2006-05-06 - ESRB rating update Options

[stargelman]

After Bethesda Softwork's press release in reaction to the ESRB's rating change, the ESRB itself defends their decision to change the rating. ESRB president Patricia Vance:

"While true that a modification was required to access this file, the changes we implemented last year - expanding our disclosure rules to include locked-out content - were made to prevent these kinds of situations"

"It is obviously unfortunate for everyone involved that no one at Bethesda deleted this file before the game went Gold, contributing to our changing the rating after the game was released"

While many in the Elder Scrolls fan comunity speculate that the real reason for the change in rating is the great amount of violence in the game that assumedly has been underestimated by either Bethsoft or the ESRB, the ESRB is under considerable political pressure by those with the agenda to "let the law handle this".

California Assemblyman Leland Yee, a familiar name to those that have been following recent debates about gaming legislation after the "hot coffee" scandal, is already using the situation to attack the ESRB and insisting that the industry is no longer capable of informing concerned parents about the nature of the content of video games:

"The ESRB again has failed our parents and clearly has shown they can not police themselves. Plain and simply, the current rating system is drastically flawed and here is yet another reason why we need legislation to assist parents and protect children"

It may turn out that the fallout of this incident may be bigger than just a rating change of a single game, especially if incidents like this happen again in the near future. And one thing seems certain: a certain group of politicians will be watching the ESRB very carefully.

Read the full story at GameDaily BIZ

[HyPN0]

So ESRB is in trouble now?
Hehe,i really wonder how will this end.....
Anyway,what's "hot coffee" incident?

[stargelman]

So ESRB is in trouble now?
Hehe,i really wonder how will this end.....
Anyway,what's "hot coffee" incident?

There was a patch for GTA: San Andreas that enabled some content in the game that was previously unavailable, featuring -afaik- in game sex scenes. It caused quite a stirr, and the rating of the game was changed to AO after that. Hot Coffee was the name of the patch.

The incident is similar to the current one as the rating change was based on the fact the content was already in the game, even though it wasn't available without this patch.

[Akul]

The only difference betwen SA and OB is that SA had sex in it, not nudes. And that wasn't just a mesh, but a mini-game.

[Nottheking]

Well, while I do think that it's annoying to see a game re-rated, I think I'd actually have to wind up infuriating some people, and siding with the ESRB. It's been unfairly criticized, and has actually done a pretty amazing job of rating games.

Unfortunately, what most people (gamers and anti-gaming politicians alike) fail to see is that games are vastly different from movies. Movies are linear content; you watch it, and you see everything. Games, on the other hand, place the player in control of when they reach what content. It's vastly more complex, and as such, it's also vastly more complex to scan through each game and determine what audience ranges it is most suitable for.

Actually taking a critical eye to the games they've rated, they've been rather consistent; with the exceptions of San Andreas and Oblivion, and POSSIBLY a game or two I didn't hear of, the ratings they've assigned have only gone DOWN, such the popular shooter GoldenEye 007, and the MMORPG Ultima Online, started with an "M" rating for each, for violence and blood. However, in years since, as they became readily less-realistic-looking, their ratings were "down-graded" to "T," and likewise, their descriptors to "animated blood, animated violence." (note that oddly enough, the old rating for Ultima Online resurfaced on the ESRB website; newer versions of UO rated report the "T" rating)

At any rate, looking over the vast scope of games, with thousands released, and rated, every year, it's a monstrous task. Yet even so, the ESRB does manage to hold an amazingly strong sense of consistency among their ratings.

The only difference betwen SA and OB is that SA had sex in it, not nudes. And that wasn't just a mesh, but a mini-game.

Yes, that actually is a very good summary there.

This is why Oblivion, for the PC, was merely re-rated to "M," the same as the Xbox 360 version, (which lacked said content in any form) rather than "AO;" it only contained "nudity" rather than actual scripts, animations, etc. that would classified as "sexual scenes."