I know this is not a fully original idea but it hasn’t posted in this feature request area and it’s in my own flavor
I believe Roblox is in desperate need of of an official and enforced agreement system. Some people considered lumping in for functionality with groups and although that is not a bad idea, it limits what can be done. I propose an officially supported and monitored contract system within Roblox. Similar to DevEx, it would be moderated on a case-by-case basis.
The first step of the progress would be to upload a text document (using a webpage form) with a maximum of X characters. Next, any number of users can be requested to sign/agree to the contract. After all users have agreed (decision is permanent), the contract is processed by the Roblox moderation team for some sort of Robux fee. In this situation, a substantial and shared payment would be used. If any two random guys could sign a contract for 200 R$, it would make a mess for the moderation team. Contract would then be rejected (and only part of the Robux refunded) or it would be accepted and remain valid for some given time. If any member of the contract broke any part of it during the duration of the contract, any user that is part of it would be able to submit an appeal to the Roblox moderation team so appropriate actions could be taken.
I know this system would be difficult to setup and could become tiresome to maintain, but it’s something that is lacking in Roblox. Recent events have shown us that agreements between multiple users in an unmoderated environment can go awry and that we need some sort of system to make the management of agreements streamlined and controlled.
I think it should be up to the developers to manage their contracts. If you need a third party to protect your rights then you probably shouldn’t be working with that person anyway.
people contract with third party holding companies, and mutual trust companies all the time for the very reason that it’s profitable to work with people you can’t always trust, and always working with friends you get only a limited set of skilled people to use
Gonna bring this back because I definitely think it’s a great idea. I would like to add on though that I think there should be “template” contracts to make it both easier on the end-user(s) to write and on the moderators to review. Some of these could be: NDA for game idea, Payout agreement, NDA for game assets, Non-abusive contract for groups (e.g: a contract so just because someone has the right to kick members doesn’t mean she can/should kick everyone), Multi-trade contract, group funds deals contracts…
No, if you need a contract, pay somebody to draw one up for you or find an existing one to suit your needs. These are serious documents with real consequences, consult a lawyer.
Not to mention the fact that, at least in the US, contracts are not legally binding for anyone under the age of 18 except in very specific circumstances. I think it’s important for developers working in a team who are 18+ to sign some sort of contract in regards to payment and IP rights, but for minors there isn’t much you can do.
I’m not comfortable with the idea of somebody else being able to terminate my source of income and I don’t think “trust” is a reasonable excuse. Rather than requiring a third party, it would be nice if collaboration (as it relates to payment) was better supported within Roblox. Preventing problems is better than contingency plans.
Contracts & Roblox wouldn’t work. The platform is aimed at people that are new to developing and less towards those that have numerous degrees with games media & experience with development companies alike, so most people wouldn’t know or even want to deal with legal bindings such as contracts. Roblox have their own way of signing deals with creators which include monetization, featured agreements, events & their respective rewards and reputation points.
Even the “binding NDA” that is given to those who are in QA testers wouldn’t stand in court due to a number of reasons.
The idea that Roblox isn’t professional enough to be treated as a career has been argued against before. It’s a very limiting idea. Roblox has been becoming more professional. The risks involved in collaboration are a deterrent and some means of addressing those risks is necessary for high-income games with multiple developers.
Should Roblox be a mediator in these cases?
What about minors involved in development? Their signature doesn’t mean a thing on any contract.
Could a high-income game owner not create these contracts themselves?
A contract is only worth something if it is enforced anyway. To use Roblox as a mediator is probably not the best move that Roblox could make. (Read as “They don’t want to get involved with legal.”) If Roblox was to make a bad call for whatever reason, wouldn’t they become liable for any potential lost earnings? You hear about cases of judges making bad calls and the judicial system being sued for it, the same would apply here too?
Most of the the potential advantages and ‘walls’ that you’ve presented, have not been literally denied or included in my opinion explicitly.
Roblox is becoming more professional of which I agree, and this is a good thing. However that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a majority of ‘noobs’, in the general sense, coming to Roblox to learn how to develop and so Roblox’s main priority shouldn’t be to the few successful developers that this feature may be useful to.
I very much support the idea of Roblox being a career path for those pursuing development. I also agree that there could be a way to improve security for developers when collaborating and creating deals, however I do not think that contracts are the best way to do this at all.
Another thing you should consider is that only a small percentage of developers wishing to collaborate will not only finish a project as intended but also do so without major changes mid way through. Contracts would more than likely abuse someone’s will to carry out a collaboration as they will not want to be forced to act within a contract if they later change their mind about a specific requirement or idea. Would this not lead onto the inclusion of patents?
Roblox is a company and so features you request will only be considered if it suits the company’s economic gain. Roblox will not want to be liable for hundreds of different contracts as this is dangerous for them as a business. Not to mention, contracts are used in extreme situations and are very time consuming to create and maintain. For example, both sides would probably have to speak with lawyers to make sure the contract in question is fair and legal; of which these lawyers will want to be paid. Considering this, only a few developers would probably be willing to pay for a lawyer just to simply secure a collaboration. Most would go on trust instead.
As Paul pointed out, minors wouldn’t be able to partake in the creation of these contracts and so this would rule out quite a lot of developers that are not only successful but also of a young age. The NDA ‘contract’ between QA testers & the Roblox corporation isn’t a solid fail-safe for leaks of information as the contract is signed via word processing applications and so no signature is included, nullifying the effect it has in court.
Altogether, this would create more problems than it solves and would decrease the stability of the Roblox corporation and platform as a whole. There are other ways that security of collaborations can be installed but contracts are few and far apart from ever making it into Roblox.