Roblox, an online gaming platform where people can play or create games, has 52.2 million daily users. The company’s original demographic was minors, but in recent years it has become a popular destination for teenagers and young adults, and more than half of its users are now over 13 years old. The rich and varied virtual worlds created on the website are considered what they are. We can see and experience in the metaverse the possibilities of interacting with other people and the personal avatars that players can use in games.
The update is similar to Apple iPhone’s Bitmoji, which uses depth sensing to measure and track head and face movements. Previously, avatars on Roblox had expressions, but Roblox’s vice president of product and avatars, Bjorn Bock-Larsson, described them as “two-dimensional.”
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The Roblox update means that if users smile, look or scratch their foreheads, their avatar will appear in real-time. Eyes may scan, heads may shake, and eyebrows and ears may twitch with similar effect. And soon, according to Roblox, users will be able to chat directly with other avatars like in other multiplayer video games. In short, the changes could merge our real-world human experience with the metaverse, making avatars look like ourselves — for better or for worse.
In the year Until early 2023, these updates will be kept within a strict circle of users and developers, which Buck-Larsen says is to maintain “trust and security.” “We expect the unexpected,” he said. Part of that delay is so that Roblox’s security team can ensure that expressions are safely embedded in a large demographic of small users. For example, Buck-Larson said that one option for facial expression, such as sticking out your tongue, was scrapped because it could be sexually abused.
