Sonic Speed Simulator

Alternate title: I Am Not Immune To Catgirl Maid

Recently, a friend of mine convinced me to try Roblox.
Prior to this, I had never played roblox before. She provided me with 800 "Robux", roughly $10 USD worth of Roblox's proprietary currency.
I immediately spent most of it on cosmetics for my avatar.
There's a lot to say about Roblox. Plenty of it has already been said, and most of what hasn't will remain unsaid for the time being, because today, I specifically want to talk about "Sonic Speed Simulator".

This is a game - er, "experience" - based on the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
In terms of both aesthetics and general gameplay, it does a pretty good job at being a Sonic clone within the Roblox engine.
You run around a 3d stage collecting treats. There are stage elements to interact with like springs, ramps, and loops, and as you collect more treats, you "level up" and increase your speed and your damage.
There are unlockable characters, too, although these are more like character skins, as everyone controls exactly like Sonic and there are no special moves - Tails doesn't fly, Knuckles doesn't glide, et cetera.

There's a wide variety of tasks to perform that reward several distinct currencies, and there are a few different methods to increase the value of the treats in the stage, such as "friends" (mostly chao) that follow you around and passively provide bonus stats.

Let's talk about the various methods this game employs both to keep the player engaged, as well as to tempt them to fork over their Robux.

First of all, this game is a dopamine machine that rivals the likes of Vampire Survivors.
The primary treat, "chaos orbs", are basically just EXP pickups. They make a satisfying sound when picked up, and when you pick up enough of them in a short window, the pitch increases, so you can feel your "combo" of them getting stronger.
I'm still not sure whether they're actually WORTH more during a combo, but it doesn't really matter,
because it's effective at making the player FEEL like they're doing well.

They're not even orbs. Also, the different colors mean nothing, they're all worth the same.

There are, of course, rings as well, though you don't drop them when you take damage like you typically would in a Sonic game.
(In fact, damage doesn't seem to meaningfully affect the player - enemies simply knock you back,
and even pits hold no penalty greater than sending you back to spawn)

The value of both rings and chaos orbs can be increased through miscellaneous bonuses,
and not long after starting the game, the values get kind of ludicrous.
As of initially writing this paragraph, each ring I pick up is actually worth about two hundred thousand rings, and each chaos orb is 4.7 million exp.
I really can't overstate this point - the numbers in this game are huge. I don't know what the norm is for this on Roblox experiences, but I consider the wide age demographic of the game (and of the Sonic franchise) and I question whether 7 year olds can really comprehend having seven billion, three hundred and eighty eight million, four hundred and sixty five thousand, eight hundred and twelve rings.
I'm not sure that I can truly comprehend having that many rings.

There's also Red Star Rings, which are mostly for upgrading your equipment.

If you level up enough, you can do what's called a "REBIRTH". You go back to level 0, but you can increase a stat that gives a permanent multiplier to either rings, XP, or damage output.

The level you have to reach in order to Be Reborn is either hidden away or just not shown to the player. I don't know. I can't find it. I'm level 258 and I need more than 15 billion XP in order to level up. My last rebirth was at some random level in the low 200s, and the one before that didn't make any more numerical sense.

There are timed boosts that triple the value your pickups. You can obtain them by completing quests,
or by buying them with Robux.

There are events that provide you with friends, trails (another stat stick), and character skins.
You can get the rewards by completing a set of tasks before the event ends
or by buying them with Robux.

There is a roulette wheel that you can spin for rewards. You can spin it once every few hours for free,
or you can more spins with Robux.

There is a LEGENDARY SPINNER that you earn a free spin of for every 50 normal spins,
or you can buy spins with Robux.

There is a THIRD spinner that you can earn spins of by defeating a terrible Eggman boss,
or you can just buy spins with Robux.

There are chao lootboxes with an auto-open feature that will continue opening eggs with no user input until your inventory fills up (which you can pay to expand with Robux) or until you run out of rings.
It goes on.
Unlock Grind Shoe Sonic by completing 10 adventures, or buy him for Robux!
Unlock Gold Style Sonic by claiming 40 Red Star Rings from the Auto-Run mode, or buy him for Robux!
Free Shadow from Eggman's pyramid, or buy him for Robux!
Find candy from halloween pumpkins to spend them in the halloween shop, or just buy candy for Robux!
399 robux for 2 bonus friend slots, allowing you to equip 5 friends at once
499 robux for VIP status
599 robux to open three chao lootboxes at a time instead of one
699 robux for the "STARTER PACK"
799 robux for a permanent double XP multiplier
999 robux for double skill bonuses
More Than Twenty Dollars Worth of Robux for the "INFINITE MAGNET" that, presumably, drags the entire stage's pickups onto your character as soon as they spawn, completely negating the point of exploring the world to collect them in the first place!

I didn't even need to look at the shop for that one! The game advertises this to you with a popup multiple times as you level up and complete quests!

Look.

This is an officially licensed game.
When you look at all these systems designed to tempt you - to tempt children - into spending money, know this:
SEGA (as well as "Gamefam") is not only okay with it all, they are making enough money off of it
for it to get weekly updates from a developer team. And this is hardly unique to Sonic Speed Simulator.
People Make Games have an excellent 2-parter on how exploitative Roblox (and especially its cosmetics market)
can be, I would definitely recommend checking those out if you haven't seen them.
But something they didn't touch much on was just how baked-in these systems of exploitation are.

So many of the games I've briefly dipped into on Roblox have this kind of gunk wrapped up in them.
As far as I can tell, it seems that developers have very little, if any, restrictions on what in their game they can charge for,
how much they can charge for it, or really any sort of regulation at all, aside from them being unable to
literally syphon money out of your Roblox account without your button-clicking confirmation.
There doesn't seem to be much consumer protection either - if I spend ten dollars and buy Rouge the Bat, and Gamefam,
the developers responsible for Sonic Speed Simulator, go under as a company, that ten dollars is just gone! I don't get it back!
For the time being, this is a profitable operation for Gamefam, but it might not remain that way forever.
More importantly, that's not going to be the case for most of the games - uh, experiences - on Roblox.
If coolnathan8471 stops developing or shuts down Oceangate Simulator RP, the 3000 Robux you spent for permanent invulnerability in it is just gone. How is a child supposed to understand those kinds of risks or consequences, especially when they aren't being warned about, and especially when it isn't their money?

I don't really have a constructive or positive note to end this on.
The threat of profitseeking psychological exploitation in games has gotten so much worse in places that many people might not even think to look for.
I just hope this doesn't continue indefinitely.




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