Roblox

Roblox is less a single game than a huge platform where players make, share and play user-created experiences. By our assessment, its real strength is the open-ended creation system: children and teenagers can jump from obstacle courses to role-play spaces to odd little social worlds without leaving the same ecosystem. That openness is also the weak point, because quality varies wildly and the platform depends on moderation to keep the worst material out of the way. In practice Roblox feels busy, improvised and social, with a storefront-like home screen and an endless stream of new things to click. It sits in a category of its own between a game engine, a social network and a marketplace for digital play. The country code points to the United States, and the company is widely known for shaping the way younger audiences spend time inside online worlds. It is strongest for players who like creation, hanging out and variety, and weakest for anyone wanting one polished, authored game with a clear beginning and end.