As a fellow UGC Enthusiast, it is apparent to me that UGC has its ups and downs, and while some of the negatives can’t be avoided, there definitely are some things that can be improved.
Roblox Limiteds Trading
I noticed that trades will soon have a 2-day holding period to trade, and a 7-day holding period to resell. As someone who started trading 6 years ago, I say that this is a terrible change which should be reverted, else it will negatively impact A LOT OF PEOPLE. First off, with that change Limiteds will probably drop in value, which means Roblox will be losing potential profit. Second of all, the trading community will be destroyed and there will be almost no incentive to buy premium SINCE trading is one of the big benefits it gives (and that holding period decreases its value since it limits how much you can trade). One example on how it will destroy the trading community is that for new traders it will be almost impossible to profit, especially if they start with one small item, because this trades holding period will slow the new traders down EVEN MORE.
UGC Limiteds
Some time has passed, and it seems that UGC Limiteds aren’t the best for sure, but they can be tweaked in a way that would revive tradable limiteds and even serve as a replacement of Roblox’s limiteds (they mentioned they won’t publish new ones either way).
NOTE: Not all the suggestions are mine.
Idea 1: Make UGC Limiteds Tradable with one another
By that I mean that UGC Limiteds can be traded BUT if it DOESN’T include any Roblox-made limiteds in the trade. That way, we can still have UGC Limiteds separated in some way, and they won’t interfere as much in the trading community. I see many people talk about a crash in the ROBLOX economy if such things were to be introduced, and here’s where the second idea comes into play.
Idea 2: Decrease holding period after original sale from 30 days to 14 days
I believe making the holding period after original sale be 14 days instead of 30 will benefit the resale of UGC Limiteds (if people wait 30 days, they may forget they can resell their UGC in the first place). The 7-day subsequent resales period would apply to TRADING the UGC item as well. If UGC items could be traded once every 2 weeks, that would make them almost untradable. 7 Days holding period assures that you can trade a UGC Limited around 4 times a month (which means that if you have Premium for a month, you can still get some value out of UGC Limiteds).
Now, surely, this mash-up of UGC Limiteds and Roblox-made Limiteds may cause discrepancies in the trading community, so there is one other idea I have in mind:
Idea 3: Make UGC Limiteds tradable with Roblox Limiteds, BUT ONLY ONCE A MONTH
No one said that we have to have just one holding period in place. This option will be very useful if someone REALLY wants to get a Roblox-made limited, because then they can resort to waiting a month to trade away their UGC Limited. And yes, the idea is that this 30-day timer will be reset for that individual UGC item IF it’s traded for another UGC Limited.
To summarize – Make UGC Limiteds tradable with other UGC Limiteds (but have a 7-day cooldown) AND make UGC Limiteds tradable with Roblox-made limiteds, BUT HAVE A MONTH COOLDOWN.
Now, there’s also been some news regarding public UGC access coming in late 2023. Here’s my take on it:
In my opinion, UGC should be treated as a business opportunity, not as something to be available for everyone. If UGC were to become public, a lot of issues would appear.
Here are some possible issues if UGC goes public:
1. Repetitive low-quality items being uploaded
I believe that a part of the younger audience on Roblox might be interested in uploading 3D models, but not all of them will know how to, so they might probably just upload a basic cube to the platform – Now imagine what it’d be if many people did that.
2. False DMCA Claims
Sadly, this issue already exists on the platform, but It’d be even worse if UGC goes public - with everyone having UGC access, many people will create rather identical items (without knowing) and will DMCA claim one another solely to remove competition.
3. Hard to regulate
If AI will be behind the approval of UGC Accessories, then there still would be spin-offs of Roblox limiteds that would make it through moderation (such as a fake dominus, fake workclock) and these slip-ups of the AI would probably be enough in the sense that they would plague the platform (which might even make their removal impossible due to their amount). People might even download the original Roblox item’s mesh and upload it as their own UGC. Right now, it’s easy to remove a fake dominus when one appears, since the number of UGC Creators is limited because of the need to send a UGC Application (and also not many UGC Creators dare to make a fake Roblox limited since it can get them kicked out of the program)
Some might argue that if shirts and pants can be made by everyone, so should UGC Accessories, but UGC Accessories are 3D models, which are MUCH more complex than shirts and pants.
But if UGC will go public either way, then here’s a way of handling it:
1. Make accounts be able to upload UGC Accessories once every 2 weeks
2. Only let accounts which are a year old or above to upload
3. Don’t let them make UGC Limiteds
4. Enquire verified ID and a verified e-mail on the roblox site for the ability to upload UGC Accessories
5. Must be age 15 or older
I know this idea isn’t perfect, but this will discourage bad actors from uploading Spin-offs of already existing Roblox items and will also still keep the UGC Applications available as a worthy option and act as the ultimate choice for really enthusiastic UGC Creators.
Now, there’s definitely some other things to be taken into account when talking about UGC Rework.
That would be moderation…
Idea 5: Increase wait times for UGC uploads approval from 24 hours to 48 hours
Now, some may be kind of unhappy with this idea, and I wouldn’t blame them, but the purpose of this idea is to ensure that the UGC catalog is full of quality accessories by giving more time to the ones who are in charge of approving UGC (which shouldn’t be stolen assets from other games and/or infringements of intellectual property)
To add onto this, there is also a special system that I think might drastically decrease the amount of spin-offs.
Idea 6: Have people instead of bots check the application-approved UGC Creators’ FIRST uploaded accessory. (but if people check UGC uploads either way, then re-evaluate the research done on the first upload specifically)
Now, this might be kind of strange, but it will definitely catch the more slippery UGC bad actors (obviously, if this were to be implemented, it shouldn’t be mentioned) and hopefully this doesn’t overwork the ones who check the UGC accessories. By re-evaluated research, I mean more time to be taken and more check-ups to be made for approving the first upload (to ensure there is no copyrighted textures, stolen work, etc.)
About re-evaluated search, there’s many other things that could be done, like:
1. Give the people who check UGC Accessories a special image list of meshes which shouldn’t be accepted
By this I mean that people who are in charge of approving UGC Accessories should be given an image, which contains the more popular Roblox-made accessories (such as dominus, sparkle time fedora, etc.), because it will make catching UGC Copies of Roblox limiteds much easier.
2. Give a “report as spin-off/copyright infringing material” button to the more trusted roblox players
By trusted users, I mean robloxians who have verified email and ID, age 15+ and have an account older than a year. Also, instead of these requirements, I believe other UGC Creators and Star Creators should automatically have this option WITHOUT the first requirements. I believe it should be introduced as a separate button simply due to the fact that such offense is much more serious and should be dealt with accordingly. Such an issue should belong to a separate button because of its higher importance. I don’t think everyone deserves to have this option because of possible abuse of it.
Now, there can also be a compromise found for the ones who upload knockoff Roblox limiteds as well.
I noticed that many of the UGC copies of Roblox limiteds, although not doing good by plagiarizing, **can actually be implemented as a Roblox limited in the following way, for example: **
Make UGC Copies of Roblox-made limiteds COMPETE to become a ROBLOX Limited
This may seem like insanity to some, but let me explain what I mean by that – If Roblox were to create a poll every 2 weeks, which features ALL caught UGC Copies of Roblox Limiteds in that period, then the community can vote for ONE of them to become an OFFICIAL Roblox limited, and with that, Roblox can, for example, give the creator of the item winner up to 5% earned from resales. As a robloxian who started trading 6 years ago, I see this as an incredible way of reviving limiteds, as it would ensure 2 new ROBLOX Limiteds every month! Of course, if the UGC knockoffs’ amount is overwhelming for there to be a poll organized, it can be transformed into a weekly poll instead. Like that, we can have 4 ROBLOX Limiteds every month, which still would be great news! By the way, this idea SHOULDN’T BE THE MAIN FOCUS OF THIS REWORK CONCEPT AS IT MIGHT BE HARD TO IMPLEMENT!
UGC Improvements
One interesting idea I have is UGC coupons. The place to enter them could be on the page of the item and they could be configured so the first 100 users can use them to get a 50% discount on an item (for example) or make the coupon never expire and be used indefinitely for a discount. UGC Creators will benefit from this since it will drive more sales to their items on release. And if the item is made to always have this coupon working, then this will generally encourage people to buy a UGC accessory since they would get a discount. This will make advertising items on social media much more gainful, since if a coupon code for the first 100 users is a part of the social media post, it can increase the speed of sales dramatically.
Interestingly enough, that might even fix the botting issue on Free UGC Limiteds on the roblox website (where snipe bots take all free limiteds). **Coupon codes should be able to make a 100% discount (for a set amount of users OR for everyone) because that will, for example, make a UGC Limited be FREE, but ONLY if you type in this code, which most snipe bots won’t be able to do, since the discount code can be mentioned right before the release of the Free UGC Limited, leading to ONLY real players buying the Free UGC. This will ABSOLUTELY benefit a huge portion of the roblox community.