As a Creator on Roblox, I’ve noticed a gap in the recognition of marketplace creators compared to game developers. I am specifically a UGC creator which is currently part of the few group of creators on Roblox with no awards. To provide existing context, there are currently 3 phases/types of existing developer rewards:
- Physical Swag Bags achievable by 40 million+ lifetime Robux for games only
- Virtual Crown UGC accessories for various milestones of Monthly Average Users on a game
- Physical Swag Bags for various milestones of Gameplay hours
Introduced in November 2020, April 2021, and May 2021 respectively, we are nearing 3 years since any award was introduced. In this time it appears there were issues with the developer awards program that have seemed to take the focus. However the issue I present lies in the that here has been no implementation or initiative to implement a creator award of any sort, which is incredibly uninspiring when juxtaposed with the 3 unique developer awards. If Roblox truly desires to celebrate the communities successes and accomplishments as mentioned in the developer awards post, then something more than a blind eye should be awarded to the successes and achievements of 2D clothing designers, plugin creators, UGC creators and soon to be creator store creators. I believe the issue stems from a lack of recognition to these forms of creation that you often hear about from large creators in these respective spaces. This is also exemplified in the innovation awards where the only categories for any of these aforementioned types of creators are “Best limited” and “Best item”, only applicable to UGC Creators, compared to the 9 unique categories for games.
While metrics such as gameplay hours/monthly average users cannot exist in the marketplace, awards such as the swag bag would be an achievement no different than “total sales” for any marketplace creator. For UGC creators such as myself, this achievement is much more hefty, as we only receive 30% of each sale through the marketplace, compared to the 70% clothing creators and plugin creators (I believe currently) receive. As a result, upon hearing of this award I was disappointed to find out this was not an award UGC creators were eligible for.
If Roblox is able to address this issue, I believe it would improve the creation experience by giving creators something more to strive for, and highlighting the diversity of creation. I believe that Noble_Draconian puts it best in his post concerning the state of the developer awards program:
Ultimately I’d like for Roblox to further recognize how each type of creator contributes uniquely to the platform by extending the recognition through awards that has long been afforded to game developers in order to foster continued creativity and appreciation for all.