As a developer, I want to be able to recognize the specific device a user is playing with for analytics and moderation purposes among other use cases (see below for full list). This feature would allow me to see when a user joins the game on a device that was previously used by other user(s).
How would this work?
When a player joins using a new device, the Roblox engine would generate a random string that would be used in place of the Device ID, a UUID.
Safety of Users
Of course, I see user safety as being quite important; but if the IDs are anonymized, then it would be incredibly difficult to reverse engineer and exploit. A random identifier should not allow for geolocation of the user or otherwise reveal personal details of the user.
What use does this have?
It could be useful for…
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Data Sharing
Steam has a unique feature where you can share games tousers with the same computer. You could do somethingsimilar with purchases on the developer’s side.
E.g. User A, playing on Device 01 purchases a backpack.User B, who is User A’s brother and also playing on Device01 would also get access to the backpack, despite not havingaccess to User A’s account. This could stop lots of cases ofaccount sharing among shared computer users. -
Statistics
With this system, you could be able to see what % of usersplay on the same devices, this could be helpful in rooting outaccounts that are trying to mess with a game’s analyticaldata. -
Moderation
I’m aware Roblox has it’s own moderation system, however,many games (such as Roleplay Games) have rules and banusers for breaching these rules, and these offences are notagainst Roblox’s Community Rules.
Several times users have abused alternative accounts to trollrepeatedly at a game. If a large game banned devices if thatdevice had like 3 or more bans given to that device ID, Ibelieve that a large portion of trollers, exploiters, etc. woulddisappear from large games; this is good as many usersmay have a bad taste in their mouth about Roblox because ofthese users who ruin the experience for others. -
Age Limits
Many community games have account age requirements tostop ban circumvention; these are against the Roblox rulesbut users still implement them because there is no better wayto stop people from joining on new accounts. I believe that asystem like proposed here could reduce the number of timesage limits are used, which provides a better experience for new users.