[casual_games] Slow death for the current generation ofcasualgames? (Bugs, Parental Controls & Game Explorer)

Brian Robbins brian-l at dubane.com
Tue Dec 19 10:06:12 EST 2006


So without knowing the inner details behind this, it looks like
developers have a bit of a catch-22. We can install our games to the
Games menu where users over time will learn to expect to see them
appear, or we can ignore that and install them as "regular"
applications.

The tradeoff would seem to be that installing into the games menu will
virtually require that the game has an ESRB rating, while installing
as a "regular" application will cause our game to look out of place to
the user.


I haven't spoken to the ESRB in a while, but it would seem that it's
in everyone's best interest to try to have a casual game rate or
something like that. I think it's definitely something the IGDA should
look into and I'll start that process. If anyone has a good contact
there please let me know off-list.

Thanks!

--
Brian Robbins
Executive Producer and Gaming Evangelist
Fuel Industries - www.fuelgames.com


On 12/19/06, Joe Pantuso <jpantuso at traygames.com> wrote:

> Vista has a 'games' menu that is different from the typical program menu.

> The preferred (by MS) behavior for games is to install your program

> shortcuts there only and not install like a regular app. The problem being

> that they expect you to have shelled out (many) thousands of dollars for

> ESRB rating and digital signing of your game.

>

> Looks like this; http://cache.kotaku.com/gaming/Games.jpg

>

>

>



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