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

[Robert Headley]

The idea that a that the ESRB can just let a dev use the same rating for all
their games is absurd. The ESRB is required to play through all the games
that they rate, thanks to the hot coffee incident. $400 would be relatively
affordable, at least once a few hundred copies of any game are sold.

On 12/21/06, Thomas H. Buscaglia <thb at gameattorney.com> wrote:

>

>  Brian R. just sent the schedule for ESRB rating to the IGDA board and for

> downloadable console games is only $400.  The IGDA is in the process of

> contacting the ESRB to see if they can apply that same rates to downloadable

> casual games (or whatever they are called!) since right now, classed as PC

> games, they are at the $2,500 level.

>

> Tom B

>

>

>

> 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.

>

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