We’ve been honest about the state of Roblox, both in the positive, like with its ever-growing concurrent player count records, and with the negative, like the various controversies that have plagued the title throughout the year. The reason for this is that with a daily player count ranging from 80-90 million-plus, things are going to go right and go wrong in decent numbers. Obviously, having the good things happen is to be praised and encouraged. We’re sure the dev team wants that player record count to keep growing, as it could help them succeed in the long run. In contrast, they need to curb the bad behavior of certain “bad actors” to try to make the place safer for all.
Ironically, Roblox did do something to try and help this happen, and they teamed up with Northeastern University to see how it would go. Very basically, they did a large-scale study that involved over 700,000 players. The study itself was in two parts. They first looked at a bunch of first-time offenders and gave them a one-hour suspension or a one-day suspension in the game. Small amounts, but they can be meaningful.
Then, they went and looked at users with multiple violations and gave them up to three days with a suspended account. Which, if you’re a dedicated player who is on the game quite a lot during the week, is a lot of time.
You might be thinking, “What’s the point of this study?” Simply put, it’s to see how the players in question reacted in the game after they did their “dirty deeds” and got punished for it. Believe it or not, finding out the best way to punish a player in a video game isn’t an exact science, and a lot of research has been put into this field to try and “curb their bad behavior.”
What were the results? For their sample size, they found that the longer suspensions led to people not being as likely to commit offenses once again. That’s likely because they know if they do get caught again, the suspension might be even longer, which would limit their gaming even further, which they wouldn’t want.
Hopefully, the dev team takes this to heart and starts cracking down on those who are crossing the line. Sadly, there are plenty who fit that mold and are beyond first-time offenders. Plus, there are those who will always take the suspension and then just “come back stronger.” So, perhaps, stricter methods are needed for them.
