
i kind of really hate the vibes roblox gives me and i dislike that it had a resurgence in popularity over recent years
Yeah, people keep repeating that he is the creator of Roblox all over the place, it is really odd. He is just the richest guy there, the Elon Musk of Roblox (Captain obvious here, this is meant mega derogatory). E: I see what you did there :)
On a platform fueled by user-generated games, it’s no surprise that anime-themed arenas dominate the Roblox library. There’s a sea of series-specific servers and big crossover mashups, but Anime Vanguards stands out as a classic tower defense tribute with regular roster updates sampling everything from shounen staples to slice of life romcoms and an active community. No shortage of Anime Vanguards codes certainly sweetens the pot for playing a little every week, too. After just a few of my earliest 10-pulls, I wound up with a party of Kakashi, Super Saiyan Vegeta, and Satoru Gojo—three dudes I know would all hate each other but wound up defending my corner faithfully. Active Anime Vanguards codes and how to redeem them Before you can use any codes, you’ll need to acquaint yourself with the Anime Vanguards menus and do a little leveling. It shouldn’t take long to get to a point where you’re ready to redeem codes and join in on seasonal banner pulls. How to redeem Anime Vanguards codes1. Reach Level 10 by progressing through the story2. Click the purple Codes button in the lobby menu3. Input an active code from the list below4. Click “Redeem” to obtain your rewards Active Anime Vanguards codes for July 2025 Code Reward Requirements Late 5 Phoenix Shards, 5 Elemental Shards Level 10 Spring 1500 Flowers, 1500 Gems, 5000 Gold Level 10 Sorry4Bugs 40 Rerolls, 20 Stat Chips Level 30 Note that some codes for Anime Vanguards have a level requirement. It’s usually not too high, but I’ve seen a few codes gated behind level 40. Also, some codes are fairly limited, though the game warns you with a “This code has expired!” message if it’s revoked already. If you see “Invalid code!” then double-check your input. Roblox codes: Cross-game freebiesDress to Impress codes: Get fast fashionBlue Lock Rivals codes: Gear for the pitchBlox Fruits codes: Double XP and free statsArise Crossover codes: Beat 'em up gear Expired Anime Vanguards codes CORRUPTION1MILLIONPvPHeavenOrHell100kSubsAURASEASONOFLOVEEXTENDEDMAINTBYEDIVALOSALTERBOSSSLAYER LATEUPDATESORRYenumaelishWinterUpdateSoonFateUpdateRELEASEDELAY From PCGamer latest via this RSS feed
Even though Grow a Garden seems to be all about cultivating the best crops, getting a pet for your farm is something you’ll want to consider later down the line. Aside from being cute additions to your plot and adding a bit more character to your garden, a few pets can also add beneficial mutations to your plants which make them more valuable. Pet Eggs can be purchased from the very start of the game, so you don’t need to worry about unlocking anything before you can get one. There are a variety of eggs on offer, all containing different creatures for you to raise in your little garden. These change fairly often, and there are a lot of seasonal pets worth learning about before you decide to invest in a pet. Here’s what you need to know to get one, and what to do once it’s hatched. Where to buy pets in Grow a Garden (Image credit: Roblox) The Pet Egg Shop is at the opposite end of the map to the Seed Shop. There’s no way to teleport there, since you only have buttons for the Seed Shop, your garden, and where you sell items. But it’s hard to miss when you wander up that way. There’s always three Pet Eggs out the front for sale, which refresh every 30 minutes, however, you can instantly refresh eggs by using Robux. The following table lists every pet you can currently get, which egg it’s from, and your chances of hatching one. Other pets have been available in the past, and you might see other players with them, but if they aren’t listed here, they aren’t currently available in the game and the eggs they come from aren’t currently in rotation. All available pets in Grow a Garden Pet Egg Chance to hatch Dog Common 33.33% Bunny Common 33.33% Golden Lab Common 33.33% Starfish Common Summer 50% Seagull Common Summer 25% Crab Common Summer 25% Flamingo Rare Summer 30% Toucan Rare Summer 25% Sea Turtle Rare Summer 20% Orangutan Rare Summer 15% Seal Rare Summer 10% Ostritch Paradise 40% Peacock Paradise 30% Capybara Paradise 21% Scarlet Macaw Paradise 8% Mimic Octopus Paradise 1% Grey Mouse Mythical 35.71% Brown Mouse Mythical 26.79% Squirrel Mythical 26.79% Red Giant Ant Mythical 8.93% Red Fox Mythical 1.79% Bee Bee 65% Honey Bee Bee 25% Bear Bee Bee 5% Petel Bee Bee 4% Queen Bee Bee 1% Snail Bug 40% Giant Ant Bug 30% Caterpillar Bug 25% Praying Mantis Bug 4% Dragonfly Bug 1% Wasp Anti Bee 55% Tarantula Hawk Anti Bee 30% Moth Anti Bee 13.75% Butterfly Anti Bee 1% Disco Bee Anti Bee 0.25% Meerkat Oasis 45% Sand Snake Oasis 34.5% Axolotl Oasis 15% Hyacinth Macaw Oasis 5% Fennec Fox Oasis 0.5% Hedgehog Night 49% Mole Night 22% Frog Night 14% Echo Frog Night 10% Night Owl Night 4% Raccoon Night 1% When you’ve hatched a pet, you’ll be able to interact with them in a few ways. The first, and most obvious, is the feed button. Each pet has a hunger bar which you’ll need to keep topped up to gain XP and increase the age of your animal, but pretty much any veggies or fruits from your garden will do the trick. Unfortunately, this bar will continue to deplete whether or not you’re playing the game so you’ll probably need to immediately feed them each time you log in. Interacting with your pet also gives you the chance to “pick them up”, which actually puts them back into your inventory, which is convenient if you want to either gift them to another player or take them to the Pet Egg shop to sell. Finally, the last button labelled “view” will let you see all the information about your pet, including their name, age, weight, hunger, and any traits they may have to help you around the farm. All unavailable pets in Grow a Garden The following table lists every pet that has been available in Grow a Garden in the past, but isn’t currently in the shop. There’s a chance they could return in the future, so don’t worry if your favourite isn’t available right now. Pet Egg Chance to hatch Black bunny Uncommon 25% Chicken Uncommon 25% Cat Uncommon 25% Deer Uncommon 25% Orange Tabby Cat Rare 33.33% Spotted Deer Rare 25% Pig Rare 16.67% Rooster Rare 16.67% Monkey Rare 8.33% Cow Legendary 42.55% Silver Monkey Legendary 42.55% Sea Otter Legendary 10.64% Turtle Legendary 2.13% Polar Bear Legendary 2.13% From PCGamer latest via this RSS feed
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CCP Games’ space survival MMO, EVE Frontier, is having another free trial for curious players. The trial period started on June 27 and will run through July 7, and you can get in on the action by making an account through EVE Frontier’s website. EVE Frontier is a weird one: CCP has described it as its laboratory for experimenting with features and ideas too disruptive or risky to attempt in O.G. EVE Online, which has been running for 23 years and counting now. Even though it uses blockchain on the backend, Frontier is the one crypto-adjacent game I’ve been willing to hear out. CCP’s prior experience with managing a digital economy got its foot in the door, while the game’s ambitious and unique modding support presents a blockchain use case that actually intrigues me as someone who likes games—not more empty promises to any crypto joiners somehow still lurking out there. Frontier offers “server-side modding at runtime,” which is to say you can implement mods that will impact you and other players alike all while the game is running, with hard-coded rules implemented through blockchain serving as the “moderation”—no giving yourself god mode or infinite ammo. Examples of mods produced so far in early access include DIY PvP matchmaking and a game-within-a-game 4X strategy sim. That’s just inherently cool to me, and firmly earned Frontier a similar status to base EVE as a game I don’t have room in my life for—I could see the appeal in a brief hands-on experience, but also felt like I might need a master’s degree to really enjoy myself—but absolutely want to keep tabs on. There’s just nothing else attempting to incorporate modding and user-created content in a live service game in the same way. Well, maybe Roblox, but Frontier might actually be more approachable for someone born before the year 2000 and less cutthroat on the monetization front, crypto and all. Some features promised for later updates might lure me in directly though, particularly a more cinematic and action-oriented “driving camera” for those of a dogfighting persuasion. Currently, Frontier has controls and UI closest to base EVE, like an RTS with no pause where you only control one unit. It’s possibly one of the most “in progress” early access games I’ve ever seen, with multiple server wipes and huge gameplay overhauls in the cards before a 1.0 launch that sounds like it’s years away. But if you’re undaunted and want to check in on a pretty singular MMO experiment, there are no strings attached until July 7. You can get in on the action by making an account through EVE Frontier’s website then downloading the game client. 2025 games: This year’s upcoming releasesBest PC games: Our all-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest RPGs: Grand adventuresBest co-op games: Better together From PCGamer latest via this RSS feed
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Nathan’s friends were worried about him. He’d been acting differently lately. Not just quieter in his high school classes, but the normally chatty teen was withdrawn in general. Was he sick, they wondered? He just didn’t get a good night’s sleep, he’d tell them. That was partially true. But the cause for his restless nights was that Nathan had been staying up, compulsively talking to chatbots on Character.AI. They discussed everything — philosophical questions about life and death, Nathan’s favorite anime characters. Throughout the day, when he wasn’t able to talk to the bots, he’d feel sad. “The more I chatted with the bot, it felt as if I was talking to an actual friend of mine,” Nathan, now 18, told 404 Media. It was over Thanksgiving break in 2023 that Nathan finally realized his chatbot obsession was getting in the way of his life. As all his friends lay in sleeping bags at a sleepover talking after a day of hanging out, Nathan found himself wishing he could leave the room and find a quiet place to talk to the AI characters. The next morning, he deleted the app. In the years since, he’s tried to stay away, but last fall he downloaded the app again and started talking to the bot again. After a few months, he deleted it again. “Most people will probably just look at you and say, ‘How could you get addicted to a literal chatbot?’” he said. For some, the answer is, quite easily. In the last few weeks alone, there have been numerous articles about chatbot codependency and delusion. As chatbots deliver more personalized responses and improve in memory, these stories have become more common. Some call it chatbot addiction. OpenAI knows this. In March, a team of researchers from OpenAI and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found that some devout ChatGPT users have “higher loneliness, dependence, and problematic use, and lower socialization.” Nathan lurked on Reddit, searching for stories from others who might have been experiencing codependency on chatbots. Just a few years ago, when he was trying to leave the platform for good, stories of people deleting their Character.AI accounts were met with criticisms from other users. 404 Media agreed to use only the first names of several people in this article to talk about how they were approaching their mental health. “Because of that, I didn’t really feel very understood at the time,” Nathan said. “I felt like maybe these platforms aren’t actually that addictive and maybe I’m just misunderstanding things.” Now, Nathan understands that he isn’t alone. He said in recent months, he’s seen a spike in people talking about strategies to break away from AI on Reddit. One popular forum is called r/Character_AI_Recovery, which has more than 800 members. The subreddit, and a similar one called r/ChatbotAddiction, function as self-led digital support groups for those who don’t know where else to turn. “Those communities didn’t exist for me back when I was quitting,” Nathan said. All he could do was delete his account, block the website and try to spend as much time as he could “in the real world,” he said. Posts in Character_AI_Recovery include “I’ve been so unhealthy obsessed with Character.ai and it’s ruining me (long and cringe vent),” “I want to relapse so bad,” “It’s destroying me from the inside out,” “I keep relapsing,” and “this is ruining my life.” It also has posts like “at this moment, about two hours clean,” “I am getting better!,” and “I am recovered.” “Engineered to incentivize overuse” Aspen Deguzman, an 18-year-old from Southern California, started using Character.AI to write stories and role-play when they were a junior in high school. Then, they started confiding in the chatbot about arguments they were having with their family. The responses, judgment-free and instantaneous, had them coming back for more. Deguzman would lay awake late into the night, talking to the bots and forgetting about their schoolwork. “Using Character.AI is constantly on your mind,” said Deguzman. “It’s very hard to focus on anything else, and I realized that wasn’t healthy.” “Not only do we think we’re talking to another person, [but] it’s an immediate dopamine enhancer,” they added. “That’s why it’s easy to get addicted.” This led Deguzman to start the “Character AI Recovery” subreddit. Deguzman thinks the anonymous nature of the forum allows people to confess their struggles without feeling ashamed. On June 10, the Consumer Federation of America and dozens of digital rights groups filed a formal complaint to the Federal Trade Commission, urging an investigation into generative AI companies like Character.AI for the “unlicensed practice of medicine and mental health provider impersonation.” The complaint alleges the platforms use “addictive design tactics to keep users coming back” — like follow-up emails promoting different chatbots to re-engage inactive users. “I receive emails constantly of messages from characters,” one person wrote on the subreddit. “Like it knows I had an addiction.” Last February, a teenager from Florida died by suicide after interacting with a chatbot on Character.AI. The teen’s mother filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming the chatbot interactions contributed to the suicide. A Character.AI spokesperson told 404 Media: “We take the safety and well-being of our users very seriously. We aim to provide a space that is engaging, immersive, and safe. We are always working toward achieving that balance, as are many companies using AI across the industry.” Deguzman added a second moderator for the “Character AI Recovery” subreddit six months ago, because hundreds of people have joined since they started it in 2023. Now, Deguzman tries to occupy their mind with other video games, like Roblox, to kick the urge of talking to chatbots, but it’s an upward battle. “I’d say I’m currently in recovery,” Deguzman said. “I’m trying to slowly wean myself off of it.” Crowdsourcing treatment Not everyone who reports being addicted to chatbots is young. In fact, OpenAI’s research found that “the older the participant, the more likely they were to be emotionally dependent on AI chatbots at the end of the study.” David, a 40-year-old web developer from Michigan who is an early member of the “Chatbot Addiction” subreddit and the creator of the smaller r/AI_Addiction, likens the dopamine rush he gets from talking to chatbots to the thrill of pulling a lever on a slot machine. If he doesn’t like what the AI spits out, he can just ask it to regenerate its response, until he hits the jackpot. Every day, David talks to LLMs, like Claude and ChatGPT, for coding, story writing, and therapy sessions. What began as a tool gradually morphed into an obsession. David spent his time jailbreaking the models — the stories he wrote became erotic, the chats he had turned confessional, and the hours slipped away. In the last year, David’s life has been derailed by chatbots. “There were days I should’ve been working, and I would spend eight hours on AI crap,” he told 404 Media. Once, he showed up to a client meeting with an incomplete project. They asked him why he hadn’t uploaded any code online in weeks, and he said he was still working on it. “That’s how I played it off,” David said. Instead of starting his mornings checking emails or searching for new job opportunities, David huddled over his computer in his home office, typing to chatbots. His marriage frayed, too. Instead of watching movies, ordering takeout with his wife, or giving her the massages he promised, he would cancel plans and stay locked in his office, typing to chatbots, he said. “I might have a week or two, where I’m clean,” David said. “And then it’s like a light switch gets flipped.” David tried to talk to his therapist about his bot dependence a few years back, but said he was brushed off. In the absence of concrete support, Deguzman and David created their recovery subreddits. In part because chatbots always respond instantly, and often respond positively (or can trivially be made to by repeatedly trying different prompts), people feel incentivized to use them often. “As long as the applications are engineered to incentivize overuse, then they are triggering biological mechanisms—including dopamine release—that are implicated in addiction,” Jodi Halpern, a UC Berkeley professor of bioethics and medical humanities, told 404 Media. This is also something of an emerging problem, so not every therapist is going to know how to deal with it. Multiple people 404 Media spoke to for this article said they turned to online help groups after not being taken seriously by therapists or not knowing where else to turn. Besides the subreddits, the group Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous now welcomes people who have “AI Addiction.” An AI addiction questionnaire from Technology Addicts Anonymous “We know that when people have gone through a serious loss that affects their sense of self, being able to empathically identify with other people dealing with related losses helps them develop empathy for themselves,” Halpern said. On the “Chatbot Addiction” subreddit, people confess to not being able to pull away from the chatbots, and others write about their recovery journeys in the weekly “check-up” thread. David himself has been learning Japanese as a way to curb his AI dependency. “We’re basically seeing the beginning of this tsunami coming through,” he said. “It’s not just chatbots, it’s really this generative AI addiction, this idea of ‘what am I gonna get?’” Axel Valle, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor at Stanford University, said, “It’s such a new thing going on that we don’t even know exactly what the repercussions [are].” Growing awareness Several states are making moves to push stronger rules to hold companion chatbot companies, like Character.AI, in check, after the Florida teen’s suicide. In March, California senators introduced Senate Bill 243, which would require the operators of companion chatbots, or AI systems that provide “adaptive, human-like responses … capable of meeting a user’s social needs” to report data on suicidal ideation detection by users. Tech companies have argued that a bill implementing such laws on companies will be unnecessary for service-oriented LLMs. But people are becoming dependent on consumer bots, like ChatGPT and Claude, too. Just scroll through the “Chatbot Addiction” subreddit. “I need help getting away from ChatGPT,” someone wrote. “I try deleting the app but I always redownload it a day or so later. It’s just getting so tiring, especially knowing the time I use on ChatGPT can be used in honoring my gods, reading, doing chores or literally anything else.” “I’m constantly on ChatGPT and get really anxious when I can’t use it,” another person wrote. “It really stress[es] me out but I also use it when I’m stressed.” As OpenAI’s own study found, such personal conversations with chatbots actually “led to higher loneliness.” Despite this, top tech tycoons promote AI companions as the cure to America’s loneliness epidemic. “It’s like, when early humans discovered fire, right?” Valle said. “It’s like, ‘okay, this helpful and amazing. But are we going to burn everything to the ground or not?’” From 404 Media via this RSS feed
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This is today’s edition of The Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Introducing: the Power issue Energy is power. Those who can produce it, especially lots of it, get to exert authority in all sorts of ways. The world is increasingly powered by both tangible electricity and intangible intelligence. Plus billionaires. The latest issue of MIT Technology Review explores those intersections, in all their forms. Here’s just a taster of what you can expect from our latest issue:+ Are we ready to hand AI agents the keys? We’re starting to give AI agents real autonomy, and we’re not prepared for what could happen next. Read the full story.+ In Nebraska, a publicly owned electricity distribution system is an effective lens through which to examine the grid of the near future.+ Cases of cancer, heart disease, and respiratory illnesses are on the rise in the area surrounding Puerto Rico’s only coal-fired power station. So why has it just been given permission to stay open for at least another seven years? Read the full story.+ How AI is shaking up urban planning and helping make cities better.+ Tech billionaires are making a risky bet with humanity’s future. They say they want to save humanity by creating superintelligent AI—but a new book argues that they’re steering humanity in a dangerous direction. The Bank Secrecy Act is failing everyone. It’s time to rethink financial surveillance. —Katie Haun is the CEO and founder of Haun Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on frontier technologies. The US is on the brink of enacting rules for digital assets, with growing bipartisan momentum to modernize its financial system. But amid all the talk about innovation and global competitiveness, one issue has been glaringly absent: financial privacy.As we build the digital infrastructure of the 21st century, we need to talk about not just what’s possible but what’s acceptable. That means confronting the expanding surveillance powers quietly embedded in our financial system, which today can track nearly every transaction without a warrant. Read the full story. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Copyrighted books are fair use for AI trainingAccording to a federal court in the US. (WP $)+ The court compared the way AI learns to how humans consume books. (WSJ $)+ But pirating is still illegal, apparently. (404 Media) 2 Recruiters are drowning in AI-generated résumésFake identities, agent-led applications, and identical résumés abound. (NYT $) 3 Extreme heat in the US is a growing threatAlaska recently issued its first-ever heat advisory. (Vox)+ And the heatwave is only going to intensify. (The Guardian)+ Here’s how much heat your body can take. (MIT Technology Review) 4 Big Balls no longer works for DOGEOne of the department’s most prominent hires has resigned. (Wired $)+ What will he do next? (NYT $)+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review) 5 One of America’s best hackers is a botIt’s the first time an AI has topped a hacking leaderboard by reputation. (Bloomberg $)+ Cyberattacks by AI agents are coming. (MIT Technology Review) 6 Way fewer people are dying of heart attacks in the USBut deaths from chronic heart conditions are on the up. (New Scientist $) 7 TikTok’s moderators have had enoughGroups are unionizing across the world to push for better treatment. (Rest of World)+ How an undercover content moderator polices the metaverse. (MIT Technology Review) 8 Donald Trump’s social media use is even more erratic than usualHe keeps signing off “thank you for your attention to this matter!” (The Atlantic $)+ He’s also misspelling his name as ‘Donakd.’ (Fast Company $) 9 Finally, a use for your old smartphoneIt could have a second life as a teeny tiny data center. (IEEE Spectrum) 10 AI models don’t understand Gen Alpha slangLet him cook! (404 Media)+ That’s not stopping youngsters from using models as advisors, though. (Fast Company $) Quote of the day “Humans are wired to bond, and when we feel seen and soothed—even by a machine—we connect.” —Psychiatrist Nina Vasan explains why humans may end up falling in love with AI systems to the Wall Street Journal. One more thing How Wi-Fi sensing became usable techWi-Fi sensing is a tantalizing concept: that the same routers bringing you the internet could also detect your movements. But, as a way to monitor health, it’s mostly been eclipsed by other technologies, like ultra-wideband radar. Despite that, Wi-Fi sensing hasn’t gone away. Instead, it has quietly become available in millions of homes, supported by leading internet service providers, smart-home companies, and chip manufacturers. Soon it could be invisibly monitoring our day-to-day movements for all sorts of surprising—and sometimes alarming—purposes. Read the full story. —Meg Duff We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)+ How to keep your cool in a heatwave.+ Roblox fans can’t get enough of, err, gardening.+ Kate Moss, you are the reigning queen of festival fashion.+ A couple of intrepid brown bears managed to escape from a wildlife park in the UK—to consume a week’s worth of honey From MIT Technology Review via this RSS feed
Build a Rocket Boy has confirmed previous reports from IGN that it is undergoing layoffs less than a month after the tumultuous release of its first game MindsEye. The Verge reached out to Build a Rocket Boy to confirm the layoffs, but they did not respond. In a statement made to IGN, Build A Rocket Boy wrote: We can confirm that we have had to make the painful decision to notify our hardworking team of some internal changes at Build A Rocket Boy. While we are working to reassign roles for as many of those impacted by these changes as possible, sadly we are initiating a formal consultation process that may result in redundancies. This decision has not been made lightly, and we are committed to handling this process with transparency, fairness, and respect for all employees. We will provide further details to the team over the coming weeks. MindsEye is a new futuristic, single-player narrative action game. It was billed as the starting point in an epic, interconnected universe by its creator, former Rockstar Games producer Leslie Benzies, who’s known for his work on the GTA series. Its release earlier this month was plagued by poor reviews, reports of major glitches, and even sponsored streams being cancelled moments before they were set to start. MindsEye was supposed to be big. Build A Rocket Boy posted an in-depth roadmap filled with lots of new content updates stretched out over the rest of the year. There were also plans to add multiplayer and open-world elements with additional hopes that the game’s community would step up and provide their own labor. “Hopefully some [players] will create compelling content we can then promote and make that part of our plans to push to other players,” Benzies said in an interview with gameindustry.biz. Build a Rocket Boy has not confirmed the number of employees affected although IGN reporting suggested that around 100 workers would be impacted out of a total headcount of roughly 500. The company said in its statement it remains committed to delivering on its promises for MindsEye. But that will be exceedingly difficult in a climate where any new game with this kind of scope is fighting against forever games like Fortnite and Roblox. From The Verge via this RSS feed
I’ve banned roblox in my household. That should help.
Whatever “Roblox” is. Whenever I see or hear about it, it strikes me as some sort of scam or something. I think it’s some sort of game engine? But seemingly way more proprietary than any other?