[casual_games] A Response from Microsoft

[Thomas H. Buscaglia]

Mitzi McGilvray has brought this issue to the 
attention of the IGDA Board and we will do what we can to help.

Tom B
At 02:30 AM 12/21/2006, you wrote:

>I think I speak for all of us when I thank Alex 

>and others for their efforts on the indie/casual community's behalf.

>

>I find the situation bizarre to be honest. 

>Whilst I understand having a parental control 

>system of some kind, it will always be very 

>difficult to do for 3rd party independent 

>content downloaded from the web. The brutal 

>truth is that parental controls are meaningless 

>on the context of web games because anyone, aged 

>4 to 40, could go on to the same unrated website 

>with adult styled games content.

>

>At retail there is a significantly bigger level 

>of control, partly because there is a certain 

>level of expenditure required before software 

>can hit the shelves, and that means there is a 

>scope for a proper ratings system.

>

>It's not a great solution, but can we install 

>games in both the Games Explorer and outside it? 

>It may be messy, but it's the only thing that 

>would cover consumer expectations yet also protect the title from disappearing.

>

>Also, I'd like people to bare in mind that this 

>doesn't just affect casual games off the big 

>portals, but also endless independent games done 

>commercially or by "back bedroom" developers. 

>Some of these are designed for children, and the 

>profits are low. Parental controls would become a major problem.

>

>The rating system should allow parents to block 

>games of a higher rating than they allow, not 

>block unrated games. I doubt any major publisher 

>would unrate their game just to get around this 

>due to potential PR and legal ramifications.

>

>As for the general download and installation 

>problems, I just see it confusing users and 

>lowering download rates for all types of 

>software, at least for a period of time. It's 

>all very well saying users will get used to it, 

>but I disagree. Actually, users like quick and 

>easy, so if you hand out security or unsigned 

>application warnings many users simply won't 

>take the risk in case they break something.

>

>Alex St. John wrote:

>>First, let me say that it's absolutely great 

>>that somebody from MS is reading this forum and 

>>responding.  Please don't feel that anything I 

>>have to say here is leveled at anybody at MS 

>>personally, however we've struggled with Vista 

>>issues a long time, and the information in your 

>>response doesn't contain the whole story.  We 

>>know nobody in the MS OS group is really in the 

>>casual game business or was in a position to 

>>understand the "unintended" consequences of 

>>some choices that were made, but it appears 

>>that we have to live with the consequences of some of that naivety now.

>>

>>It's true that parental controls are "optional" 

>>and are "buried" but once used are also 

>>"broken" and if even a small % of consumers 

>>adopt them create a sweeping support issue for 

>>small developers who can't afford MS sized call 

>>centers to deal with them.  Had MS not jammed a 

>>highly prominent Games Explorer menu in the top 

>>level start button, it might not be an issue, 

>>but now that it's there with prominent 

>>promotion of its parental control feature, we 

>>have every reason to expect that it will be 

>>widely used, and expected to index all games by 

>>consumers.  Ergo, there is no "choice" for game 

>>developers, they're forced to support the thing.

>>

>>Our developers attempted to support Vista 

>>parental controls, but Microsoft provides no 

>>API's for a game or game manager to provide 

>>their own UI access to parental controls or 

>>provide alternative UI to the game explorer, so 

>>a game cannot "adopt" the system and interpret 

>>parental controls intelligently.  Thus parental 

>>controls are imposed unilaterally by Vista, 

>>even on good citizen games that have played by 

>>the rules and gotten ESRB ratings.  This is not 

>>an issue between game developers and the ESRB, 

>>it was never a problem for casual games until 

>>Microsoft arbitrarily mandated them instead of 

>>providing a solution developers could choose to 

>>adopt.  The BEST thing Microsoft could do to 

>>make Vista a better gaming environment would be 

>>to simply delete the Game Explorer before 

>>shipping Vista, thereby making the parental control issue irrelevant.

>>

>>As for LUA problems in Vista, why would 

>>Microsoft imply that the developers are at 

>>fault for not adopting a security mode of the 

>>Windows OS that was so widely reviled by 

>>consumers that nobody adopted it in 

>>XP?   Furthermore there is simply no way to fix 

>>many problems created by LUA for casual games 

>>which is one of the major reasons consumers 

>>never used that mode.  Consumers (especially 

>>kids) consume casual games like music lovers 

>>consume songs.  There is no simple way in Vista 

>>to make frequent downloading and installation 

>>of many games from the web, often by kids, 

>>friendly or easy.  It's just busted by security 

>>warning after security warning and security 

>>elevation dialogs.  If a kid wants to download 

>>and try 5 casual games, they'll drive their par 

>>tents crazy asking them to type in elevation passwords.

>>

>>The net impact on the downloadable game 

>>business will be chilling and there is very 

>>little anybody can do to fix it except Microsoft.

>>

>>

>>__________________________________________________

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>>

>>

>>

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>

>

>--

>

>Alex Amsel

>Tuna Technologies Ltd (Sheffield, UK)

>Cross Platform Game Development

>Tel: +44 (0)114 266 2211  Mob: +44(0)7771 524 632

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