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The Seal Desk / The issuers
Desk 64 - the marks that vouch

Four kinds of issuer, four different interests

The issuer is the first question, because the issuer is what the mark ultimately reports. A testing house, a trade association, a review platform and a media brand are four different businesses, and only the first of them employs anybody whose job is to examine an operator.

Open the partner accountRun the four questions
Mark stub
Kind 1
the testing house
Kind 2
the trade association
Kind 3
the review platform
Kind 4
the media brand
the issuerThe company or body that put the mark there - a testing house, an association, a review platform or a media brand
the scopeWhat the examination covered: a process, a system, a game type, one entity or one market
the recourseWhat the issuer does when the operator fails - the question almost no mark answers
Direct answerA mark is issued by a testing house, a trade association, a review platform or a media brand. Only the first examines an operator with its own staff against a written scheme; the second certifies membership; the third and fourth publish opinions. Knowing which one issued a mark tells you what the mark can possibly mean.

The four issuers

Each is a legitimate business, and none of them is doing anything wrong by issuing a mark. The problem is a page that displays all four in the same visual language, at the same size, with the same one-line caption, so that a reader has no reason to ask which is which.

The testing house

Employs engineers and auditors, works to a published scheme, examines a defined subject - a process, a system, a sample of game builds - and issues a certificate with a number and an expiry. Its business is the examination fee.

The trade association

Exists to represent its members. A membership badge says the operator pays a subscription and met the joining conditions at the time it joined. The association’s interest is a large and harmonious membership, which is not the same interest as a reader’s.

The review platform

Publishes reviews written by users and, increasingly, verifies that a reviewer had an account. Its product is a distribution of opinions; the star is a summary of that distribution, and the summary is a much weaker object than the reviews under it.

The media brand

Runs awards, lists and rankings, funded by entries, tables, sponsorship or advertising. It is an editorial business with a commercial arm, and its mark is a decision made on a calendar by people whose relationship with the industry is also commercial.

The five stations a mark passes through

Whatever the issuer, a mark is produced the same way. Knowing the sequence tells a reader where the weak point is, because the weak point is almost always the first station rather than the last.

  1. The scheme is written. The issuer writes down what it will examine and against what standard. A scheme that examines a process the operator documents itself, rather than an outcome, can be satisfied by good paperwork.
  2. The subject is defined. The issuer decides what the mark covers. One process, one system, one jurisdiction, one brand and one legal entity are five different subjects, and a mark that does not say which will be read as covering everything.
  3. The examination happens. Documents are read, a sample is tested, or a questionnaire is completed and reviewed. This is the only station where anybody looks at the operator rather than at its paperwork.
  4. The certificate is issued. A number, a date, an expiry and a legal entity are recorded. Everything a reader can actually check is in this step, which is why a mark with no number and no entity is uncheckable by construction.
  5. The mark is displayed. The operator decides where it goes, how large it is and what caption sits beside it - usually the footer, the payment row or the hero. The display is the operator’s work, not the issuer’s.
The asymmetry to remember. The issuer writes the scheme, defines the subject, performs the examination and issues the certificate. The operator writes the caption and chooses the placement. The part a reader reads is the part the operator wrote.

What each issuer is not

The four kinds are often confused with each other, and with a fifth thing that is not an issuer of marks at all. Getting the boundaries right is most of the skill.

Issuer against the object next to itthe testing house    examines a subject and certifies what it examined
                     it is not the authority that licenses the operator
the association      certifies membership at a point in time
                     it is not the police of its own members
the review platform  publishes what reviewers wrote
                     it is not an inspection of the operator
the media brand      decides an award on a calendar
                     it is not a finding about the operator's conduct
the licence          grants permission, held by an authority,
                     looked up in a register against a company

That last row is the important boundary. A licence is permission to operate, granted by an authority that can withdraw it; a mark is issued by a company and grants nothing. When a page shows a licence number and a seal side by side, the licence is the stronger document and the seal is the one whose content nobody has described. The licence itself is a different object with its own desk, and its register is where a reader checks it.