New Roblox Update Finally Targets Spam & Slop Experiences: “Build Games People Want”
It appears Roblox may finally be getting serious about reducing the endless spam, copycats, and low-effort slop clogging players’ Home screens. For every breakout hit on the platform, there now seems to be dozens of imitators designed to trick players with copied titles, identical thumbnails, and plagiarized game loops. These impostors are all competing to get a slot in players’ recommendations before whatever specific “blink and you miss it” Roblox trend they’re taking advantage of dies. The creators of this shovelware are less concerned with giving a player a reason to return than they are with getting them through the portal long enough to fleece them of their hard-earned Robux with a boost, game pass, pet, or reward. The result is a discovery page where genuinely inventive and fun new titles can get buried under variations of whatever was hitting last Thursday. Roblox has spent years tinkering and adjusting discoverability algorithms, but their latest attempt at a fix will apparently target something more in line with the player experience: replayability.
In a recent post from Chief Growth Officer John Ciancutti, Roblox revealed the company is testing a new update to Home recommendations designed to recognize and reward experiences with “long-term retention and sustained monetization.” The advice Ciancutti gives to creators is pretty direct: “The most important thing is to build games people want to play, and keep playing.”
Roblox is Giving Creators Clear Goals and Tools to Reach Them
The latest changes made to the “Recommended For You” algorithm build upon tweaks the company began in June. That update expanded several measurement windows from seven days to 28 days, allowing the system and engineers to take returning player counts into consideration weeks after their first session. Roblox has also indicated that it has been incorporating the measurement of first-play bounce rates into its algorithm, meaning they want to know if people are sticking around or leaving immediately upon entering an experience.
These longer term metrics give Roblox more data than a huge launch spike or brief run on the games monetized features. The system can evaluate levers like playtime, repeat visits, time spent playing with friends, and whether players spend Robux within the game over time. An experience that skyrockets off the launchpad but fizzles back to earth quickly is going to have a harder time competing with experiences that may have a smaller, but more dedicated audience.
Creators can use these metrics to learn more about how their players are experiencing the game as well and make tweaks to keep players interested and on board. If a creator notices that players are quitting an obby early, they can look at the metrics to see how long players last, then identify where in the game loop players are looking for an exit, or introduce progression systems to keep them coming back.
Roblox‘s Advice On What Works
The tips Ciancutti highlights in his post are very straightforward. First, if your game has low retention: focus on core gameplay. No one wants to play a game that isn’t coherent or fun. Next, if your game has high retention: build sustainable monetization. If you find yourself with a community of players, reward them with something of value that deepens their experience in the game without undermining the gameplay that brought them out in the first place. And finally, create for lasting play. Designing a game that is only good for one quick go-round before the player moves on to something else is not going to lead to a stable of fans eagerly awaiting your next release. Make something that gives a consistent and quality experience to the player.
Reactions to the post have been fairly positive, with one developer saying they can already see a difference since June. “You’ve done well,” the developer told Roblox in the comments, adding that they’ve found “more unique/interesting games” waiting in their recommendations instead of “low effort cash grab games.”
When it comes down to it, Roblox wants its creators to succeed as a matter of business. When creators prosper, so does the platform, and that is especially true when it comes to monetization. So it’s no wonder that Roblox is more interested in helping to make sure players have fulfilling experiences they want to come back to on the platform over quick hits of carbon-copy dopamine. Ultimately, their guidance for devs is very straightforward: make inviting and engaging game loops and the rest will follow.