Seriously,
as a South Korean developer, i am very negative about this update.
they restrict everything for no exact reason. i would like to know a reason for it.
in South Korea, we actually have the following content ratings according to Article 21 (Rating Classification) of the “GAME INDUSTRY PROMOTION ACT”.
Permitted for use by all: Game products which can be used by anyone (ESRB: E, E10+)
Permitted for use by 12 year olds: Game products which cannot be used by those under 12 years of age (ESRB: E10+, T)
Permitted for use by 15 year olds: Game products which cannot be used by those under 15 years of age (ESRB: T)
Not permitted for use by juveniles: Game products which cannot be used by juveniles (ESRB: M)
the law already requires content ratings and Roblox already has an ID-verified system, so why on earth is South Korea unavailable the 17+ experience?
if the South Korean government is so lackadaisical about ID-verified, i think it would be better for them to allow 17+ experiences while still attracting a minimum of 17+ players, instead of restricting 17+ experiences by requiring more information.
How are the games for 17+ sort selected? I published yesterday 2 full games (17+) of very good quality (certainly better quality than 50% of the games in the sort currently), and none of them is in the sort?
Already read the policies, and Roblox does in fact store your identity. Persona tells Roblox exactly who you are, that’s sort of the point of identity verification services. Regarding ten year old’s playing mature games, Roblox’s definition of “mature” only includes violence and gore, wholesome romance involving NPCs, and depictions of alcohol-not even tobacco. The only part of this that isn’t an everyday occurrence is violence, and it is understood that video games don’t cause violence anyway. As for actually mature games, ten year old kids do in fact play them on Roblox. They’re called condos, and they operate outside of Roblox’s rules. They’re uploaded on bot accounts, accessible via websites that automatically update with the new game link once the game gets taken down, and they exist as sex games. These are the games that are actually worth protecting ten year old’s from, and they are not age restricted. They can’t be age restricted, because that would necessarily require the bot account uploading the game to be ID verified. Many condo creators try not to cultivate pedophiles or children in their community; how effective or sincere they are with this policy is uncertain. If Roblox took the age you provided when you signed up at face-value, condo creators would be able to mark their games as 17+, and they would not be disincentivized to do so by enormous profit losses due to losing their audience. The point is, the actual problem-games are going to be played by kids no matter what. If age verification exists, the problem-games won’t use it. If there is no age verification, problem-games may very well set their games as 17+, and Roblox will at least be able to blame the parents for ignoring the 17+ rating or irresponsibly giving their child unrestricted access to the platform.
@Seranok I vaguely hope this is a take Roblox hasn’t yet considered. It’s Murphy’s law, you’re bound to end up in a controversy around this sooner or later. Should condos be the fault of Roblox or irresponsible parents? If condo developers are both literally unable and financially discouraged from protecting children because of your policies, I think the blame will lie squarely on Roblox.
What’s the point of allowing alcohol if we can’t depict it besides a red solo cup? Also, I don’t see any mention of this on the 17+ policy standards, so I don’t see how developers would know this info unless they explicitly saw this post. Is this actually going to be enforced?
1 month and 5 days since the announcement, zero communication or efforts made to earn the trust of developers in creating 17+ experiences, and a disgusting encouraging from staff to bypass moderation to create 17+ assets in the interim and who knows how long official support will take.
Someone needs to get talking. Product can’t lose the communication flare that was presented with the roadmaps (to a lesser extent but better than previous years), and moderation is just refusing to communicate entirely. This is unacceptable and disrespectful to the developer community.
I’ve seen a ton of people getting disappointed about things they can’t do. Things that they would of already done if they did not know it was against the rules.
This kind of highlights why 17+ Experiences don’t currently work, there are many games that have been up for more than a year that have things like casinos, depictions of alcohol and ‘violence and gore’. And if one person can publish a game and get away with it, i think others will just see it as ‘allowed’.
Now I know ROBLOX gave a date for enforcing ‘simulated gambling’ on September 18th, but what about all of the other categories that would now be in violation?
Most people won’t subscribe to the new age rating because of the loss of audience. And the lack of age verified persons on the platform. So it’s not unreasonable to say most people just won’t update their age rating due to the lack of enforcement outside of it.
So simulated gambling games (poker, blackjack, etc.) are no longer allowed even if they do not involve currency that can be purchased with robux, but lootboxes that you purchase with robux are? I’d love to hear the thought process that went into that
Are casino games that don’t offer a loss/reward allowed to be played (for example allowing players to play blackjack with a dealer but nothing can be gained or lost from the interaction)? Or are players just not allowed to engage with any type of casino game at all?
If playing a casino game such as blackjack is allowed assuming there’s nothing to be gained or lost, would doing something like taking an (in-game) shot of alcohol if you lost allowed?
If no to the previous two questions, would a non-casino game like crazy 8’s where if you lose, you take a shot be allowed?
I think this change is generally good for Roblox, considering a lot of its players are growing up.
However, viewing the 17+ tab, a lot of games listed there are not even actual 17+ games. I’ve seen a few normal obby games listed as 17+.
As of now, all you need to do to get a 17+ rating on your game is fill out a questionnaire. I think this leads to a lot of incomplete, spammy games making their way to the 17+ category.
It looks like other games break the rules with dangerous activities, such as this game called Drink, which I’m sure many of you have played. In this game you excessively drink alcohol until you pass out. This game also has a feature where if you drink water, you will become less drunk (which is actual misinformation). Are games where dangerous adult activities such as binge drinking even permitted? Could games that promote dangerous drinking affect players who are under 18/21, and get them into dangerous situations, especially when it’s front and center in some of these games?
I think it’s important to remember that 17 year old people are still kids, and even at this age, making things like binge drinking shouldn’t be allowed, especially if it’s front and center in the game they are playing.
A great change for Roblox, but I think age guidelines need to better define what is and isn’t allowed, for the safety of the players.
Romantic content should be 17+ only if there are only dating or the player himself can date a NPC. The rest should be only 13+
My sister and some of her friends played TL when she was 11 so moderation need to be rewiewed what is 17+ and what is 13+.
Roblox has never before allowed Romantic themes of any kind. Even words like love, girlfriend, boyfriend, etc. have been historically moderated.
Roblox’s content rating does not follow the ESRB guidelines and it’s not meant to.
Remember, we’re not game developers anymore and Roblox is not a platform, it’s a game.
The “Roblox Game” is rated “Teen”. So by the ESRB standards, all content within Roblox must also be rated Teen (at most). This means that what they call 17+ and allow as 17+ still can’t put them outside of the “Teen” rating. Otherwise, Roblox would become 17+ and that would be very bad for their distribution. This is precisely why 17+ games won’t show up in a search on iOS. Google Play is more lenient with this.
They were very specific with this and this was intentional:
100% Roblox would consider falling in love and getting married, even if to an NPC, a “romantic theme”. Also, as I’ve witnessed firsthand, Roblox moderation can not differentiate between things you say to an NPC and things you say to a player. I’ve personally seen people get warnings over things they said to an NPC in RP games.
