Roblox China Protest UI

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#21

Well, I have multiple reasons for being afraid of economic instability personally.

First of all, being associated with China & Tencent in the way that Roblox is, it can tie events related to China and Tencent China to Roblox. If Roblox is relying a lot on money coming in from Roblox China, and for some reason that market is shut off, or impacted greatly, that could cause problems for the rest of the platform too.

If IP is violated and a game is completely run to nothing in China, the rest of Roblox is also effected. While it’d be mostly isolated, there would be unpredictable effects on the rest of Roblox if a game suddenly stopped making a large amount profit in the China program, for example, due to censorship.

You can make an argument that content deletion happens all the time and we have no problems, but, I’m more so worried about a group of games being effected.

The problem is, the terms of being intertwined with China in the way Roblox is going for are pretty much unknowable because terms and rules are almost unrestricted for the parties that would be overlooking Roblox, and there is lots of potential for things to go awry I think.

If we had more information, and if things were clearer, there would be much less of a problem.

3 Likes
#22

I wonder how much of Roblox China is funded by TenCent. It would be a shame if our money was used to fund a venture that offers little to no return to us developers.

#23

I’m pretty sure this is used in games to show that it does not comply with the roblox China policies. It is useful since it warns players that it doesn’t support the programs and won’t cooperate with the provided rules.

1 Like
#24

@lifebit This UI is mainly meant to voice disapproval of the China Program in its current form, not so much related to players (though, its worded with the player in mind). The statement of non-compliancy is meant to basically state that your game is intentionally not going to enter the China Program because of current issues with the program.

Update V1

I have released a major update to this UI (Each major update will have a different VersionId, representative of important major code or structure changes in the UI that require you to reintegrate the UI into your game)

The UI will now automatically fetch the latest content so that updates can be made to the text the UI will display. This fetching is done in a way that makes it easy to customize, via a module stored in the UI that will return or update content, so, if you’re just looking to fetch the latest content and you have your own custom UI to place it into, that should be no issue. Even if the structure of the UI changes, the update function of the local UI will be used, but the fetch function of the new UI version will retrieve the content, so there should never be errors due to the UI changing structure.

Additionally, I’ve included a global switch to automatically disable the UI across all Roblox games using V1 or higher. This is in case there is a ToS issue that needs to be addressed (essentially an emergency/maintenance mode), or if the UI is widely no longer relevant.

I don’t expect there to be issues with ToS arising from using this, but, it was a valid concern expressed by @Krunnie so I decided to add some actual safety measures.

I do intend to update this UI plenty, and, if I were to stop updating it due to a lack of relevancy, the global switch would be used. (Of course, in that case, I’d also make a reply and update the main thread, in which case you would likely want to remove the UI from your game)

A few planned changes

These are some things that I really want to do in the future if this UI remains relevant (or things I just won’t ever do)

  • Convert the UI to a package (for easier updating)
  • Have the UI remember when players dismiss it and hide itself from them in the future (or for a configurable amount of time)
  • Improve upon the global switch (Of course, without breaking use of ContentUtil.GlobalDisable)
  • Add a simplified mode for the UI (E.g. an indicator rather than a message)
  • Add options for how the UI is displayed to players, e.g. a collapsible UI such as what @R0bl0x10501050 mentioned above
  • I will not be adding console support to the UI, for the reason that console is a smaller demographic, and, its easier not to worry about ToS complications in that area, among a few other things.
4 Likes
#25

All im gonna say its maybe racism or stuff like that
but
 Roblox wouldnt be on china because china policies is againts USA and I dont think that I can agree new policies

#26

It’s sad but true. It is happening.

1 Like
#28

Exactly - if a Chinese kid wants to play a game I’m sure they won’t care about politics or moral rights etc. I’m all for just not having this GUI a thing as there’s no need to protest against it. If you don’t agree, just don’t make games on Rblx China.

1 Like
#29

I must say, I find this slightly on the racist side of things. How you are discriminating Chinese players from accessing the site.

I personally think Roblox China is a great thing, and I can say so on behalf of many of my dev friends. We are able to reach a wider audience, and overall, the Chinese audience have just as much of a right to use this platform as we do.

We should not be involving hate politics into Roblox. Roblox is a site meant to have fun, not a site meant for anything political. Roblox players are just there to play a game, not have some Western agenda shoved down their throats.

If you watch unbiased media from both the Chinese and the Western sides, you will realise that both sides are trying to do their best with the hand that they’ve been dealt with. The Chinese Government aren’t some evil mega corporation trying to impose some nazi state on us. The American Government equally, no matter which party is in charge, are also trying to do their best.

Politicians on both sides have decades of experience already dealing with the current affairs. I don’t think some teenager on a kids game would have better to say than they do. In actually, I hardly even believe they care about it.

I am not criticising you for making this UI, though I am very sceptical for the purposes and intent of why it’s even created. I would have great reservations ever posting blatant hate in any of my games against any specific nation or people. Imagine someone made a game that said “People in Germany/Mexio/France/South Africa [insert literally any other country]” aren’t allowed to play in it because the devs here don’t support their policies.

Imagine if rather than a group of people from a country, you just made it into a group of people in general. Something like “People who are female/ male/ lgbt/ straight/ red/ yellow/ black/ white aren’t allowed to play this game.” That would be such a slippery slope.

In conclusion, I don’t think trying to mass spread this UI is a good idea. Seasoned politicians and roblox devs with decades of experience won’t suddenly change tack because of some UI someone made in a kid’s game. All this UI is doing is spreading hate, and further isolating Asian minorities from enjoying our platform. Let’s open Roblox to everybody, rather than shutting it down for people. Everyone has the right to power their imagination, not just us in the privileged West.

2 Likes
#30

This was never about the race of the Chinese people. This non-compliancy protest is aimed at the
people who are residing in china. This had nothing to do with race until you brought it in which is pretty hypocritical. You claim this is blocking Asian minorities from enjoying the platform while a very very large amount of players are from Asia that is not necessarily China. This is not meant to stop things overnight but it is protesting that the platform is branching out to a regime that systematically prosecutes Muslims, abuses human rights and above all has one of the biggest censorship regimes in the world. I do not want Roblox to fall victim to the Chinese communist part and become so dependent they are forced to implement censorship regimes. Your example is people in ‘Germany/Mexico/France/South Africa’ being blocked from being able to play this however none of these countries are currently jailing thousands of innocent people because of their religion. The Roblox-china agreement has been my fear since 2018 and it has come true. Why do you want to support a regime that takes people old and young from their houses and from their parents to be forced to give up their religion, their livelihood? This UI is not propaganda but it is raising awareness that in the near future, Roblox will be very different. This is meant to send a message to Roblox that they do not want this to happen. They want to show developers are in unity to stop this deal with the regime

10 Likes
#31

Please explain how the average Chinese internet user is

jailing thousands of innocent people because of their religion

and therefore they should not be allowed to play Roblox?

#32

I don’t think you fully understand the issue. Roblox wants a new company in China called «Roblox China» this is also what Minecraft did to have it available in China by calling it «Minecraft China». It only involves Roblox sending games over and have the other company deal if it’s complaint or not. If yes, it appears on a game page and the terms and rights for that game changes over. The terms are what most devs disagree with, hence this post. It’s up to you to decide whether to comply or not, but there are worries about losing rights to their games.

This was never about racism, it’s a matter of politics. It’s perfectly understandable why some developers wouldn’t comply.

But I don’t think that the players would care about this pop-up, they wouldn’t know what it is about. Games should stay out of politics and dealt with elsewhere.

Edit: changed <> to «»

3 Likes
#33

Hey dude, I get it, Roblox China is super controversial. However I don’t think this is necessary. This is a bit of a overreach, especially since you are not doing the program.

I appreciate the boycotting of it, and I think this is okay. However Roblox is doing this to expand their business, and expand roblox developers marketing. I think if you don’t like it and you don’t support it, then ok. However, don’t ruin the experience for those that just want to try it out.

There is a reason why it is 18+ and that is because they are adults and they know what they are getting into. Everything is listed in the Roblox China criteria and TOS. There is always a risk, however I believe some people are willing to take it.

I applaud you for doing this,
Regards,
-BruinsRocco

1 Like
#34

I already know it will be a completely different platform from roblox but wont the games that uploaded on the roblox USA platform will be able to play on chineese platform? And I think that will come over with problems for USA developers like localization stuff (sorry for bad grammar im from turkey)

#35

This is not at all racist, and I am not discriminating against anyone by disagreeing with the problems with the Roblox China Program. I do not disagree with the Roblox China program because of race, I disagree with the Roblox China program because of the issues that are under Roblox’s complete control that Roblox has not yet fixed.

This is about the decision making of Roblox, not about the people who live in China. This UI is not restricting anyone from joining, again, this UI is meant for people who are already not opting in because of the issues present. Whether or not this UI exists, people are going to choose not to opt in. That does not make them racist. I have said this many times, the purpose of this UI is to voice disapproval. Nowhere have I said or implied that no game should opt in to the program, nowhere have I said that Roblox China should be completely thrown away. I do not want Roblox China to be thrown away, I want the issues with Roblox China to be fixed.

This whole thing is in part because of the potential negative experiences of people in China too. This is not because I think the people in China are bad or something. It’s not logical to conclude this is founded on racism when my entire goal is a peaceful show of disapproval for issues regarding Roblox China.

I think Roblox China could be great, but, currently, Roblox China has far too many issues for me to support. I am worried about its effects on the entire platform not just the environment within Roblox China itself.

The Roblox China Program is optional. You cannot say that people are racist because they don’t want to join the program. The program has many, many flaws, and racism is not the reason people wish to opt out of the program.

Again, I cannot stress this enough, this is not over race, and never should be, and this is not because “they should not be allowed to play Roblox.” This is in protest of the numerous issues with the Roblox China platform. This is about the potential effects this could have on the rest of the Roblox platform.

It would be racist if I were to disagree purely because I disliked people in China. I don’t dislike people in China, I dislike Roblox’s decisions for the Roblox China platform.

@BruinsRocco
Thank you for the kind words, but, the China Program is completely optional. This UI has nothing to do with ruining the experience for others at all and does not intend to incite that, this UI is intended for people who are already intentionally not opting in due to the issues present with the program and want to show their disapproval for Roblox’s decisions regarding Roblox China.

@GamebringerDev
The Roblox China announcement post says that games uploaded on the US platform will not be able to be played by players on the China platform because they must opt in, additionally developers of the US platform must be 18 or older to opt in. Most games on the US platform won’t make it to the China platform and most will not be eligible. Many will simply not opt in due to the issues currently present.

6 Likes
#36

I regret my poor choice of wording. Thank you for clarifying!

2 Likes
#37

@Hexcede thats so stupid at all I dont think Chineese platform of roblox will be succes because think just, it taken years to grow roblox platform for Roblox Corporation. And its not 2006 even the newest games on roblox has alot of issues coming with roblox will fail this and gonna merge the platforms one day and I cant be in the same platform with chineese because of their policies (as you know when you merge both platforms policies will be changed) like they dont even agree basic violance and blood!?!?! Racism or not, I refuse to be in the same platform with chineese

#38

While I tend to agree with some of your reasoning, I do not agree with your mindset.

China is a valid games market, there is potential for success, but there are a lot of problems right now. This does not make the China Program inherently a failure, it makes the China Program flawed, and these flaws must be addressed before I will form a confident final opinion on the China Program.

Roblox China has issues with its ToS and ruleset, which has been established, and, its important that issues are considered by Roblox. That does not mean that the issues can’t be addressed.

Additionally, Roblox will not merge with Roblox China, because that would severely limit the platform as a whole. That would not be globalization, that would be localization. Roblox is not going to localize itself in China and become a Chinese corporation. Roblox’s goal is to expand its market as much as possible, and the China market is limited by the ruleset and ToS. Logically, putting their entire market under the same limitations would be taking a step backwards and I think Roblox as a corporation is completely aware of this.

Others have made the point that if Roblox China were to fail there would be an even bigger outlash, and its a valid reason.

Roblox China should still have a chance to fix its issues regardless of your speculations. The point of this UI, and my personal beliefs, are that Roblox China has problems at its core but they are problems that can be addressed, and they will need to be if Roblox wishes to get the support of a majority of their platform.

Until there is a failure to address the problems, there should be no reason for the Roblox China Program to be completely thrown out the window.

There should be no reason to give up on something before its even begun, and, that’s not what I have done or intend to do with this UI.

2 Likes
#39

I forgot about the China thing. I’m fine with China people coming, but my game has some things that are “going against their laws” so I will use this as a warning for China players

#40

Roblox China is opt in and you must be 18+ to apply for your game to go on Roblox China. You do not need to warn Roblox China players, because your game won’t be available to them unless you apply yourself. You should read the Roblox China Program announcement for more information, its linked at the bottom of my post.

1 Like
#41

Oh, ok. Thanks for letting me know!