by Colleen Hannon, the Momgamer

Back in 2006 a role-playing game called Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was released and it has the distinction of becoming one of the few games re-rated by the ESRB. It began as T-Teen and ended up as M-Mature. GamerDad.com was on top of it at the time – here’s what we said:

Here’s some information parents need to know about the change to the rating of the game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

On March 20, 2006, many gamers rejoiced with the release of the long-awaited title The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Sequel to the award-winning game Elder Scrolls IIV: Morrowind, this wide-open RPG was considered a reason to buy an Xbox 360 by many people. It was rated T for Teen by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). After it’s release, someone found a way to crack the game open and replace the top halves of the females in the game so they looked naked. This caused the ESRB to take a look at the game again. Since it’s release to the public, concerned reviewers and others had brought up some things within the game. Based on those content issues and the possibility of nudity on the PC version, the game’s rating was changed to M for Mature on May 3rd.

When Gamerdad’s Dave Long initially reviewed the game, he gave it our Adult rating. The Kid Factor starts out with the sentence “This game should be rated M-Mature.” It wasn’t because Dave doesn’t love the game, but because there was stuff that was over the head of an unsupervised 13-year-old. I very definitely agreed with him on this, as did several other members of our staff.

I don’t want to get into blame, here. What I want do is give parents who have already bought the game for their teen some solid information about what has happened and some ideas on what to do.

Here’s what all the fuss is about.

The naked skin is a building block of the game’s models. The hack is to take that and change the name so the game uses it inappropriately. Just about every game out there that allows you to change the clothes of the characters uses this sort of system. You make a model of a person like an undressed Barbie, and then the game can just put the clothes on the top without having to try and make them match up with the edges. This has nothing to do with the kind of game – they use this technique in Barbie Fashion Show, the Tony Hawk games, the SSX snowboarding series… Anything that allows that sort of customization of characters. Personally, I would never have given the models anatomical details. And I would probably have made the critical danger zones some unholy color that only occurs on the Discovery Channel so everyone in the modding community had a vested interest in making sure they stay covered. But that’s water under the bridge now.

And from my standpoint, the nudity is kind of a moot point. The real trouble here is in the actual game itself. It’s all up to the player and their choices. You can play the game like a heavily armored Boy Scout and avoid a lot of it, but not all. Going through one of the Gates you’re supposed to close means you’re headed off to this world’s version of Hell. It’s not like this game is dropping bloody zombies all over the place like Doom, but it still gets intense. And you will run into some sticky situations just talking to people. If you don’t want to be a Boy Scout, it’s even easier to find the interesting stuff. If you’re off doing the Dark Brotherhood quests, you’re going to be assassinating people. Fighting in the Arena means tromping upstairs through the Bloodworks. There are some very mature topics you run into in here. I’ve got about 40 hours into this game and my younger son has over 90. I could go on and on – if you want details about anything contact me on the message board. Bethesda submitted a 60-page document to the ESRB with this all listed so I’m not going to try to type out everything we’ve found. Suffice it to say there are things that go bump in the night, and if you want to play it that way it can be your character.

Here’s what you really need to know:

• If you have the PC version, Bethesda is working on a patch to prevent that naked hack from being done to the game. It will be available at http://www.elderscrolls.com when it’s ready.
• Patching a PC version of the game will not prevent other mods done by others to the game that you get elsewhere. Just this particular one. So a different third-party mod that contains questionable content is still possible. You have to pay attention to what your child is downloading and installing.
• If you have the Xbox360 version of the game, the nudity hack is not possible. I’m sure there’s someone frantically pressing buttons on their controller as we speak to try to get to it, but there is no way to crack it at this time. The violence and the rest of the content problems are most definitely there, though.
• I do not believe at this time that the Parental Controls on the Xbox360 recognize this game as M-rated since that information comes off the disk itself. Even if you have limited your child’s access to M-rated games this one will still read as T-rated and be allowed. This may change. I tried to get a straight answer out of Microsoft Support on that, but I didn’t have much luck. I’ll keep trying.
• There is no recall planned, so it’s up to your game store to decide how they’re going to handle requests to take it back or trade you for a properly marked one.

Here’s some links to the official information:

Game Daily’s Announcement of the ESRB Ratings Change

Game Daily’s Interview with the ESRB

Bethesda’s Press Release

Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls Website

Gamerdad’s Guide to Mods

The company and retailers are moving pretty fast. The information up on Bethesda’s website for the game (http://www.elderscrolls.com) has already been updated with the new rating information. They’ve also helpfully labeled each patch and download with any appropriate ESRB information. If you go into a game store now, there’s supposed to be a sticker on the case with the new rating. Newly pressed disks will have the new rating printed on them just like normal. Retailers with carding policies are already asking for ID’s before purchase, and the big gaming websites have already changed their ESRB rating on their pages.

If you’ve already bought the game for your child and they’re not yet 17, you’ve got a decision to make. It really is up to you. I decided on playing this game along with my younger son, even though he’s 17. We talk about the things we find. We talk about right and wrong and what’s going on in that world. But if you don’t have the time for that, I’d really take a long hard look at allowing it in the house. Especially since the Parental Controls don’t pick up on the ratings change yet.

If you trade it in and you’re looking at alternatives to spend your trade-in dollar, I’d personally recommend looking at X-Men: The Official Game which goes along with the movie coming out soon hits stores on May 16th. I played the demo the other night at our local game store and it looks pretty good. Or if your teen hasn’t tried it yet I’d recommend Kameo: Elements of Power as a less graphic but definitely not kiddie take on the RPG. June 1st has Ninety-Nine Nights coming out, but that’s still Rating Pending so it’s anyone’s guess at this point.

Editor’s Note: Yes, the screenshot above is an example of this mod. That’s a topless woman. Are you scared?

Tags: Misc