Quick note: my previous response I left here yesterday was moved out of this thread as I mentioned my own political affiliation, so I’d like to post an updated version of what I previously posted, sans the politics. If it feels a bit abridged, that’s probably why, so sorry about that!
Interesting update. I quite like the new PolicyService, and think it will be a step in the right direction for making Roblox games more compliant to various laws worldwide, in particular when looking at possible upcoming regulations around certain practices such as lootboxes. This will be great for making my games play more nicely with various regulations in countries where I wish to operate in.
However, I’m not planning to prepare my games for the Chinese market, for various personal reasons. Thank you for giving us the option to at least opt out.
I presume it’s okay to instantly kick players from a game if their account is subject to China policies then? Or how do you mean allowing us to opt out
of other markets otherwisee?
More than half of the replies made by developers on this thread have been hidden. I don’t think there’s ever been anything like this in the history of these forums. Should concerns about censorship among other issues really be considered “political discussion” when we are already seeing the practical impact to developers on this post?
My post was moved into a message and hidden from this thread for involving ‘political discussion’, but it only used certain ‘political’ opinions as a bit of context for why I wouldn’t want my game in China. Development related.
I don’t think anything should have been moved for involving ‘political discussion’ as no one is on here debating politics: everyone agrees on the principles surrounding moving into the Chinese market and were simply using it as a way to justify whether moving into this new market is acceptable. The thread is about the new global compliance system, why aren’t we allowed to discuss global compliance?
This is very concerning to me. I’m going to take this weekend to really consider what my game dev plans on this platform will be going forward. I’ve put 6 months in and everything was fine. The thing I’m struggling with is how are they really going to enforce different policies? As far as I’m concerned, having even one agreement that says “we can copy or reproduce your game for any reason, not pay you, and we can use it for any reason even outside of the platform, btw you don’t own it anymore” is soul crushing.
I know this is opt-in but based on other examples I’ve seen, certain countries (5 or 6) are just going to consider all of this “grey area” and most certainly copy U.S./E.U. games and clone them part by part.
What an outrageous and unappealing set of terms and conditions… I hope Roblox is able to enforce our I.P. rights… that would make them smarter than Apple, Sony, Microsoft, Amazon, and many others who’ve tried and failed.
The main point I see people worrying about is the idea that once a particular country’s players represent a significant proportion of Roblox’s income, the country may change their terms of compliance and cross a line. I am interested in how Roblox is prepared to react to that potential conflict. Is Roblox prepared to end their deal with any country that asks for too much, even if it means losing out on substantial income?
If a developer opts-in for their game to be in the Chinese market, would games where users can create their own imagery in-game (free drawing) be penalized for user’s work that break the policies, or are they protected by safe harbor?
While I understand why it might seem like that, I had a long discussion with developer engagement about those posts (both as a group with several other developers and one on one) and I can be absolutely certain that we are not ‘seeing the practical impacts’. These posts were removed as part of a normal moderation sweep, which happens all the time on announcements. It’s unfortunate that this topic had that happen given the subject matter (in the future DevEng should probably leave threads like this be) but what’s done is done and those posts can’t be moved back without ruining their chronological order – blame Discourse for that one.
Being sensationalist about this and crying wolf will come back to bite us later. Don’t pretend something is censorship until it actually is.
Hiding all of the replies that are anti PRC is censorship. It would be nice if the ones that were hidden could be moved to another thread that is open to the public.
I don’t foresee that happening because the posts do actually violate the forum rules (politics are banned).
It is a coincidence that most of the replies that were removed were anti-PRC/anti-expansion into China; there were a few that were pro-PRC that have been removed as well.
In the case of paid random item restrictions, would it still be in compliance to offer a specific offer along with a bonus random item with its purchase? I’ve seen other gaming platforms handle the lawful issue of paid random items by offering a set amount of in-game currency and a “bonus loot box” with the purchase of that currency. It’s fairly apparent that the purchase of the currency is relatively worthless compared to the “bonus loot box,” but does that still comply with the user’s compliance policy?
Secondly, if an in-game currency (tied to real-life currency) can be used to obtain random and non-random items, does that still comply with paid random item restrictions? If the user can use their non-random currency to purchase non-random items, but the possibility of using that same currency to instead choose to get something random, is that no longer in compliance with paid random item restrictions?
Third, if a person makes a purchase for in-game currency and is guaranteed to get a minimum amount from their purchase (example: 10 in-game dollars), but will then also be given a random bonus amount (example: 50% chance to get an additional 5 dollars), would this violate paid random item restrictions?
I have had about five of my messages hidden into two separate discussions, one of which has since been removed completely, the other now just tucked away. A real shame. Especially as I tried to remain unpolitical and respectful although I did mention some policies of their government, issues of censorship, free speech etc. in relation to development.
What are you guys discussing about on Roblox that China would want to censor? IMHO anything China would want to censor shouldn’t be discussed on Roblox 'nor the Forums in the first place. You shouldn’t be pushing your narratives in your games, either.
The Chinese government censors a lot of things so that they can stay in power. Some examples of things that they censor are Taiwan and Winnie the Pooh. Taiwan is censored because China claims that they own Taiwan and Winnie the Pooh is censored because people were making memes of it that made fun of China’s dictator. Neither of these things should be banned from Roblox just because China doesn’t like them.
So the way I see it, just choose not to upload your game to Roblox China? And you can discuss about Winnie the Pooh all you want. It only becomes an issue if Roblox decides to ban discussion about Taiwan outside of Roblox China.