We want events back, no Live-Ops because they cannot give free catalog items
12 Likes
I don’t see why everyone is calling for the end of Live Ops.
I see an easy way to fix it.
First, allow UGC creators to grant items through games.
Then after that:
-
If the user behind the live ops game is able to upload UGC hats and clothing, let them write the description for the game and include a picture of their clothing. They’re practically making the event for you.
-
If the user behind the live ops game is not part of the UGC group (and thus unable to make their own decorations), allow them to add their own mesh and texture for a simple non-hat decoration, and let them write the description for the event.
-
For every seasonal event (Christmas, Easter, Thankgiving) create a new, special live ops event with an unlimited number of games to feature this way.
-
Add the current Live Ops period in the thumbnail (for example, “This Week On Roblox - period 30”) along with a new button for seasonal Live Ops runs (for example, Thankgiving on Roblox).
With the exception of a search field or some way to explore a large list for DevOps runs, and adding the ability for devs to award UGC, this is the minimal amount of effort required to bring Live Ops back to a state in which Roblox players would be excited to click that button.
24 Likes
Personally I do believe that Live-Ops still has potential, but Roblox jumped the gun on implementing it. Without an actual incentive to play (sorry but I’m not interested in your new summer palm trees), there was no good reason to launch Live Ops at that moment in time from my point of view.
This is a good step forward - I’d personally rather just see regular seasonal events return but if Live Ops returns with the ability for event holders to give out UGC items as well as getting more promotion from Roblox beyond a small button on the sidebar, I’ll be on board with that.
10 Likes
While I agree with @PeZsmistic that it needs something more than a tiny button in the sidebar, I’d even settle for a button at one of the top corners of the game page. One of the issues I felt plagued live ops was the initial launch though. The first few games felt un-tested, and seemed to be so low end quality wise that I know many players (I say players, as in people who I’m friends with who do not themselves, develop) who gave up looking on the live ops page after the first 3 or 4 rotations. They felt like Live Ops had nothing to offer them because it was such a small selection of games, and generally the selection of games weren’t very good.
While there were a few games that were actually very good that made it to Live Ops (Arsenal, Vesteria, both the Pinewood games, Roblox Titanic, and more) including a paid game like Vesteria is a tough sell. For many people, especially early on, Live Ops was seen as the replacement to the free monthly events. So having a paid access game thrown into that sort, mixed with the lack of earning free hats (which is the only thing a lot of people cared about when it came to events), it kinda felt like the featuring program & events program combined together with some of the not so great qualities.
While I do believe there was effort put forth into trying to make Live-Ops a good alternative, I think the timing played a major downfall. It hurt the Developers to see the monthly events go away (as some people were extremely excited to see a Monthly Event that fit what they were doing already That Racing Month of June, -cough-) coupled with the lack of prizes for the free player base, it put a sour taste in the mouths of a whole lot of people.
I’m interested to see where Live Ops will go on it’s return, however, I think to really wash out that bad taste, more than a face lift to the program is needed. A name change can go a long way. New system, new name, and come back better than ever.
12 Likes
This is interesting. Any more posts soon with more info? Are catalog items coming back? Other type of rewards?
2 Likes
Now’s a good time to bring up my response to a proposal made for the live ops feature earlier:
To summarize, developers have a need to natively share game updates with their players, and judging by the effectiveness of game icon and title changes, players have a need to natively receive game update information.
The existing game update notifications feature could fill this need quite elegantly if it were expanded on, but this feature was dead on arrival due to its comically prohibitive restrictions and low user visibility. Please consider a dynamic and powerful solution such as the one I originally proposed in one of my most famous dev forum posts ever:
48 Likes
I don’t believe ending Live Ops simply because people feel like it’s a poor sequel to events is the right approach, nor the right attitude.
It definitely has huge potential as a free outlet for developers to promote their games. It fell short because it wasn’t properly shown to users where it mattered - on the games page.
If you recall, the website’s dark theme is still not on some pages yet because they need to be updated into a new framework. Perhaps web resources are too tied up to give Live Ops the space it needs right now.
4 Likes
The more ways developers have to get their games out to players without competing with the top of the popular sort, getting lucky enough to be featured for a week, paying for advertisements, the better. This program had potential, that hasn’t been actualized yet.
Edit: Sad events are over, those were a great way for players to be introduced to new games
6 Likes
Live Ops for sure is a great way of gaining players for your game. However, I personally think many people don’t bother about Live Ops. All it is for the community is advertisements, the community gets nothing from this. All the community gets to do is play the game, I doubt they don’t just want to play a game. Maybe if there were rewards like special items for your avatar, the community will be more convinced. Also, getting rid of events was really upsetting. For events, everybody is as usually satisfied because there were rewards. Something that both developers and players appreciated was Egg Hunt. Players get rewards, while developers were getting their games advertised. Live Ops it’s only favoring the developers, not the plasters. I know quite a few people who are not satisfied with this change from events to Live Ops. Honestly, I don’t think it is fair to the players either, but the fact that developers are gaining players is good in my opinion. Maybe add a bit more to Live Ops than just advertising developers’ games.
3 Likes
Does this mean we are getting events back? At least until Live-Ops return?
1 Like
I completely agree, LiveOps had absolutely no effect on my player count or revenue. Rthro on the other hand kept my game alive.
2 Likes
I’ve been expecting this. The number of games on the LiveOps page has fluctuated constantly and has even dropped to 2-3 during some weeks. The implementation of LiveOps clearly wasn’t the best and didn’t gain traction.
As a video game player, I wasn’t very interested in LiveOps. I did check here and there to see what games landed on the page but only played a game from the page once or twice. All of the people I told about this LiveOps were upset, and one person said he’d stop playing Roblox. The idea of an official event by Roblox was cool. A while after I joined Roblox in 2016 or so, what kept me on this platform was the events. I even aspired to be a developer to make a cool game and participate in one of these events.
The official events were a great idea to introduce players to new games. There are some titles I would have never heard of or played without these official events. The LiveOps didn’t have the charm the official events did, and it didn’t help to include paid access (Vesteria) or games that just didn’t truly have an event (or prizes people would want). Just some things to consider.
3 Likes
This was a good call. I feel like the LiveOps program was kind of rushed and felt really rough in some spots. First, they were really hard to find in the first place. The little box on the side near the events tab just eventually blended in, so I wouldn’t ever really think to click on it. One other thing I didn’t like is the lack of virtual rewards site wide, which is what made so many p[lay other Roblox events. They wanted the free stuff for their avatar. And, while I think that it is useful for finding new games, I found that I already knew about quite a few of them, and it didn’t really help me to find as many new games as I hoped it would. While I really like the idea, I feel like it was poorly implemented. Hopefully you guys get around to fixing these issues, and I’m excited for what live ops will entail in the near future!
2 Likes
Nice, but do we still get the red top hat?
5 Likes
tbh, i’m sorta on the same page here. It does have potential but it’s clearly not ready to replace events. If anything, it’s just super bland right now.
A lot of the stuff on the Live-Ops page looks boring just from a quick look, going to cafes or tycoons for an ingame item just isnt something a lot of players want.
There’s nothing even nice about the Live-Ops page, just a boring dark background.
Most players wont feel kind of excitement or a sense of fun if they stare at the same webpage pictured above. It’ll just drive them to play something that’s constantly popular.
But if they’re gonna keep the Live-Ops thing anyway, may as well put suggestions here.
1. They should just keep the whole program on hiatus until Developers can actually reward players with UGC content.
Before anyone disagrees with 1, you should know that rewarding players with catalog items is what made Events into what it was before. Everyone was always excited over that.
Without anything like that to keep everyone invested, the whole program will just die out again in a few months. It’s not just the Live-Ops program itself that needs to improve, it’s the games themselves.
And what’s being put out right now just isn’t enough to satisfy most of the community.
Devs rewarding catalog items to their players is one of the ultimate pushes into making a game addictive and fun. I can definitely say the program will be more successful if we could do that.
2. Maybe have the Live-Ops button turn different colors whenever new games are displayed.
The Live-Ops button never changes, nor is there any way to inform players if something new turns up, because of that…sometimes i forget it even exists…and we’ve all been there…
3. Make a Live Ops tab on the game page.
Yes, before you comment “Game tabs usually display over 20 games”…I know.
But a small blue button displayed on the bottom left cant just be the only way to know about the games that exist there. Because like i’ve said on 2., that cyan button is basically dead.
Having Live-Op events displayed on the game page is honestly a great way in getting even more players, since everyone uses it.
They could make a smaller version of a game tab to make Live-Ops more well-known, it’d really help the smaller devs and boost player count by a lot. Something like this.
If something like that existed, they could probably have 4-6 games displayed on Live-Ops per week now that i think about it.
In short terms, the program in it’s current state is…bad.
People lost interest in it, the games there dont get as much now than when the program first came out and it’s just bland.
BUT, i’m honestly very much looking forward to it’s future. Especially with the UGC program, earning hats on Live-Op games along with the other possible cool stuff they’re planning is something to be thankful for. Which is why i will continue to remain hopeful.
EDIT:
( Was trying to reply to someone but it just turned into my own post, gg )
12 Likes
I didn’t even realise LiveOps is a thing until I read this post… and I’m supposedly a game developer. You can apparently only find it on the website’s sidebar. I’m not sure how such a low-visibility feature could attract a large audience (especially because the sidebar is the last place anyone looks for playing a game). Maybe a more central location for future events?
Unless you’re intentionally seeking out games promoted by Roblox, I don’t really feel any desire to play any of the games listed either. There’s nothing particularly special going on. Maybe this sort of thing is best saved for larger scale events.
2 Likes
I always thought putting it in another part of the webpage as it was hidden away, still i’m being hopeful that there may be a better solution to help this feature out.
1 Like
Well… that was expected.
LiveOps was flawed from the start. There was no visibility aside from the small button, no way of rewarding to engage most of the free player base, and bland overall.
I just hope that Roblox can make a lot of improvements to this so that it can make LiveOps worth it to apply for as a developer.
4 Likes
I agree, I completely expected that as well.
LiveOps isn’t a total waste. But I do hope they try to completely overhaul their game page for a brand new experience rather than building on top of a cracked foundation. And then piling up on a bunch of stucco (Live Ops) to fill in the gaps. LiveOps do have a place on the platform but unfortunately at this time its way too early. You’ve just begun to make strides with the UCG Catalog and other good stuff. It would be better to allocate more resources else where. Like on overhauling smooth terrain water for instance.
2 Likes
This looks to me like in the return of LiveOps, we will be giving some kind of events system for games. I really hope that this will pave the way to rewards from the UGC catalog. Things are looking good for Roblox’s future. Come on, even this guy is a bit optimistic:
And if that doesn’t tell you that LiveOps will be much better from now on, I don’t know what does!
