Anyone who sends his comic character on Roblox on the trip, must first decide: On the online platform sail pirates to the bet, police chase criminals, Batman duels with Superman, pizza bakers fight for customers. With almost 60 million different games, the selection is difficult, but for almost all there is something. It does not matter if you prefer jump 'n' runs, role plays, simulations or shooters.

But Roblox focuses on children: About half of all users are younger than 13 years old. After the success in the US, the Californian company also wants to conquer local children's rooms. Roblox has been available in German since April, 150 top games have been translated and German-speaking employees have been hired for support.

For a long time, it looked as if Roblox would endure an eternal niche existence. It is the late bloomer among the online playgrounds. The platform has been around since 2006. Roblox is thus older than the three years later published "Minecraft". But now seems to have come the time for the breakthrough. Four years ago there were six million players left. Today Roblox can compete with 90 million monthly active users with Minecraft and the Playstation Network. Even the online hit "Fortnite" should not be too far away. In August, Epic still had about 78 million monthly active users.

Europe is already the second largest market for Roblox, says Teresa Brewer, director of corporate communications, SPIEGEL: "We expect the number of European users to exceed the number of US users over the next two years."

Like Lego figures in the "Minecraft" cosmos

The recipe for success: Roblox cleverly mixes the success models of the competition. The characters look as cute as Lego males, the simple controls reminiscent of the block-clicking on "Minecraft", and the colorful game worlds invite as in "Fortnite" online meeting with friends.

In addition, the Roblox developers rely on a similar model as Apple with the App Store: The users are not only allowed to play, but also get the tools to implement their own creative ideas. The developer tool is installed parallel to the game and can be operated without much programming knowledge. The result is that now make about four million hobby programmers the Roblox world more colorful.

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Online gaming platform: This is what the Roblox gaming world looks like

The developers are involved with about a third of the revenue from microtransactions. The games are free, but users can use the Robux virtual currency to pimp their characters, catch wings, buy Batman costumes, or unlock super-power. Robux can also be collected while playing, but only very slowly. For impatient users, there are packages with the virtual currency, which cost up to 200 euros. This is obviously worthwhile for companies and developers. According to its own statements Roblox has distributed more than 50 million euros to hobby programmers last year, including nearly 16 million to the 500,000 Roblox developers in Europe.

Fight against the abuse

The catch on the business model: The artistic freedom is abused by some users. Although the chart games are usually free of obscene scenes. But if you dig a bit, you will find content that is by no means suitable for children. For example, right-wing populist groups celebrate a German empire in 1944. Other users who named themselves after the Nazi penny book "Landser" upload Wehrmacht songs.

Again and again, obscene clips appear on YouTube with links to games in which the characters enjoy themselves naked in virtual spaces. Last year, a mother complained that her six-year-old child had landed in such a sex room. Shortly thereafter, a mother reported on Facebook with the charge that her daughter had to watch how her character had been raped. These are bitter setbacks for the Kinderkosmos operator.

Roblox usually responds quickly to such incidents, clears the material and blocks the perpetrators. "We try to do everything in our power to detect, report and prevent evil behavior and wrongdoers," says Brewer. But that's a lot of work for the world's only 700 presenters. The employees are supported by algorithms that check chats for obscene sayings and phone numbers. Yet every month they have to run millions of game worlds, watch videos and listen to audio files.

"We have a zero tolerance policy against inappropriate content on the platform," says Brewer. Especially children younger than 13 years should be protected. Children therefore have limited access to the platform. In addition, the company asks the parents to not leave the children alone with the registration. They should be there when a profile is set up to prevent chats with strangers in the settings.

Roblox is free for PC, Mac, Android, iOS and Xbox One. A version for the Playstation 4 will appear soon.