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

[Allen Partridge]

Dustin,

While I agree that it would take substantial effort to create a separate
entity, I don’t necessarily agree that it would be as negative an outcome as
you paint here. Why? 

1. Casual Games are (at least for now) different than the games
traditionally rated by the ESRB.
2. Educating the public on this matter is 
    a.) beneficial to sales – it draws attention to the portals in the media

	– that translates to  increased revenue.
    b.) not really relevant - people don't know what the ESRB is (normal
people) they know that games are rated. Heck, I know parents convinced by
their children that M stands for 'military'. ;) Who am I to break the bond
between parent and child.

3. There are a number of Centers at academic institutions that would be
thrilled to handle the grunt work of rating the games (my own Applied Media
and Simulation Games Center among them) and that would add legitimacy to the
ratings that you'll never get from the ESRB which is entirely like the fox
guarding the hen house (its board consists of members of the companies whose
games are being rated.)

4. Ratings systems are already splintered - across national boundaries. Why
not carefully examine the way that other industries have addressed the
issues and learn from their errors. Do it internationally, do it right, and
do it in a way that promotes growth in every sector of the industry?

Just curious, any other academics on the list?

--allen 

________________________________________
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Dustin Clingman
Sent: Friday, December 22, 2006 8:40 AM
To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [casual_games] If Vista is going to be such a problem...

I’ll have to disagree with you on one front Andreas. The ESRB is a
developed, connected and more importantly has reasonably consumer understood
rating system. If the IGDA and CCA can do anything here for us it’s to
educate the ESRB et al (way too many acronyms here) on the kinds of products
sold in this segment to work to generate alternatives that can allow for a
lower priced solution. 

Splintering off will not help; it will just force us to spend our own time
and energy in propagating the new system, generating explanatory media, etc.
All in all, a lot of work and money just to come back to where the ESRB
already is with a hopefully lower cost solution. 

Dustin 

________________________________________
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Andreas Schneider - GAMGO
Sent: Friday, December 22, 2006 8:28 AM
To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [casual_games] If Vista is going to be such a problem...

Good idea Allen - why not start our own rating system controled by
representatives from every country and people from the casual games
industry. I think the IGDA could help here. This could also be the clue to
see which are casual games and which not.  I would be happy to see something
like that instead of paying fees to some organisation that doesn't really
know what a casual game is and is working in a totaly different genre of
games. 
 
Andreas
gamgogames.com
 
 
 
 

The ESRB is an industry generated entity designed to pre-empt legislative
restrictions and oversight. The industry it monitors is ‘hard core games’ –
we’ll skip the debate over the term for now. The Casual Games Association
and / or the IGDA Casual Games Sig or any established and ‘known’ industry
representative group could easily create a parallel group that may operate
based on it’s own rules (and fees) and which Microsoft would have to treat
the same as the ESRB (as would the federal government etc.) 

We do everything else separately, why not accept the differences and impose
our own regulatory agency rather than subject ourselves to one that is rife
with problems.

It also would distance us from those ‘violent’ mainstream games, give us a
shot at free publicity, embed our reputation as ‘safe games’ and provide big
time news coverage – leading to more stories about portals etc in major news
outlets and overall could be a boon to the industry.

--Allen

________________________________________
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Robert Headley
Sent: Friday, December 22, 2006 1:24 AM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [casual_games] If Vista is going to be such a problem...

wasn't the ESRB actually required to play the games, after the hot coffee
debacle? Ah, my bad, but it was proposed by Senator Brownback

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_in_Video_Game_Rating_Act 

Also, I don't know that the ESRB is willing to risk allowing 3rd party
certifiers with so many politicians out to get them.
On 12/22/06, Joe Pantuso <jpantuso at traygames.com> wrote:
ESRB doesn't actually load up and test anything.  You submit a video tape of
gameplay to them.  And ESRB charges you $400 to $2500 for the pleasure of
viewing the tape, what's the hourly rate on that?  Their business model is
very simple, and there is no incentive whatsoever for them to make it any
cheaper or easier for us to pay that protection, er, I mean ratings fee. 
 
The news that we may be able to get casual games treated at the $400 rate is
a good start.  I'd like to see $250, especially as the 'gameplay' video for
Chess, for example, is going to pretty damn short and sweet. 
 
 

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