FAIRHOPE, AL—Exploiting the popular online game platform for his own perverse ends, local Roblox user Rodney McKinney, 68, was accused of grooming 56-year-old Roblox user Walter Rhodes, sources confirmed Wednesday. “For the past several months, Mr. McKinney, a 68-year-old Roblox user, used the game as a means to foster an inappropriate relationship with an impressionable young 56-year-old that was sexual in nature,” said officer Mike Cavazos, noting several obscene messages in which the baby boomer offered the much younger Gen X user Robux in exchange for lewd images of Rhodes’ flabby, mature body. “It was clear from their correspondence that Mr. McKinney knew the victim was 56, as he stated in chats that he was ‘old enough to be [Rhodes’] supervising manager.’ And though he claimed that messages inviting the victim to move off Roblox to a more private LinkedIn chat were innocent, we believe otherwise.” At press time, authorities claimed McKinney attempted to conceal his indiscretions by warning Rhodes not to “tell your mom, if she’s still alive.”
Two weeks ago, hundreds of Roblox players jumped into a custom game that let them take part in a pro-Palestine march. The game, which appeared to have been organized by Malaysian Roblox players, was made in response to the escalating violence in the Middle East. On October 7, the Islamic political and military organization Hamas, attacked, kidnapped, and killed around 1,400 Israeli citizens. Since that day, Israel has reportedly dropped more than 18,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip, the six-mile wide piece of land that is home to more than 2 million Palestinians.
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Roblox is a game creation system that allows players to build their own shareable games for others to enjoy online, and the pro-Palestine march gained a lot of attention. People took to social media to share their stories, with one person saying their young cousin attended the virtual march because they were too young to drive to one in-person. Others said this march was a sign that the “kids are alright.” The game featured Palestinian flags and a large, open square with the words “Solitary Untukmu” (Malay for “Solidarity for you”) on one end.
On November 5, an X (formerly Twitter) user named Qaali Husseinshared: “My daughter just told me that all the marches are gone…because they were reported for hate speech and antisemitism,” he wrote. One commenter responded, saying that the two Roblox games they had played that featured pro-Palestinian marches were also gone. “The one in the video got taken down first then the second one got privated,” they allege.
A Roblox spokesperson told Kotaku via email that one of the experiences referenced is “still live” and can be found at this link. However, the spokesperson notes, “the experience is set to private mode, which is a setting that was selected by the creator of the game.” When asked about the reports that additional pro-Palestinian experiences were taken down, the Roblox spokesperson could not confirm nor deny without specific details of the game itself, which I could not find online.
The same person who alleged that one pro-Palestinian game was taken down did receive a warning from Roblox for saying “FREE PALESTINE.” They shared a screenshot of that warning on X, which shows why the warning was issued (“political content”) and what the “offensive item” was (“FREE PALESTINE FREE PALESTINE”), but the moderator note seems somewhat at odds with the current Roblox community standards. The note reads: “Roblox does not permit support for current political candidates, parties, associated flags or symbols.”
However, a spokesperson for Roblox clarified the situation over email, writing that “the phrase ‘Free Palestine’ is compliant with Roblox’s Community Standards and is indeed allowed for use on our platform. It is considered an expression of solidarity as allowed by our Community Standards and is not recognized as prohibited political content.”
It’s not clear why the original poster’s statement was flagged.
Update 11/06/2023 7:00 p.m. ET: Updated story with a new quote from Roblox spokesperson.
So many online games have shut down so far in 2023 that we’ve already had to do a roundup, and it’s only February. Which means loads more are going to meet similar fates over the next 10 months, and the next two to meet their demise are Natural Selection 2 and Spellbreak.
The developers of Natural Selection 2, which has been running for 10 years, announced earlier today they would be ceasing “active development” on the game, but not fully shutting down. Instead, while they move onto other projects they’ll be leaving the lights on (emphasis mine):
10 years since its official release and over 117 updates later, active development of Natural Selection 2 has ended.
Our team and this community have provided many years of passion and support for this game. Over the years we had the opportunity to meet and collaborate with so many of you whether at an expo, live tournament, Discord or playing on a server. We thank you for your support and commitment to NS2 and know that this game would not have been the same without you. Now it’s time to look to the future and continue on to other projects within the company.
While we won’t be actively working on NS2, we will still continue to host matched play servers so that community members will be able to play games on-demand with other players or bots.
Although this isn’t goodbye, we still would like to say a very heartfelt thank you to you, our community and to all of those that worked with us on Natural Selection 2 over the years.
Much love and appreciation,
The UWE NS2 Team
While it’s always sad for fans when a game winds up like this, a lot of them just want to be able to still play the thing, so it’s nice to see developers Unknown Worlds leaving some servers up for people to enjoy.
That’s great! That’s even better than leaving some servers up, because as John Carmack said last week, it’s the absolute best case scenario for when official support for an online game winds up. By releasing the game into the winds, and freeing it from the constraints of shopfronts and online platforms, fans can keep playing it for as long as there are fans, and even when there aren’t anymore, the game can still be preserved for future generations.
![Roblox Players Say Pro-Palestinian Games Are Being Taken Down [Update]](https://reportwire.org/wp-content/uploads/https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fill,h_675,pg_1,q_80,w_1200/22498167e49bc80a1958744f8351cff8.jpg)
