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The Elder Scrolls Online receives Mature rating
The Entertainment Software Rating Board has given Elder Scrolls Online a Mature rating for "Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol, and Violence," ZeniMax posted on its Facebook page. The studio is none too happy about the decision, stating, "The ESRB advised us that it has given The Elder Scrolls Online a Mature rating. While we may disagree with the ESRB's determination, we do not plan to challenge the rating, and we are unwilling to change the game's content to achieve a different rating. The game we have created is the one we want our fans to be able to play." ZeniMax said that the ruling has forced the studio to put the Mature rating and age gates on the ESO site, trailers, and ads.
ArcheAge sends invites for next closed beta, earns Mature rating in Korea
As if to test out the official site after a maintenance, XLGAMES doled out a double dose of ArcheAge news. First, players were informed that the first wave of invites for Closed Beta Test Five have gone out to players who met two requirements: CBT4 stress test participation on February 17th and hitting level 25 in CBT4. Others who have applied to test will still have a chance to get in to CBT5 during more invitation rounds based on a lottery selection method. The second news posting explains that XLGAMES received and accepted a new rating of Mature in Korea for sexual content, blood and gore, and drug abuse. The company indicated that new and future sandbox features in the game would probably have disqualified the game from a Teen rating eventually. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Age of Conan officially rated M; Prestige class changes possible
More news has come out from the recent Age of Conan: Hyborean Adventures press event held by Funcom. Ten Ton Hammer is reporting that the ESRB rating for AoC has been confirmed to be an M. What this means is that the game will be able to be distributed state-side in pretty well all mass-market retailers. For many of us who have been following the game for some time, we weren't quite sure how the rating wound wind up landing due to some of the fairly graphic gameplay and the adult sexual themes contained in the game. The question now is just how much of that will make it into the M-rated release versus some of the demos we've seen. Will we, in fact, "see titties" as Jorgen claimed -- or will we simply be taken to a screen blackout/time passes while our barbarians get their freak on? (For that matter, will the game wind up freak-on-free?) Another thing noted at the press event was the potential exclusion of the Prestige classes in AoC. However, as TTH notes, we shouldn't panic about that just yet. The thought is that if Funcom do decide to remove Prestige classes, they will instead make the talents and abilities widespread so that you can more fully customize your character. While the potential loss of a class is always kind of a bummer once you've gotten your sights set on it, the flip side is that more personal customization of a character is generally a lot of fun. That lets the theorycrafters get down and dirty with the numbers and figure out just what builds with which gear make for some truly creative mechanics. When you combine it with different combo attacks like AoC has, this could be just the ticket to becoming a truly epic hero of Hyborea.
Graphs point out Wii's immaturity
Gamasutra has taken the time to compare the distribution of ESRB rated games for this and last generations' consoles. But, the best part is, they took the time to make some delicious graphs for us.Some findings in this study are not surprising, such as the fact that the Nintendo consoles (the GBA, DS, GameCube, and Wii) have a significantly smaller percentage of mature games than their competitors. What is interesting, though, is that the Wii (so far) has a smaller percentage of mature games than its predecessor, the GameCube.The reason we find this of note is because the GameCube was largely regarded as a "kiddie" system by many of its critics, and yet it had a larger distribution of "M" games than the GBA, DS, or Wii. The GameCube was also the least successful (in terms of sales and arguably in other areas, too) of all the consoles in the study.As a Nintendo gamer, what is your take on the distribution of mature games for the Wii? Is it okay to be so largely outnumbered by games with other ratings, or do you wish Nintendo would find more balance? The small percentage of mature games certainly hasn't hindered the Wii's success so far, but can it alienate the "hardcore" gamers in the future?
