Comments on 'A call for a vote on the Rating System.'

[erik@math.smsu.edu (Erik Greenwald)]

I'm gonna abstain because I think there're some issues. I'll comment on individual articles

> 

<snip>

1 and 2 are addressed by another commentry and I think chris brings up good
points about trademark issues and legal liabilities.

> 
>   3) Our system is named "OGRE" and the icons are some kind of cute ogre
>      of an appropriate age holding a banner or wearing a T-shirt or
>      something that prominently displays the key letter(s).  We ask
>      people to link that icon to our web site at which the letters are
>      explained in simple terms.

I still think trying to make it cute will detract from credibility. 

> 
>   4) Each game is rated by it's author - and peer pressure will be the
>      only mechanism to pursuade people to change inappropriately rated
>      games.  Our web site would contain a disclaimer that makes it clear that
>      since we do not personally rate the games, we can't be held responsable
>      games that are inappropriately rated and that it's still the duty
>      of parents to check OGRE-rated material before passing it on to their kids.

I wonder if places like happy penguin would be willing to institute a mechanism
for people to vote on age level ratings. They do it for 'game quality', so they
already have the code for it I'd imagine, that lets the rating be decided by
a decently broad range of people

> 
>   5) We encourage members of cultures who do not approve of the ESRB system
>      or who have special ratings needs to design and promote their own
>      parallel systems.

parallel and exclusive, or parallel and simultanious? I'd think the encouragement
should be worded in a way to denote simultanious, but if that persists, we might
end up with a dozen seperate ratings on a piece of software?

<snip>

> 
> Please don't attach discussions or complaints to this thread because it
> makes it harder to count the votes.  
> 

maybe we should use the lgdc poll mechanism, that'll allow automatic tallying
and privacy. Might also be possible for us to vote per article, with yes/no/abstain?

<snip>

        -Erik <erik@smluc.org> [http://math.smsu.edu/~erik]

The opinions expressed by me are not necessarily opinions. In all probability,
they are random rambling, and to be ignored. Failure to ignore may result in
severe boredom or confusion. Shake well before opening. Keep Refrigerated.