Will the discover team stop being dismissive and defensive?
Whenever concerns are raised the reply is this is functioning as intended. They are seeing the results they want to see without addressing the actual issue. For instance, not pausing to think we are seeing a result we like but maybe there are really bad side effects. For instance maybe your super happy your filtering brought some random map to the front of the row with 20 minute playtime and 7% retention, but could also accept yeah maybe that is wrong because you pushed back 4 other stronger maps with better stats to try to find one good one. It was a massive net negative if you start looking at that bad it’s causing as well.
Can there be more transparency around why rows are not functioning as they are described?
How discover works mentions we need good playtime, retention, CCU, etc. but then maps with 3x better stats can be in placement #50 on a row while a map with way worse stats are at the front. I understand wanting to push more innovative maps or ohhh they have QPTR but in the end if they are vastly outweigh by better maps that are hitting everything else they still should not be there. Overall discover is a much worse place. We are approved for being in that genre, but there is clearly still some part of the algorithm that then just filters it out anyways even if you hit better stats overall.
Why does the discover team prioritized internal goals over player experience?
I get that they want to see things like innovative maps and oh this open world has hundreds of voice lines and custom NPCs and wow it’s everything WE want internally and the row is filled with experiences the discover team is so glad they surfaced. And the playtime is horrendous, retention is horrendous, way better maps are pushed to not even be visible. And the player is pushed maps they are not wanting to play that long, and defiantly not coming back for and will slowly make them less likey to play again. So the internal stuff is really just way too much of a focus right now. Gotta get back to some player stats stats getting you good placement because those stats are the players vote and that vote is being ignored.
Can the discover team give actual clarity?
For instance, the comment that this system is better than before for maps getting exposure. All you have to do is look at maps released in the last month and see how few are actually getting decent numbers. And compare that to two years ago when we had rows like trending. It’s even scarier now because most of the good maps don’t even get exposure it’s just a bunch of 45 CCU maps with bad thumbnails and bad stats being pushed to the front. Then the discover teams gives inaccurate excuses as to it’s functioning as intended instead of a yeah, we need to look at this or at lease be more transparent as to why you are serving these poor maps over better ones so we can understand it.
Why update tab is now accessible only to maps with active players? this will never help new developers, its useless doing maps right now, since if i do a new map, it will go into new tab and after new tab will die, if i will try to update 4-5 days after it will never reach update tab since its only for active maps, this is so unfair, and i hope that you guys will think abt it, cause its impossible.
Last Thursdays update appears to have severely impacted Search Impressions. Can you provide some color if this is a bug or a design change? This is two of our maps. Impressions started to drop on Thursday with the update and since have been very low, close to zero.
I will also add that changes like this really affect smaller creators. We don’t get much discover presence with some of our maps so when users can find our maps via searches it really means a lot to us. We try to adjust our descriptions and titles but when the rules are constantly changing on us it’s hard to make it so players can find our maps.
Can discovery become more family friendly to non popular creators?
For example, its nearly impossible to get plays in a new map for someone who hasnt many followers in their creator profile. " Updated" tab now lets you join only if you already have plays and not islands with zero plays even though they get updated with many changes. Could you revert this so maps with zero plays have a chance to join with big updates?
Could you add a limit on how many impressions a map can get from sponsored per day so this wont be exploited by popular creators and give a chance to smaller ones
After the last update, Discovery died, and Collections followed suit. Updating any game no longer creates engagement, no players. Creating a new game is also pointless, as it will die before it’s even released. All the work becomes pointless. I don’t think this chat will change the situation.
More transparency is a good step forward. Thank you for this.
(EVERY POINT MADE HAS OVER A MONTH OF ANALYTICAL DATA SUPPORTING IT)
How do you justify the extreme increase in difficulty for a new island to ethically establish 500-1000+ CCU for at least a couple days after launch? (not counting Roblox IP-theft maps or creators with huge communities). The ability to build momentum as a new island with high metrics is nearly impossible since the removal of having the ability to earn multiple rows (Top Rated, Most Engaging etc.)
Many maps with CCUs in the range of 100-300 that have amazing metrics have seen 0 visibility in their genre row (position 1-120) for over a month. How is this justified and why aren’t their amazing signals triggering any visibility in their genre row?
With almost the entire creator community unanimously agreeing that Discovery is really not good and are being forced to quit because of it, when does that become enough to make drastic changes even though they don’t align with your original plan? It is very clear that the state of discovery is the main source of creators giving up and losing faith in UEFN.
Q: Can we get analytics (the old greyed out one) back in creator portal? it was very useful for comparing analytics for multiple maps on one account, unlike the current per project analytics which does not do that aspect at all.
I would to asking for the Lets Chat Livestream pools what @Squatingdog hosting.
QA 1: Epic makes on purposes to deni fun elements like fire rate feature whats implemented as creative settings but its somehow out of hands enabled it without turning out in the settings to allowed it. If its not allowed then set this on a creative/uefn as option for enabled/disable it, some maps are made for fun. Options Called Weapon Rapid-Fire No Cooldown (Trigger the shoot Button faster if you can)
QA 2: What devices are epic give us for surprises on the table, maybe a expersions for the devices Weapons Controll Device (ADS, Mag-size, Recoil, Bullet drop etc), Advanced First Person Device, Admin controll device (Midgame/gamestarts public) , New Audio effects, New Inventory slot for zero build Button for having 6 Inventory slots instead 5.
QA 3: Coming (OV) Overwatch on Cooperation to creative/uefn like star wars?
QA 4: What is the next Season what Epic is cooking up for us
QA 5: Take epic games care about Balistic stuff or make new weapons for the creative/uefn developers to make some maps, because these weapons what we already have is to small weapons picks.
Why did you remove the “New First Person Island” category? This category meant a lot to me as a new horror map creator. Is there any chance you could bring it back? If not, could you please explain why?
On another note, I wanted to share something else: my developer and I spent over 90 hours (basically a whole week) working on a map. We published it last week, but it didn’t feature in any category (NO DISCOVER - New or Updated). Could you clarify how exactly we can get into these categories?
I know you’re fighting against map spammers, but if you could at least fix this issue, it would be really great!
Hello! Congratulations on organizing this livestream. I’m sure it will be both insightful and important for the community. I would like to submit a question that I would be very happy to see answered during the broadcast:
For years, one of the main criticisms of Discover has been the fact that it predominantly prioritizes and recommends maps that feel very repetitive, such as 1v1 and Red vs Blue maps that are practically identical to one another and consistently remain featured in Discover. Meanwhile, maps with innovative mechanics, original ideas, and strong scalability often go unrecommended and end up relying exclusively on Epic Picks for visibility.
How do the recent changes to Discover impact this issue?
