While I love the idea of ageing up Robox, I don’t like this idea where you have to verify your ID to play. Games are free, games cost money, not many games require a government ID…
Edit: You, as a Roblox player that has already verified your ID, may not find the idea of requiring an ID to be all that dystopian.
If you were someone that hasn’t touched Roblox before and you see an ad for a cool looking game with an * that says “Government ID verification required to play”, would you play it?
I don’t have a problem with Roblox restricting non 17+ people from playing 17+ games, I do have a problem with having to market a dystopian idea alongside my game.
The idea of needing an ID to play a game is weird to non Robloxians.
Roblox’s voice chat moderation has been very triggy happy as of late and I don’t know what I’m allowed to say or joke about anymore. If I’m an adult swearing around another adult (i.e. civil and in good taste, not harassment) I don’t want to be subjected to automatic moderation. Context is critical, and this was never an issue during the voice chat beta. In fact, it was understood and stated to be okay when they were first introducing voice chat.
One of my acquaintances GunFireDev got his account randomly terminated because of someone behaving inappropriately in proximity to him in a voice chat game. I don’t think anyone should be getting terminated without a thorough review of the context and circumstances.
Kinda dissapointing. My game currently has (and i might have to remove it fully) a “casino” that lets players spin the slots with gameplay currency and has nothing to do with anything of value. This change just makes me wonder what in the heck im supposed to do. Replace it with an arcade and toss out all of the progress i made so far? What a joke, i just don’t know what to do. And letting paid random items stay is just like adding insult to injury, THAT is literal gambling.
Since ROBLOX is a COPPA-compliant site, I’d suppose that’s why they require ID verification, to combat underage children accessing adult/mature-themed experiences. Other game platforms like Steam, for example, aren’t exactly directed to children, and the majority of its users are over the age of 13.
I am not exactly sure what’s the reason behind this, but I’d suppose it’s something along these lines.
The last thing anyone would want is for someone under 17 to play a game intended for players 17 and older. Locking it behind age verification seems like the best thing (not the perfect thing) you can do to truly know if someone is above 17 or not. The flaw I can see in this is children using the IDs of their parents but I can’t think of a solution to prevent that to be honest.
I suppose it’s not quite the core point of this particular thread, but I might as well ask: Do sufficiently old accounts automatically get moved into different age groups? I created my account more than 13 years ago and absolutely should have access to that at the minimum, but due to COVID-induced backlog of all levels of government in my area I do not actually have any up to date legal ID at the moment (they waive off expired licenses, but that doesn’t mean Roblox knows to also do so)
…Not like I’d want to actually give Roblox my ID or face for that in the first place, but it’d be good to know.
Definitely something we needed for a while, only thing i take issue with is uploading my government ID online, doesn’t matter where it is.
Knowing things I know, id be afraid of it being used for other means down the road.
Like @Alex645ca said i made my account back in 2012 and I have it over 13 set to my age, im in my mid 20s now, will there be exemptions, i also have my account verified by email and my cellphone number.
That said im glad roblox is starting to age up a bit, as someone in my 20s with an interest still in roblox games it is hard to find something that appeals. Not only that but now opens up more options for me if i do break down and do the id thing (highly prefer not to) for my game idea to not have to be toned down from my original ideas.
This being combat and other related things, before I was trying to think of ways i could have it so kids wpuld enjoy it too but still appealing to not only myself but other players like me
This is still very restrictive. I’m not complaining, but I’m asking for a clarification on what is and is not allowed. For example:
17+ Experiences may contain non-sexual expressions of love and affection, and may reference romantic themes and topics. However, we prohibit content that depicts sexual activity or seeks real-world romantic relationships, including:
Romantic or flirtatious gestures or communication between users in a romantic context
This is quite unclear, does this mean that the gameplay loop cannot include players doing this with eachother, or does it mean that NPCs/cutscenes cannot include this.
In terms of the restriction, what is considered 17+ is quite low. I see nothing that points to the promised chat filter decrease for 17+ users, nor allowing topics that are actually “mature”. Best example is here:
17+ experiences may include depictions of, or references to, bodily functions such as belching, flatulence, vomiting, urinating, and/or defecation for comical purposes. Real-world depictions of these bodily functions are prohibited.
This does not remind me of a 17+ game, but the guidelines suggest it is. To me, this is a children’s game.
tl;dr these 17+ guidelines are surprisingly restrictive
EDIT
Wait, so how can you do something like realistic deceptions of blood or violence if the content will still get moderated at 13+ standards? That doesn’t make sense. The examples provided do not scream “realistic” to me.
I believe a bigger concern would be children tricking their parents into using their selfies and identification, rather than the issue of fake IDs as most people attempting to verify their age through a fake ID usually fail.
Being terminated solely because someone reported me for breaking the rules on voice chat without any investigation on whether it’s true or without looking at the context horrifies me and is a huge flaw in Moderation. That’s why I’ve disabled my voice chat until I see this issue being fixed.
We absolutely NEED policyservice APIs in order to allow games to scale content based on a user’s age: I want to support all ages but also allow more mature content for those old enough to see it.
Can I be honest? I’m not entirely sure whether I like the fact that it’s age verified.
I get that it’s to protect people, but if Roblox wants to be taken seriously, we need to note that online marketplaces such as Steam, Epic Games, PlayStation Store and Nintendo eShop do not require any sort of age-verification to download a 16 or 18 rated games (please note that it is required in a physical store by law). Roblox is going to stand out as the odd one out by requiring age verification for 17+ games.
