With all the press games are getting these days and with the rumour that games won't play on a vista machine unless it has been certified by the censors to make sure it's safe for the intended audience, where does that leave the independant developer? Are we sitting on a time bomb waiting to go off if we sell games which are not rated? Accreditation is expensive, something far out of the reach of the bedroom coder. So does this mean that only large companies are allowed to publish their games?

The way things are going, I can imagine this conversation happening in the near future..

Me: "I've written a game, it's really cool.. can I sell it?"
ELSPA: "Not unless it's got a little badge of accreditation"
Me: "Why do I have to get my innocent little game accreddited?"
ELSPA: "Oh, it's for the sake of the kiddies"
Me: "Is it free?"
ELSPA: "Nope"
Me: "So I've got to pay for accreditation?"
ELSPA: "Yup - CherChing "
Me: "What if I don't pay?"
ELSPA: "Your game won't run on Vista and you're breaking the law"
Me: "What if I cheat?"
ELSPA: "Can you pick up the soap?"

Also, different countries have different laws. How do they apply to indy games?

This isn't meant to be a rant BTW, just a tongue in cheek way of opening a discussion.



(on a side note, a random thought has just occurred... Some kids a while back in the states started taking pot shots at cars on the freeway with their dad's assault rifle, then blamed it on violent computer games when they got caught.. forget the fact that their Dad had an assault rifle FFS!!, it's obviously the game's fault!!... with this in mind, is any game safe from this mentality? Do some people seriously have such a problem distinguishing between a game and reality?

Tetris killed my puppy.. Well I was dropping breeze blocks off the shed roof and splat... Tetris made me do it! )