Experiences using Marketplace Items - Policy update

Since all of my previous replies were removed, I will reconsolidate everything into one post:

  1. Assets and content uploaded by “Roblox” should be allowed in experiences without requiring purchase prompts or permission.

  2. This policy change should instead be enforced by tools given to UGC creators.

  3. UGC creators should be able to decide who has access to their content, similar to how audio works.

  4. This policy should only enforce punishment on those who try to bypass these systems in some way (such as reuploading assets without permission).

5. It would be preferred if this policy update not be applied to games already using these assets,
    similar to the use of “Ro” or “Blox” in experience titles.

  1. Experiences that haven’t updated/published after the given deadline should not be punished or have the assets in questioned removed. When that developer(s) attempt to update/publish their game, they should be prompted with a warning with a list of assets that will be removed or fail to load properly in their experience, if they continue with said update/publish attempt.

    Updated to better reflect @Blafert’s improved correction.

28 Likes

I’ll be surprised if roblox does something to this sudden uproar. First audios now this.

3 Likes

I feel like ROBLOX doesn’t understand, its not about “Refining” the policy. Its about not implementing it at all. Its not like they have a music company threatening to sue them. They own the platform and everything uploaded to it.

They could easily say, “All uploaded items to the catalog can have the mesh freely used in game as long as they are not selling the accessory itself for personal profit.” or just LITERALLY keep it as it is.

16 Likes

Since my reply was moved to the other topic, I’d like to restate this.

Roblox shouldn’t be focused on trying to stifle the creativity of people - for example, MANY games use customization scripts that freely allow anyone to insert a hat from the marketplace (My game has this) without needed to pay. I personally believe this is fine as if they enjoy the item that much they’ll simply buy it from the site, circumventing any Robux gain we’d get from offering them to buy it ingame (you get a small cut of a sale of purchases made in your game for marketplace items last I remember).

What they should be adding to the ToS is that you cannot include UGC items in gamepasses for customization (i.e. directly monetizing the items without permission/without the creator getting profits from it). Some games out there will offer customization “packs” for characters that use UGC items - it’s in that case where the UGC creator would be actively losing out on profits and having their IP used to generate profit.

And instead of all of this, why can’t Roblox help by offering better security and control of assets to the creators? The audio update was a step in the right direction for safeguarding your assets, but why not extend this to games, models, meshes, and decals? People can easily steal games via exploiting clients and the developers have no way to defend themselves against this - from what I can find, there’s no way to outright DMCA someone on Roblox without jumping through a plethora of hoops.

Not to mention how many issues this brings up with the current moderation of Roblox - I understand the platform is big, but why target people for something so mundane and why add it to the ToS? There are multiple games that fly under Roblox’s radar that have adult content in them and they go unbanned for ages - why pile more work onto the site’s moderation in a way that directly stifles creativity for the players?

There are much better ways to tackle this situation but I feel as if there’s many, many other issues that Roblox should tackle before trying to do something like this especially with how detrimental this is to nearly every game on the site.

15 Likes

why is roblox making seemingly useless updates?
it seems like no one is benefiting from this x-x ur not allowing your own players to use your own assets in your own game

8 Likes

I don’t see how this could be a good update whatsoever…

7 Likes

Will this affect games with StarterCharacters? For example, if your game had a StarterCharacter with marketplace hair, would the player have to own that hair?
Edit: I forgot to add, but this is quite possibly the worst idea Roblox has ever had, and that’s an accomplishment. This and making everything limited are horrible ideas, as was the 17+ game filter. Roblox is going into a downward spiral and I hate it. I’d switch to Unity game development but, well… I’ll let their recent Roblox-like choices speak for themself.

10 Likes

This is a terrible, terrible policy and you know it. You need to completely can this and find a better way to do it, because this will KILL roblox. ROBLOX stock took a massive loss this week and it’s no mystery why.

15 Likes

what in the world?? why??? how does this help you at all roblox? this provides no meaningful addition to the platform and only serves to hurt developers and further restrict creativity.

so from what i’ve gathered; you power imagination unless you

  1. want to make a game themed about roblox itself using classic roblox gears and items
  2. want to make a roleplay game where you can equip certain marketplace items
  3. want to make a dress-up game where you don’t feel like modelling a billion different clothing items

tldr: game platform/engine higher ups try not to make the worst policy additions ever 1 week challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)

12 Likes

we need to keep roblox from falling apart!

3 Likes

This change will directly contradict the commitment of Roblox to continue to support old experiences through backwards compatibility.
I understand that this is not exactly an engine feature, but this will directly cause old experiences to violate the Community Standards, and make them vulnerable to moderation.

Is this how Roblox wishes to modernize itself? At the expense of its legacy?
Could Roblox explain what it has planned to prevent old games from being moderated?

5 Likes

Hey now come on man that very rude to the Roblox staff right here. What they’re doing is makeing the fanbase better so just hold your horses and start getting used to it!

1 Like

Guess I would’ve had to delete every StarterCharacter with an accessory in my game now and make ones myself because of this God awful announcement. (I have zero Blender experience or in making meshes that weren’t already premade by Roblox.)

2 Likes

Dude, chill out. Roblox says that IP respect is our top priority and unless this is about complaining about a “FilteringEnabled 2.0 situation” no games for now will ever be affected

2 Likes

Roblox moved 600-ish posts to a DM thread, including legitimate ones. Great job.

Guess I gotta copy what I sent earlier.


So here we go.

I’m not going to make a massive detailed response, particularly because I don’t really use any Avatar Marketplace items in my game, but this is a bad update.

Congratulations to Roblox following the steps of Unity by screwing over game developers (again).

Anyways, the fact that Roblox only gives us 7 days to prepare is too short. It is not enough. I’d expect at least 28 days of notice for an update to the Community Standards. Furthermore, not even all developers will even know this is changing, since Roblox doesn’t send out emails everytime they end up ruining the rules, not every developer is on/uses DevForum.

I don’t particularly like how Roblox wants developers to handle this, because when equipping an item, I just think it’s bad UX prompting someone to purchase it at the same time. I would rather Roblox just had the ‘prominent ability to purchase after equipping’ part for this to be honest.

7 Likes

Terrible update in literally every way for game developers and players. I have no idea who in roblox thought this was a good idea at all.

This would be the most damaging enforcement roblox would ever push. Especially towards the community.

2 Likes

Another trash update that no one asked for or wants, I wonder what’s the next awful update…

2 Likes

Seeing that over half of the posts here are archived, I’m going to say my opinion about this update again just so my voice is heard to those that are listening.

This is probably one of, if not the worst updates that Roblox has ever tried to push out. The fact that this will ruin millions of places, including some that are owned officially by Roblox and their staff, says enough about this update.

This should not be pushed out whatsoever, and the person who decided this was a good idea should get pulled into a meeting and get talked to about how not to enrage the entire roblox community.

7 Likes

That’s honestly really sad. What Roblox is doing is really, really cruel and I really think that this is going to end up in a catastrophe. Hopefully they decide to cancel this because it’s absolutely horrible. As a developer myself, my upcoming game is going to be deeply affected by this as well.

4 Likes

If it’s real (like when Roblox does the stuff anyway) then users have to go through this stuff everytime they’re using Roblox gears (e.g. coils) or basically any offsale accessories?

I can’t really imagine the players especially in such games that these gears are close to essential.

7 Likes