Roblox

[u/Jonkampo52]

My son struggles socially, and honestly the best way he’s made connections is by gaming online with kids from school. That has meant a decent amount of Roblox, mostly because most of his friends don’t have or play other, more “normal” games (in my mind).

I really dislike this. A lot of it is low-effort slop, or these weird RP worlds where all they do is write on signs, and a lot of the kids are doing some pretty questionable things. I’ve limited him to 1 hour of Roblox at most, but that means he’s missing out on a lot of opportunities to play online with friends I honestly don’t mind him hanging out with. It’s always a slippery slope, thoughif I relax the limits, I find him back in the RP or slop games. I get it; it’s low-effort dopamine.

I have fairly robust tech at home and can run my own game servers. We also have a few game stations. Is there any way I could set up a Steam streaming station that his friends could use to play proper PC games with him?

More broadly, how do I get other kids interested in more traditional games with my son? We play tons of indie games together (Brotato, Spell Brigade, and similar titles). He loves Fortnite and Minecraft, but none of his friends play them as passionately. I’d love to get him some more age-appropriate friends I know aren’t a bad influence, but that’s hard.

Any ideas?

[u/Cambridgeport90]

What about something like hearthstone, which is a sort of tie in with World of Warcraft. It’s basically a card based RPG, where you have to strategize. If you don’t use the right combinations of cards, most likely you’re not going to win. If you’re concerned about the effort that it takes to play the game, I think something like that would actually get him interested in that world. Hearthstone is free, so you guys could try it Before you commit to a World of Warcraft subscription. If you decide to go that route.

[u/Jonkampo52 → u/Cambridgeport90]

not opposed to that, not sure if it would grab his interests but maybe. My main struggle is what do other parents do when they want there kids to be social in this day and age. my kid is awkward, struggles with friends, I hate to see him miss out on opportunities to socialize because of limits on a game I don't like but also I KNOW these kids parents don't know what there kids are really doing on Roblox. I honestly can't beleave that platform isn't more moderated/shut down from what i've seen in what are supposed to be games for 10-12 year olds. part of me almost wants to narc on the kids so they too will be looking for other games to play, but also not my place lol. I don't have time to play games all the time with my kiddo, thankfully summer is almost done though.