'Continue' game sort issues

In the ‘Continue’ sort on the home page, certain games always seem to be put off towards the very back, to where you have to go to ‘See All’ and scroll down to find it. I noticed this because of my game’s test place that I use, it is a separate game that I join almost every day in order to test changes and new features. Almost every single time that I need to go to this place, I find that it has disappeared from the last 6 continue games and I have to search for it in the full extended list, usually finding it below games I have played several weeks ago.

This has been happening for several months, I have tried looking for patterns or trends in how this occurs, but could not notice anything.

Expected behavior

I would expect the continue sort to be sorted in exactly the order that I have played the games, so if I am playing something every day it will show up in my continue sort every single day.

Page URL: https://www.roblox.com/discover#/sortName/v2/Continue

A private message is associated with this bug report

10 Likes

Hi @Sinne_J, thanks for letting us know about this issue. The ‘Continue’ sort is in fact no longer purely based on recency of play. We understand the frustration this re-ordering is causing our users and are looking into how to make it better.

At the same time, for any game that you play every single day, it should always show up in the front before the re-ordering happens. Could you please provide the url to the test game in question, or its place id/universe id, so we can take a further look?

Thanks!

5 Likes

Hi, this is the game in question: [TEST] Yeet a Friend! - Roblox.

So I’m guessing the re-ordering happens daily? I.e. if I didn’t join this game for a full day, then the day after it will have been re-ordered? (Also, the game has once again been pushed back to the very end as I went to get the link).

2 Likes

I would like to add on that recently I have increasingly seen games that I have not played in several days or even weeks popping up at the front of my ‘continue’ sort. Most notably, a couple of games that I have noticed have this behaviour consistently is Arm Wrestle Simulator and Pls Donate. There are more games that this happens to but those have been the most noticeable & consistent.

I don’t understand why the algorithm would even think of recommending me games that I just do not ever engage in and have not played in days/weeks? I see no reason to have changed the Continue sort. I believe it was best when it was as simple as showing your recently played games, in the order that you played them. I also believe that the vast majority of the developer AND player community would strongly agree. There is no use in having a weird algorithm alter your recently & most engaging games.

2 Likes

Can you please stop changing things like this. It literally makes me want to stop playing roblox. My continue sort should be continue by last played. This first week intern needs to be fired.

At least make it an option to sort normally, not by your silly algorithm. Nobody wanted, nor needed this change. And it needs to be reverted. Please.

4 Likes

This has to be one of the silliest updates I can think of. Please revert the continue/recently played sort back to its expected behavior of being purely ordered based on recency of joining. Thank you.

4 Likes

I can’t find an announcement about this change, nor the removal of the Friends Playing sort. If one was made, community sentiment could be given on these changes. Although I’ve seen most complain about the changes as they dislike them, that could just be the vocal minority.

Respectfully, I feel as though the Search and Discovery team are not effectively taking the community into account where they should be. This developer forum is Roblox’s way of communicating with most of the player and developer side of it’s community. That core value of ‘Respecting the community’ can/should shine here, on the forums. And, I’d like to see it be used more by the Search and Discovery team in a way that is more visible to the community.

Of course tests will happen where you’re not able to full-on communicate in the form of an announcement. But, when there are 3 different feature requests asking for the ‘friends activity removal’ update to be altered, something should be said somewhere.

This isn’t a new issue. And, I don’t work at Roblox, so I can’t possibly know how things run. I know the ratio of feature requests & bug reports to staff is insane, but I feel like a lot more could be done. Roblox, as a whole, each team, and individual, needs to be taking the community into account. And, I don’t feel like that’s happening.

4 Likes

Can this just be… reverted? I played a game last Saturday for over an hour, then played like one or two games afterwards for like 5 minutes. I now want to go back to the game from Saturday but it’s suddenly on the 21st spot in the ‘continue’ sort. How is this good user experience? Just because I haven’t touched something in a bit doesn’t mean it should be completely forgotten about and buried under a pile of other games.

I am actively playing fewer and fewer games on Roblox nowadays because it’s becoming so much harder to use the website. It feels like everything is being hidden away from me. It’s exhausting.

4 Likes

I am continuously getting games that I have joined several weeks ago or and never played for more than 5 minutes forced onto my discovery.

I tried out Neighbors last week for about 10 minutes. I cannot even remember when I last joined Pls Donate, Combat Warriors or Arm Wrestle Simulator. I know for sure though that I have not touched them in several weeks, and when I did try them out, it was for no more than a few minutes.

So WHY am I getting these games that I have absolutely no interest in pushed into my face every single day? And why are the games I actually try out regularly or have played recently being hidden from me?

How can this possibly benefit anyone other than the developers of these games? For players, it means lower interest in the platform, lower retention, lower spending, less playtime. For majority of developers it means their games being hidden because for whatever reason the algorithm has a handful of games it forces into everyone’s discovery. For Roblox it means less satisfied players, less revenue, and a potentially declining platform if these kinds of changes continue. It is a negative in every way imaginable. Please revert this change.

2 Likes