[casual_games] ESRB Need Not Apply

[Dave Selle]

WildTangent looked into creating its own rating system for games in our network. Besides the issues of Vista's parental controls, and singificant potential for consumer confusion we were advised  there could potentially be significant legal exposure (e.g., a hot coffee). That was 3 strikes so we decided not to proceed.

 

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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