elder scrolls IV:oblivion
Re-rated by the ESRB after a third-party mod revealed a nude topless graphic hidden in the game's data files. While the graphic did not warrant a re-rating of the game in and of itself, upon review, the ESRB noted that the game contained much more explicit violence than had been submitted to them in the original rating submission
North American Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) changed the rating of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a video game for PCs, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, from Teen (13+) to Mature (17+). The ESRB cited the presence of content not considered in their original review in the published edition of Oblivion. This included detailed depictions of blood and gore and sexually explicit content. The sexually explicit content was an art file, made accessible by a third-party modification called the Oblivion Topless Mod, that rendered the game with topless female characters.
In response to the new content, the ESRB conducted a new review of Oblivion, showing to its reviewers the content originally submitted by the game's publisher along with the newly disclosed content. The new review resulted in an M rating. The ESRB reported that Bethesda Softworks, the game's developer and publisher, would promptly notify all retailers of the change, issue stickers for retailers and distributors to affix on the product, display the new rating in all following product shipments and marketing, and create a downloadable patch rendering the topless skin inaccessible. Bethesda complied with the request, but issued a press release declaring their disagreement with the ESRB's rationale. Although certain retailers began to check for ID before selling Oblivion as a result of the change, and the change elicited criticism for the ESRB, the events passed by with little notice from the public at large. Other commentators remarked on the injustice of punishing a company for the actions of its clients, and one called the event a "pseudo-sequel" to the Hot Coffee minigame controversy
The corpse of Lucien Lachance, identified by Patricia Vance as being "a very different depiction, far more intense, far more extreme than what had been disclosed to us.
esrb review.
The ESRB's review process involves the submission, by the game's publisher, of a video which captures all "pertinent content" in the game, where pertinent content is defined as any content that accurately reflects both the "most extreme content of the final product" and "the final product as a whole." That is to say, it must depict the "relative frequency" of said content. As ESRB President Patricia Vance explains it, the ESRB would not just want a "tape of one extreme cut to another," but rather "context for the storyline, the missions, the features and functionality of a game, so that the raters really can get exposed to a pretty reasonable sense of what they'd experience playing the game." The fact that the content of Oblivion under investigation was inaccessible during normal play made no difference in the decision. ESRB policy had been "absolutely clear" since the Hot Coffee controversy, Patricia Vance told a reporter. Publishers were told that they could not leave unfinished or other pertinent content on a disc.If locked-out content was "pertinent to a rating," ESRB policy stated that it needed to be disclosed, and Bethesda had not done so.
topless mod
Released in March 2006 and reported on game news sites as a curiosity in April of the same year, the Oblivion Topless Mod had been created by a woman calling herself "Maeyanie." Maeyanie created the mod in protest against what she called "government/society/whatever forcing companies to 'protect our innocent population from seeing those evil dirty things 50% of them possess personally anyways.'" The gaming website Joystiq reported on the mod on April 6, 2006: "Modders are already hard at work on bending the code of the recently released PC version of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to their will. Early success: topless mod FTW!" Kotaku, another gaming site, reporting on the mod on April 5, 2006, didn't consider the mod anything new and said, "As usual in the world of computer gaming, one of the very first mods released for a popular game allows you to see the breasts of the main character." The content of the mod, wrote commentator Michael Zenke, Editor of Slashdot games, was fairly tame. Without nudity of the lower torso, and without self-consciousness on the part of the nude NPCs, Zenke wrote, the Oblivion Topless Mod was "as erotic as a doctor's visit." Pete Hines had discussed the mod with GameSpot staff before the game was re-rated, saying that he did not consider it a concern. "We can't control and don't condone the actions of anyone who alters the game so that it displays material that may be considered offensive. We haven't received any complaints on the issue from anyone.
re review of esrb.
During these investigations ESRB staff also found more blood and gore than the review tape had portrayed:
What Bethesda had originally disclosed to us, as an example: In that section of the game, there is a hanging corpse. What they disclosed to us was a hanging corpse in the dark, pretty far away and without much detail. And yet, when you bring a torch up to the hanging corpse in the actual game, you can see that it's very mutilated with lots of blood and bones. That was a very different depiction, far more intense, far more extreme than what had been disclosed to us.
In response to the new content, the ESRB hastily conducted a new review of Oblivion, showing to its reviewers the content originally submitted by Bethesda along with the newly disclosed content. The new review resulted in a Mature rating.
after all this with the release of the nude mod and the uncertafied content the game was moves from a 13+ to a mautre by the esrb,thanks to bethesda not showing their final content on the visual gore favctor in the game, this didnt lead to any fines only a age rating change.
examples of the nude mod.
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