The Problem
As a developer, it is currently too difficult to make aged up experiences while still maintaining a decent like/dislike ratio. It is possible, but it is way harder than it needs to be. To keep a good like/dislike ratio, I should not have to greatly simplify my aged up experience to appease younger players.
There is no way to know why a user likes/dislikes an experience; however, I have an in-game bug report system that users frequently use. I get a PLETHORA of presumably younger users who submit spam, non-bugs, and complaints. Given the sheer quantity of spam, gibberish, and hashtags - I assume a lot of them are quite young. I assume a lot of these same users are the ones who dislike my experiences.
I have numerous tutorial methods and standard game design mechanics to make my experiences intuitive to most ages. These methods and mechanics will never be perfect, but I suspect really young users lack the patience to read instructions and to understand more complex concepts. I also suspect really young users have less tenacity for higher difficulty mechanics and objectives.
Why This Is Important To Solve
It’s alright to not like an experience of course, but this makes it so that I cannot design more complex puzzles, mechanics, and experiences without feeling like younger users have my like/dislike ratio as a hostage.
Roblox has expressed that they wish to cater to all ages on their platform. Roblox has historically been on the younger side. Empowering developers to make more complex experiences without this fear will assist in this goal.
Roblox has also expressed that they wish to do some form of content ratings. If this likes/dislikes problem persists, I would not be surprised if some developers misuse this system to age restrict their experiences for this thread’s exact purpose.
Recommended Solution
As the title suggests, experience likes/dislikes should be relative to a user’s age demographic.
If I am 6 years old and I dislike a game, there is a high chance that other 6 year olds won’t like it. If I am 20 years old and I like that same game, there is a high chance that other 20 year olds will like it.
If I am 6 years old, I should see the like/dislike ratio of my nearby age bucket. If I am 20 years old, I should see the like/dislike ratio of my nearby age bucket. 6 year olds and 20 year olds have very different expectations and tastes.
It would also make sense to allow users of all ages to see the overall experience rating; however, the age-specific rating should be prioritized in most locations.
