[casual_games] If Vista is going to be such a problem...

[Christopher Natsuume]

So, I have read all of the posts, and the thing I can't get past is: how is
it that MSFT is proposing to maintain the current great push for independent
content when the base cost for ESRB rating is $2-3,000. I mean, that is like
the complete art budget (or more) for a lot of startup independent game
developers. Or to put in perspective, assuming they are shipping on the
major portals, and getting a very optimistic 1/2 the $20 revenue, it's the
first 300+ units sold, just to pay for the ratings. That's a barrier to
entry that is going to slice out the entire lower end of the market.

And I cannot buy "well - sell to people who don't turn on the parental
controls" response. That may work for games that target the hardcore users
who will defiantly leave the nanny-locks off, but our core users -
grandmothers, soccer moms and parents - are the *definition* of the people
who would be using these controls. 

All nitpicking and complaining about monopolies aside, I think we can all
safely assume that casual games that do not show up on the Games Explorer
window with the highest levels of parental controls turned on are at a steep
disadvantage to those that do. I suggest that the most productive place to
take this discussion is to start there and try to sort out how even a
startup garage developer on a hobby budget could make that happen with his
game. No?

For instance, is it possible that the ESRB could give some sort of breaks to
the portals, at the very least? Aggregators like Big Fish and Oberon put up
dozens and dozens of games a month, and have a vested interest in keeping
their products clean and safe for their core audience. Maybe they could have
the power to push through "bundle charges" for ratings or even assign
ratings, since it should be trivially easy for the ESRB to safely hand out E
ratings for just about everything on these portals...? Then the developers
could take those ratings and use them for all builds of the game? It
certainly would make a great "value add" for a distribution deal with a
major portal!

Or is it possible that casual game developers could get a "minigame" ESRB
ratings package, which is substantially cheaper, based on he volume of
content required to check? I mean, you should be able to look at Diner Dash
or Bejeweled for like 2 minutes to see that this is safe content, no? Why
should they be charged the same price for evaluation as games like Far Cry
or Gears of War - which must take days and days to look through the content?

These - or better ideas - are certainly in the real of something the IGDA
could help with, no? 

Also - as a side question - how does the ESRB deal with rating products like
MMORPGS, where there is a great deal of user-entered data? There is nothing
protecting little Timmy from seeing naughty words there in chatting
environments, or seeing an orc-player hump a dead body... Not to mention
products like Second Life, where whole sections of the game are
user-built-content? Even something as simple as the online highscore table
in our game Magic Lanterns can (and has) been used by some users to post
sexually and racially insensitive words... How is that rated by the ESRB? I
am sure everyone else here knows the answer to that question - I just don't.

Cheers,
Cn

__________________________

Christopher Natsuume
Director, Boomzap
www.boomzap.com
Real Fun. Right Now.