As we all know, Roblox is garbage tier gameplay structured around psychological cues to get children to fill an endless pit with fake money bought with real money.
So I banned my kid from it. He used it a little bit socially with a few friends of his. What online or local multiplayer games should I help him to replace it with? (He’s 10, so please don’t recommend Diablo 4 or anything else that has quite that much gore)
He and his friends have an Xbox Series X|S at home.
Edit: keep your judgemental shit out of here. His whole social group (5 kids he knows from school) got banned on the same day. Me and the other parents are trying to be nice and replace it with better quality games so it isn’t just a punishment.
Edit2: Thanks guys. I got him Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge
Minecraft / Terraria, 100%. Both games have available co-op, so they can play with their friends, and allow quite a bit of creative expression. Terraria is made by some of the best indie devs ever, if it helps, having been getting free updates for years, even though the devs said they had finished the game years ago.
For a more socially open experience, I could also recommend Sea of Thieves. It’s a game about manning a pirateship and collecting loot, where you can sometimes run into real people on their own adventures (or get your ship sunk by them, after all, they’re also pirates). There is co-op, too. A cash shop is available, but all items are strictly cosmetic, with many items available through gameplay alone.
Yeah I love Terraria. I’ll see if I can get his friends interested in it too. Heck I’ll buy them all copies for xmas.
Terraria for the win, way more fun than Minecraft with more motivation for exploration and of course the combat.
I wonder if they still do that “friends pack” deal where you get 4 licenses for not much more than 1?
Self hosted Minecraft server for socializing. Mod the shit out of it
Factorio if you want your kid to have a severe addiction.
Red Alert 2 because I want the world to play it.
Ace Combat because it’s hype and plays well with a controller.
Bloons tower defense
I’m putting up a minecraft server for my kid and her friends, but I don’t really play myself other than than. Few creative builds so I’m curious if you could please expand for me what exactly you mean when you say to mod the shit out of it. Is it enough to create rules or am I going to have to actively moderate their play?
Mod as in install mods that modify the game. My favorite is the map and waypoint mod that adds basically Google maps to Minecraft.
Or the Create mod.
I’d also install the automatic world backup mod so if someone ever griefs the server you can just roll it back
Factorio teaches programming?
Not really. It will feel like programming if you already know how to program, but I don’t think it will teach you programming anymore than any other problem solving activity.
You can learn to create logic circuits in order to aid automation
Minecraft?
That’s a good one! I’m kind of hoping to give him a copy of something as a gift - but he’s already got minecraft. I want him to have options.
Terraria?
Oh that’s a good one
FTB modpacks?
Yeah they play stuff like bedwars.
Ah. So they’ve never played co-op stuff before?
yeah java minecraft (NOT BEDROCK) is great, you can mod the shit out of it too on a pc.
You can get them both with the one license now, so you don’t have to pick. I like having the 2 options available and I don’t let my kids buy anything on the bedrock one where they have the Minecoin BS to buy stuff. They only have real money (paper) and no digital-compatible methods to pay for anything.
But the mods on Java edition are excellent, and the fact that it runs on any computer OS is a big plus. I can’t recommend anything more than Minecraft for a kids’ game.
I never understood the “Minecraft Bedrock was made so it could run everywhere” argument. Like, wasn’t Java’s moto “Write once, run everywhere”? Why settle for a garbage version of the original, when the original can run on every computational device made within the last decade?
How does this work? I have a Minecraft Bedrock license for my Playstation, can I somehow get a Minecraft Java license from this too?
You should be able to see the license in your Microsoft account. I think everyone got both licenses sometime earlier this year.
Given that you’ve got some great answers already, there seems to be very few guides on how to deal with this sort of shit as a parent.
Gaming today is very different to what we grew up with, particularly microtransactions, and I think a lot of people would be surprised at how many kids spend insane amounts of money on things like FUT packs, VBucks, etc. Much of this is down to peer pressure, so saying shit like “my kid will never pay money on microtransactions” is wishful thinking.
Kids also have different attitudes on what constitutes value to them. So while parents see robux as total ripoff, kids don’t have the experience of playing a game and receiving the whole thing and not being expected to pay real money to skip the hard parts.
Kids aren’t the only ones who waste their money on frivolous gaming transactions though. Millions of adults by battlepasses for games or we wouldn’t have that crap in games either.
Yeah that’s why I let my kid do specific chores to earn money for mtx. So he has his dripfeed to support whatever costumes or other mtx he sees - but not enough to get truly addicted. Plus I have been very forward with him that the money he spends on mtx is literally worthless the moment he buys it - so I give him normal allowance at a higher rate than his small mtx earnings. My goal is to balance it out so he can have non-standard skins and not feel made fun of for it, but also not grow psychologically dependent on them like some kids.
Minecraft Java. Minecraft bedrock is full of microtransactions, and we both dislike those.
Minecraft Java isn’t available on Xbox, is it?
Idk, on Android you can run Pojav Launcher, but I don’t really know much about x boxes. Probably a mistake to buy such a closed ecosystem in the first place, from the little I have heard.
They are ten. They’re not going to use third party launchers
Why would being ten have any relation to using Pojav Launcher?
At ten I was coding basic stuff and figuring out lan networks to play multiplayer games in the early 90’s. An average 10 year old is very capable of figuring out tech stuff.
I’m sure they are. But they are not going to in order to play Minecraft with their friends.
Eh… Like I said, I was doing a bit more just to play with friends. I guess these days it would depend. If you did the install and introduced it as the method for launching the game I don’t think they’d even question it.
Minecraft is pretty good for this kind of stuff, especially Java Edition (has mods, and loooooads of servers, some of which also use mods to drastically alter the gameplay. You can also host your own, free of charge).
Yeah I prefer the java version, myself. But my kid doesn’t have a pc just yet - he’s limited to consoles and ipad for now.
If you want to get them something low level cheap, AMD small form factor pcs with integrated Radeon can be had for cheap (easily under $200 if you are patient). One of my kid plays on one of these and with a few performance mods on minecraft does 30fps just fine.
Even raspberry pi 4/5 are amazingly capable of playing minecraft 1080p. I wonder how much better linux gaming support there is on those now since the steamdeck has been a success…
Grounded is the game I wish I had when I was 10. Basically “Honey I shrunk the kids” as a multiplayer survival-builder.
This one. Completely forgot about it in my other post. Only 4 player though but TONS of fun. My gaggle of girls had tons of fun with this one.
My oldest kid (6yo) is currently having fun with Goat Simulator ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and yes, I bought the expansions.
He doesn’t play online yet, but I have Minecraft on the PS4 so that may be an option later on.
Other options I can think of that would be appropriate and multiplayer
- Rocket League
- Fall Guys
- Party Animals
- Portal 2
- Astroneer
- Human Fall Flat
minecraft, rocket league
Try Minetest - https://www.minetest.net/
It’s a FOSS voxel engine, so they can play multiplayer with their friends for free. MineClone2 is a Minecraft clone on Minetest, so even if their friends don’t have Minecraft, they can still play with friends.
For paid games, consider indie games, as they’re less likely to be micro-transaction bullshit. Raft, Stardew Valley, Two Point Hospital are good options. Not so much multiplayer, but Stardew supports it. Multiplayer wise, maybe Among Us if the parents are comfortable with that.
fill an endless pit with fake money bought with real money.
Honest question, if the money is the issue, then why not let him play the free stuff and not spend money on it?
I’m crumudgeony enough to remember when buying a game was buying a game. I disliked it when mobile games slowly changed into monitization via microtransactions. Heck, I remember buying games for full price and then they got changed to ftp overnight with mtx. That kind of stuff drove me nuts and I am firmly anti-mtx. That said, I let my kid earn money he can use on mtx for cosmetics and stuff on Fortnite. But it is a dedicated pool of money for mtx, his actual money kept separate so he can buy ice cream or save for bigger purchases without worry. Roblox on the other hand, is a company that exploits children for their labor to create the games and it hires psychologists to ensure kids dump as much money into it as possible all while having no moderation. Roblox is awful. Microtransactions in children’s games are harmful and exploitive. I’m letting my kid get a drip feed so he can get the little benefit from having non-stock costumes in fortnite while also having the learning experience that in games with mtx, you can never have enough - without him becoming a whale.
It’s also just an extremely dangerous platform. They have a stock market, game mode development with children employing children (clearly neither one understands employment laws), and unsurprisingly a ton of pedophiles
why let your child play shit games
why not teach your child what good gaming can be
why just not care what your child spends his time doing
good grief
I haven’t seen Splatoon being recommended here, it’s a ton of fun and has no microtransactions. You can but your kid a Switch for cheap nowadays.
Seconding splatoon. Very kid and adult friendly, and basically no micro transactions (unless you count amiibo). No other game has kept my attention like it has for the last year
He could play minecraft with his friends on a personal server. I think making servers is easy on Minecraft Bedrock (The minecraft version available on Xbox)
Minecraft is definitely fun. I have a whole lab setup for my kids and neighbors to play minecraft and they are using Java version with curse forge so they can make endless modpacks. I think you mentioned xbox, so bedrock is definitely an option as well, but it won’t have the free flexibility that Java has.
I personally don’t think that a little gore is the end of the world, especially if you play with them. My daughter picked up D3 when she was probably 9, but I played with her and the gore just wasn’t a focus. Every kid is different though and bunch of boys probably not gonna gloss over that.
One you might consider is Fallout 76. It got a bad rap at launch, but it’s a great game and surprisingly has one of the most wholesome gaming communities ever (probably because most of the trolls gave up early on the game when pvp was mostly removed). There are options to turn down blood as well if that’s a concern.
One pick that I’m surprised hasn’t been mentioned yet is Overcooked 2. No profanity or anything. The only disadvantage is that the game is rather short.
Overcooked may not have profanity but it certainly cultivates it
HAHAHA
There is now a third release containing part 1 and 2 and I think a few of the dlcs
Good call out!
