Player Count Changes on Experience Tiles

Updates Announcements
#228

I’ve taken some time to put my thoughts in order, and I think the root of the problem with this change is that for some reason ROBLOX has started treating the Home page as the Discover page.

Unironically now the Home page is better for discovering new games than the actual Discover page which is… disheartening in many ways. The Home page used to include all sorts of personal things related to your friends and groups, like status updates and group shouts. Now it’s more or less Discover 2.0. Putting aside the playercount issue, which I do think should be visible, the core issue with this change is the fact it should’ve been done on the Discover page. Top Picks as a category is actually very cool and I do like the new thumbnail change, but not for where they’ve been put. If I’m looking to play a new game I use the Discover tab or search, the Home tab is the tab I use to play a game I’ve already played or join a friend.

tl;dr - The Home tab should be for reconnecting with experiences and people you already know and like, not pushed as an angle to discover new content, we already have a whole tab for that. Having a bit of discoverability mixed in isn’t too bad, but it isn’t the place where ROBLOX should be cutting other features for small gains in discoverability.

11 Likes
#229

Is someone able to make some type of code to move the friends list back up and remove the endless amount of recommendations please?

image
image987×800 375 KB

1 Like
#232

I’m really not fond of the nature with which it appears that Roblox staff are trying to avoid accountability for the negative repercussions of this change.

Hello there @infamous_eddy, just wondering why you’ve unlisted this thread when it pertains to an update that has barely been live for a day and is receiving increasingly constructive feedback as a result?

This hasn’t happened in the past even with negatively-received updates, so I’d be intrigued to learn why this action has been necessary in the public interest?

To make it clear I am not placing any blame on specific individuals here (other than possibly the clueless department heads perhaps) however this is a particularly strange development.

10 Likes
#233

I need this! How did you add playercount!!!

2 Likes
#234

Code is provided near the bottom of the post (click where it says code to expand it). You need to use an extension such as ViolentMonkey in order to run the code.

1 Like
#235

Thank you so much for making this. I was able to then modify part of it to abbreviate it!

image
image1053×679 111 KB

4 Likes
#236

This update causes so many issues that I really can’t condense all of my thoughts into one post but I will do my best

To begin with, what is the purpose of forcing most experience icons into the 16:9 format? There is substantially less space on the home page now and it feels unnecessarily clunky. This would be more bearable if the old structure was maintained. (Friends list, continue tab, etc.) But instead, these features have been deprecated.

Furthermore, making player counts not immediately visible makes determining game quality nearly impossible. Roblox claims this change “Contributed to a 6.79% increase in users discovering unique experiences and a significant increase in engagement for new and emerging experiences.” Ironically, this combined with the prevalence of 16:9 thumbnails makes game discovery objectively worse. There is objectively less real estate on the home page and objectively fewer pull factors (i.e. playercount) immediately visible.

As a developer and a player, this change concerns me for multiple reasons. I am deeply worried about the discoverability of experiences I contribute to. The larger concern for me is the fact that this post has been hidden, and that we have received absolutely zero significant communication from ROBLOX. There are top developers, including one of ROBLOX’s top earners, who have replied to this thread in opposition to this update. The first reply to this post includes a poll with over 1700 voters, 68% of which oppose this change. I’m not sure why ROBLOX has hidden this post, maybe they’re just trying to alleviate some of the negative PR while they write a response. But in any case, we do not want this update. It is harmful to player experience and discoverability. With all respect to the teams who worked on this change, and ROBLOX staff on the devforum, please revert this change

6 Likes
#237

Unlisting a topic in #Updates is like trying to hide a nuclear bomb under a rug.

Why was this even unlisted, anyway? No reason was given, and if the discussion had swayed so much it would’ve been closed. Legitimately confused here.

11 Likes
#238

What did you modify to abbreviate it? can you share the code please?

2 Likes
#239

Here is the code I used.

// ==UserScript==
// @name        16:9 Player Count
// @namespace   Violentmonkey Scripts
// @match       https://www.roblox.com/*
// @grant       none
// @version     1.0
// @author      PoppyandNeivaarecute
// @description 4/9/2024, 10:55:28 AM
// ==/UserScript==

let Count = 0;
let Total = 0;
let GameCounts = {};
let Universes = [];

function formatPlayerCount(count) {
    if (count >= 1000) {
        const abbrev = ["K", "M"];
        for (let i = abbrev.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
            const size = Math.pow(10, (i + 1) * 3);
            if (size <= count) {
                count = Math.round(count * 10 / size) / 10;
                if ((count == 1000) && (i < abbrev.length - 1)) {
                    count = 1;
                    i++;
                }
                count += abbrev[i];
                break;
            }
        }
    }
    return count;
}

function Delay2() {
    if (Count != Total) {
        setTimeout(Delay2, 100);
    } else {
        for (let i = 0; i < Universes.length; i += 50) {
            const chunk = Universes.slice(i, i + 50);

            let xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
            let params = JSON.stringify(chunk).replace('[', "").replace("]", "").replaceAll('"', '').replaceAll("'", "");
            xhr.open("GET", "https://games.roblox.com/v1/games?universeIds=" + params);
            xhr.send();

            function check1() {
                if (xhr.status != 200) {
                    window.setTimeout(check1, 100);
                } else {
                    let loaded = JSON.parse(xhr.response);
                    for (let info of loaded.data) {
                        GameCounts[info.id] = info.playing;
                    }
                }
            }
            check1();
        }
    }
}

function AddPlayerCounts(games) {
    Total = games.length;
    setTimeout(Delay2, 5);
    for (let game of games) {
        let card = game.getElementsByClassName("base-metadata")[0].getElementsByClassName("game-card-info")[0];
        console.log('startign the load');
        card.innerHTML = card.innerHTML + '<span class="info-label icon-playing-counts-gray"></span>';

        let Universe = game.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.getAttribute('id');
        Universes.push(Universe);
        Count += 1;

        function GetInfo() {
            if (!(Universe in GameCounts)) {
                window.setTimeout(GetInfo, 100);
            } else {
                let playing = GameCounts[Universe];
                playing = formatPlayerCount(playing); // Convert player count to readable format
                card.innerHTML = card.innerHTML + '<span class="info-label playing-counts-label">' + playing + '</span></div>';
            }
        }
        GetInfo();
    }
}

function Delay() {
    let games = document.getElementsByClassName("wide-game-tile-metadata");
    if (games.length == 0) {
        setTimeout(Delay, 250);
    } else {
        AddPlayerCounts(games);
    }
}

document.onreadystatechange = function () {
    if (document.readyState == "complete") {
        Delay();
    }
};
3 Likes
#240

These changes are great, the wide icons look better and allow developers to give players more information. I personally also approve of hiding the player count, it biases people away from smaller games without giving them a chance to grow. I don’t find myself personally missing it when browsing my home page either.

There’s one thing that bothered me though, instead of taking advantage of the extra width it seems like game titles get cut off even more than before, especially on mobile.

Screenshot_20240409-184512
Screenshot_20240409-184512864×1467 951 KB

It would be great if the text size was reduced a bit, the text is larger than necessary and a smaller size would allow longer titles. There also seems to be enough vertical room between games that it may be possible to allow two lines.

3 Likes
#241

Really out here Unlisting an announcement thread trying to hide the fact that a majority of your developer and player base disagree with this update.

NOT TO MENTION Some players home screens (Like mine) are completely messed up. Where is the Quality assurance? Did we just forget to test things before releasing them?

I mean c’mon, this is a great update idea. But the way it was executed was very poorly done.

Its genuinely painful to look at the home screen of Roblox now…

image
image1904×943 501 KB

7 Likes
#242

Do you think it’s fair that, as mentioned by numerous developers in this thread, that player counts have in some cases dropped by 80%? This is not benefitting developers in the slightest.

Furthermore, do you think it’s fair that developers who have to deal with a lot of copycat games will now be forced to lose players because there’s no way to distinguish between their game and the copies?

Hiding the player count is the opposite of giving players more information.

That’s great. Have you asked any developers what they think? Not to be rude, but a cursory look at your profile would indicate that you don’t actively develop/work on any experiences that you’re trying to get people to play.

2 Likes
#243

another thing I’d like to add is that “Recommended for you” appears three times??

image
image1215×495 79.3 KB

image
image1270×1055 158 KB

image
image1297×786 117 KB

3 Likes
#244

Several developers have also mentioned increased player count. For the people that have seen decreases, it’s possible they don’t have a good thumbnail or their game lost players for other reasons. Player counts can be unstable in general, especially for newer and smaller games.

Furthermore, session count for the top 10,000 games has increased substantially, while the same isn’t occurring for the top 100 games, suggesting people are playing smaller games more often on average.

Dimmer_e5vGbt5EI5
Dimmer_e5vGbt5EI51016×536 37.9 KB

This is only a problem because Roblox has very few systems in place to help prevent game copies. There are several things Roblox could do to reduce them, such as flagging games for human review when they have similar names, descriptions, and thumbnails as existing popular games. To prevent people from spamming games and overwhelming such a system, they could require id verification to be able to publish games.

I was referring to the wide thumbnails when saying this, not the player count change.

I am the lead programmer and game designer for several relatively popular games, with visits totaling almost 50 million, and I am actively working on multiple new game projects. The “games” on my profile are small hobby projects, most of them old, which are not intended to get popular as they have no real gameplay.

2 Likes
#245

There are millions of separate experience slots on the platform - given this factor and the obfuscative manner in which the algorithm works, if these games were already in the top 10,000 (because this isn’t going to have changed drastically in just 3 days), this would suggest that the update hasn’t had the effect Roblox wanted and is only providing more prominence to a (when compared to the number of experiences that exist) small amount of places.

So your solution to the problem is to add yet another restriction on hobbyist players and serious developers alike?

The amount of features that have been restricted behind ID verification since its introduction has gotten ridiculous and has led to the creation of two-tier systems that benefit the few and hurt the many.

Considering Roblox’s shocking record on data security, and the sheer amount of security breaches that have gone unreported in the mainstream media in the last 5 years alone, it’s no wonder that many will never willingly hand their ID to this joke of a corporation.

If your only solution to such a substantial problem is simply to apply a restrictive sticking plaster that will lock a significant amount of people out of the ecosystem altogether, then you really ought to give your head a wobble. Perhaps a better way of fixing the problem, in the interim, is to revert the change (this update) that some developers have stated is causing the impact to be drastically increased.

Understood.

Fair enough.

2 Likes
#246

In Roblox defense, they claim to not store your ID, only the birthday associated with it. As for Persona, the third party service provider that Roblox uses, Roblox claims that they store the uploaded information for 30 days. But Roblox also claims that Veriff (another third party service provider) or Persona may store your biometric info, such as face geometry, for up to 90 days unless required by law enforcement.

2 Likes
#247

I’m not part of this conversation so apologies for butting in- but it is worth noting that this increase in session time also occurred during spring break for most schools in the United States

image
image814×141 25.3 KB

Curious as to whether ROBLOX adjusted for the confounding from spring break players in their findings

1 Like
#248

If you use Rolimons and look at the top 25 games individually, you’ll notice that for the most part there is little to no difference in player counts since the start of spring break. If there is an increase in players, it’s being absorbed almost entirely by smaller games.

I can’t guarantee this increase for smaller games is because of the changes though. They have been testing the changes for over a month, but I don’t know the scale of these tests or whether they have made other algorithm changes that may have contributed to the increase.

3 Likes
#249

In my experience (as around a top-10K experience developer) I’ve lost around half my daily active users due to the change

6 Likes