Introduction
As a developer, it is currently too hard to let potential players know what their friends are doing in-game.
Current State of Gamecards
On Roblox, all we get to see is this, which I’ll be calling a Game Card to make it easier to reference. You can get it to show up by hovering over a friend that is playing a game. Admittedly, it is very interactive but doesn’t show a lot of information.
Problems with Current State
As of right now, game cards show barely any information. Referring to the example above, it shows:
- The place’s thumbnail
- The place’s name
- A join button
This is a problem because a potential player cannot see what their friend is doing. Are they in-game? Are they in a lobby? Are they AFK?
As well, it is not very customizable. The most us developers get to customize is the name of the place that the player resides in and the icon. Not very comprehensive if you ask me.
Proposed Solution
My proposed solution is to add more details to the game card.
Why?
It may be able to boost user engagement. Personally, when I look at what my friends are playing outside of Roblox, if I see more details, especially about a game I’m not too familiar with, it peaks my curiosity and as a result I’m more enticed to join them. If I see one of my friends in a lobby of a game that I play, and they haven’t started yet, I’m more likely to join them as a result.
As well, for returning players for a game, it can be considered a quality of life update. Being able to see when their friends are busy can help avoid messages when in the middle of an intense PvP duel.
My suggestions would be the ability to set special properties of the game card, such as status, customized join text (Would be best to have it from a pre-built list to prevent stuff like “Generate Robux Now!”) and possibly even extra buttons or even the game’s current version.
An Argument Against
However, not all of this fix will be sunshine and rainbows. The development time will likely take a long time, using valuable time that could be used for even more amazing features, such as Future is Bright or many QOL updates, like the one with textboxes announced recently.
If there is too much customization, it could make it very easy for scammers to hoodwink unsuspecting players, by making the join text “Generate Robux Now!”, along with whatever customization features they’re given.
Third Parties implementing the Solution
In Discord, there is a feature called Rich Presence where games can interact with Discord in order to show extra data about itself, and which users can interact with directly to join games:
Not exactly a game, but gets the point through.
Here is another example from their website.
In Steam, they have a similar feature.
No other friends are playing games that make good use of the feature, so I can’t show other screenshots! 
Roblox Mockup
Here’s a quick mock-up, based on the current Roblox game card and with inspiration from the third parties.
TL;DR
If this issue is addressed, it would improve my game experience because then players can see what their friends are doing and think to themselves, “Wow, I want to do that too!”
What do you think about this? Please let me know about your critism/support for this feature!
Edits
EDIT #1
Changed wording to be more in line with How to post a Feature Request which isn’t visible if you’re a new member and posting in #bulletin-board…
EDIT #2
Changed post layout following recommendation from @TaaRt
