In a reaction to the recent story of Oblivion being re-rated, John Romero speaks out against modders. If you haven't heard, last week the ESRB changed their rating of Oblivion from Teen to Mature. They sited that the reason was that the game contained more blood and gore than they realized and that nude character mods had become available. Now, Bethesda (developers) said they checked the box on the form to the ESRB for the highest content of blood and gore. That leaves the mod being a crucial part of the new rating.

This makes for bad new for us, the modders. This means that our mods can affect the ratings of a game. This also means that developers will start to keep modders out of their code so as not to hurt sales.

John Romero stated:

"What's the point of this all this? That modders are now screwing up the industry they're supposed to be helping. In 1993 we opened up all our data to the industrious and ambitious folks out there who want to see what it's like to be able to make their favorite game a little more like what they'd want.....and get a taste of being a semi-game designer in the process. The most awesome example of what this philosophy has brought is CounterStrike."

Source: Gamedaily

omg, i think because of mods we play the games much longer.
but that is my opinion

Without mods id have taken most of the games ive got back to the shop for a refund... That sucks...

He was fond of mods, it says that he released the source for Oblivion. However hes pissed at the ESRB because teh gore mod changed its rating to M instead of T. He has every right to be angry, some outsider screwed it up. At least I'd be pissed too. Modding is important but shouldnt affect the rating if its not part of teh retail game. I lost track of where I was goin here, easily distracted... Adios.

What I can't understand about the whole picture is why they get so ticked because of a little T/A. It's okay to blast to smithereens other players but wait we have to put some clothes on to be legal.
I think this whole country is turning into one big bible belt. And I live right in the heart of it.
Somebody needs to move the ERSB to Amsterdam.

Sounds more like the ESRB are screwing up to me.

When a movie studio releases a film/DVD it gets a classification. Now if I edit that DVD and overdub it with some bad language the "powers that be" are not going to raise the age rating for the original film, are they?

Are they? NO, they are not.

A company are not responsible for the actions of their patrons. Or gun manufacturers are in deep ****, as are car manufacturers, the pharmacutical industry, and so on and so forth.

This chap seems to be blaming the wrong people for what appears to be an act of stupidity with dubious legality attached.

well i think you can't blame the modders (some of us are just sick minded) and getting the ratings up will only resolve in more illegal downloads of the game since teens can't buy it in stores the'll download it from the net.

ESRB is screwing it up for the entire industrie

edited on May. 9, 2006 12:57 pm by KilLjoY

It seems to me someone wants someone else to blame. Y'all have it right here. If you take a product home, and that product is rated in anyway, it's rated that way from the manufacture. You change it in anyway, then of course the rating will change, but you're not putting it back on the shelf for sale to the general public.

What I DO see happening here, is that a plea could come down to sites like this, asking for some sort of age check before allowing someone access to modded maps, etc. due to possible mature content (mature to me being blood, gore, language, nudity, etc.) My 8 yearold loves to play COD, but at the same time I've made sure he doesn't get a hold of any blood mods, or any mods at all for that matter. My 16 year old son is a different matter, he's cleared to get all the blood and gore he wants as it's all over the TV anyways.

Basically what it comes down to is the PARENTS. Not watching what their kids are downloading and using, or what they are buying from the store and playing or watching. I do not see how this can come back on the modders. That is just a way to point a finger and vent (which was very wrong of him).

The thing that p***es me off is that the ESRB re-rate games simply because a nude character mod comes out for it... If they had any sense they would realise that a modder with the slightest artistic skills could reskin pretty much any character from any game to be nude... Why not just automatically rate all games as 18 and be done with it? Its not as if there will be a loss in sales because lets face it, there arent many people under the age of 18 that dont own an 18 rated game... Ive owned 18 rated games since I was 12 ffs because my parents knew I wasnt going to turn into some kind of psychopath and massacre a load of people in the style of the game (which is becoming increasingly common)... None of this is the modders fault its the fault of the ESRB turning into the over protective parents of the computer game industry...

Rant over...

Oh & one more thing...



CS: S is the most unrealistic and arcady piece of crap ever made imo...

finally some1 who shares my opinion on CS : S i would get killed ( and no not because of violance in games) if i would say that when with some of my friends