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

[Thomas H. Buscaglia]

I would think that with Microsoft's current XNA 
initiative they would be very interested in making this work for small games.

  Tom B

At 12:01 PM 12/22/2006, you wrote:

> > Why not carefully investigate it. It seems to 

> me that the first question goes to Microsoft. Can we use a

>

> > different ratings system than ESRB - or is MS 

> going to endorse a monopoly over game ratings for each

>

> > country. ;)

>

>

>

>Microsoft has an agreement with a number of 

>ratings boards to use their system and symbols 

>(yes, these are typically copyrighted and/or 

>trademarked) for the Parental Controls 

>implementation. The rating system's symbol 

>appears in the Game Explorer when a rated title 

>is selected, along with some other metadata. The 

>default rating system locale detection setting 

>is likely part of that agreement, but users are 

>free to set the system to any supported rating 

>system. Currently we have implemented ESRB, 

>PEGI, USK, OFLC, and CERO. Additional ratings 

>systems may be added in future updates.

>

>

>

>Again the ratings agreement is between the 

>rating board and the publisher. Microsoft is not 

>involved with the ratings process. For the few 

>hundred legacy titles we prepopulated into the 

>Game Explorer, we just used the rating 

>information on the box. Otherwise titles are 

>responsible for providing their own ratings 

>information or they will show up as "unrated".

>

>

>

>As I said in my original e-mail, I agree the 

>ratings systems as they currently exist have a 

>number of issues: impacts on low-cost tiles, 

>non-retail titles, online titles, user-created 

>content, etc. These are issues that are best 

>handled by industry initiatives, and the IGDA 

>has a very important role to play in this 

>process. That said, users of Parental Controls 

>will need to understand that "unrated" is a 

>common case for games and they have to make 

>their own judgment about these games on a 

>case-by-case basis. The Windows Vista Parental 

>Controls system absolutely allows the parent to 

>override the rating and allow or disallow a game 

>on a case-by-case basis to support this usage.

>

>

>

>-Chuck Walbourn

>

>SDE, Game Technology Group

>

>

>

>PS: I'm actually out of the office and will be through next week :>

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