This is Not a Software Industry - The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future - page 10

games has required licensing and contractual agreements with the console's
manufacturer (O'Donnell 2011b). The process of publishing a game that
was distributed for a game console or even for the PC via retail distribution
became more problematic beginning in 1994 with the additional require-
ment of ratings based on the decisions of the Entertainment Software Rat-
ings Board (ESRB), established by the ESA.
The establishment of the ESRB by the ESA is also indexical to the kind
of attention that video games receive in comparison with other forms of
software. The ESRB was established to address concerns surrounding vio-
lent video game content being accessible to young people from within video
games. Regulation discussions around video games are largely concerned
with content and not the functionality of the software. On the other hand,
encryption and functionality are the concerns of lawmakers surrounding
the software industry. The ESA focuses the majority of their lobbying on
preventing attempts to “censor” or otherwise constrain the ability of game
developers to create the games they wish to make. Largely this debate has
focused on the fi rst amendment rights of game makers in the U.S.
Individual game manufacturers and publishers have specifi c standards
and reviewing practices that constrain the elements present in a video
game. One particularly notorious example was Nintendo's haphazard cen-
sorship of the Maniac Mansion port for the NES. This kind of scrutiny of
a game's content, not its software, is exemplary of what makes the video
game development industry particularly unique in comparison with the
software development industry.
Casey: What is the worst part about making games
then?
ENGINEERING_LEAD: It has to be trying to make imagination fi t into
a process. But game development also has to
be a viable business, right? When we come up
with a really cool idea that we think will be
fun, that isn't the only thing that determines
if it goes into the game. It has to be approved
by whoever is licensing the character. It has to
be compared with what marketing thinks is
popular that day. They have to promote things
in games that may not be fun, but they think
increases sales. It really is the relationship
between the suits and the beatniks. Sometimes
dealing creatively with restrictions is cool, but
when it's just seen as an outlet for sales rather
than a creative thing, that isn't fun.
Now, sometimes the licenser is the publisher.
Other times it isn't. But, the publisher has already
negotiated that part of the deal. But, there is