As a Roblox Developer, I feel that the Game Rating System is an important feature to Roblox games and it could be improved. Developers rely on ratings to determine what other players think about their game and what they might need to improve.
I think the rating system should be moved in-game to encourage more players to express their opinions towards a more relied system. Introducing the ability to rate in-game will increase the number of players providing feedback as it is easily seen through the menu. PC, Mobile, and Console players use the menu often. There’s a better chance that they will see the rating option and click on it than on the website/game page.
How it should work
Allow Roblox players to rate games in-game.
Keep the rating tab on the game page so players can see what they rated.
Require the player to stay in the game for at least 3-5 minutes before being allowed to rate. This applies every time you join a game.
Keep the rating tab on the game page so players can see what they rated.
Disable the ability to like/dislike on the game page.
In-game rating could be done in the new escape menu.
So instead of having it on the game page… the one page all players need to go to in order to click play. You’d like to move the ratings inside of the game behind more windows that players would likely not use?
Also what’s stopping game developers from manipulating the ratings? How is this an improvement to the current system? I think this is a cool idea, as a novelty only. But I don’t think it’s a replacement to the current system.
I think the community banding together and making an online website which shows ratings would be a better implementation. Since this is something you can do now without Roblox needing to create or support the future.
How is adding the ability to like/dislike from within a game exposing it to increased manipulation? It’s not like there would be an API to see what the player voted for.
As for the feature request itself, I really like it, but I don’t see the reasoning behind removing it from the website as well. It should be as easy as possible for a player to express their opinions of a game.
The reason behind removing it from the website is to get players to really look at the game before giving it a rating. It is common for many players to join a game for a second, leave, and give it a rating on the website. Playing the game guarantees the developer that players who rated at least gave their game some attention or thought before rating.
You already have to play a game first before you’re allowed to rate it, so “bot deterrent” is not a valid point. Whether or not an API is in-game or on the website makes no difference to spam prevention when the client still has to call it anyway.
If you’re looking to reduce the likelihood of mindless votes, making the voting process even easier by baking it into the menu certainly won’t help.
How are you suggesting that the client is going to call it in-game? Using a website API is much easier to call than an in-game API.
I have edited the post above which suggests a 5 minute waiting period before rating. This will certainly make the voting process slightly difficult and prevents “mindless votes”. It should also increase the accuracy of ratings.
Same way friend requests/chat messages can be automated. One option is simulating keyboard/mouse input to click on the necessary buttons, and another option, although more complicated, could be to use exploits to directly call a remote or however else the rating button would communicate with the server.
In my opinion this may actually decrease the accuracy of ratings for games that are actually bad. If you’ve ever joined a game that was a very obvious scam, you’ve no doubt left within 60 seconds and disliked it. Very few people are patient enough to wait an entire 5 minutes just to dislike a game, even if it’s a blatant scam.
It is more complicated and tough on bots which is why I recommended that ratings should be disabled on the website and introduced in-game. I’m sure Roblox engineers could implement a method that secures the rating process in-game, making it difficult for people who want to abuse it.
If I’ve joined a game that was a “very obvious scam”, I would use the report system, not the rating feature. You see more accurate ratings when you have players who actually play the game. Joining the game for 60 seconds and being able to rate it isn’t an accurate measure of what the game is like. Put yourself in the position of a developer who worked really hard on a game and realizing that it only took 60 seconds for someone to somehow give “accurate” ratings. Now I understand that this situation doesn’t apply for what you call “bad games”. However, people who are willing to give accurate ratings on games whether it be a like or a dislike would still wait to rate the game.
I don’t know a ton about the inner workings of botting and exploits, but it’s not as if this change would slow down botting speed or anything. It would just require some exploiter to spend 10-15 minutes editing their script to execute inputs instead of sending an HTTP request, and then everything’s back to running at exactly the same rate as before.
I’m a developer, I’ve been in this position, but I’ve never considered ratings my games get to be “inaccurate” (minus botted ratings, of course). Consider that your games may not be getting inaccurate ratings, but rather ratings from an audience your game isn’t designed for. A 6-year-old isn’t going to like an RTS. A 25-year-old isn’t going to like a counting/alphabet game. Dislikes can come from children who are too confused to know what to do. They can even come from accidental clicks. These are not things that can be resolved by moving the ratings around or requiring a player to wait around before voting.
Dislikes from children who are too confused or make accidental clicks are probably happening right now. That makes no difference from rating on the website, making your point invalid.
The point of introducing in-game ratings is to encourage players to rate, and make the rating system reliable and efficient. It’s not to find a loophole or restrict players from rating. When kids join games and they play it for a while, they might consider rating it. However, kids of such age probably don’t bother rating at all. They just leave the game. Think about apps on mobile devices. Do you really think developers are going to prompt users to rate their game within the first 60 seconds? It’s not realistic. The user would have spent at least a few minutes which then they could rate the game. This is an ideal situation. Introducing in-game ratings will help developers get more accurate ratings and feedback about their game.
I think our conversation is growing a bit lengthy and we’re starting to reiterate previous points, so I’m going to go ahead and stop replying. I agree that we should introduce in-game ratings, but we’ll have to agree to disagree in regards to the waiting period and removing it from the website. I don’t believe those are good ideas for reasons I’ve stated above.
This is getting off topic but the community already did that with fabric.io and it no longer exists. Moreover, only a small fraction of players ever left reviews there. A community solution to the like/dislike situation is unreliable and insufficient.
