The way Roblox discoverability currently works impacts games with place teleport mechanics severely.
Recently Roblox released an update that added new KPIs, one of which being Average Session Time. This was a great addition and effectively solved the problem games with place teleports had with tracking their playerbase’s play time.
Unfortunately though, it stopped there.
Discoverability is an extremely important element for games in the platform, and although the KPIs evolved, discoverability did not.
This is specially obvious in our team’s SCP: Roleplay for example. Before we implemented a server browser with custom servers, SCP: Roleplay was always in the Roleplay sort. Ever since the update, it’s disappeared from there, despite having higher retention and more concurrent players. The addition of the new KPI did not change this, mostly due to the fact that discoverability is still using the outdated Average Visit Length stat, rather than the new and more precise Average Session Time stat.
I like to reference this topic as an example, since more developers have shared their frustration with being put at a big disadvantage over simply granting players more freedom:
Game Discovery needs to be updated to better reflect games with place teleports. Without Average Session Time being a factor instead of the Average Visit Length, these games are always put below other games no matter how successful they are, due to their nature of having players teleport between places.
And yes, my game has a lobby in charge of teleporting the players to the place they desire.
I am also wondering what caused the huge increase of players (in April) when the game was just left out for 200 days without a single update: (No viral videos on TikTok/YouTube, nothing on any social media, no updates)
Still an issue, still no response from Roblox. My game is missing from all sorts despite being competitive with some of the entries there, and it’s because I use teleporting and a starter place that is a lobby.
Honestly, can we get an answer on this? I am honestly tired of this silent.
Are you guys using Average Session Time or Average Visit Length? Just answer with a ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ because I don’t know how answering such question would harm in any way the platform.
There are a lot of games with high Average Session Time and Robux per Visit(if 0.9 - 1.1 is even considered high for you). However, they are just dead, laying around like trash with some 80 players while some games with little to no revenue and low average session time reach the front page and I am like O_o.
Anyways, this is not off topic because I am still in need of an answer. Is really easy to ask someone internally for such info and then give us some feedback.
Didn’t the Roblox owner himself said they would promote games with higher returns and average session time (is just left to tell us if Average Visit Length is being considered)? Is this in place already?
You may mark this post as done, a staff member confirmed that having a low Average Visit Length shouldn’t impact our ranking and that they base it on Experience Level.
Though I am still wondering why games with lower Robux per Visit and Average Session Time are placed on top of many other games. I wonder if is an algorithm issue or just players choosing those games.
Honestly, can we get an answer on this? I am honestly tired of this silent.
There are a lot of games with high Average Session Time and Robux per Visit (if 0.9 - 1.1 is even considered high for you). However, they are just dead, laying around like trash with some 80 players while some games with little to no revenue and low average session time reach the front page and I am like O_o.