Oblivion Now Rated 'M'

[Big B]

IGN reports that the insanely popular Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has been re-rated Mature.

In a surprise move from the ESRB, the rating for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has been changed from Teen to Mature, reflecting, among other things, the discovery of a locked skin allowing players to make their on-screen female heroes topless. A third-party modification unlocks the skin in the PC version.

While I generally think that the ESRB is pretty good about their ratings, I'd like to point out that any game where you can make custom skins can be modded to use nude skins. Technically, you could label any game Mature due to the ability for modification by a third party.

 

[Anti-Trend]

That's absolutely right, B. That'd be like refusing to sell soda in cans to minors because they could conceivably put dry-ice in the cans, shake it, and blow themselves up.

In my opinion, if it takes 3rd party mods to open some functionality, it shouldn't have anything to do with the final game rating

 

[Big B]

Look at the Sims 2 franchise. I could be mistaken, but I remember something about some mod that allowed nudie models in the game. Last I checked Sims 2 or any of it's expansion packs didn't have an M rating. Seems to stink of favortisim/popularity/genre blacklisting the Parental Advisory stickering used to heavily have.

 

[Exfoliate]

Yeah I read that, it's totally silly. I mean it would be one thing if there were nude models walking around from the get-go I suppose but I have a feeling this rating change only alerted more people to the presence. of this little mod.

 

[ninja fetus]

I don't see how the rating of a mod's ability on a game is anywhere near relevant to the game's own rating.

 

[DaRuSsIaMaN]

Well I remember reading an article about that mod a while back, when the mod was just new. And the guy who did it said that one notable thing about this mod is that he didn't have to create the skins -- they were already there. Even as the text Big B quoted says, the mod merely unlocks that skin, he didn't make it himself. So isn't that the small but crucial difference in this instance?

I understand that it can still be argued that it doesn't matter; it would have just taken more work from the modder to actually make the naked skins but the result would have been the same. This is basically what you guys are arguing and I think I actually agree with it. But still, I'm just pointing out I think I can see where they're coming from.

 

[Big B]

It does to a point. Traditionally, being able to 'unlock' something in a game was done by completing an objective in a game. This mod removes skins (i.e, the female's tops). That's where it gets dicey. I understand that the developers from the new Tomb Raider game pushed the release back to make sure that the Laura model did not feature nipples---and I'm sure that was a good idea, given that someone has probably already created a mod that removes Laura Croft's clothing :rolleyes:. I can almost bet you that if Oblivion did not have the nipple textures on the female models, the mod wouldn't have affected the rating.

I don't follow Oblivion myself, but I don't recall there being some special quest or whatnot that allowed you to remove all the female character's tops.
The character models are there to have a 3d depth, and the clothes are draped on them, for realism. I don't think the nipple textures were there so that they could have an unlockable peep show, given the rating they were going for.

 

[Karanislove]

that allowed you to remove all the female character's tops.

OMG! These kind of things will gonna make my game paused at one place for hours:swear:........I will just do the same thing again and again......Remove the Top and put it back....again and again..Hehe...I like it:beer: What about the bottom part Big B?

 

[Big B]

I don't think they put any hair down there and all males end up like Ken dolls, so the drive might not be there. Of course, you could always make skins of porn stars too...