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ESRB President Vance On UT3's User-Generated Content
Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs blog passes on the comments of ESRB President Patricia Vance on user-generated content in Unreal Tournament III . As you may recall, it was announced at E3 that user mods will be available for the PS3 version of the game, and eventually the 360 as well. Vance clarified the situation from the ESRB's viewpoint: "The ESRB's Online Rating Notice, which warns consumers that 'Game Experience May Change During Online Play,' is intended to advise the buyer that, because the game enables users to play with others over an internet connection, they might encounter user-generated content that isn't a part of the ESRB rating ... That content can vary, whether it's chat or skins or maps or what have you, and it's certainly possible that some of that content won't be in line with the rating that we assigned to the product. That's why we created the notice in the first place."
Is it me, or is this ESRB bureacracy now broken?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
How exactly are they broken, in your estimation?
I hope they at least screen the user generated content for online play. I don't want to play against a stick and testicles. I mean, where do you headshot that thing anyway? But seriously, I don't want all the crap that's gone through second life coming through UT.
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So, the solution for Manhunt 2 is clearly:
1. Remake Pac-Man
2. Get ESRB rating of E with a warning of User Generated Content
3. Upon boot, download content from user "NotRockstar", a whole 4 or 5 bytes adding a jmp to the code
4. Execute that code = Manhunt 2
5. ???
6. Profit!
More Twoson than Cupertino
"Compare the Oblivion issue..."
Like all analogies, it is a piss-poor comparison. The content for Hot Coffee was already there.
There is a difference between unlocking pre-packaged content and hacking something up because of a flaw in the system; not differentiating between the two does a dis-service to everyone.
"You needed user-created content--a patch--to access Hot Coffee. And even then there was no nudity, unless an additional patch was applied--again, not user-created skins, but basically "misapplying" certain skins to the models in use. User-rearranged content and user-generated content should be treated the same."
The scripted motions and gameplay were created by Rockstar, that's what makes it Rockstar's problem. That's not user content; regardless of how the scenario was unlocked --calling it so isn't exactly calling a spade a spade.
"In short, "because the content was not user generated" is utter bollocks."
No, it's absolutely not. It's absolutely relevant.
"The AO rating was the ESRB bowing to political pressure, simple as that"
Hardly. The issue was transparency within the ratings system, if a publisher creates a title with content that may change the rating that is accessible on the disk in any form, whether it be through a user hack to unlock the content, etc. not disclosing it will cause problems in terms of the ESRB's reputation.
", and now they cover their tails a little better with user-generated-content disclaimers. Maybe it's good that they did what they did, maybe in doing so the ESRB preserved its relevance..."
All they are doing is notifying the public that online content cannot be fully rated -- that is a good thing. You better damn well hope the ESRB stays relevant because the options outside of it aren't pretty.
Having coded a simple king of the hill and done some other stuff in UT2004, it would be easy yet obnoxious to make this work:
"The Cockfight" a new mod that works on all existing maps and generates a moving triangle at load time, sorta like king of the hill!
However, players have completely new skins and can either choose plain skinned models, models with special ribbed shields, bright colors to dazzle opponents, and flavors!
Some models provide extra shielding, while others decrease reload time, and others are more...potent! Also note that the firing mechanism has been remapped so that the weapon fires from the PlayerActor's eye-height!
And remember, even though one or two players can occupy a V at the same time, the longer a particular player holds it, the more points they get and the more likely the V spawns near them again!
So can they tone down games and get the M rating then update it later via PS Store / Live Market and get the A-O content? or perhaps T to M content?
I suspect that they'll have the option to turn off custom models, just to save bandwidth if not everything else that goes with them.
This is a non-issue. User-created content cannot and should not be regulated by any agency other than server admins.
I was always under the impression that that disclaimer meant "Slowness, Choppiness and/or lag may be present during online game play". Not that there's user generated material within the game. If what they say "chat or skins or maps or what have you" is supposed to be meant with their disclaimer, they may want to modify the verbiage a little bit (e.g."Game Content May Change During Online Play").
I always thought that sentence was an advertisement! Like, "play online, it will CHANGE your EXPERIENCE". What I thought was boring advertisementese was just boring legalese... my bad!
Don't take my posts literally; it's just code to control my botnet.
User generated content is a huge part of the gaming market on PC's, and now that a console may get a piece of the action people start freaking out. Shows that people really aren't too concerned about PC imo, or they know the truth: we PC gamers are mature enough to handle it. I just hope they don't damage the customization of unreal tournament that gave it such a long lifespan in the past. Damn console's screw it up for everyone.
To some extent, I agree with what you are saying. People couldn't access the "Hot Coffee" materials unless they downloaded online content (or modified the code themselves, if they played on a computer). But at the same time, the content WAS on the disc, it WAS part of the program and that does technically make it content included with the game. As a side note, this article is pointless; this is nothing new and I'm mystified as to why Slashdot put it up as a story.
That's an excellent reason why the phrase should be clarified. If you had a problem understanding it, then chances are that a large portion of the audience is also not getting it. "Game Experience May Change During Online Play" While I've always understood what they mean, I've always felt it was written in such a way as to intentionally confuse. It's as if they're trying to be a bit coy about it. "Yep, this game is perfectly fine for kids. Except....well, I don't want to startle you or anything, but...something really bad could happen online. Oops, look at the time, gotta go!"
I always thought it was a saftey net so mommy doesn't start suing companies when little Jimmy learns some new four letter words from his games.
Insert Sig Here
Microsoft have already said no. There is an interview on Gametraliers, and the Microsoft dude says XBL is a closed platform.
Can I ask where the author of this article got the impression there would be? (assumption???)
I fully agree. I was scrolling through to see if anyone had said as much before I posted, and I'm glad I'm not the only one. I'm amazed this made /., and I'm amazed (or perhaps saddened) that the ESRB felt obligated to justify this. When you go to the movies and see a PG movie, you can't yell at the MPAA if someone sitting behind you in the theatre drops the F-bomb 10 or 20 times while watching it.
Perhaps slightly more accurately, if you pick up a children's book in which someone has drawn obscene pictures throughout (thus becoming a part of the medium rather than adjacent commentary, the difference between game content and live chat), you can't exactly blame the publisher or author. Why this distinction is hard to make I really don't understand.
If it's anything like the PC games that support user-created playermodels (which includes all previous UTs, by the way) it will just display the default model if you didn't download the custom one.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
to release Manhunt 2 as a mod for UT3...?
Two of the definitions on dictionary dot com mention not just the bureaus, but the excessiveness of them that is the common use of the term. If you've ever played this game, I think you would agree.