One of the darker parts of my personal lore is that I used to really like Hamilton. My friend made me watch a horribly low-definition, illegally filmed rip of it when we were on holiday six years ago. That got me into the soundtrack enough that when I was working as a barista, I would play it over the sound system when I was closing up shop alone. When I was on holiday in San Francisco four years ago, my father very kindly got us both tickets for an alternate cast showing, which I vaguely remember crying my way through because I was so excited to have such good seats and to finally be seeing this musical live.Of course, eventually, discourse began to swirl around it as people discussed the musical’s glorification of major American figures, while it largely ignored these characters’ slave-owning and opposition to women’s suffrage. They’re valid criticisms, highlighting that the musical has aged poorly precisely because of its insistence that the formation of the United States was ultimately a good thing, while simultaneously not addressing what a racist, toxic culture these exact founding fathers spawned. The more I thought about it, the more it didn’t sit right with me, and many others felt the same. Hamilton has since lost much of its cultural capital with people who are chronically online like me, and has almost entirely fallen out of contemporary conversation.Related:Barbarian Is The Best Baldur’s Gate 3 Class Because I Can Yell At EveryoneUntil now. Last week, the official Hamilton Twitter account posted a video revealing that Hamilton the Musical is… coming to Roblox? Hamilton Simulator, the new Roblox experience from Super League and Small World Games is essentially an idle gacha game, which fuses gacha, idle, and RPG elements together with the Hamilton soundtrack in the background. The game is part of #HamWeek, a celebration of the stage show, so the timing makes as much sense as a Hamilton gacha game can. As with most gachas, you don’thaveto pay to play, which means Roblox’s in-game currency Robux aren’t necessary, but as with most gachas, you will be sorely tempted to pay anyway so you can progress through the game in a faster and more satisfying way.

I have no idea who decided to put Hamilton in Roblox, but it’s a befuddling choice to say the least. I’m assuming it’s an attempt to expose children to the musical and grow a new generation of fans, since over half of Roblox’s users are under the age of 13. Kids love musicals, especially younger ones, so it makes sense from a marketing standpoint. Despite falling off culturally, Hamilton is still touring regularly and is currently doing a North America run and continues its residence in the UK. Enough kids might get fixated on the Hamilton game that parents want to bring them to see the real thing, or at the very least, they can watch it on Disney+ instead of paying hundreds of dollars to take the family to see it in person. Hamilton has a PG13 rating though, so the whole thing is still kind of inexplicable.

Besides, it’s not like Hamilton Simulator is a musical in a game. It’s more of a game where you spin a wheel to get characters you can squad up with to confront Redcoats, sing them to death, earn coins, and listen to MIDI versions of songs from Hamilton. It’s an entirely boring game, relying on novelty and IP to hopefully make a quick buck, and has honestly very little to do with the musical itself apart from being very loosely based on the same historical events. It all boils down to publicity, as these things always do, and a chance at going viral over what seems to be just a silly marketing idea, lacking nuance and any real defining features.

Next:Hogwarts Legacy Was Just Another Bland Open World Game After All