a new hope

I think this is the first time in….forever? something in the news has been onion article level absurd, but in a good way. Am I back in a decent dimension? I’m continuing to manifest.

I was cackling with joy when I read Chris Hansen was coming out of retirement to investigate Roblox. Like — fucking yes, absolutely, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy deserving of a takedown from the worlds most famous predator hunter.

Apparently there has been a rise in Roblox creators predator hunting vigilante style, since Roblox refuses to make any meaningful change. When Roblox got pissy about it, everything came to a head. Some of the biggest Roblox creators are giving up their official endorsement, the state of Louisiana is filing a lawsuit….I did find it interesting watching the biggest creator talk about walking away, because make no mistake, he is still going to be making Roblox content, he said. He’s just not in the “star program”, which is the pr/creator program. I totally understand that decision from a practical point of view. Roblox IS his career, and blowing that all up would be starting from scratch. But. If your career is siphoning kids to a dangerous platform and making it seem really cool, is bouncing from the creator program not just… performative, to some extent? Like do you care about these kids who are your fans being exploited or do you care about not being officially associated with a company currently under so much public scrutiny? That’s the most cynical take, and it’s very easy for me to say when it’s not my entire livelihood on the line – but he doesn’t get the young kid excuse, Kreekcraft is 28.

This situation is one case where a good YouTube video essay/documentary from a man on the inside would be so useful. This is a whole subculture and community and history that I have absolutely no context for, and it’s fascinating but difficult to navigate. For boomers like me the best I’ve found right now is this Bloomberg article from last year – I’m usually pretty skeptical of old media’s ability to handle internet culture stories, but I think it’s decent for what it is.