My English is not good, so I should keep my sentences short. I'm not a indie-dev, but these situation is - going plain wrong.(added: teamliquid has similar article, so it maybe more concise and read better than this for you. i already wrote steam-related problem into /r/gaming) Teamliquid.net, here's some pre-facts
- Game Rating Board - Grb.or.kr / Warning: Korean Characters
Acts like ESRB in U.S. but created by government. don't have publisher corporation members. BUREAUCRATIC. And of course they got fee - for long-time-consuming-blah-blah-process.
- Publishing games without rating is illegal in Korea, with FEW exception.
(added: Only made public to on-line, no packaging - is still considered "publishing" in GRB. Found that ESRB rating is in most case, required for money-making. sorry for poor select of my words)I heard that ESRB rating is OPTIONAL...
- Some indie game devs use RPG Maker. these devs are using forum to share their games, knowledge... etc.
- I can safely say, almost all of these games were all freebies, and not made intended to be commercial.
here's recent facts, or troublesome situation...
- September 1 (GMT +9) some of devs' forums got contact from GRB. like...
- "Get your all games rated or cease posting games. Publishing unrated games are illegal. blah blah..."
- Coudn't afford the fee, forum's moderators forced to delete all of games listed in the board.
oh then how much does that cost?I looked up $$$ damn rating process fee table for 2010. original table is using korean WON but I should write US $ with, for your convenience. and GRB have plan for raising these fees every year... I'll use approx. 1175 won / 1$ today.These indie-games got open-market, "individually made" category. ah open-market game apps - GRB's making trouble here, but that's for another post, not for /r/indiegaming.here we go.Basic fee per game:
- less than 10MB - 21000 won, 17.5$
- 10MB to 100MB - 50000 won, 23.8$
- 100MB to 300MB - 56000 won, 47.5$
- more than 300MB - 168000 wom, 142.97$
AND Coefficients... (This was somewhat difficult vocalbulary for me XD)
- Network related - x1.5
- Not network related - x1.0
AND Coefficients again per genres
- Role playing games - x3.0
- Betting-related, fighting, adventure, simulation, FPS - x2.0
- Puzzle, board, sports - x1.5
- Educational - x1.0
AND Coefficients for localizing
- Non-korean localized x1.1
- Korean localized x1.0
So... someone made 105MB of single-role-playing games in Korean, for FREE. he/she has to pay 23.8 * 1.0 * 3.0 * 1.0 = approx 71.4$and he will think like - "I just wanted to make games and uploaded to some forums, for FREE! but why am I charged? why am I treated like criminal?"and I never heard that Audiosurf or Worlds of Goo got their ESRB rating first. never. (edited: my sentence above is WRONG. thx cableshaft!)here's another news post for this situation - don't click if you can't read Korean characters in your browser. not intended for non-Koreans.Inven.co.kr
- Reddit.com -
What happened to you people in Korea is sad, really sad.
Unfortunately, it also happened to us here in Brazil many years ago, ALL games are to be rated, without exception, and they don't even explain the price (it is way higher than in Korea...).
This led to we not having Apple Store here, neither PSN, or any other online store with exception of a few courageous PC stores that defy the law (Steam for example).
And all indie game creators are criminals (including me).
But we end making games anyway.
Horrible people...Uprising!!!