Playing is consuming? The mediatization of children's play on Roblox platform

Abstract

This article analyzes the mediatization of play on the Roblox digital platform through the insertion of advertising and child consumption strategies. The objective is to understand how consumer culture and advertising logic structure digitally mediated practices. The methodology consisted of bibliographic and exploratory research, as well as direct and intentional observation on Roblox to deepen the analysis of the phenomenon in its real context, exploring its consumption gradients. The main results indicate that play on Roblox is immersed in dynamics of material, symbolic, and media consumption due to the profound mediatization of play, in which consuming and playing become confused. Future research points to ethnographic observation in homes with interviews to understand the mediations and mediatization and consumption in play.