Since its implementation in 1994, the ESRB has served as the ratings board for the North
American video game industry.
Although it is not supported by federal law, most retailers will not sell or rent games
without the organization's marks and all major consoles do not allow unrated games.
Occasionally however, the ESRB has controversially reversed itself, increasing the rating of
a previously rated game.
This video will take a look at one of the most well known reversal decisions - this
being changing the rating of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and the fallout of this decision.
In March of 2006, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was released by publisher Bethesda Softworks
and 2K Games.
As is the normal procedure for a physical game release, Bethesda submitted recorded
gameplay to the ESRB for rating purposes, as well as a completed a questionnaire on
the game’s content.
The footage game developers submit to the ESRB is supposed to contain the most objectionable
content the game has to offer.
Based on the submitted material, the ESRB gave the game a rating of T for Teen, which
indicated they deemed it suitable for ages 13 and up.
However, shortly after the game appeared on the retail market, mods began appearing online
which changed certain aspects of the gameplay.
One of these mods, entitled the “Oblivion Topless Mod”, undressed female characters
by removing their bras.
The mod's creator explained that the mod was an act of protest, saying:
“Please note, this is a realistic nudity mod, not a pornographic one.
The file included removes the bra welded to the skin of females of all races, showing
things as most people know they are in the real world after removing upper body clothing.
It will not show every female in the game as topless.
I do this because I hate government/society/whatever forcing companies to 'protect our innocent
population from seeing those evil dirty things 50% of them possess personally anyways' not
because I'm trying to turn it into a porn game."
Several news outlets reported on the topless mod, and upon hearing about the mod the ESRB
launched an investigation into its topless imagery.
The ESRB concluded that while the nudity was not part of the game properly, the art was
from a file buried in the game’s data which was unlocked and utilized by the mod.
After its investigation the ESRB announced that it was changing the rating of The Elder
Scrolls IV to M for mature, indicating they deemed it appropriate for ages 17 and up.
Bethesda: the makers of the Elder Scrolls series chose not to dispute this ruling, but
they did express disagreement with the ESRB’s decision, saying in a statement that:
“We will not contest the ESRB's decision to re-rate the game as Mature, nor will we
change the game's content to keep a Teen rating.
We believe that this critically acclaimed game is not typical of Mature rated titles,
and does not present the central themes of violence that are common to those products.”
Bethesda further blamed the appearance of nudity in the PC version on modders, and argued
that Oblivion was never meant to feature topless characters.
The ESRB’s decision generated some controversy.
For example the lead designer of Doom, John Romero criticized the modders for putting
developers in such a tough spot on his personal blog.
But strangely enough the biggest revelations into the story and the ESRB’s stance on
the matter came over a year later.
In June 2007, The Escapist published an editorial entitled “The Breasts That Broke the Game”
and argued that the change was illegitimate.
Due in part to this harsh editorial, the ESRB made the rare move of publicly discussing
in-depth how they came to their decision.
In an Interview with The Escapist, published only seven days after the 1st editorial, the
president of the ESRB: Patricia Vance fully explained how they made their decision to
rerate Oblivion.
Vance argued that ESRB’s policy on locked out content such as nude sprites had been
clear since Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas when sex scenes had been found hidden in the
game’s code which caused the ESRB to rerate the game to Adults Only.
Vance explained that: “The locked-out content policy began after
GTA: San Andreas.
It was clear that because of the active gamer community - the modders - that companies could
not risk leaving content on discs that could undermine the accuracy of the rating.
And so we clarified our policies on locked-out content after GTA: San Andreas to make it
absolutely clear to publishers that they can't leave unfinished or other pertinent content
on a disc.”
According to ESRB policy, while game makers are not responsible for the content of user
generated mods, they are responsible for any files included in the game, even if they are
not normally accessible.
For example if a player creates a mod that inserts pornographic images into a game, then
the ESRB cannot count that against the publisher, however if someone discovers a pornographic
image hidden within a game’s original code then that can be held against them.
She also clarified that the nudity was not the only reason for the increased rating.
While they were investigating the issue of nudity they discovered that the violence in
the game was greater than they had believed, saying:
“We actually discovered far more blood and gore than had been disclosed, particularly
in the Dark Brotherhood quest line.
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.
On top of that, what they submitted to us was very dark and unlit in other places, and
there were some rooms that were covered in blood, but you couldn't tell that from the
submission.”
Bethesda had previously spoken about the game's violence when the game was first re-rated
and disputed the notion that anything was left undisclosed.
In a statement, the publisher stated: “With regard to violence, Bethesda advised
the ESRB during the ratings process that violence and blood effects were "frequent" in the game
- checking the box on the form that is the maximum warning.
We further advised that the game contained occasional torture, vulgar acts, and gore.
We gave accurate answers and descriptions about the type and frequency of violence that
appears in the game.
We submitted a 60-page document listing the explicit language, acts, and scenes in the
game.
Oblivion packaging already contains warnings for "Violence" and "Blood and Gore."
Despite their objections, Bethesda complied with the ESRB’s decision and, also issued
stickers for copies of the game already in stores.
Outside the US the rating was not adjusted.
Oblivion maintained its 15 rating in the UK and PEGI, the rating system for most parts
of Europe, kept its 16 rating.
The higher rating was also applied to the Game Of The Year edition, which came a year
and a half after the original release.
Important to point out though is, again, the ESRB later decided that the violence was too
high for a Teen game as well - meaning the presence of any locked out content could potentially
be irrelevant However, the ESRB's policy for this type of
content, that's not accessible through normal means but is still contained in the disc's
files, is a very real thing and is still applied today.
Most games in existence contain at least some form of unused content in the game's files
and sites like The Cutting Room Floor do a great job at trying to document instances
of this.
Ever since San Andreas and Oblivion, though, devs now have to be extra careful that none
of this unused content could affect the game's rating, which is something they didn't have
to worry about before.
Is the ESRB's stance on locked out content something you agree with?
And should Oblivion have kept its original Teen rating?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and, until next time, thank you for
watching.