Roblox removes 'meat grinder' Ukraine vs Russia game

02 October 2022 01:32

The world's biggest gaming platform for children, Roblox, has removed two games that allowed players to fight and kill each other as Russians or Ukrainians.

One of them, called War on Larkiv: Ukraine, was showcased to users in the Roblox discovery section, BBC reports.

It clocked up 90,000 plays in less than two weeks.

Roblox said that both games violated its community standards and removed them within four hours of being contacted by the BBC.

War on Larkiv was based in a fictional city that resembled the real city of Kharkiv, where hundreds of people have died in indiscriminate shelling after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February this year.

The other game, called Battle for Ukraine, had been on the Roblox website for months.

It allowed players to watch the bombing of cities such as Mariupol, which was besieged and largely destroyed by Russian forces earlier this year.

Fifty million players, mainly children, log in to Roblox every day to explore, play mini-games and create their own "experiences".

A Roblox spokesman said: "We have strict Community Standards which govern the portrayal of real-world events. Both of the experiences in question have been removed for violating our standards following an assessment by our moderation team."

Ukrainian game developer Grisha Bolshakov, who fled his home in Kharkiv and is now living in the UK, said he would never try to make an entertainment game about the war.

"Obviously a game with this sensational topic will resonate and generate interest on social platforms, but I would never touch this topic for an entertainment product,

"It's not helping to educate players morally or take a real look at rather sad things. It's just making fun from the meat grinder happening in the real world."

Caliber.Az

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