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ESRB Changes Oblivion's Rating to 'Mature'
kukyfrope writes "Perhaps reacting based on the debacle that was the 'Hot Coffee' scandal, the ESRB today changed the rating on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion from Teen to Mature. From the article: 'The content causing the ESRB to change the rating involves more detailed depictions of blood and gore than were considered in the original rating, as well as the presence of a locked-out art file or 'skin' that, if accessed through a third party modification to the PC version of the game, allows the user to play with topless versions of female characters,' said the ESRB in a release."
Uh, you could technically mod any PC game into toplessness. Therefore all PC games should be Mature? Do I smell a console conspiracy?
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
If i make a mod for Oblivion allowing the player to engage in sexual intercourse would that mean the ESRB would have to rank Oblivion AO?
Basing the rating of a game upon the available third party content seems very stupid to me. I'm sure i'm in the majority of slashdotter who think that changing the rating of a game because of mods is stupid.
this does not bode well for the future of video game ratings.
I love the game, but there is no way it should ever have been Teen. The necromancer and vampire lairs can be very graphic (If you've seen Memorial Cave, you know what I'm talking about.), way too graphic for a little kid. Decomposing bodies with a noose around their neck hanging from the ceiling? And a 'kicked out' chair underneath them? More decomposed bodies stuck to the wall with spears (Incidently, the only spears in the game, other than the skulls.)
Way too graphic.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go buy one of the last 'T'-labeled games, and sell it for a profit later on.
Would you kindly mod me +1 insightful?
Why is the ESRB now adjusting a games rating based on post-release modifications? Have you seen what topless Oblivion is like? You have to be pretty desperate to get off on those lumpy misshapen breasts.
And, since they have started this crusade, why hasn't the Sims 2 been pulled and modded Adults Only yet? That has far more explicit mods and in-your-face sexuality. Hell, the only way to get ahead in that game is to have sex, and that only gets a Teen rating still?
If the ESRB is going to keep pulling this, all game makers should just slap Adults Only labels on their games and let the parents figure out which ones are safe for their kids, like they are supposed to be doing in the first place.
Because the best way to demonstrate the strength of your ratings system is to REPEATEDLY CHANGE RATINGS AFTER ASSIGNING THEM.
That's not quite how it works. I haven't played the game, but this is what I've gathered from reading the author of the mod's comments.
Most games handle clothing by making it directly part of the character model. Oblivion models character bodies and clothing seperately. Although this approach increases the complexity of the graphics, it allows more reuse of art assests. With this approach, you can mix and match body types and clothing without having to redo the artwork for the different combos. This patch simply removes the clothing layer.
Also, according to the mod author's comments, the topless women don't quite look right. The models were designed to look right wearing clothing, not bare.
Yeah, I tried it a while back... so there's some pixelated tits, but they do absolutely nothing. There's no way to use them in any erotic context. It was about as arousing as an article about breast cancer with illustrations. With the game mostly in 1st person or from behind in 3rd person, you barely see them. If this is "Mature", then the nude skins + kissing in the Sims should make it rated XXX.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
You just don't understand the new thinking, is all. See, we need to be "protected" not simply against what things are but also against what things can be made to do. And, frankly, it is the fault of godless monsters like Bethesda for putting tools into people's hands that are capable of creating nude images, and they should be labeled as the pornmongers they are.
Seriously, it won't be long until game makers lock down code so that modding is impossible. There will never be another Counter-Strike for fear that someone will make a whorehouse map.
Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.
So I'm addicted to Oblivion, at least an hour a day of late. It's a great game, and one of the aspects that builds on this is that there is a sense of Accountability in the game. If you outright kill someone, things change. If you steal, people get pissed at you. If you punch someone, they go rounds with you. Isn't it more important when rating a game that it enforces proper consequences upon the player?
This is in addition to how ridiciulous it is that you can Mod it, therefore it's MA. Guess what, I can render porn in another well known program, called Windows, so I want it rated MA too (MA for what I say when it crashes).
--
Goblez
- Kal`Goblez
Barbie dolls are now Adult Only toys, to be sold only in adult sex shops due to the fact that they have built-in nudity, and by modifying the doll (taking the clothes off) you can reveal said nudity which is not only unrealistic but exagerated for the purpose of sexual attraction (bigger tits)
This must be willfull ignorance. Despite the fact that "public nudity" and scanty clothing is becoming more accepted, American culture is stull much less comfortable with it than they are with good old fashioned violence. Witness the fact that all forms of entertainment recieve higher ratings for sexual content and nudity than they do for violence, such as the game mentioned in this article.
If you really examine your history, you will observe that cultures become more barbaric as they do away with their inhibitions.
The word you're looking for is decadent, not barbaric.
Inhibitions keep us from doing things that would otherwise get us killed, like jumping off of a building without a parachute just because the ride down will be fun.
No, that is self preservation. Inhibitions are what keep you from doing it *with* a parachute.
Besides the health risk of constantly exposing your privates to the elements, vulnerability to disease, etc.
There's nothing risky about not wearing pants that isn't risky about not wearing clothes in general. There aren't floating 'disease germs' that will attack your wee-wee if you don't wear underwear. This sort of made up bullshit "medical" advice is exactly why some people *do* have a problem with "nudity in general".
If the media be representative of the entire population, then any attempt at regulating morals is a complete hypocritical joke.
Any attempt at regulating morals *is* a complete hypocritical joke. It's also sadly common amongst a certain breed of insecure, repressed, power hungry person who is so uncomfortable with himself and his humanity that he needs to control everyone, not just himself (or herself. English needs better non-gendered nouns). It's right there in the Genesis as you mention above, although apparently you don't grasp the implications. Adam and Eve felt *shame* for their nudity.
Nonetheless, there are some of us who don't want to pass on to future generations that sex should be casual or that self-control is a weakness.
Self control isn't a weakness. But repression is. Look at the history of our culture and your religion.
For those of us who claim to follow the God of the bible (and the even fewer who act like it), this is a minority stance (especially on any internet forum). I don't expect everyone to adopt it.
You don't expect everyone to adopt it, but you're perfectly happy with attempting to legally mandate it?
Still, it is unfair to completely reject an idea just because someone with religious values agrees with it.
I do no such thing. However, I do reject an idea when its only supporting foundation is those same religions values. Your only non-religious mention here are ambiguous medical dangers if you walk around naked, a total falsehood. Do you have any non-religious support for the dangers of informed, mature, casual sex? Are you aware that the rate of sexual predation is higher among members of your religion than among others? That as our acceptance of nudity, pornography, and sexual freedom has raised so too has sexual equality?