These policies do not make sense, what is the difference between an identical asset uploaded by the developer, and the same asset approved by the developer, but uploaded by someone else?
This locks out smaller developers from earning money through advertising. Brands won’t work directly with a 1k, 2k, or 3k CCU game.
Ads make up nearly 50% of our total revenue. These policies prevent us from capitalizing from alternative monetization strategies, while empowering the venture capital backed companies that have been taking 99% of brand deals across the website.
I have a mall, and it has those fun electronic ad displays. Instead of making my own advertisements, I intend to let others who own a store in my mall to upload their own advertisements. I store their asset IDs on a public JSON file pn GitHub. To retrieve the ads, I make an HTTP call to the file’s raw.githubusercontent.com address. Does GitHub count as an ad server in this situation, or does it qualify as content that I screen myself?
The one uploaded by the developer is assumed to be approved by the developer since he uploaded it. There is no way to know if a developer has approved an automated ad retrieved by code. (chances are high that the dev has never seen it before as its being fed by external sources)
I don’t think this change is targeting roblox decals being uploaded by players into games. Public decals are considered free models and are available to be used by anyone on Roblox.
This seems to be targeting larger games that work with outside advertising companies to automate their ads inside an experience — which is against the community standards.
This thread makes me wonder why Roblox hasn’t released their own in-game ad network which devs could use to monetize their games within the TOS while maintaining control of the ad content. (although some of the ads I see on the web page I would not approve of or want in my game, so idk if i’d use it or not. I’m not a huge fan of horror ads being shown to little kids as they are.)
I’m not a Roblox employee, but I’m guessing this would be considered “an attempt to circumvent these blocks or our policies.” which “may result in further action against your account and/or your experience.”
I recognize that, however the second bullet point does specify “within your experience” - such code would theoretically be processed by a first-party web server controlled by the developer specifically not within the Roblox experience. I imagine such software would act beyond the scope of a simple proxy. Even so, the policy could be more narrow without specifying that it applies to code within the experience.
Do I have to clarify that my Roblox Studio plugins have advertisements (for reference, there is zero disclaimer saying it is an advert)? The advertisements are currently unpaid and they are for some of my other plugins
As yes, developers making 17% of their revenue in 2020.
This is almost impossible for us with the current regulations. Brands are unable to link users to a store so why would they settle for “in-game” content unless its highly specific to their brand.
Youtubers / streamers have much larger and more accessible options for sponsorships and all they have to do is a small bit promoting it. Developers have to apparently make custom models, code something, and sell it to players for a smaller payout in the end.
The ad network I work along side with, even helped some games get their sponsorship by acting like a middleman. Aside from that I don’t think people who code have business skills to negotiate brand deals or even know how to get opportunities like that.
Kinda just sucks seeing this unfold since I’m bouta watch a large chunk of revenue disappear into thin air.
This genuinely pisses me off, Roblox seems to wonder why the larger video game community doesn’t respect the platform? It’s because Roblox can’t seem to let developers innovate or do anything themselves. Is there any actual reasoning behind this besides “we don’t get a cut”? So what, let developers innovate. As long as the images are reviewed properly I truly don’t see the problem. If its a moderation issue then maybe Roblox should fix that instead of punishing developers and cutting off a massive revenue stream.
This part specifically pisses me off, does Roblox think everyone on the platform has the ability to get in contact with brands? No, because they are all swept up by invasive, greedy companies. It genuinely seems like this platform don’t care about indie developers anymore and only want the big companies to succeed, despite indie devs being the reason the platform is where it is today.
I implore you, reverse this decision and allow us smaller developers to have an extra revenue source. If Roblox can’t do that then they are lost.
It really seems like Roblox is increasingly making it harder for the majority of Developers to earn from their work. Roblox has a HUGE platform, which comes with exponential opportunities to work directly with countless brands. Roblox has the ability to create an Ad System, giving access to countless Games on the Platform, to increase their earnings by easily introducing these approved and curated Ads.
Not only would this Ad System benefit Developers, but Roblox would also of course take a % as well.
So rather than trying to help Developers, in a way that also directly benefits them, they chose to directly make it harder for specifically the Developer to earn from their work.
Really disappointing Roblox. This could’ve been acceptable if you would’ve created a solution, rather than only creating a problem for Developers.
On another note, the way in which you chose to explain these changes isn’t very helpful. You can look through this post and see at least 5 very important unanswered questions.
When explaining a new change, you should include examples of current common usages from the Community, which will be affected by this change.
Without this, you leave much room for confusion and concerns, and most likely won’t ever get a direct answer from Staff.
They might’ve had valid reasoning behind this, I assume it’s one of the following:
Ads contained content not abiding by the Community Guidelines
Roblox is creating an Ad System, which will bring Ads directly to Games. Roblox will take a % of this, and they want to force Developers to only be able to use this
I don’t think this exact change was necessary for the first reason, they could’ve of course handled that by Moderating the game, but who knows…
That’s the other issue here, why is Roblox consistently choosing to not be transparent with WHY they’re issuing changes.
They presented the Audio change as a way to increase Privacy and even help Developers, but the real reason was due to a Lawsuit last year…
I don’t want to come off as being anti-Roblox, but their methods of communicating with the Developer community are extremely concerning.
Kids should be protected from predatory ads especially when the developer doesn’t control what goes into those ads which is a whole other can of worms.
