Further Changes to Playing Ability of Experimental Mode Games

Updates Announcements
#206

Many people did not know that though. And as a result of it, 90% of the sites games are no longer playable.

#207

No, but it effectively removes all types of exploits that would go on the front-page of a major news site.

Please watch the video you were linked on how Filtering Enabled functions and why it is utilised by effectively every scripter in these forums.

Now - in response to this, yeah. I am upset I can’t play old legacy games anymore. That’s an issue which numerous members here have suggested fixes to. Otherwise, I am very glad that experimental games are no longer causing Roblox severe PR issues. I’m hoping this is a temporary implementation though - and considering how only a few weeks ago Roblox was featured on a news site for something that would have been fixed if this was implemented, I’m betting it is.

#208

This has been such a long time coming. You’re all acting like it was never warned about but all the changes for the past year or two have been hinting towards this.

Security is really important so they were not going to support poorly structured security-flawed games forever. Making them friends-only is the 3rd warning to change your games. If you ignored the previous warnings, that’s not Roblox’s fault.

If the dev isn’t keeping up to date with Roblox updates and isn’t making sure their game is secure and prevent abuse by using Roblox’s suggested methods then don’t be surprised when your game loses support and becomes unplayable.

Imagine if a big company like Microsoft just ignored all security flaws and let them exist forever because they are scared to break one or two apps. It would never happen. The PR of having a flawed system that anyone can hack is damaging to say the least.

Security is number 1. PR and parents is number 2. Making sure you can play games from 10 years ago with massive security flaws for the sake of nostalgia is at the bottom of the list. Update your games.

6 Likes
#209

Devs who have moved on can’t update their games. Proposed solutions that are leagues better that what Roblox has done preserve the playability of these games at the expense of them maybe not working correctly. Playable is better than permanently dead.

Just because they were developed under experimental mode doesn’t make them “Insecure” if forced out of experimental mode.

Warnings for this existed only on devforum. The eventual goal of this is not explicitly stated anywhere. There was nothing announced on the website itself. A huge amount of people would not have known anything about this.

14 Likes
#210

What’s your proposed solution for fixing all those old games to make them more secure without having to change anything in their code then?

I don’t think there’s a good way of making them secure without breaking them or requiring the dev to make changes. If the developer’s moved on then why does it matter?

If the developer has chosen to give up on the game and left it in roblox’s hands, Roblox choose what to do with it :man_shrugging: seems pretty fair to me and personally I will always pick security over unsafe playability.

1 Like
#211

On mobile right now. Look up my posts in this thread, I list a few that I’ve seen and someone else lists two more afterwards. These are not solutions for “fixing” these games. These are solutions for having them be secure and joinable instead of closed forever.

Did you read my post. The point is that they can’t be fixed if the dev has moved on. The point is to at least have the games joinable. Making them “secure” is as simple as turning on Filtering, even if that breaks scripts.

Millions of games are now entirely inaccessible and will never become accessible again. Hundreds of classics are dead now and can’t even be joined. Old showcases are locked and cannot be seen. This is unacceptable. These games should not be closed forever.

Users leave for many reasons. Their work remains their work.

You can have security while also still having access to millions of old unmaintained games simply by forcing those games out of experimental mode - thus making them secure from most destructive exploits.

Again. Being developed in experimental mode doesn’t make the game inherently insecure. Leaving EM might break the game, but it’s no less secure than a game developed with Filtering in mind.

7 Likes
#212

I don’t get the point in making a game joinable if you can’t actually play it because the scripts are broken and won’t work with FE. That just makes Roblox look like a broken platform if there’s a ton of old games that they force filtering on when they aren’t able to work with it. Better to hide them if for nothing else than PR and to stop new people thinking everything is broken.

3 Likes
#213

See: secure mode suggestion that allows players to join experimental mode games but in a version of the game with Filtering forced - presenting a very large notification that this game may not work correctly.

See: showcases. No scripts in those but now they’re unjoinable, and thus unenjoyable.

6 Likes
#214

They shouldn’t need to be made more secure.

When a publisher releases a game, say on a CD/DVD (old ikr) it can’t be modified, and will still work on the same legacy systems in the future. Hey, you can still play old games on commodores and Nintendo 64s!

However with Roblox, everything moves on in a different way, we don’t have the same replay stability older systems like that have - but this is something some would want.

While this will never be the bulk end of the market, and I think everyone understands that. It feels sad for Roblox to purposely neglect this small market which before was a natural bi-product. This does have a greater good for the platform as a whole in avoiding the media outrage from hacks, however I think there is much annoyance as there are other ways this could have been implemented without totally stopping the games as others have said (1 player only, force to fe regardless of breaking).

6 Likes
#215

I like this change.
There are pros and cons but in a long term solution, this will greatly improve the experience on ROBLOX.

Here’s why:
Pro’s:

  • Developers, are more motivated to learn to code with FilteringEnabled, resulting in a higher quality and way much more secure experience.
  • Less Users are going to buy Exploits, as they require atleast some basic knownledge of Lua scripting, yes there are public scripts however they need a lot of maintance as they can get patched(for being open source).
    This will result in a decrease of motivation for those who make exploits(as their demand decrease), and possibly and eventually lead to the discontinuation of the product.
  • Younger Audiences are least exposed to innappropriate content. Let’s not forget about Roblox is COPPA Certified.

Con’s

  • Of course this update will leave a lot of games unplayable, but at the same time I think it’s a great motivational push towards the developers of the games affected by this update.
2 Likes
#216

Completely understand both your points and @qqtt991’s points too. I think Roblox, like myself, had security and PR at the forefront, meaning that nostalgia and older players’ feelings were not primary concerns. Hopefully they listen to both of you and the other replies and find a way to let you play the old games in a way that is both safe and doesn’t expose them to bad press if the games are broken in the process.

Definitely a dividing issue amongst the community so I don’t think there’s a surefire way to make everyone happy, but I understand that you feel they have made more people unhappy than was necessary. Thanks for the discussion :slightly_smiling_face:

2 Likes
#217

Roblox have made it clear for quite some time now that they’re moving away from experimental games, so enough time has been given for developers to update their games and port them.

While it is sad to see some old games become unplayable, in all fairness, Roblox are not going to want to endorse games which are not of a reasonable stand-point regarding security, as if someone who decides to exploit the game manages to create an inappropriate environment for younger audiences, Roblox will be the target of media backlash and not the developer.

http://robloxdev.com/articles/Experimental-Mode

1 Like
#218

The only games they endorse are ones for events and ones on featured?

2 Likes
#219

That’s more of an assumption, I wouldn’t say Roblox only endorses those games because…
One could assume that if its on the Roblox site, then Roblox endorses it.
Which hey if you’re the media and trying to take cheap shots…

2 Likes
#220

In the eyes of parents, the media and probably the government, if it’s publicly available to play on the platform, it’s got Roblox’s seal of approval. Roblox have to act on that knowledge and actively remove anything that would hurt the company’s and the community’s image, now or in the future. Roblox are ultimately held responsible for everything on the site and platform.

Whether it’s right or not to lump that responsibility on the platform as well as the users is a different question and a different battle.

I personally like the fact that Roblox take a more active role to keep the community and company safe than they did in the past.

2 Likes
#221

In my personal opinion, this was a good choice.

There’s a few things here and there though, I wish they removed Experimental Mode as a whole & forced all games to be Filtering Enabled and didn’t close them, despite them being broken they’d still be able to be visited.

But no hard feelings from me at least, it’s a good thing in my opinion. Sad in some games being lost in the void now, but still a sacrifice that had to be done.

4 Likes
#222

There goes our ability to play most of the classic/old games… (as a lot of those creators haven’t been active in years)

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#223

I say this in the fullest respect of those who took the time to create games for the platform who are no longer here to update the game.

In the extreme, I would rather have the ability to not play old games than to be able to play any games at all.

Saying that, Roblox still has room for improvement and should continue to improve the player experience including that of older titles.
But at a final choice of allowing just non-FE games to be playable, my answer would be no.

3 Likes
#224

I’ll never be able to beat the who killed justin beiber obby now :pensive::yum:

16 Likes
#225

I feel like opening up these old games for singleplayer-only servers would be the best option. Erasing so much of Roblox’s history feels slimy.

15 Likes