SFist Tech Labs: Boobs

Yee and the Governor
More nonsense from the world of videogames: the best-selling game of the moment is Bethesda Softworks' epic role-playing game Oblivion. That popularity has made it a target for modders and, now, opportunistic politicians.

The story began when the Entertainment Software Ratings Board announced a re-rating for the game, bumping it up from its original "Teen" rating to "Mature." [all links in this article are from GameSpot News] The ESRB claimed that Bethesda and publisher Take-Two Interactive misrepresented the game when presenting it to the ESRB for rating.

At issue is a fan-created mod that supposedly "reveals" or "unlocks" art showing topless nudity on some of the female characters. The board also claims that Bethesda and Take-Two under-represented the amount of violence and gore contained in the game.

Bethesda has responded to the rating change with a statement that the nudity was created by modders and was not available on the release discs, and that they accurately conveyed the level of violence portrayed in the game, down to a 60-page document provided to the ESRB "listing the explicit language, acts, and scenes." They also point out that the game's packaging already has warnings about violence and gore.

More after the jump. Photo of Yee and Gov. Schwarzeneggar protecting our children is from Leland Yee's website.

Of course, it didn't take long for our assemblyman Leland Yee to jump into the fray, criticizing the ESRB for its re-rating, and citing this incident as proof that the game industry can't police itself and legislation is required to "assist parents and protect children." Yee's proposed legislation to put governmental age-restriction on games was blocked by a California judge late last year.

Surprisingly, we do agree with the petulant and opportunistic Mr. Yee on one point: this decision was a failure on the part of the ESRB. But it wasn't a failure to protect our children, it was a failure to accurately and adequately rate the game's content. The board has become so reactionary and over-sensitive to the issue of violence and sex in games — in large part due to the work of Yee and other critics — that it jumped to the wrong conclusion.

Oblivion ships with modding tools that give every user complete access to the content delivered with the game. Bethesda isn't "hiding" anything from parents or its users, and the company shouldn't be held responsible for the actions of some third party tampering with its game. As for the claims of violence, it's clear that's simply a smoke-screen on the ESRB's part to justify re-rating the game for showing teh b00bies. We've played the game, and it's simply not violent or gory enough to justify a "Mature" rating. Credit should go to Bethesda, though, for respecting the decision and reiterating the importance of a board like the ESRB and its role in the industry.

The ESRB assumed this was a repeat of the earlier "Hot Coffee" scandal from Rockstar Games and its Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, where a modder discovered an explicit sex-based mini-game hidden in the game's content. That piece of idiocy on Rockstar's part, and now the ESRB's over-reaction to it, are proving that the game industry is perfectly capable of shooting itself in the foot, thank you very much, and the interference of parental watchdog groups and game industry critics and legislators is no longer required.