The ESRB guidelines do not include romantic content except s*x so Roblox would not be 17+ if NPC romantic content was only 13+.
If you do not trust me, you can check the official ESRB page : ESRB Ratings Guides, Categories, Content Descriptors
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NOT MY COMBAT WARRIORS NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I dont know if they had a blood setting, I havenât played it in a while. But if it had a blood option and it was sent to âNoâ by default, I think it would be fine. Just for 13+.
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The rules of these guidelines are like the overprotective parent. I mean god damn, 13+ canât even have slightly romantic themes, but 17+ canât even have suggestive? I could see alcohol and drugs be locked behind 16+, but all blood should be available for 13+. I commonly favorite gore and blood heavy games even though I am under the age of 17.
Please rethink this, just use your own version of ESRB or PEGI lol.
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So military simulators have to be 17+ now or am I understanding this wrong? Or any game that uses realistic weapons, and have been for years now, are those games now banned unless they switch to 17+? You guys need to elaborate more on this and what you mean by 17+ assets.
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The issue is that those restrictions vary by country. Certain countries allow people at the age of 12 to see things like nudity. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. That weakest link has the tightest restrictions, but Iâm unsure of which country this is.
Roblox has effectively standardized the restrictions. Now, you may ask, âWhy not disable the restrictions for certain countries?â There are many issues with this solution that I wonât get into. One of the main limiting factors is the fact that people in restricted countries can use a VPN to access these types of UGC, which could possibly violate the guidelines corresponding to that country. In addition, users who have UGC avatar items equipped also need a restriction because the moderation appears to be standardized across all UGC (with a couple exceptions to images and places). That is why we cannot upload 17+ assets on the creator marketplace. This likely applies to places as well.
This is just my assumption. However, it would be nice to see creators allowed to include the content they want to include. It would also open possibilities for immersion.
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I think you are talking about South Korea and maybe other countries that ban 17+ games.
Please answer if I am wrong.
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I am unaware of the specific countriesâ restrictions as my response was generalized. I am certain there is at least one country that makes tight restrictions.
Select the text then press q or click quote.
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The way Roblox is handling the presence of alcohol is frankly really disappointing. In the larger games industry, games can manage to have alcohol and/or tobacco and recieve a T or even E10 rating. I believe Roblox should loosen up the restrictions on alcohol, something more along the lines of this:
9+: Reference to Alcohol (Do not operate machinery while intoxicated labels on machines, beer kegs and mugs in a medieval setting, glasses that contain wine.)
13+: Reference to Alcohol and/or Light Consumtion of Alcoholic Beverages
(A bar where an NPC takes the occasional swig of a beer)
17+ Reference to Alcohol and/or Heavy Comsumption of Alcoholic Beverages (The ability to consume alcohol and become drunk, extremely drunken characters)
Seriously, Roblox is considering allowing nudity in the future but still believes 13 year olds are too young to witness light virtual drinking?
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what are you trying to say here, are you saying they should remove it so the greedy people that force their games to be kid friendly define ROBLOX?
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Im not sacrificing not having Alcohol to land a rating below 17+, infact I am not gonig tof orce my game to be anything for the sake of marketing. however, that is just a little annoying to know that your game requires players to be âverifiedâ with a personal Id only because of the presence of alcoholic beverages
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I got a moderation strike because I had a tavern sign which was supposed to represent a rootbeer float, because a drawing of a glass mug with foam is a depiction of alcohol, even though I literally had ZERO intention of having any alcohol in the game. I just wanted a tavern-like environment for adventurers to gather and get quests like most classic RPG games have. I wanted to stay true to the RPG-style format, but have things like root beer floats, cola, fruit juice, etc. that you could buy for temporary buffs.
That feature, while it would have been really cool, is not worth making a game 17+, as even the idea of that is absurd.
My biggest problem with Robloxâs âdepiction of alcoholâ rule is that unless itâs Bloxy Cola, they subjectively and selectively can call any drinking of anything alcohol. Like red plastic cups are a depiction of alcohol⌠or every drink served at a generic event in the last 75 years.
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Iâm not sure you understood what I said as you seem to have mixed 2 different messages together like I am talking about one thing, so letâs separate them.
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Pretty clearly I said Tomodachi Life would be rated âEveryoneâ to the rest of the world, I literally meant that it has an ESRB rating of âEveryoneâ, so I am not sure how you got that I was implying that ERSB was rating romantic themes.
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In a separate message, I was explaining to you that Roblox needed to fit their 17+ content in a way that kept them as rated âTeenâ. This was not remotely implying that everything that is 17+ means it was from ESRB rated teen.
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When I said that Roblox has never allowed Romantic Themes at all, and that they only allow it under 17+, that did not have anything to do with the ESRB at all, that was just citing Robloxâs policy, which I actually included and underlined in the link.
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When I addressed the NPC thing, I was simply telling you that Roblox doesnât care. Anything you can say to an NPC Roblox will moderate no differently than if you said it to a player. Iâve seen people get temp bans over harassment of an NPC. They are not going to treat romance any differently. A âromantic themeâ is a romantic theme to them, period, end of story, no exceptions.
Hopefully that clears up whatever misconceptions you have of what I was saying.
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Agreed. Itâs easier for me to access actual inappropriate stuff on the internet than play 17+ games on roblox. I feel like age ratings should be a suggestion for parents to see, and can deal with that how they want to. There should always be a stable relationship between the parent and child before unmonitored internet access is given. However⌠we come back to Robloxâs corporate ideology, and they cannot risk any legal trouble whatsoever when it comes to this kind of thing, so it has to be hard for kids and actual adults alike to play the games they want.
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Iâm confused, I live in a country next to Saudi Arabia, so does that mean I can play the game?
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Are you even surprised at this point? A day passing without dying in this country is a miracle.
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With the recent changes made to Guts & Blackpowder, Iâm hoping there will be more for developers as time passes. Maybe allowing for a low violence mode if a player is not verified to be 17+.
Iâm also hoping that the current 17+ policy will be less strict over time.
I donât believe Robloxâs official rating dictates what content is allowed on everything. Thereâs been a blog post from the ESRB which I highly recommend reading.
Things might be the way they are because of laws in select countries. So, if more content would be allowed for 17+ or even 13+ experiences, it runs the risk of being inaccessible beyond South Korea, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
EDIT: Adding a bit of a TL;DR here. Iâm just hoping Roblox gives more information on their long-term plan and incremental approach to this.
Having features teased early would be great for developers, as it gives them time to think of ways to use them.
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If youâre not in the specific countries, then I think you can still play 17+ games with ID-verification.
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Today we renamed the following descriptor options for Experience Guidelines:
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For the intensity of Violence, we renamed the Intense option to Strong.
- Note that this option is only available to you if you are a verified 17+ user who is eligible for 17+ creations.
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For the frequency of Violence, we renamed the Frequent option to Repeated and the Infrequent option to Occasional respectively.
There is no action required from you at this time. Please note that this is only a wording change and does not change the definition or moderation of the Violence descriptor.
We encourage you to learn more about our Community Standards and 17+ Policy to make sure the Guidelines for your experiences are up to date and accurate.
Thank you.
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Personally, I donât see much appeal to this. I was hoping to see a reduced chat filter for roblox and seeing this got my hopes up, but the chat filter is still the same. I donât see why they couldnât change it for 17+ users or even 17+ experiences. Other than that, stuff like gore and alcohol might make 17+ users feel more welcomed to roblox, but I think the chat filter is a big thing that makes 17+ users not really want to play if they canât even say simple stuff like numbers.
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Nope, itâs prohibited by the Community Standards: âExcept where prohibited by local law or regulation, we allow unplayable gambling content (e.g., showing a casino or non-playable characters playing cards) as well as games of luck and chance that are not casino or gambling based. However, experiences that include simulated gambling, including playing with virtual chips, simulated betting, or exchanging real money, Robux, or in-experience items of value are not allowed.â
Although not explicitly mentioned, I believe blackjack would fall under games of chance or luck. Additionally, the wording of ânot casino or gambling basedâ rules out stuff such as Texas Hold 'Em or similar. Carnival games such as Plinko are in a gray area here however, but I wouldnât try it.
Probably yes. Depictions of alcohol are allowed in 17+ experiences, and the above quote from the Community Standards only appears to target virtual chips, Robux, or something of the like. However, like anything on Roblox, you can be moderated for it.
UhâŚdepends on how you go about it. There is an alcohol-less version of beer pong where you just donât fill the cups. Although the name âbeer pongâ would still go under 17+ experience guidelines if the text on the Experience Questionnaire is to be believed, so if youâre gonna put it in, just include the alcohol bit.
Adding onto this: Beer pong isnât gambling, there is some skill involved in it. Itâs not a game of luck or chance. Although it can become âgamblingâ if someone bets limited items on it, but thatâs the fault of the players, not of the developer (so you should be fine, I think.)
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