What kind of games can you even make then? That just seems to cover 70-80% of the current games on the roblox platform as is. I’d even imagine that a game like royal high or adopt me would have issues being compliant with those.
Also, as far as i’m aware, most of the extremely popular games in the chinese market involve violence in some capacity, like League of Legends. I assume these rules are because of the age range of roblox and not a universal set of guidelines(unrelated to age)?
Do I need to be worried here?
Am I going to have to update my non-China compliant hangout games to be China compliant, or is this not going to impact me?
I’m not happy about this. This is an ugly direction for Roblox to take as a company, and I don’t think I’m going to make any more games on the platform because of this. Partnering with Tencent is the first step towards being owned by Tencent, and I want nothing to do with that. This is a conglomerate headquartered in a country ruled by a genocidal regime.
As someone who used to work at Roblox in the San Mateo office, I hope you can understand how severely I disagree with this action to be saying it like this. I suppose this post will probably get removed like many of my others, but let it be known that I think this is unacceptable.
This is such a fantastic opportunity! Will be applying, seems like a great way to get a game additional attention. Wondering how this will impact like/dislike ratios, favorites, player counts, etc?
Between the intellectual property issues, compliance with guidelines that severely limit the type of content I could make, and the numerous human rights violations the Chinese government is responsible for…
No.
I’m not doing it.
I am strongly against this decision as to me it is inherently wrong to make something for a platform that would be heavily watched and censored by an oppressive government, and knowing that they can do whatever they like with my content should I release it to China does not bode well at all.
I’m disappointed that Roblox even decided to go through with this. I don’t care that I’m “locking out a potential market,” I’m not signing up to a program that would involve me actively supporting a government that severely restricts its own people.
I will not be making my game china compliant. I’m not supporting a government that actively and heavily silences their people. I don’t care about how many players I lose.
Pretty cool opportunity. Will be trying to gear my games towards it in future.
To developers, it’s a misgrievance to not provide your experience to others based on political positions they have no involvement in. The Chinese government isn’t infringing on your intellectual property, income, or your human rights. It’s damaging and negligent to pretend they are. You opt-in to the market. You’re also unlikely to in present or future make changes to your game for doing so. The regulations are mostly standard.
For some of the earlier repliers, there’s no reason to grandstand and roleplay as if any of you would apply for other international programs either. This little rain dance for moral credit is extremely disrespectful. People spent over a year to get this in to action, maybe have some tact and take your time before posting.
The games you could make with Roblox China rules will be pure G rated themes with simple mechanics and story. The game themes will be limited. For example, you can make a puzzle game, a role play game with a more realistic theme like Welcome to Bloxburg but without the dark stuff.
Yeah, I’ve already played a couple chinese roblox games before and that pretty much sums them up. Despite how good they look its not much content to play with, but thats likely due to the early adoption and will change in the long term.
Still heavily restricts most creative freedom, fairly ironic all in all. I suspect however that this will not stay as it always is, since roblox in the chinese market wouldn’t fair all that well if it was just pure G rated games, as theres huge app stores full of professionally made games that can very easily stand out from roblox. Perhaps the roblox chinese market will allow for higher age ratings / more lax restrictions to encourage more western developers to move over.
It’s been in the works for much longer than a year. I would know, I was there when it started.
The Chinese government and corporations in China are one in the same. It’s a mistake to assume their corporations are organized the same way that they are in non-Communist countries. They may utilize a market economy, but it is not free. The actions of Tencent are in service of the Chinese Communist Party ideals, whether you want to admit it or not. Considering they have a nasty habit of buying out Western corporations, it’s very concerning that Roblox is partnering with them to this extent.
If you read the legal terms of this program, you’ll find that you’re actually completely wrong about the Chinese government not infringing upon your intellectual property. However, you’ll need to look beyond simple legal terms and take a more realistic view here. China simply doesn’t care about our IP law. They have a long history of IP theft and they don’t really care who knows.
Either way, it’s disturbing that you’re so flippant about genocide.
Clearly you did not read the terms of this program, because if you actually did, I highly doubt you would make such an outrageously incorrect claim. Want an example? You cannot depict zombies in your game. There are many other regulations that carry much more weight in ethics and other matters, but the simple fact that you cannot show zombies should give you an idea of what kinds of “mostly standard” regulations you must face.
This is also a very very stupid thing to say. People absolutely apply to these types of opportunities, so for you to claim that they actually aren’t serious about developing and are simply here trying to promote their own virtues is beyond insulting.
How does that invalidate ANY of the rightful criticism of this program? In fact, if I recall correctly, sometime last year Roblox announced their Global Compliance System, which received MAJOR backlash from the developer community. Roblox has known of how us developers respond to the expansion to China for a long time now, which is why they limited the posting rate on this thread to 5 per minute from the start.
All major chinese corporations/companies have a government representative(to keep tabs on the company and to make suggestions/demands), thats just standard operating practice in China. Typically a company is forced to oblige with what the chinese government wants, even if they may disagree, otherwise they lose privileges or just get completely shutdown.
Tencent is no exception to this, in fact they’re usually considered the worst in this regard, as they are very handy propaganda tool for the government. This all being said however, its unlikely that the CCP will directly handle the roblox chinese market as they do with tencent, so its unlikely for any security problems to arise. Your IP will likely be as safe as it currently is on roblox to begin with, which is none at all as per usual.
But that pretty much ignores why people are concerned and are grand standing, its to boycott the chinese markets for the actions of their government, not the actions of the market. They’re not hating on the chinese people or the people who made this happen, although i cannot speak for them fully so take that with a grain of salt.
I’m going to toss my opinion into this mixed controversy like a witch tossing their ingredient into the cauldron…
I don’t agree with this option at all. In fact, this scares me.
I understand the tremendous growth emanating from this move ROBLOX, but you can’t do this. Tell whoever executive who makes your already poorly founded decisions that thought of this that they’re gonna make the platform and the staff look like clowns in the worldwide scene. Not only are you demonstrating without a shadow of a doubt you are willing to cower to censorship and IP theft from Tencent and the Chinese Government, but you’re demonstrating without a shadow of a doubt you are willing to skip all thought to rush yourself for greed and monopoly. You also demonstrate that you don’t learn from backlash, and treat the developer community like utter garbage. Remember the Global Compliance post? Do you not listen to the concerns from the developer community about handing over your diseased platform to a country where your Intellectual Property is stomped on, disregarded, stolen and treated like garbage? This to me is not right. I also am personally shocked about seeing people blindly ignore the problems about China’s tyranny and mass greed. Do you not do your research when you’re being - plain of day - strung by the money and attention from the Chinese Market? It’s sad to see people dive head on to this obvious trap without so much as a thought.
Your TOS on china is a complete and utter joke. It serves to limit people’s freedoms and personally speaking spread simulator games as their only way of profiting in the Chinese Market. The biggest thing that worries me now is that when developers in the future would be subject to the rules and poison Roblox as a whole, when this is forced on everyone. What would we do then? I don’t feel assured - even from the own company - this will be optional forever.
I won’t be making games if the company as a whole will be heading towards this direction. In fact, I don’t want to stay here if that would be the case going forward. I don’t want the IP that I make to be blindly given to tyrants. This in my opinion is not about money anymore, it’s the bloody obvious problem of human rights and the effect this would have on the global market.
That’s my take on this.
Please consider what I said about tact, because for one you just said I’m being flippant about genocide. Which is obviously wrong, and rude. I will clarify I am in serious disagreement with the CCP and am well informed of their atrocious behaviour. But where is the government taking influence over this chain between developer and end user? I don’t see any relation at all. It’s just such a brazen and prejudiced way to look at civilians. It’s so hypocritical to make it a tirade about the government when you live in America. Please adopt an international perspective. I do not want to continue on this topic.
You opt-in to give Tencent the right to use your IP in advertising and merchandising to their own behalf. This doesn’t transfer or misappropriate ownership neither does it abridge your domestic operations. It’s also strange to talk about IP law as if we suddenly value it. Considering Roblox is absolutely flooded with sounds that breach copyright law, games relying on stolen IP to garner revenue, etc. Roblox acts as a safe haven, and makes continual legal loopholes for its developers to let them continue this theft for as long as possible. There is no high ground to stand here.
No zombies? A very violating regulation for young children.
It doesn’t. but like how you just misinterpreted it. It’s a calling to simply ask you to give the amount of respect to the discussion that it deserves, by thoroughly thinking through your points and replying in a fair, calm, rational manner. You have clearly failed.
I honestly don’t see why people can hate this… Just because you have a game on the roblox china market DOES NOT MEAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT.
This is a massive growing opportunity for roblox and if you dont take it, you’ll be left in the dust.
The statement “the TOS is absurd” is over the top, if anything its pretty reasonable. Its a hoop you have to jump through to be able to access a massive market. 
I think this is a good response.
It is impossible for Roblox to enter the Chinese market without complying through Tencent, they would not make it through any officials. Tencent’s monopoly is huge because thanks to it’s direct cooperation with the government. It’s not unreasonable to assume that Tencent can be seen as a front for the CCP itself.
However, likewise to how most the world ignores the source of their manufactured goods when talking ethics. There are some directions which are not meaningful or effective to boycott, these are found by whether it’s landing the indirect cost of the boycott on individuals rather than the CCP. In this situation, where presently we are opting in to the program. They have literally nothing to lose.
I don’t think Roblox developers also understand that if they decide not to introduce themselves to the market, Roblox is more than happy to open the opportunity to eastern developers. However I would be very happy to see developers protest if in future Tencent decides to ban/infringe on developers or violate their IP.
Since the CCP almost always has a direct hand in their own market, its not necessarily a matter of just interacting with their market. People are boycotting or expressing their dismay because they don’t support their government and the heavy handed restrictions that are imposed on the chinese people and foreigners alike. Its akin to boycotting any other country, damaging a countries external revenue is a great way to get them to listen, especially for an export economy such as China.
Exactly.
Most people do not understand that the TOS was put in place due to the fact that Roblox has to abide by the laws put in place by the Chinese in order to access their market.
Roblox isn’t overacting or trying to stifle creativity
They are trying to meet the requirements in order to enter someone else’s market.
While that is true, it won’t do much and is a waste of people times to be honest. Screaming and ranting at roblox is going to get you nowhere. They’re expanding into china weather you like it or not.
If you think about it, roblox is a tiny speck on chinas radar, peoples concerns will fall on deaf ears from the Chinese government as well.
Yes, they express it here in a public place that thousands of people see because of that reason alone, it spreads awareness. Just because your voice alone means nothing against them, doesn’t mean that its pointless to try or to have no principals to stand by.