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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."
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.
So is this out yet?.....
MMMMMMM...polygon'd boobies!!!
Click Click Bloody Click PANCAKES!
virtual boobs only had 5 polygons and we had to walk to school up hill, both ways!
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.
It's the marriage with an Orc that summons a Mature rating.
Please stop entering code 2,2,7,6,6,4
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, you know, you can't possibly confront young people with images of something they've sucked on 10 years ago.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I saw a video of this nude patch a few months ago, check it out here.
If i wanted to hear bullshit, i'd go to church.
I have been told by reliable sources that the ESRB rating board in fact contains nudity, and that it can be unlocked simply by undressing the board members. I must therefore recommend that this story be rated M, and that /. prevent minors from reading it.
English is easier said than done.
the PC version will carry an additional content descriptor for Nudity
If the nudity isn't available in the basic game but needs a third party hack, isn't it false advertising to claim "nudity" on the box? I'd expect a refund if I bought this and found no nudity included.
The real Ralph Yarro posts as Anonymous Coward. Anyone else is an impostor.
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.
Anyone up for labeling this scandal "Hot Mead"?
Insert Sig Here
Oh noes! Quick ESRB, slap minesweeper with an M rating!
Why, only yesterday I was sickened to find that by cutting out and supergluing the centrefolds from 'Playboy' onto my television, I was able to turn the supposedly child-friendly film 'Bambi' into a cornucopia of filth. I have written to the head of Disney to complain and will be protesting outside my local Best Buy to demand this sick spectacle be taken off store shelves.
A book, present both in Oblivion and in Morrowind. Contents follow:
The Lusty Argonian Maid
by Crassius Curio
Act IV, Scene III, continued
Lifts-Her-Tail: Certainly not, kind sir! I am here but to clean your chambers.
Crantius Colto: Is that all you have come here for, little one? My chambers?
Lifts-Her-Tail: I have no idea what it is you imply, master. I am but a poor Argonian maid.
Crantius Colto: So you are, my dumpling. And a good one at that. Such strong legs and shapely tail.
Lifts-Her-Tail: You embarrass me, sir!
Crantius Colto: Fear not. You are safe here with me.
Lifts-Her-Tail: I must finish my cleaning, sir. The mistress will have my head if I do not!
Crantius Colto: Cleaning, eh? I have something for you. Here, polish my spear.
Lifts-Her-Tail: But it is huge! It could take me all night!
Crantius Colto: Plenty of time, my sweet. Plenty of time.
END OF ACT IV, SCENE III
---
(and make friends to the alchemist in Skingrad, she'll ask you an interesting question...)
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
If this is the case, it brings up all sorts of interesting questions about the nature of nudity, since the texture, on one model, is perfectly acceptable but the same texture, on a different model, is obscene.
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
-Voltaire
The parent is correct, the underlying skin of 'female upper body, nude' was only included to allow additional clothing to look correct when it exposed portions of what the bra was covering.
The nude female skin included in the file isn't even female. The proportions are quite distinctly male as evidenced by the placement of the nipples being way too far appart and thus rendering them on the side of the breasts rather than the front when it is placed over the female upper body mesh in the mod. The mesh file of the supposed nude still distincly shows the folds of the bra (rendered normally as a folded up, dirty off-white cloth going around the upper body) giving the topless characters lumpy shadows where the bra was.
In other words, this was not a 'hidden' nudity thing. The males can be rendered without shirts and clothing made with exposure of various parts of the upper body. The female was made the same way, and since the nipples would never be shown, it didn't matter that they used the male skin 'skin' for it as well.
Just to reiterate, the nude texture was included into the game because Oblivion's clothing and armor textures/meshes would not always look correct with a bra texture going straight through it. The bra mesh would also cause clipping and it would be rather clunky to retexture it with every armor. Rather than make some convoluted script that checks skin tone and modifies the existing texture, Bethsoft used a much simpler solution.
I think that the presence of nipples are the foremost concern for those who object to the "nudity" nipples are apparently the most offensive part of the mammary and must therefore never be shown to children of any age. But if we consider the role a nipple might play in the modelling of armor and clothing (although I will admit that I have no experience in this matter and will defer to the knowledge of anyone who does), such as providing a boundary for how far the neck of a peice of attire can go. The nipple play a part in determining where a seam might be placed on a blouse or an indentation on a tight fitting dress.
Unlike the Hot coffee mod, which was an intentional inclusion of graphic content, Oblivion's mesh and texture were created to make the game run more smoothly and quite possibly as a modder's resource. The "nipple" on the topless mesh is barely distinguishable from the rest of the breast, and Bethsoft goes to great lengths to make it's content appropriate for younger audiences. For example, in Daggerfall (and Arena?) the book series known as "The Real Barenziah" had very graphic sexual content, Which they removed from Morrowind (and Oblivion) and replaced with the phrase "this passage has been removed by order of the church" They also removed all nude daedra or provided more consevative versions of them for Morrowind. I don't think Bethsoft ever intended for the mesh and texture to be used for this purpose, and while Bethesda certainly expected nude content to become available, they should not be obliged to provide such content for ESRB screening purposes.
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
Please, Your Majesty, I know that I, like many other Americans, have behaved like a total buffoon. But we Americans are England's children. I know we don't call as often as we should and we aren't as well- behaved as our goody two-shoes brother, Canada -- who, by the way, has never had a girlfriend -- I'm just sayin'! But, please, find it in your jewel-encrusted heart to forgive me. And on another note, in 30 years when European women are forced to cover from head to toe those glimpses of an American hottie's calves and ankles are going to look pretty sweet!
Freud would like a word with you.
So would Oedipus.
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?