Slow-Mo Decapitations Earn Skyrim an M Rating

[ThunderCavalier]

So, out of curiosity...

How many newly-released titles AREN'T getting an M rating?

 

[Zykon TheLich]

As far as I'm aware, PEGI will be replacing the BBFC for games. The BBFC will then continue to rate films and DVDs. It frees up the BBFC and allows PEGI to rate what they know, i.e. games.

Makes a lot more sense to me.

As far as having a seperate body to regulate videogames goes, yes, but the system PEGI uses currently being put into law is way off. They gave Civ IV a 12 rating for god sake. As a guideline for parents they are about OK if erring a bit to the side of caution, but prosecuting someone for selling a 15 year old command and conquer or modern warfare is just stupid. That's really my issue, most of the games I see getting a 15 or 18 certificate from the BBFC deserve it (well, the 15 at least) but PEGI ratings come off as excessive.

 

[SacremPyrobolum]

LOL wut?
"Remember when you thought [he] was . . . intent on making you . . . into his personal sex slave?"
Seriously, what quest is this!?

 

[SacremPyrobolum]

Wait, so mods are included in the games rating? Yay, now I am going to go give mario an M rating.

What did you do!?!?!

 

[DTWolfwood]

Thanks ESRB for letting us know what to expect in the game :3

Keep up the good work, perhaps someday Fox News will realize you exist and would quit saying games you rated for adults are for kids! XD

 

[UnravThreads]

As far as having a seperate body to regulate videogames goes, yes, but the system PEGI uses currently being put into law is way off. They gave Civ IV a 12 rating for god sake. As a guideline for parents they are about OK if erring a bit to the side of caution, but prosecuting someone for selling a 15 year old command and conquer or modern warfare is just stupid. That's really my issue, most of the games I see getting a 15 or 18 certificate from the BBFC deserve it (well, the 15 at least) but PEGI ratings come off as excessive.

Just to be pedantic, Modern Warfare was 15, MW2 was 18. C&C4 was a 16 (Closest PEGI has to the BBFC 15), although C&C:RA3 is a bit funny as it's a BBFC 12 and a PEGI 16. I would agree with BBFC on that one, although looking at the BBFC rating's details I can see why PEGI opted for the 16. As for Civ IV, the 12 rating is roughly in line with the other ratings. ESRB gave it an E10+, whereas the next rating down for PEGI is 7. 12 is probably a more sensible rating, although in the grand scheme of things it's irrelevant as someone 12 or under is likely not going to be much use at Civ IV anyway.

The PEGI system is more descriptive. Whereas a 15 rated game might not have any details, the PEGI one will have icons suggesting there's violence, drugs, etc. in the game. I'm looking at the games on my shelves, and the PEGI ratings come across as much clearer.

Either way, a rating board should over-rate rather than under-rate. Say the next GTA game sat between a PEGI 16 and PEGI 18, where do you think it should go? It's not enough to be an 18, but it's too much for a 16, so it would have to be an 18, wouldn't it?

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Just to be pedantic, Modern Warfare was 15, MW2 was 18. C&C4 was a 16 (Closest PEGI has to the BBFC 15), although C&C:RA3 is a bit funny as it's a BBFC 12 and a PEGI 16. I would agree with BBFC on that one, although looking at the BBFC rating's details I can see why PEGI opted for the 16. As for Civ IV, the 12 rating is roughly in line with the other ratings. ESRB gave it an E10+, whereas the next rating down for PEGI is 7. 12 is probably a more sensible rating, although in the grand scheme of things it's irrelevant as someone 12 or under is likely not going to be much use at Civ IV anyway.

The PEGI system is more descriptive. Whereas a 15 rated game might not have any details, the PEGI one will have icons suggesting there's violence, drugs, etc. in the game. I'm looking at the games on my shelves, and the PEGI ratings come across as much clearer.

Either way, a rating board should over-rate rather than under-rate. Say the next GTA game sat between a PEGI 16 and PEGI 18, where do you think it should go? It's not enough to be an 18, but it's too much for a 16, so it would have to be an 18, wouldn't it?

That's funny, I'm looking at my MW box right now and it's got a PEGI 16 rating. I was refering to generals with C&C, I don't know the others.

Again, prosecuting someone for selling Civ IV to an 11 year old is ridiculous, whether someone under 12 would want to play it or not is beside the point, if they want to they should be able to. 7 would have been fine for me, I see nothing in that game I wouldn't be perfectly happy for an 8 year old to see, certainly 10 or 11.

The BBFC rating on films do have a more descriptive rating, I don't know why they don't carry that over to games. I gave nothing against a ratings system being descriptive, especially if it's a guide for parents, PEGI is fine as a guide but I consider it to be too restrictive for a statutory body. If it really is that violent or adult that it needs an 18 or 15 certificate then fine, below that and it should be purely advisory, which is how it works now.

 

[klaynexas3]

Glad Skyrim doesn't try to cloud the issue.

Mah boi I'mma slap you silly for this post.


OT: I don't know why you bothered writing all that, I was sold at "Slow mo decapitations".

WAIT THIS WASN'T A COMMERCIAL?! Holy crap I've been

*puts on sunglasses*

BLIIIINDED BY THE LIIIGHT!

More like
BLINDED BY DE-LIGHT

you realize this means i have to kill you now, right? along with everyone in this conversation?

 

[Venereus]

So it only mentions rape in dialogue? What's the point of over-hyped Radiant AI if you can't rape NPCs?

 

[mattaui]

haha anyone else old enough to remember the crap that was flying around about soldier of fortune and how it was going to destroy the moral fibre of teenagers worldwide?

Yep, it was an okay game. Though the SoF gimmick of being able to shoot people into pieces (at least that's all I really remember about it) quickly showed up in lots of other places.

I had fully expected Skyrim to rate an M. I wish more games did. Also to respond to an earlier point, the average age of gamers (especially game -buyers-) has long been over 30. If anything, it might have decreased in recent years with the continued proliferation of gaming.

 

[Jezzascmezza]

Sounds like there'll be a little more gore this time around.
Probably not on the level of Fallout 3, though.
Oh, while we're on the topic of ratings, for all fellow Australians out there, Skyrim has not been refused classification.
It has an MA15+rating.
http://www.classification.gov.au/www/cob/find.nsf/d853f429dd038ae1ca25759b0003557c/e3ba09810b8758d9ca2578ee005d6840?OpenDocument

 

[Ian Caronia]

As long as the rape subplots aren't throw-away, done to the player, and/or meaningless then this is fine.

Oh, and if I hear one mother fucker in that game say anything like "reverse-rape" I will kill every NPC I see and set the disc on fire. However, again, I doubt the writers will be so FUCKING IDIOTIC crude and infantile.

If the rape subplots are throw-away and pretty much just thrown in for the hell of it, well...
No, Bethesda wouldn't do something so tasteless.

 

[DarqueMage]

I hope the decapitations are at least somewhat plausible and not the Fallout 3/New Vegas type. I love those games to death, but two 9mm bullets to the forehead causing someone's intact head to fall off from their cleanly cut neck is a little goofy.

Wait .. I thought the ESRB backflip on Oblivion's rating was due to the Dark Brotherhood quests which they were unaware of, and not some nudie crap?

The ESRB's second look at the game was prompted by the nude skins, but in the process of re-rating they discovered things like the mutilated corpses in the Dark Brotherhood quest line according to Wikipedia.

 

[LightOfDarkness]

Was anyone expecting it to be anything else?

 

[Danceofmasks]

I hope the decapitations are at least somewhat plausible and not the Fallout 3/New Vegas type. I love those games to death, but two 9mm bullets to the forehead causing someone's intact head to fall off from their cleanly cut neck is a little goofy.

Wait .. I thought the ESRB backflip on Oblivion's rating was due to the Dark Brotherhood quests which they were unaware of, and not some nudie crap?

The ESRB's second look at the game was prompted by the nude skins, but in the process of re-rating they discovered things like the mutilated corpses in the Dark Brotherhood quest line according to Wikipedia.

Yeah, the silly Fallout games with exploding bodies annoyed me, too.
I like some gore in my games, but those are one of the instances when I disabled all gore and it made the games better.

I guess I have Germany to thank for the inclusion of that option in the engine.

 

[jawakiller]

I was really hoping you could get drunk out of your mind...