ESRB/PEGI Rating Thoughts

Before we start, click this link for ESRB or this link for PEGI to know each of what the ratings mean in-case you didn’t.


What do you think the end results of the ESRB rating of TESO will be? Their RPG game titles (determining from Morrowind) they moved up the more milder ratings to a more mature audience rating. How do you think they should put out the game in TESO? Target a mature audience with their content or lower it down since its a MMO?

after beta, I dont see it being a very high rating myself. Theres no real blood or gore that ive seen at all, and dont expect any really. I could be wrong on this though, but I dont think so.

It could be Mature rated if it has “Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol.”
Those are the reasons the ESRB gave Skyrim a Mature rating.
Guess it just is a matter if any of this is toned down from past games.

I really want them to keep the M rated themes as Skyrim did. Keep that realistic feel and definitely the rag doll effect!

(February 15th 2013, 07:17 PM)decoy Wrote: It could be Mature rated if it has “Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol.”
Those are the reasons the ESRB gave Skyrim a Mature rating.

It's definitely how those things are portrayed and if it's the main character partaking in the subject. You can have stupid sexual jokes and still pull away with a T rating (think Ratchet and Clank). With alcohol, you can have a bit of drinking in a game and still pull away with a T if you're careful. As soon as the main character takes a swig though, you can almost 100% guarantee that a game will get an M.

Personally, I think ZOS should just focus on making a great game how they want to make it and let ESRB and PEGI sort it out later.

(February 16th 2013, 10:22 PM)vigk vagk v2 Wrote:

(February 15th 2013, 07:17 PM)decoy Wrote: It could be Mature rated if it has “Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol.”
Those are the reasons the ESRB gave Skyrim a Mature rating.

It's definitely how those things are portrayed and if it's the main character partaking in the subject. You can have stupid sexual jokes and still pull away with a T rating (think Ratchet and Clank). With alcohol, you can have a bit of drinking in a game and still pull away with a T if you're careful. As soon as the main character takes a swig though, you can almost 100% guarantee that a game will get an M.

Personally, I think ZOS should just focus on making a great game how they want to make it and let ESRB and PEGI sort it out later.

The T rating is a marketing decision. For example.....
Wal Mart will not feature a M rated Game on it's aisle end displays. And that makes a big difference to the bean counters. They quite literally will present two game ratings and say....if you go M rating, you will potentially lose this much money in sales as opposed to going with a T rating instead.

At the same time if you have a game that has a higher rating than others, it becomes more desirable.

(February 18th 2013, 01:56 PM)Ziegler Wrote: The T rating is a marketing decision. For example.....
Wal Mart will not feature a M rated Game on it's aisle end displays. And that makes a big difference to the bean counters. They quite literally will present two game ratings and say....if you go M rating, you will potentially lose this much money in sales as opposed to going with a T rating instead.

Yeah but at your local WalMart do they put PC games on the endcap at all? Mine just has console games there which sell way better. If there are console game preorder tickets to sell that is endcap's first priority.

I would like it to be a Mature rating.

But this is an MMO that means that it will be definitly teen rated.

As much as I would love an M rating, it would probably suck for me because I'll only be 16 this year. I suppose they could get away with "parental consent".

All Elder scroll's games followed the "M" for mature rating. I don't want them straying off of the path, just so they can attract more players.. Trust me, Kid's younger than the age required will get parental permission. I've been getting M game's since I was 11. If they make everything "kiddy like" just for the benefit of themselves, I fear they may lose a couple players.

This game is in the time period of war, there are going to be curse words, harassment's and various kinds of insults. I understand we'll be able to attempt at playing with only fellow gamers of our age; but I fear the game itself may lose some of it's potential as well. In the end people feel if they lower it past "M", they may feel the game was too restricting and gets censored way too often.

Also.... I'm sure quite a few of us out there wanna be the badass, literally obliterating your path to victory, in both speech and combat.

Tiny kids play call of dooooty which is 18 so I don't think it matters

Well, of course they'll get consent -- I've played M games for years -- but I don't know if the legal world will care. There are some things that require parental consent (Xbox LIVE, for example).

I'm not sure about Arena or Daggerfall (maybe it was too early to get a rating for those games), but I recall that Morrowind was definitely T-rated and Oblivion was T-rated until it got its rating changed to M (I actually own a T-rated collector's edition of Oblivion), so not all TES games were M-rated.

My personal opinion on this is I don't really mind what they give it. I've played enough TES to know what kind of content is in the games and I personally don't think it will matter too much.

(February 18th 2013, 03:28 PM)Liger Wrote: All Elder scroll's games followed the "M" for mature rating. I don't want them straying off of the path, just so they can attract more players.. Trust me, Kid's younger than the age required will get parental permission. I've been getting M game's since I was 11. If they make everything "kiddy like" just for the benefit of themselves, I fear they may lose a couple players.

This game is in the time period of war, there are going to be curse words, harassment's and various kinds of insults. I understand we'll be able to attempt at playing with only fellow gamers of our age; but I fear the game itself may lose some of it's potential as well. In the end people feel if they lower it past "M", they may feel the game was too restricting and gets censored way too often.

Also.... I'm sure quite a few of us out there wanna be the badass, literally obliterating your path to victory, in both speech and combat.

yet its an MMO and almost all MMOs tend to strive for a Teen rating.
For whatever model they are going for, teens are the perfect demographic, easily impressed by shinies and the limitless money from their parents.
i just dont see them passing on that oportunity.
And while i played M rated games before i was 18 too, aperently the majority of people does not do that.

And before you say "but nobody here says so" well the majority of people is not on this board, or on any board for that matter.

on the notion of it beeing irrelevant: Its not, i want mature topics in quest design and i do want topics such as slavery and cannibalism tackled upfront. and not hidden for the kiddies.