Editorial John Romero vs teh evil modders

[Drakron]

You can watch the whole movie in two hours, maybe three tops if you rewind all the juicy bits.

So what?

They could be lazy and send the questionary and not bother employing a review board, like ESRB.

Think about how huge the world is in Oblivion, and how long it would take to see it all. Then consider that the entire game changes as you level up, what you see at level one is very different than at level 25. So they’d need to explore the -whole- world at level one, then again at level two, then at three, etc. The whole -purpose- of this game is to hide shit from the player, and make them jump though endless hoops to see it all. How long do you think it would take playtest it ALL?

You are a dumbass.

IGAC does just that, its required BY LAW that all electronic media to carry a IGAC stamp with have a age recomendation, the UK have the BBFC that reviews both films and games.

So explain to me how a small goverment agencies can do that as ESRB cannot?

Oblivion IS rated by the IGAC and IS rated by the BBFC as well as PEGI ... the only ones that failed was ESRB, even PEGI that is another "industry self reviewing" got the same age rating that IGAC and BBFC.

There are TWO WEEKS when a game goes gold and when its shipped, the ESRB rating is simply a stamp on the box ... if they cannot get a idea in 2 weeks of speed playing they are incompetent.

 

[Section8]

Silly fucker. How about instead of "game data files becoming encrypted and the open door on assets getting slammed shut" you just don't ship "inappropriate" content, regardless of whether it's in the game or not?

It's pretty clear that Bethesda dropped the ball on this one.

And the day a game company's file encryption is hacked to <s>add porn</s> access the "porn" that was included as unused game assets and the case goes to the ESRB for review - that's when we'll see how well game companies are protected from these antics and what the courts will rule.

Fixed.

and get a taste of being a semi-game designer in the process.

Step into the shoes of John Romero, semi-game designer!

 

[Jinxed]

He's just jealous that no one wanted to mod Daikatana.

 

[Twinfalls]

let alone play it

 

[mrgah]

You can watch the whole movie in two hours, maybe three tops if you rewind all the juicy bits.

So what?

They could be lazy and send the questionary and not bother employing a review board, like ESRB.

Think about how huge the world is in Oblivion, and how long it would take to see it all. Then consider that the entire game changes as you level up, what you see at level one is very different than at level 25. So they’d need to explore the -whole- world at level one, then again at level two, then at three, etc. The whole -purpose- of this game is to hide shit from the player, and make them jump though endless hoops to see it all. How long do you think it would take playtest it ALL?

You are a dumbass.

IGAC does just that, its required BY LAW that all electronic media to carry a IGAC stamp with have a age recomendation, the UK have the BBFC that reviews both films and games.

So explain to me how a small goverment agencies can do that as ESRB cannot?

Oblivion IS rated by the IGAC and IS rated by the BBFC as well as PEGI ... the only ones that failed was ESRB, even PEGI that is another "industry self reviewing" got the same age rating that IGAC and BBFC.

There are TWO WEEKS when a game goes gold and when its shipped, the ESRB rating is simply a stamp on the box ... if they cannot get a idea in 2 weeks of speed playing they are incompetent.

I don't know that you'd really need to play the whole game through to see everything. It wouldn't necessarily be as quick as watching a movie and it'd be less fun (insert standard disclaimer about fun in Oblivion _here_) but you could just fire up the CS or whatever and poke around in the data files. That doesn't seem too hard.

Another way to run it, I guess, would be to have people from the ratings agencies do some or all QA stuff. That way they could see the game and get a good read on what offensive material there is without putting much (if any) financial strain on the developers.

This whole thing really highlights the weirdness of America in matters of sex and violence. In light of American history and our long tradition of punitive violence, you sort of wonder whether the violence in the realm of Oblivion is more permissible because it's in a vaguely Christian hell setting, and thus more morally justifiable. The whole thing is asinine though; video game violence is a sham issue, one of those things that gets brought up in an election year to distract us from the real problems facing America.

 

[Drakron]

The problem is that ESRB system is flawed, I dont know what Bethsoft written in the submition but we talking about a rating system that is taking your word for it.

Look at the gore elements that absent in screenshoots, ESRB can claim that Bethsoft lied but in a system that exists for the sole purpose of making a age recomendation they are pretty much doing the same as rating a movie reading the script.

The issue is gamers are afraid of goverment intervention because they fear such agency being used as a mean of censorship but the fault lies on retailers that have assimine policies of "family values" to in pratice create censorship, so its ok to have censorship as long its not goverment doing it.

ESRB is already a political tool, the idiots that are on top have political ambitions and I bet this "crack down" is that someone at ESRB wants to be a political job, a goverment agency would not be political because anything that is part of the goverment became part of the bureaucracy that is by its very nature apolitical.