Oblivion Rating Changed to 'M' by ESRB!

[SBaby]

I don't have much time to rant about this, but I just found this out at bluelaguna. It's GTA San Andreas all over again. Here's a snippet. You can check out the full article at the site.

'The Entertainment Safety Ratings Board (ESRB) has decided to raise the rating for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion from "T" for Teen to "M" for Mature. "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 users to play with topless versions of female characters," the ESRB said. The Xbox 360 version currently has no such modification.
Reports of gamer-created mods that allow players to remove clothes from character models and expose female characters' breasts have been floating about for several weeks. With the rating change in effect, the game's content descriptor which currently lists Violence, Gore, Sexual Themes, Language, and Use of Alcohol will now also list Nudity in its list of vices for gamers to be aware of.'

This is how it starts. Next, games will be getting pulled from the shelves, just like what happened with GTA. Just make sure you know who's running the country. I think that until gamers do something about this, these things will just keep happening.

 

[Alchemist]

It shouldn't be changed. There is no intense blood or gore, and PC users have to go and download the mod to make the game nude, so ESRB can STFU about the 'Parents expect..... We have to enforce this....'

 

[Geodude]

Big deal. Kids don't play it anyway.

 

[meta-master]

there evil!!!! yes evil very evil

 

[SBaby]

Would you think the world would be a better place without the ESRB since after all it seems to be a form of censorship? (Like the movie rating board)

Yeah. Movies were around for years before these ratings boards started and people did fine. I think things have gotten worse since these ratings boards were established, not before.

 

[Zora]

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

Okay, hence the word third party modificaiton. This means GS/AR/CB (or something around that lines).

 

[Alchemist]

No, it's just 14 year olds who can't control their horomones download a mod for the game.... It's a mod, not a hack or cheat...

 

[Judai Yuki]

Err good thing i got the 360 version.

 

[Ashkihyena]

Wow, did Jack Thompson get ahold of this or something? Anyways, thats just stupid, majorly stupid, oh well, I got my "T" version, not that it matters since I'm above that age, still, its still idiotic though.

Edit: Also, I wonder why, if this got "M" rated, why The Sims 2 hasn't yet, since you can basically do the same thing as well, and I haven't read anything about TS2 getting upped in the ratings yet, though neither it or this should be rated "M."

 

[Zora]

Wow, did Jack Thompson get ahold of this or something? Anyways, thats just stupid, majorly stupid, oh well, I got my "T" version, not that it matters since I'm above that age, still, its still idiotic though.

Edit: Also, I wonder why, if this got "M" rated, why The Sims 2 hasn't yet, since you can basically do the same thing as well, and I haven't read anything about TS2 getting upped in the ratings yet, though neither it or this should be rated "M."

ERSB always make sures big hits get the rating it deserves. Other low key games (according to them) get a one-shot at rating. This could be good or bad. Also, keep in mind it is there definition of "Big Hit."

 

[Ashkihyena]

If they wanted to do that, then they should've done it right at the get go, instead of re-rating it, I myself still find this as well as the entire GTA thing (yes, still find that stupid) not cool, and well. *Takes an apple, and takes a bite out of it and spits in the face of the ESRB.*

Personally, I blame the parents who suck at their parenting and want the Goverment and ESRB to do the parenting as well, thats where the main problem for this kinda thing lies IMO of course.

 

[Ashkihyena]

No, thats not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about the parents who let their kids play games that are rated M, or AO (though theres really none of the latter), dispite the fact that they're rated those, thats the reason things like Oblivion get re-rated when theres no need.

Oh, and for your information, I don't know about anyone else who posted in this post, but I'm 25, huh, can't say about you though.

 

[Ashkihyena]

Well, it may have been justified, but it still caused an unnessacary uproar IMO, and unfortunly, its effecting games that are already rated. Either the game companies need to send the full game so the ESRB sees what its dealing with, or deal with what the games rated already.

As for mods, thats not the game companies fault, since third parties create those, as EA/Maxis and I'm sure Will Wright said, so thats not the companies fault for what people create and all, now if its programmed into the game, maybe, I mean, after all, you still had to unlock the GTA stuff. And even then, it looked kinda, ugh.

 

[.Person.]

Now that people know they may take advantage of it.

 

[Chris]

Folks, might I point out to you this notice that ALWAYS pops up with online games? "Game Experience May Change During Online Play."

This means it's fair game that a rating would change because of interaction with other players and such. If you get a T-rated game, expecting it to stay T while online, you might end up playing in an M-rated game.

I don't see what the big deal is, though. It's only a rating. Only affects you younger folks. Keeps those of you from buying the game without a parent.

 

[Alilatias]

Folks, might I point out to you this notice that ALWAYS pops up with online games? "Game Experience May Change During Online Play."

Oblivion is not an online game, but there are so many people out there taking advantage of how easily it could be modded to their likings. I've played Oblivion for a long time, from one week after it came out at the end of March on, and I think that it does deserve the 'M' rating. Not because of the mod, but because of what's already in the game. There is lots of blood in the game, but I'm running the game at high settings, so I'm not sure about people who run the game at lower settings. The zombies and various undead are gory as heck.

The so-called 'nude' mod is probably just one of the many reasons of why it got changed to 'M'. Come to think of it, I don't even think the mod was one of the reasons why it was changed, considering all of the other things that were already in the game. Just like Latios said earlier, the ESRB just watches a portion of the game during gameplay, and sets the rating to whatever they think it is based on what they had seen from that section of the game. They probably just did a bit of extra research after that and changed it to 'M' afterwards.

 

[meta-master]

Wow, did Jack Thompson get ahold of this or something? Anyways, thats just stupid, majorly stupid, oh well, I got my "T" version, not that it matters since I'm above that age, still, its still idiotic though.

Edit: Also, I wonder why, if this got "M" rated, why The Sims 2 hasn't yet, since you can basically do the same thing as well, and I haven't read anything about TS2 getting upped in the ratings yet, though neither it or this should be rated "M."

I know its so stupid i mean there are hundreds of nude mods for the sims 2 over the internet and it's been out for 2 entire years and still no rating changes!

 

[General Blaze]

*cracks up reading the artical* Lol! That's stupid. The ESRB broken? That has the same chance of a real life Blaziken appearing on my doorstep. This GAmesfirst really needs to look up it's facts. No way would any developer put nude codes in their games. This is definetly the work of a mod, they are just to stupid to relize it.

 

[Korobooshi Kojiro]

Whoever wrote this article didn't really use comma's correctly.

"Earned in Blood 50 Cent"

"New York City Bully"

"Bulletproof True Crime"

I do agree with the statement in bold though, they should put that in a T game.

 

[Ashkihyena]

I knew it, Jack Thompson just couldn't keep his big nose out of a game that got re-rated, man, the guys only going to make himself look even more idiotic then he's already been. *Shakes head* Anything, anything the guy does just to get in the spotlight.