I have no clue if ToS related requests should go to this category and no one who I asked was able to help so if this is the wrong place, let me know and I will move it
Guilded is a 3rd party chatting service that has been acquired by Roblox mid 2021. It provides many amazing features that Discord lacks like lists, forums, global emotes, media channels, etc. The one feature I truly believe would benefit developers and players alike is the Server Subscription service.
The Server Subscription feature to put it in the most simplest of terms is like Patreon but with a built in Discord. It allows you to block off sections or the entire server to paid subscribers only. It also takes a much smaller cut of revenue than other services (2.5% compared to Patreon’s 5% and 8*). But why am I bringing this up?
According to Roblox’s Community Standards users are not allowed to use 3rd party services to pay-wall or sell in-experience exclusives as shown below:
As many small developers face the reality of how money or the lack of affects them on this platform. They’re left with little faith of gathering enough funding for their dream projects and need to resort to shady practices like scamming developers, promising the world with nothing to back them up or simply give up on it. If the users are old enough, they can do crowdfunding, however due to the ToS limitation, users cannot be given any perks in-game as a way to say thank you. It is incredibly limiting in terms of what we can promise instead, so many users opt out of crowdfunding. Instead, many developers choose to make low-quality cash grabs that not always succeed in gathering funds for any other projects and keeps the developers in the “cash grab loop”.
If Roblox were to allow Guilded to be the exception to the rule in the Community Standards, it would give anyone a bigger chance of creating an experience that they always wished to create without needing to ask for volunteers
Currently, Roblox has a program called the Game Fund that allows developers to pitch their ideas to Roblox and be rewarded money based on your application. Due to how much money a team receives as a minimum (at least $500k+) it is incredibly difficult to get approved. Having a “lower tier” version of it where users can apply for their games to be approved for Guilded Server Subs would be very beneficial to small developers that can’t hope to be part of the Game Fund.
Roblox is in an interesting position where having a direct competitor to Discord that is willing to work with Roblox developers would significantly boost it chances in coming out on top. I truly believe that by allowing us to use the feature, many developers who once lost hope in being able to compete with top games on the platform, might spark the hope up again and allow for more elaborate projects to come out more often and by that, raise the quality of games on the platform and allow for a closer integration of Guilded with Roblox.