ESRB ratings can be a hurdle for casual games

Microsoft also agreed, at least in part, with another issue WildTangent believes could become a substantial hurdle for casual game developers. Wickham agreed with St John that a $2500 expense to obtain an ESRB rating could be too high for small game developers. ESRB ratings is a newly supported feature in Vista that allows parents to determine which games their children can play, based on ESRB ratings. St John sees a problem with parents who deny general access to games without ratings, which could block many casual games that are developed by individual developers who can't spend $2500 on a ESRB rating. Wickham made a step towards St John and said that "there is something to be looked at if there isn't a way to make sure that more games are rated." He believes that the "the industry should figure out a way to solve this problem" but mentioned that "everyone who is serious about their game and wants the game to be successful should be thinking about getting an ESRB rating."

But the ESRB rating implementation itself isn't going anywhere and will remain a feature of Vista that is not likely to be modified. St John, for example, suggested that only games with extreme content should require ratings and harmless games should be exempt from the ESRB requirement in Vista. Wickham responded to this idea saying that "this is fine, except we do not know which games qualify and which don't. Just because the first two levels look ok, that does mean that levels three and four are also ok. I don't think anybody should be against having an independent board looking at games and make some judgment calls."

What should not be left out of consideration is the fact that Vista's parental controls are not mandatory. "They are completely optional", Wickham said. "First, the system administrator has to choose if they are enabled or not. The parents have the choice to decide whether they use them or not. Then they have to determine what games go on a PC and which ones do not. They can use ESRB ratings as a guide and either block unrated or allow unrated games." He stressed: "There is a choice that parents are making. We put that choice right into the hands of the person who bought the machine and paid the money for it. I believe that is the way to do it."

On the other side, we had the chance to talk to several industry sources about Vista over the past week and parental controls appears to be one of the more emotional features that is always popping up in our conversations. What we have been hearing so far is that, as part of the parental controls, the adjustment of what content is accessible and what not - based on ESRB ratings - is often considered as too complex. Microsoft considers its parental controls as "super easy." But, no matter how you look at it, parents need to take a close look at the functionality of parental controls, before they decide what features they consider appropriate and if parental controls are a useful addition to their family PC.

Developer issues

Wickham completely dismissed WildTangent's claims that Microsoft has not been providing enough support to developers to help with the transition to developing Vista games. "Our team has been out for four years to make sure that developers know what we are doing with Vista. We talked about the improvements we were making, about the Games Explorer and the parental controls. We have been handing out whitepapers and software development kits. I think the complaint that we have not been providing enough information is misplaced."

He stressed that Microsoft does not believe that developing games for Vista is more difficult than it was for Windows XP and that the company offers to engage with developers and "provide all the info we have." He recommended that small development firms that need support with their Vista game development should take advantage of the tools posted on Microsoft.com, take advantage of the firm's developer relations, take part in conferences and contact the company through "contact connections on microsoft.com."

We leave it up to you to make up your mind on the statements provided by WildTangent and Microsoft, but it is interesting to note that both firm's aren't really that far apart from eachother, at least as we can judge from our conversations with St. John and Wickham. A phrase that came up in both conversations was "empowerment of the user." WildTangent and Microsoft have different views on how this empowerment should look like in its details, but both apparently believe that the users should have more choice and knowledge about the things that are happening on their PCs. Vista is a step in the right direction, but - obviously - it isn't perfect. However, Wickham indicated that Microsoft is taking WildTangent's comments about Vista seriously to think about improvements of the software: "Alex has a lot of history in this business. I am happy to take his feedback and we will see if there are things that we can do better."