TL;DR - Does the ArePaidRandomItemsRestricted policy apply to games that have in-game currency that cannot be purchased with Robux?
Greetings! I have been reading the ROBLOX terms of service regarding paid random items, since me and a group of friends are planning to develop a game that has such a feature.
In the referenced site, the ArePaidRandomItemsRestricted policy is listed, though I find its description to be unclear.
It is written in the description of ArePaidRandomItemsRestricted:
Whether the player can interact with paid (via in-experience currency or Robux) random item generators.
For context, we are planning to have tokens as an in-game currency that is not purchased by Robux. Is this affected by the policy above? My confusion is on how the policy defines a paid item.
For a sample scenario: Case 1: A game has currency that can be bought with Robux. If a player trades an item bought with said in-game currency, I can understand that the policy above applies, given that the player purchased Robux to receive the item.
Case 2: A game has currency that cannot be bought with ROBUX, therefore, not real money, and can only be obtained by playing the game. The game allows players to create random items through payment with that in-game currency. Is this still affected by the ArePaidRandomItemsRestricted policy?
This question also applies to the IsPaidItemTradingAllowed, which has the same vague description.
Now, I am not sure so someone else please verify, but if I remember at the first time PolicyService was introduced, they say ArePaidRandomItemsRestricted are related to crate boxes (like in MM2, those knife crates where you pay with in-game currency and get a random knife)
AGAIN, I am not that familiar with PolicyService, and you should research deeper, the information I have may be outdated (as it was from when PolicyService was introduced)
With the recent introduction of the policy questionnaire, I would like to know this as well. I too have a game with lootboxes, but they can only be bought with currency obtained exclusively by playing the game. No Robux is involved.
The questionnaire refers to âpaid itemsâ, where nothing about Robux or in-game currency is exclusively mentioned. âPaid itemsâ sounds too generic in this case, so if anyone knows more that would be a help.
Notice: This is a best guess based on my understanding of the legality of gambling (and trading) systems within the Games Industry as a whole. ROBLOX can change these policies at any time.
âIn-experience currencyâ refers to any currency which the player can earn/collect and utilize in store.
Roblox markets (and refers to) places as âexperiencesâ to an extent.
Your âTokensâ are an In-Experience currency. If you can spend this currency on an object where the player can have a chance to get one of several items (rarity-based or otherwise), then you probably should be filtering these out based on the playerâs policy info regardless of if you can or canât pay for the currency itself. This should likely also apply to IsPaidItemTradingAllowed.
I donât know how many developers actually follow this or not - Iâd suggest you follow the safest route above all else.
If ROBLOX themselves changes this, feel free to correct below.
The PolicyService would affect your game if you have a purchasable currency that can be used to interact with Random Item Generators or for items that can be traded.
Wondering this as well. I believe FIFA disabled currency purchases for Belgian players and were thus allowed to keep their lootboxes in the game, because the curency would then only be earned through in-game actions.
I find the wordings still vague. To clarify, is my summary below accurate to what you have mentioned?
Purchasable Currency - Is defined as in-game currency that is bought via ROBUX.
The PolicyService would affect your game if you have a purchasable currency that can be used to interact with Random Item Generators or for items that can be traded.
To rephrase this for clarity, PolicyService affects my game, if I have in-game currency, that is paid for. In other words, if my in-game currency can be bought with ROBUX, I will have to follow the conventions required by ArePaidRandomItemsRestricted and IsPaidItemTradingAllowed.
Conversely, if my game has in-game currency, but can only be earned through gameplay, and never through in-game purchases using ROBUX, I do not have to follow the conventions required by ArePaidRandomItemsRestricted and IsPaidItemTradingAllowed.
I donât believe you would then as all items are part of a closed, time-invested ecosystem devoid of monetary transactions with Robux.
As far as the lootboxes themselves go. Itâs probably best to restrict them wholesale based on region instead and offer that region an alternative - like how RiotGames does with Valorant - rotating a selection of items in the in-game store periodically instead. That way all players are affected, donât have to gamble for a random item and have the choice of not paying for any random items provided by the store as thereâs no luck-based factors the player is paying to interact with, just general luck-based factors on daily/weekly shop rotations globally.
This one would still fall under the IsPaidItemTradingAllowed policy if your currency is paid with robux.