Roblox being in trouble feels like a cliche these days. The company is permanently in the dog box for the most obscure and immoral reasons. Roblox always seems to go above and beyond with its immorality that it actually came as quite a surprise when we learned that it was guilty of the most basic offense known to the video gaming industry – not having a proper anti-cheat protocol in place.
This is a company that has been implicated in everything from allegations of rampant child exploitation to the sick trend of exploiting the time and talents of young game developers for free. Unfortunately, this new allegation is still a rather significant offense, albeit not one the platform can be prosecuted for. Cheating is a problem in most games, but, as usual, Roblox takes allowing cheating to an extreme.
A simple Google search for Roblox hacks or cheats will reveal pages of search results that offer everything from free in-game currency to hacks that add-ons that literally aim for you. This proves how dire the platform’s problem with hackers is.
Having a hacker on a server is detrimental to the average player who just wants to have a good time within the various games available on Roblox. Still, it seems the problem is even more dire for developers and moderators.
Hutch is a developer in charge of a popular zombie survival Roblox title called Apocalypse Rising. Since the game went free-to-play, the number of bans instituted has doubled. Unfortunately, banning is the most that you can do on Roblox where cheaters are concerned, and it carries no permanent consequences.
‘It is exhausting and demoralizing dealing with exploiters all the time. The enjoyment I get out of developing games on Roblox doesn’t even start to outweigh the burnout myself, and my moderation teams suffer through. It’s so much larger of an issue than just an anti-cheat problem and it never feels like any meaningful progress is made by Roblox to assist developers with these issues.’
A Twitter poll revealed that other developers echo Hutch’s concerns. Roblox is not new to the firing squad, and the platform hasn’t really made an effort in any arena to stop its services from being associated with immoral content or actions. It seems developers are alone on this one too. In other Roblox news, it seems the platform had a plan for adapting to China’s censorship rules.
