My project One in the Chamber (this project) : [ Content Deleted ] - Roblox was on top rated with over 700 concurrent players, and was banned with a very unhelpful reason of not being appropriate and that I need to review the terms.
No one gets hurt in this game, I really have no idea what the problem is, and in similar games (I am not attacking any games in any way I am just stating that it doesn’t make sense how their content is permitted but mine isn’t), there is shown violence such as executions etc.
The only thing that could fall in this is dangerous, unethical and illegal activities. Russian Roulette would never be allowed on this platform, however, although this game hints at it there is no violence.
Please note: do not advise me to cancel the project, do not advise me to transform this into a child’s wonderland with bright colours and pets. I’ve spent a long time on this project and it was doing very well for being at an alpha stage.
Sidetracking, a lot of the times I get the feeling that different moderators moderate very differently to each other and don’t communicate with the Developers well at all and I would personally like more in-depth reasonings to their moderation for obvious reasons. My game Creeper CHAOS was also banned for using “copyrighted material” (which I luckily guessed was because of the Creeper) for over a week when it used no copyrighted content. They unbanned the game without even a simple apology for their mistake.
It seems that there is a direct conflict in the interest of your game and the interest of the community.
I did play your game in the recent spike when it was popular. I was happily surprised by how in-theme it was. Very dark, moving, scary. It conveys the idea and the real act very well.
Unfortunately, in your desire to make it invoke the feeling of playing Russian Roulette, Roblox likely cannot condone anything that attempts to replicate that kind of game, or condone anything that even suggests that it is that kind of game.
The game’s core mechanic is that you are made to contemplate your fear of suicide, which is simply not appropriate.
That does sound quite understandable, however I’m simply not sure how to make this concept appropriate without ruining it by making it a “kids game” if you get me.
Transferring the concept to another platform like steam might be the best alternative. When Roblox themselves say no than the decision is set in stone 99% of the time.
The only way I could see Roblox allowing this type of content is after age restrictions become a reality.
I can see the dilemma. On one hand, you want something tense and exciting and scary, something that catches older audiences. On the other hand, ROBLOX is a gaming platform that is catering towards a younger audience. The only solution(s) I can come up with are make the game fit for younger audience such as cartoony (which defeats the purpose of intense and exciting), OR make the game private so only you and your friends or followers can play.
There was a game that i played which instead of aiming at their heads, players would aim the gun to the ceiling.
But yeah, a cartoonish style game, when idk, players shoot a toy gun and say “oof” when falling to the ground, it would certainly be more proper.
You see that is what I initially did, the game started to blow up so I quickly made it private, and then I made it public when showing some of my discord members and I check it out recently and I see like 300 playing it.
Might have to just private it and recreate it on another engine as suggested by @PurpSinister, which would be a shame as that is lots of appreciated hard work just gone, and I don’t have much experience yet outside of ROBLOX.
Couldn’t find the attached video, but the game is so specific that might be you, yes. All i remember is that the thumbnail was a round table and a bunch of chairs on top of a generic stud baseplate.
Their content moderation is really a case-by-case basis and can be sorta inconsistent regarding the rules, your game gets deleted for vague reasoning, meanwhile there are games where you literally jump off cliffs to break bones for money. Would this not be actively engaging in self-harm? (Nothing against this game, one of my favorite games on the site.). Maybe they just have multiple moderators that view things differently causing each report to be treated differently? i don’t even know to be honest.
Yeah, that is what I am getting at. The problem is the core concept of the game. I do not believe there is a nice middle ground where your game is both appropriate for Roblox and reasonably conveys the situation and feelings that you are going for.
The issue with this is that it is really easy to find an audience on Roblox. It isn’t rare for a game to reach the front page in a week or two. You’ll be lucky if anyone buys your game on Steam without advertising.
Thats what I think, because most people who have played my game can tell what it is hinting at but don’t see it and go “wow this is really bad I don’t know how this is allowed on ROBLOX”. Either way I generally agree with the moderation point:
I just want moderators to not make our lives hard and to cooperate with us more and give much better explainations, and to not just judge things off of a first glance (e.g. banning someone for something that they think is copyrighted). Instead of just banning us for the smallest things, just work with is and tell us (in a form we can actually understand) what we are doing wrong.
Exactly, which is why I don’t really have a motive to do that until I am much more experienced with developing and able in other programming languages.
If you listened to us 5 month so ago, you wouldn’t have a problem like that. I did also mention that its best to not make questionable ToS-wise games. Roblox is a platform that’s aiming for family friendly content. Yes it does go against your interests but Roblox as a company that lends you the use of its engine has a set of dos and no-dos for us to follow. You either comply or suffer the consequences…
Actually, if you look back to 5 months ago you will see that I have barely changed anything and it hasn’t been touched. Like I said, the rise in the popularity of this project unexpectedly came to me only recently.
And yes I am completely aware ROBLOX can technically do whatever they want, thats not my problem. My problem is just Developers not being cooperated well with moderators and support from them is often poor in my experience.
You must see in my situation that it wasn’t like I could just email them and ask if the game would be ok, and as stated before different mods seem to act very differently which again makes things very hard for a developer.
The problem is much more complicated. By your logic, almost every game can get removed or at least suspended for sensitive material.
I already mentioned this in another post, but there used to be a clone of Hotline Miami with all the gore and violence uncensored, it is still available but is broken because of filtering. It never got moderated and it was fairly popular.
The previous point is an extreme case, but there are also much less obvious games like Phantom Forces where you can literally paint the walls in blood because of a glitch.
This is a controversial issue as russian roulette is closer to a game of luck than real gambling. Does that mean that games like Yu Gi Oh would also count as gambling because the cards are shuffled and kids often bet cards?
The difference between all of the mentioned games and OP’s game is that those are a little more gory games (that yet follow the ToS, besides Hotline Miami - it probably just got lucky) while OP’s (like someone else already said) contemplates your fear of dying and suicide. Any content even suggesting a small hint of suicide is bannable. He had a chance to save himself by making it less suggestive but he passed. This would’ve worked if we had the promised age rating but we don’t and like I said earlier - follow the rules or face consequences…
Except we don’t exactly have well defined rules. The no prohibited beverage rule is easy to follow, but gambling and indirect reference to suicide aren’t.
The TOS state the following for gambling: “…that involve real money in any way”. This excludes his game in pretty much every way, but moderators can still see it as such.
His game contains no content that is a direct representation of “self-harm”, yet it is the first thing that people imagine when they see a round table and a revolver, but wouldn’t killing others be just as much of an issue?
Other games can easily incite fear without even having any horror-like content. Being surrounded by other players in a survival game or any other game in which you lose items can potentially induce more fear than any “scary” game.
