And this wasn't controversial... why?

[pope_of_larry]

Well, if I remember correctly that whole stink with the blood in Mortal Kombat on the Sega Genesis took place before 1996. Remember, the SNES version had no blood and the Gen version did.

1996 is when the N64 came out so I am guessing all that stuff was happening in 1994 or 1995, during the 16 bit era. That's also when the ESRB was created.

So yeah, they were on that "video games are bad for kids" kick well before 1996. Probably didn't affect PC games though.

Yeah, but... why?

I dunno, ask the ESRB.

I meant "Why didn't it affect PC games".

i dunno ask the ESRB

 

[AndyFromMonday]

Because nudity is so horrendous it has to be controversial, right?

 

[HT_Black]

1996 was back when games were marginalized, and by and far nobody gave a shit. It was only as they entered mainstream media that they attracted the interest of the media watchdogs. Thus, there was little to no controversy, even though you could easily dig some up with proper application of Google.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

The GTA hot coffee episode happened so developers had to be more careful. The media pays more attention to console games in general but GTA was the game that made the best headlines. Mostly because GTA has been marketed by baiting the press into writing scare stories about it to boost it's profile.

 

[busterkeatonrules]

I aquired Daggerfall quite recently, and I've been wondering about that myself. Any other American game that tried this sort of thing, would STILL have been causing media outrages on a regular basis!

Perhaps the watchdogs of the time were too busy monitoring the console market? Tekken 2 was released six days before Daggerfall...

 

[Nouw]

*A couple of searches later

Wow that's pretty...wow.

Probably cause it was 1996. No one really cared

 

[Cynical skeptic]

Daggerfall was a PC game, remember? The reason there was no media outrage is because they couldn't figure out how to run it on their office's 386s (even in TURBO mode) or macs. Then, even if they could, they couldn't figure out how to output what was on the screen to any sort of television AV equipment. Thus they couldn't produce any screenshots or videos of the offending tits.

Not to mention, until windows 98, PC gaming was pretty much "adults only."

So... yea, obscurity and technical barriers prevented anyone from making anything resembling a stink over PC games.

Cheap TV tuner and a/v output cards are what changed all that. Damn ATI.

Well, if I remember correctly that whole stink with the blood in Mortal Kombat on the Sega Genesis took place before 1996. Remember, the SNES version had no blood and the Gen version did.

1996 is when the N64 came out so I am guessing all that stuff was happening in 1994 or 1995, during the 16 bit era. That's also when the ESRB was created.

So yeah, they were on that "video games are bad for kids" kick well before 1996. Probably didn't affect PC games though.

It wasn't so much the blood, but the ripped out spines and "woman beating" that caused that little spat. It wasn't even much of a spat, either. The final words on the whole situation pretty much boiled down to, "we don't mind it in the arcades, but it shouldn't be in the homes!" A generalized statement so moronic, everyone laughed and stopped paying attention to the retarded inbred bible thumping hicks who originally started making that particular stink.

 

[number2301]

Controversy doesn't follow logic, some really quite tame things, think Mass Effect, get pilloried, while other much worse things slip in under the radar i.e. Duke Nukem.

You could kill children in Fallout 2, and it wasn't controversial.

It was controversial enough that it was removed from some versions of the game (US version I think?).

 

[lacktheknack]

Because nudity is so horrendous it has to be controversial, right?

See: Oblivion.

Yes, yes it is.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Controversy doesn't follow logic, some really quite tame things, think Mass Effect, get pilloried, while other much worse things slip in under the radar i.e. Duke Nukem.

You could kill children in Fallout 2, and it wasn't controversial.

It was controversial enough that it was removed from some versions of the game (US version I think?).

The German version was the one that had the children partially removed. They were still there, they were just invisible and unclickable so you just couldn't interact with them. But they could still interact with you, because they would still pickpocket you, so there were a number of confused German fallout players wondering why their money was mysteriously floating out of their pockets.


Anyway, this was before people had heard of PC games, so three pixel tits didn't count.

 

[lacktheknack]

So, I've gotten REEEEALLY into Daggerfall... the best Elder Scrolls game by a mile, thus far.

But I had a bit of a shock when I made a female wood elf, and in-game I put on a new top I'd found. "Eh, I don't like it, I'll just put it back in the inventory and put on the ol- uhmm, wha- ZOMGWTFBBQ!"

So there she was, standing there, breasts lovingly recreated pixel by pixel. I get that this game is rated M, but it still wasn't expected. It gives the role-playing a new option, though... (INNUENDOS HERE WILL BE SHOT.)

And even further along, I walk into the temple of Time, I think, and I walk into the secondary chamber, and HOLY COW WHY ARE THERE NAKED WOMEN EVERYWHERE!?

Even better, I walk into the Temple of Dibella (Goddess of Beauty) and wouldn't you know it, EVER GIRL... AND GUY... WAS NAKED. All the girls permanently had their back to me, but every time they looked back at me and winked, their breasts did physically impossible things...

I could go on, with the stripping women in the tavern bedrooms, the random magician chicks in homes with half a shirt, the two-strip armors of the female bandits...

Now, while I understand that the pixels are large enough that they couldn't (or just didn't try to) define male or female genitalia, did I miss some controversy? I mean, they basically depicted STRIPPING CHURCHES. They just let that slide?

And for discussion, any material in a game you played that you can't believe was ignored by the media?

Naked RPG Elves? I'm there, dude! Awesome!

In seriousness, I find this refreshing. Gamers see more tits in movies and just surfing the internet then they ever would in gaming...tis a shame. :/

Sweetie, that game is 15 years old and all the nekkidness is basically virtual barbie dolls. And it's pretty damn ugly to boot. Barbie dolls would actually be too generous, they're more like paper dolls with boobies. Also the game is has more bugs than your average anthill. And you'll be hard pressed to figure out what's going on without a dictionary sized walkthrough.

Barbies don't have nipples. And the breasts are, sadly, some of the best rendered things in the game.

 

[Lula21]

Well, if I remember correctly that whole stink with the blood in Mortal Kombat on the Sega Genesis took place before 1996. Remember, the SNES version had no blood and the Gen version did.

1996 is when the N64 came out so I am guessing all that stuff was happening in 1994 or 1995, during the 16 bit era. That's also when the ESRB was created.

So yeah, they were on that "video games are bad for kids" kick well before 1996. Probably didn't affect PC games though.

The censoring of blood in Mortal Kombat wasn't because of any outside controversy. Nintendo's official policies at the time required the removal of things like graphic violence from game ports. That was in 1992 when they were really strict about keeping a "family friendly" image.

MK and other violent games out that year did trigger government hearings that eventually led to the formation of the ESRB/game rating system in 1994.

From what I remember, it didn't really seem to get bad until the late 90s when politicians became convinced that there was some link between violent games and school shootings.

 

[Ultress]

I'm surprised that the Megaten series has gotten more flack over the years, SMT 2 had you offing God ,P3 had all the shooting yourself malarkey not to mention it lets you summon demons. I guess it's too obscure for the media watch dogs.

 

[Daedalus1942]

So, I've gotten REEEEALLY into Daggerfall... the best Elder Scrolls game by a mile, thus far.

But I had a bit of a shock when I made a female wood elf, and in-game I put on a new top I'd found. "Eh, I don't like it, I'll just put it back in the inventory and put on the ol- uhmm, wha- ZOMGWTFBBQ!"

So there she was, standing there, breasts lovingly recreated pixel by pixel. I get that this game is rated M, but it still wasn't expected. It gives the role-playing a new option, though... (INNUENDOS HERE WILL BE SHOT.)

And even further along, I walk into the temple of Time, I think, and I walk into the secondary chamber, and HOLY COW WHY ARE THERE NAKED WOMEN EVERYWHERE!?

Even better, I walk into the Temple of Dibella (Goddess of Beauty) and wouldn't you know it, EVER GIRL... AND GUY... WAS NAKED. All the girls permanently had their back to me, but every time they looked back at me and winked, their breasts did physically impossible things...

I could go on, with the stripping women in the tavern bedrooms, the random magician chicks in homes with half a shirt, the two-strip armors of the female bandits...

Now, while I understand that the pixels are large enough that they couldn't (or just didn't try to) define male or female genitalia, did I miss some controversy? I mean, they basically depicted STRIPPING CHURCHES. They just let that slide?

And for discussion, any material in a game you played that you can't believe was ignored by the media?

the rape scene in F.E.A.R 2... did not see that coming.

 

[Cynical skeptic]

From what I remember, it didn't really seem to get bad until the late 90s when politicians became convinced that there was some link between violent games and school shootings.

Well, school shooting. Singular. It wasn't until columbine that people started desperately attempting to point figures in any and every direction.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

What is the big god damn deal with nudity? Why do some people seem to go ape over the human form? I'd rather not see most people naked, but why do people make a big thing out of something so small (insert penis joke here). I blame America. I don't know why, but it seems the right thing to do. Just give us the secret recepie to Coca-Cola and bugger off.