150. The Other Reason I Stopped Writing: Roblox

It's my brand to talk about the things others are afraid to talk about. But there are some things even I'm afraid to talk about.

I stopped writing in 2018. I had millions of regular readers before stopped. I didn’t start writing again until 2024. I explained why I stopped writing back in this article. But what I didn’t explain was why I didn’t resume writing. I had created a new company in 2020 with partners who were just as committed as I was about protecting children and providing consumers of all ages with family and consumer friendly gaming alternatives that were competitive with the less friendly content that is currently being offered them. I also feel passionately that you don’t have to abuse people to make money. I think if you treat people well, they will actually give you more money than if you abuse them.

This theory ended up being difficult to prove. Not because I couldn’t collect the data, or that the data might contradict my theory. The problem was that like most start-ups, we needed funding. The largest investors, the ones other investors look to to see what to invest in, have advisors that let them know what to invest in and what not to. This makes total sense since interactive media is a complex industry and lay people are well advised to seek expert advice before investing in the space.

So of course these investors chose advisors from the most successful platforms out there. That means they all had at least one advisor from Roblox. The one I looked at closely, claimed he had designed their monetisation of children. Now I am sure it will not surprise my regular readers to know that the Roblox platform aggressively monetises children, who aren’t old enough to successfully make these sorts of financial decisions.

And that’s exactly why they target children, and why it’s so profitable.

Roblox is getting a lot of attention of late because it has allowed a lot of adult content on the platform, a lot of predators on the platform, and wholesale IP plagiarism. I think it’s fantastic that people are waking up to the threat without my help. None of that was what I was so afraid of that I couldn’t write about it. I’ve been the go to person on these sorts of topics since 2013.

What I was afraid of was that I the company I created, Arrivant, employed a lot of fantastic people and we needed investors. Those investors were listening directly to advisors from Roblox. My partners were clear: if I didn’t keep my mouth shut, we were not going to get funded. Without funding, Arrivant would cease to exist.

So I kept my mouth shut. I felt distressed putting my company ahead of consumers, but I had a responsibility to my cofounders and employees to do what I could to make sure we were successful. And if we were successful, the ultimate beneficiaries would be consumers.

The Roblox guys knew of my role as a top consumer watchdog, and the top international regulatory advisor. This made me a real problem. Our investors were being told “Ramin is problematic”. I assume this was the source. Staying silent didn’t change any of that.

Why am I talking about this now? Well my usual litmus test for when certain topics are safe to talk about is the Asmongold Test, and Asmongold just addressed the topic of Roblox. You can watch that here. If I’m on the vanguard of sensitive topics, I can expect to have a lot of expensive lawyers parked out front of my house in the morning threatening me and my family. But now that Asmon is in play, I’m a small fish. These people have bigger problems now than me.

All the topics that are now leaking into the public space, I’ve been well aware of since 2021 when potential investors kept insisting I make a game like Roblox. In order to see why it was so successful, I had to do my own research. So that’s when I saw all the disturbing content that people are now finally talking about. A lot of people are wondering why activists are trying to shut down Steam but are totally silent about Roblox.

Not only is Roblox a big company, but its people have outsized influence. Investors like money, and Roblox is making a lot of money. Why/how is not really the issue for investors. If it’s something that might be regulated later, that just means that right now is the window of opportunity before that regulation arrives.

People keep complaining that AAA is making the wrong games. That AAA seems to ignore what consumers are asking for. Sure a lot of this is coming from the ESA. But in a fair market there would be competition and the ESA would not be able to prevent that. But the market is not fair because investors are listening to Roblox. Investors see it as an economic exploit and money machine that will only be legal/profitable for a limited time, and that time is now. So strike while the iron is hot.

The result is that even though the technology and teams are/were in place to out perform Roblox while also making consumers and regulators happy, the Roblox exploit was seen as tested, reliable, and thus lower risk. Roblox not only did what others like Asmongold are describing, but they also had the effect (perhaps indirectly) of blocking progress toward the products that consumers are demanding.

Evil grows in the darkness where the light does not shine. I’m well aware of this, and that’s why I’m usually motivated to speak up even if it could mean I won’t get work. But it’s different when you have employees. My family all supports my work and if we struggle because my pro-consumer stance can turn off some employers from considering me, that’s understood. But I don’t feel right asking my employees for that level of sacrifice. Arrivant shut down in 2024 due to lack of investment and that’s when I was freed to write more than I ever have before here on Substack. I would like to put as much critical information out before I end up in another situation where I have to keep my mouth shut.

At this point it’s all going to come out because children are literally being abducted by predators that haunt the Roblox platform. Parents may not understand me when I talk about the prefrontal cortex or the incompatibility of F2P business models with children, but they do understand when 10 year old girls get kidnapped because they were playing on a “child friendly” gaming platform. That’s the sort of primal threat humans get instinctively.

Sure kidnappings are bad and such. The point I’m trying to make here is that when billions of dollars go into companies where these sorts of horrors are promoted (or at least not discouraged), a billion dollars can hire a lot of lawyers, influencers, marketing, and even investors. The rot becomes systemic and it affects all of society. People like myself who are depended on to provide early warning can be suppressed in many ways, and be afraid to speak.

My being 100% independent means I can talk about any subject, no matter how taboo. But it also means I’ve got no one watching my back. Thus I have to pick my fights carefully, and sometimes make use of the Asmongold Test to know when it’s safe to talk.