Elder Scrolls Oblivion Mod Makes Girls’ Tops Fall Off

Mike Howes 4 May, 2006 at 2:41pm ET Article published in Tech

Censors at the Entertainment Software Rating Board has tweaked the rating of the fantasy game: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, to “Mature”.
The censors learned of a mod for the title that renders female characters topless.

The thought of a few pixellated nipples had the worthies on the Board reaching for the marker pen and crossing out the ‘teen’ rating they’d recommended for the role-playing fantasy romp. In its place they scrawled ‘Mature’, having decided that you should be at least seventeen before being allowed to see a 3D rendering of a naked breast.

Source: The Inquirer

Comments

4 May 2006 ~ 2:44pm Enverex That's rediculus. Does that mean if I make a mod for "Noddy and Bigears" or "The Teletubbies" that adds nude women to it they'll have to rerate the game to "Mature" and give it an 18 rating?
4 May 2006 ~ 3:12pm Garg I think we should make mods for every game to have topless women, so that the industry and lawmakers would have to decide between calling them all mature, or being rational.
4 May 2006 ~ 3:17pm RWB OK I wanna see this mod... it'd just be funny as hell to play with a bunch of topless women LOL
4 May 2006 ~ 3:33pm Thrax I think it's absolutely ridiculous that third-party mods can influence the retail rating.
4 May 2006 ~ 6:59pm deicist Cutting people down with an axe: Teen
Setting people on fire: Teen
Raising the dead: Teen
Methodically stalking and killing people for money: Teen
CGI nipples: Mature

Anyone else see something wrong with this?

Thrax wrote:

I think it's absolutely ridiculous that third-party mods can influence the retail rating.

According to a few threads on the official forums the content that the mod uses was present in the original release, just not actually used in game. Same as with the Hot coffee mod for San andreas.
4 May 2006 ~ 7:05pm Linc Who's going to write the editorial?
4 May 2006 ~ 7:13pm EMT

deicist wrote:

According to a few threads on the official forums the content that the mod uses was present in the original release, just not actually used in game. Same as with the Hot coffee mod for San andreas.

Really? I remember reading on those forums that the model doesn't have anything underneath, i.e. whatever armor you're wearing makes up the body portion of the model, and so without any items there's just underwear (but no textures beneath...) maybe that wasn't acutally the case though?

I would say that it's not the same as San Andreas... but that was going from a Mature to Adults Only so I guess that accounts for the fact that the San Andreas hidden content was really explicit.
4 May 2006 ~ 8:37pm profdlp

General Keebler wrote:

Who's going to write the editorial?

Hmmmm...
4 May 2006 ~ 8:47pm Thrax Bethesda Softworks says that the content is not there by default. I'm willing to trust them more than forum trolls.
4 May 2006 ~ 9:41pm EMT

Thrax wrote:

Bethesda Softworks says that the content is not there by default. I'm willing to trust them more than forum trolls.

Yeah, I'm just reading Bethesda's response now... http://pc.ign.com/articles/704/704834p1.html

Maybe the ESRB is simple-minded? hasty?..
4 May 2006 ~ 9:49pm Thrax I'm afraid they're probably sundry old, technology-fearing, narrow-minded morality legislators that are incapable of distinguishing native/unlocked content from distinct, third-party additions.
4 May 2006 ~ 9:58pm profdlp The question which must be asked at this point is, why the heck are we playing UT and BF2 at the LAN when there are so many other games available?

/dirty old man
4 May 2006 ~ 11:28pm Garg

Thrax wrote:

I'm afraid they're probably sundry old, technology-fearing, narrow-minded morality legislators that are incapable of distinguishing native/unlocked content from distinct, third-party additions.

I think they're terrified that Congress will regulate the video game industry if the industry doesn't (over)regulate itself. And rightfully terrified, because you can bet Hillary Clinton and Joe Liberman have this on their radars.
4 May 2006 ~ 11:31pm Thrax The ESRB was doing this sort of garbage before those bandwagon moralists ever turned an ignorant eye on a non-existant problem.
4 May 2006 ~ 11:58pm airbornflght I think congress just needs to set out. And so do all the moralists, no one is making anyone play a videogame. Bestheda cant control hackers, nor should they try in my mind. Nothing wrong with a good mod, and bestheda isnt making anyone install that mod, people do it of free choice, and if they choose to do so, then it's fine.
5 May 2006 ~ 12:09am shwaip So does playing the mod make the tops fall off...because I know a few girls who I want to play the game, if that is the case.
5 May 2006 ~ 12:16am drasnor Oldie but goldie:

-drasnor