[casual_games] ESRB Need Not Apply

[Kurt Boutin]

Does Vista allow for an RP ESRB rating?

Kurt
------
Kurt Boutin
Director of QA
Pronto Games
kboutin at prontogames.com

  -----Original Message-----
  From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]On Behalf Of Alex St. John
  Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2006 12:27 AM
  To: casual_games at igda.org
  Subject: [casual_games] ESRB Need Not Apply


  That's useful if you're buying a box, but unlike a boxed title kids may
discover and try down loadable games unsupervised, hence the parental
controls need to be applied at the point of online discovery, not by a
parent reading a label on a box.  Vista parental controls don't interpret a
"Game Content May change During Online Play" note.  The game is either
blocked or not, which means that some level of ESRB rating must be defined
to include the possibility of open in-game chat.  A good parental control
system will allow a parent to enable or block the possibility of in-game
chat in any game regardless of content rating.  In the absence of that
definition and support from Vista we just apply a "T" rating to any game
that includes in-game chat.

  If Vista parental controls were well designed they would make a callback
to any game that a user launched that parental controls apply to enabling
the game to deliver it's own message to the consumer rather than having one
imposed by the OS.  For example suppose Popcap made a T game and parental
controls were set at E.  A popcap game could launch it's own dialog that
explained the block and the reason for it, provide UI to enable somebody to
change their parental control level or unblock that game, and/or recommend
other popcap games that have E ratings.  If the reason for the rating was
in-game chat, the game could offer to disable that specific feature.
Instead Vista trusts the game to accurately report its ESRB rating, but
doesn't trust it to handle it's own messaging when somebody launches it.


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