I can understand most changes on the platform. Locking features behind ID verification is the one I do not understand and do not support. I’m trying to understand why all these features are being locked behind it but still have no solid conclusion. And I could even understand if the whole purpose of ID verification is for security, having things like UGC being locked, but simply displaying ads that others create which allows us to further monetize our games? No. And I know Roblox is saying it’s to verify the user is over 18 years of age, but do we really need to send our ID in? I think there has to be a better way than to willingly share my government issued ID.
I will try my best to be constructive as there is no point complaining just to complain. I’m not one of these people who says every change on Roblox is terrible and “I’m quitting Roblox” only to complain on the next change and say the same thing. In fact even here, I can acknowledge that this change would have been great had it not been locked behind ID verification. Giving more developers a way to monetize and clearly outlining the requirements is a great choice. Nonetheless, I am very dissatisfied with the way it was implemented and here’s why:
I should start off by sharing the reason why I do not want to simply verify using a government issued ID. It all comes down to privacy.
Now I fully understand that every large tech company is tracking me even if I don’t use their services directly. That doesn’t mean I just want to willingly hand over my ID making it even easier to know exactly who I am, where I live, what I do, etc… I know Roblox states they delete all records after a certain time. But that does not solve the issue. Data breaches happen all the time and I already do not like large companies like Microsoft and Meta knowing exactly who I am, but I like even less an online hacker group getting all that data and sharing it with the entire internet. Even if I trust Roblox 100%, vulnerabilities are always present, and mistakes can happen that allow malicious actors to take that opportunity and take advantage them. Yes, this is a low chance situation, but it is not impossible and that’s the problem. And that cannot be fixed by having a sentence in your TOS stating you delete the data because once the data is out, it’s out forever.
This leaves me with a few questions:
I co-owned a game that had immersive ads a few months back. Why am I suddenly not trusted on the platform enough to utilize this feature?
I just don’t understand why we can’t have another way to prove we are trusted to get access to these features. Why doesn’t my clean moderation history not count for anything (been here nearly 10 years without any moderation beyond a warning. And not many warnings)? There are lots of developers just like me who have not broken the TOS in years but yet, still have that get swept under the rug as if it doesn’t matter.
You already even use that as a check for DevEx (based on the requirement: “Community member in good standing, having complied with Roblox’s Terms of Use”), why not here?
What is the point of this? I wouldn’t be uploading ads which could break the TOS. I could get it more if that was the case especially when dealing with advertisers. But simply displaying them in game? Why can’t we just display ads in game?
I know I can’t change this, but that does mean I can’t leave my thoughts here anyways. I’ll just wait and see.