[casual_games] ESRB Need Not Apply

[Audry Taylor]

The discussion about ESRB ratings is an interesting one to me, because our 
company has been planning to use our own rating system for our games.  
Because we have a very specific target audience (teenage girls + 
twentysomethings), we wanted to design a system that would be easy for them 
and their parents to grasp.  Rather than creating a game and then rating the 
content, we plan to rate the game at conception and allow the restrictions 
of that rating to influence the content of the game.  That way our audience 
will always know what's in one of our games simply by glancing at which 
rating symbol we gave it.  Our ratings will be age-based (for all ages, 
teens in general, older teens only, and even adults only for women over 21). 
  and there will only be 4 of them.  I won't go into the design of the 
ratings or the names we're giving them, but they are designed to clearly 
communicate what kind of profanity, sexuality, violence, and storytelling is 
included for each age range.

Obviously, Vista will not be configured to accept our ratings.  I doubt that 
MS will be willing to alter Vista so that developers can add their own 
ratings systems (as that would open the floodgates for thousands of 
variations), so my company will have to consider alternatives for getting 
our games into game explorer.   Using ESRB for a second set of ratings that 
simply allow the user to install a game without warnings is one option, 
albeit expensive because of our development model (which is neither like a 
casual developer nor a traditional developer).

I consider it important to look at everything from the consumer's p.o.v., 
not from the developer's.  What is going to be easiest for them?  What will 
be clearest?  What will allow them the most freedom while providing the 
greatest level of security and comfort?

I would have opted for an O/S that asked a user during install if they 
wished to set up a section just for games/music/movies et al.  If they 
clicked "yes" they could either customize each section to suit their needs 
or leave them with default settings.  This would accomodate users under 30 
(and sometimes over) who are very computer-saavy and would like to be able 
to customize how their computer functions, just like they customize their 
email, their home pages, their music software, their myspace site, etc.

Vista could allow game companies to develop their own in-house ratings based 
on a "master checklist" used by Vista.  Each game, when installed, could 
submit a checklist of items to let Vista know which "master rating" their 
game falls under.  Vista could then display two ratings for the user:  game 
company rating and master rating.  The master ratings would be created by 
the user themselves using an easy checklist to determine what THEY think is 
appropriate for teens, kids, adults.  So the master rating would be THEIRS 
and they would know whether or not a game suits their particular standards.  
This would eliminate the need for the ESRB entirely and put the power (as 
well as the responsibility) for ratings into the hands of the consumer.

For example:

A game company makes END OF THE WORLD: THE DESTROYER, a game in which the 
player uses the power of flowers to save the planet from a robot programmed 
to destroy it.  The game has rainbow explosions, automated seed shooting 
weapons, enemy-neutralizing love hugs, and a kissing scene at the end.

The company rates their game as being "G" for a general audience.  The game 
company also takes the "Master Checklist" and puts an "X" next to all 
content that exists in the game (and in this example, a "--" would mean the 
content did not exist in the game).

-- Profanity
X Violence without blood or human/animal injury.
-- Violence with blood and/or aimed towards humans/animals.
-- Extreme graphic violence depicting death, abuse, and/or internal organs.
X Romantic content limited to hand-holding, a kiss, or a hug.
-- Graphic sexual content depicting nudity and mature sexual relations.

Joe buys this game for his teenage daughter.  Joe has set up the computer to 
allow his daughter to play "Teen" games.  Under the "Teen" rating, he has 
put an X next to everything he thinks is appropriate for his daughter to be 
exposed to:

X Profanity
X Violence without blood or human/animal injury.
-- Violence with blood and/or aimed towards humans/animals.
-- Extreme graphic violence depicting death, abuse, and/or internal organs.
X Romantic content limited to hand-holding, a kiss, or a hug.
-- Graphic sexual content depicting nudity and mature sexual relations.

Joe also has a 7 year old son.  He has chosen the "G" rating for his son, 
which has the following items X'd off:

-- Profanity
-- Violence without blood or human/animal injury.
-- Violence with blood and/or aimed towards humans/animals.
-- Extreme graphic violence depicting death, abuse, and/or internal organs.
-- Romantic content limited to hand-holding, a kiss, or a hug.
-- Graphic sexual content depicting nudity and mature sexual relations.

As you can see, Joe's computer will automatically fit END OF THE WORLD: THE 
DESTROYER into the "Teen" category so his daughter can play it, but block it 
from being played by his son, who is in the "G" category.  Next to the 
Master rating of "Teen" chosen by Joe, the computer will also list the game 
company's original rating of "G" so that Joe now knows this game company 
gives a softer rating than he does.  Now Joe doesn't have to worry about 
whether or not *you* would let his 7 year old play the game, because he can 
set up the ratings system himself.

I would kill for a ratings system like this.  Consumers would quickly learn 
that our company's ratings are designed to take mass market concerns into 
consideration while also providing them with the security of knowing they 
could overrule content they dislike.  If they found that our ratings were 
dishonest (that we were not checking off certain items on the list), they 
could take matters into their own hands and block content from our game 
company, pressuring us to be accurate in how we rate our games on the 
ratings list.

Putting the power in the hands of the consumer works for Wiki, Youtube, and 
a million other services.  Why not the gaming industry, too?

Audry Taylor
Creative Director
Go! Comi
http://www.gocomi.com

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