ROBLOX Corporation, Stop Taking Away Our FREEDOM and CREATIVITY!

ROBLOX Staff has been taking away features and making demeaning changes to our community.

NOTE: the list I have made is in order.
I will also be listing possible solutions and feedback under the description of the change.

The subjects discussed in this petition are:
Colour Palette changes
Chat moderation
Tix/Promised Features
Comments being removed
Hat changes

COLOUR PALETTE:

I can understand this to a degree. However, Roblox is initially a community based on creativity, freedom, while also being fun and safe for everyone. I know having to change a color of each body part separately can be quite annoying and time-wasting, however, that is the only downside to old/current color palette and organization. It was obvious that you didn’t think this one out. I do love the new avatar editor design and color palette, as the colors are simplistic yet they are appealing. Though, removing the option to change different body parts was pointless altogether. It removed yet another part of Roblox’s freedom and creativity.

A possible solution to the problem:

Instead of removing the option to color body parts altogether, create a simple check-box system to “Color Full Body” and another check box that states “Color Chosen Body Part” From which upon selecting the second option, a drop-down list appears and you can choose the body part to receive the chosen color. A simple answer to a problem that makes both parties happy.

CHAT MODERATION/OLDER COMMUNITY:

This problem is combined because they tie in with each other. Roblox, restricting chat so aggressively isn’t the way to go. With the changes you are making, you might as well make a separate ROBLOX for people who are 13+, make even for 18+. The whitelisting for people under 13 is ridiculous. The Cons outweigh the pros when it comes to the implemented chat moderation and whitelist Vs. blacklist changes. When the server is filled with accounts are under 13 years of age, It is filled with censored words, which are replaced with #s. At this point, people are leaving due to the amount of accounts under 13, and the fact that Roblox is completely ignoring the older community. You know your developers are also part of the older community, correct? Then why don’t you acknowledge that they aren’t the only ones that are part of this aspect of the community? You want younger players but, your community is getting older. The older community is leaving because you do not treat both halves of the community equally. You welcome new and younger players, but you alienate the older community. I understand you want to remain a kids website, but in all honesty. You are pushing your older community out- and those are the ones who create the great content we have today for games. The chat moderation and discrimination of our older members is what is causing everyone to leave. There will be a point unless a change is issued, where it’s just a bunch of annoying kids polluting the Roblox platform, and the overall quality of games will ultimately decline to what it used to be before around 2013 or so.

Possible solution(s) to problem(s):

Well, for starters, lay back on the whitelist. It is ridiculous to the point where you cannot type numbers. Perhaps, if you’re so scared of phone numbers, age, etc. If someone tries to say it in the format, “My age is ##” or the phone # format “###-###-####” or others like “##########” and so on, you can remove the message completely instead of censoring only two words, numbers, etc. Same goes for any censoring in general. It just makes it easier instead of the chat being spammed with “##### ### ######” and such. Acknowledge your older players, and reward them for being there from the start, giving you ideas, feedback, and much of our support. We gave you our support and even embraced updates when they just added to roblox’s downfall. We deserve to be acknowledged and respected for our dedication to making Roblox a fun, awesome community to be a part of.

TIX REMOVED/PROMISED FEATURES:

I have very mixed feelings about the removal of our free currency, tix. For those of you reading this who do not know, tix was a free currency you could trade for ROBUX, an alternate way to buy other clothing, though it does take awhile to save up. You would get a daily stipend of Tix for signing in each day, and one Tix per visit your games developed over time. They removed this early of last year, in April. The ridiculous claims, although valid, do not justify the removal tix. They were running low on profit and needed people to buy more robux and Builders Club, and looked for every reason they could find to remove tix. As quoted from their blog on March 15, 2016:

“We have many things in store for the majority of ROBLOX players who do not want to become involved with the ROBUX economy. In the catalog, we intend to provide more free items, so that avatar customization without ROBUX continues to be creative and rich. Today, we have introduced two free packages for your character. Going forward, we will feature the work of top creators in the community as we migrate to a fully community-driven catalog.”

They have yet to fulfill this promise of free items, and a community is driven catalog, and it’s almost been a full year since Tix were removed from Roblox altogether. They have yet to let promised features, such as creators publishing hats and gears, be implemented into the Roblox economy. As quoted here, the promised feature was mentioned within the same blog:

“We are reducing the price floor on shirts and pants from R$10 to R$5. We are reducing the price floor to ensure that creators have more freedom to sell items at lower prices, now that tickets will be removed. We will also be holding regular contests for clothing makers going forward. They will be creating the clothing for our new users and we’ll also be featuring their clothing in the catalog for all users.”

“Over time, our catalog will be largely stocked with community created items for all categories, including body parts, animations, and gear. All items in the catalog will go through a selection process where we pick the best items for sale, along with the best items that are freely available for everyone. For those items that are freely distributed, there will be fantastic rewards to the catalog developers.”

They have yet to implement ANY of this- and clothing designers do not make that much money, considering you have to have Builders Club to be able to make clothes, AND the fact that tix were removed, people have to buy ROBUX or buy builders club with real money. Although I am ALL FOR a catalog driven by the community, as I have wanted to make hats SINCE they announced these promised features, I will have to spend real money out of my pocket, earnings and such in order to contribute the community I love so much. This goes for anyone who wants to contribute their skills to the catalog in making clothes for everyone. They even promised a few ROBUX earnings for those NBCer’s to buy some clothing for themselves- there are free clothing, but the quality of such clothing is not at the high level- at all. They are plain, generic, and demean Roblox of its goal- creativity. As stated in the blog, it is for people who do not want to be a part of the economy. So- they are just ignoring those who want to be part of it, and who want to buy clothes, hats, etc to customize their character. They completely ignore the half of the community and are dedicated to the other, which means losses in active users.

“Developers can now monetize their game with developer products, game passes, and the affiliate program. ROBLOX developers can cash out their ROBUX for dollars which can be spent in the real world.”

Yes, but only OBC can cash out robux for real dollars, which costs more money than they will actually earn in the long run. You are basically creating a community with two divided groups- rich and poor. The users with less money but big and great ideas will not be able to create and get rewarded efficiently since Builders Club is required for you to be a successful creator- which means using your real money. You are building a community that is divided in half and not united together like it should be. You need ROBUX to add products and game passes. Which now, since TIX was removed, can only be earned through real money. You have destroyed the economy for your own self-need.

“ROBLOX is a place where many game developers get their start. We are committed to making sure new developers get their games discovered. To that end, we have created a new email address – featuredgames@roblox.com – for you to submit your up and coming games too. These submissions will be reviewed by our marketing team and submissions that meet our editorial standards could end up in the featured games sort. We’ve also identified the top ways our developers are making money in their games and provided this information to you in the Developer section of the site. Soon we’ll release more templates for budding designers to use when creating clothes and items.”

So basically you are limiting creations and imagination to the more fortunate community who can afford to be successful, and eliminating your so called “Building power and imagination” for everyone, and reverting it to only those who show promise in an actual career for the department you are encouraging? What happened to “It’s FREE!”. It is not at this point, and only the more fortunate players can be successful, otherwise you have to be an actual developer who talks with Roblox to even create games that are played by everyone. Yes it’s good you created an email, for those developers to get noticed, they need money, robux, and builders club. That is not how to build a successful community. It’s controlling it so only the dominant creators are at the top of roblox “fame”. Now, it’s become like the real world, where you need money to get anywhere.

“In general, anything we reward with currency will ultimately be botted.”

Well yes, but that shouldn’t stop you from giving the community some kind of currency reward for being dedicated to your platform. EVERYTHING will be botted eventually no matter what you do, so why not just say “Screw it” and give your players what they deserve? A creativity-filled platform with an online community, where you can customize your character as they so please, that goes across to any game they play instead of them only being able to go to games where you can fully customize your character. Again it’s an illegitimate excuse because the reasons you provided, are not as important as keeping your economy in check. It has fallen apart- such a good decision you have made, with reasonable excuses, no?

“Our vision is to Power the Imagination of our community, and to do it more immersively and more socially. Removing tickets is not about greed. It is about simplifying the platform, removing bots and alts, and paving the way for a ROBLOX that is bigger, more engaging, and more fun than ever before.”

A summary of your excuses to remove the only thing Non-builders club members have to be a part of the ROBLOX economy. If your vision to power the imagination of your community, don’t make the “imagination and creativity” aspect solely dependent on money for others to make even a little success in their game development.

I think this section speaks for itself, so the “Possible solutions to the problem section” of this petition will solely be the ideas from users of ROBLOX that I receive. These ideas will be placed in the actual petition placed on Care2 Petitions.

COMMENT REMOVAL:

I do not have much to say about the complete removal of comments that is not obvious- for it was unnecessary to remove the option for developers to allow or not allow comments on their games. They have to resort to Private messages. Though I know the counter argument is that it removes the constant spam, and the matters of suggestions can be handled in a much more organized, private manner. It, however, limits the player's freedom of speech- to criticize things on other games they love. This does get rid of spam, but you can go about preventing this or making it smaller by the solution described below.

Possible Solution(s) to the problem(s):
Add an “I am not a robot” Captcha underneath the comment box, they have to either check the box or solve a puzzle like other ones in order to be able to post the comment.
Add spam filters with phrases and/or words associated with spam, such as ROBUX, R$, and possible phishing websites censored and/or deleted out of the comment itself, or not being able to post it whatsoever. This system will please everyone EXCEPT the offenders of the spams/scams.

HAT CHANGES:

Last, and probably the least important issue but one I am bothered with, is the limitation to only one hair “hat” on your character. As you know, there are popular trends with two hairs being on avatars head, and 9/10 times it looks very appealing. I loved to this when I thought my hair did not look right, I’d add another and it’d look significantly better. I do not see any point in removing this, as it is pointless. Of course, the virtual weight of the hats applies to the characters in-game physics and I am well aware of that, but removing the feature was pointless and again extremely limited the creativity of robloxians and LIMITED customization to a strong degree. Your excuse of games who implement customizable characters is not reasonable enough for you to remove this all together. The solution is very simple and easy to implement.

Possible Solution(s) to the problem(s):

It is very simple- Keep the multiple hats and accessories enabled, but implement it in a way that when you have two hair accessories, it limits the other amount of categories of accessories to a smaller number, maybe one lower. It’ll bring the creativity back in outfits and overall keep the same creativity and imagination users want to use when customizing their avatars as they so choose to.

OVERALL STATEMENT:

I’m happy to have taken the time to write this. Before I publish this, I will post this on the ROBLOX forum for users responses, ideas, inputs, etc. I will implement some ideas appropriately If I so choose to if I deem it as relating and important to the issue and point I am trying to make. My point, that ROBLOX is taking the wrong direction on the path of having a community-based platform. I explained a lot in the above sections. I want you, the users of this community, to input your ideas, suggestions, and other solutions/issues I can add to the petition for ROBLOX Corporation to consider and/or go over. I look forward to reading over the comments if I get any.

There is a possibility no one will read or notice this, but it is worth a try. Thank in advance for your contributions and for reading this over. Bless you all.