Why is this game rated M for "blood and gore"?

Iink · April 2016

There's blood when you slash enemies but, none of the blood splatters on the ground or walls like in Skyrim or Oblivion.

And I haven't seen any gore in the game (other than decapitated hagraven heads which have no blood). One would expect that a game rated M for blood and gore, would feature blood pools on the ground, or dismemberment of limbs.

Why isn't the game rated T? And surely sexual themes arn't the reason. It's merely suggestive at the most, nothing a 13 year old wouldn't know after learning about puberty in health class.

TheShadowScout · April 2016

It -used- to be rated "16" back when it was first released... and most of the game is still that way.

But then came the justice system, where you could murder innocent civilians without and pleads of self defense like: "but... he aggro'd me, I feared for my character life!"... and they raised the maturity ratings.

And many people have been whining about it ever since, me among them... in an "now that the game is rated M, let us actually -have- M in game!", one way or another. One of my favorite suggestions was @Gidorick with his "Brutality Pack Concept"... I'd buy that for a handful of crowns!

ArchMikem · April 2016

The Briarheart Reachmen in Wrothgar have holes in their chests showing their innards.

...

That's all I got.

Steel_Brightblade · April 2016

Werewolf feeding is a little gory, though I'd still say any game where players can use a Mic should be an 18 purely based on the putrid bile that tends to pour out of some peoples mouths.

bloodenragedb14_ESO · April 2016

im pretty sure the game has been rated M, at least in america, since launch. Though i was mad about it then too, i really want them to take advantage of the M rating and 'mature up' the game alot more than this bare minimum crap

MornaBaine · April 2016

I come from Age of Conan with its bouncing bare boobs and absolutely fantastic "fatalities" my favorite of which remains the one where your character shoves their sword through an opponent's chest and then literally plants their boot on them and kicks their corpse off your blade. None of it offends me. I realllly wish ESO would up the ante on the maturity levels here.

Danikat · April 2016

As other people have said the high rating is mainly because you can murder innocent civillians with no motive and (if you're careful) no consequences. I'm not sure whether the fact that there's an achievement for it counts towards the rating).

I'm not sure about America but there was a lot of controversy about the first Assassin's Creed game being rated 15+ in Europe until the developers clarified that if you attack innocents you get 'desynchronised' which is the equivalent of dying in other games (in some cases you also get killed by guards first). So apparently it is quite a controversial issue.

In general I don't think developers should feel obligated to include everything allowed under their current rating just because they can. I don't think there's any need for us to be able to graphically disembowel our enemies or anything like that, or to have nude characters everywhere. But if it makes sense in context I do hope they'll take advantage of their freedom to include more gore.

lolo_01b16_ESO · April 2016

TheShadowScout wrote: »

It -used- to be rated "16" back when it was first released... and most of the game is still that way.

But then came the justice system, where you could murder innocent civilians without and pleads of self defense like: "but... he aggro'd me, I feared for my character life!"... and they raised the maturity ratings.

And many people have been whining about it ever since, me among them... in an "now that the game is rated M, let us actually -have- M in game!", one way or another. One of my favorite suggestions was @Gidorick with his "Brutality Pack Concept"... I'd buy that for a handful of crowns!

Depending on the country you live in it is still rated as "16".

ArchMikem · April 2016

Steel_Brightblade wrote: »

Werewolf feeding is a little gory, though I'd still say any game where players can use a Mic should be an 18 purely based on the putrid bile that tends to pour out of some peoples mouths.

Online Interactions not rated by the ESRB. For good reason it seems.

DRXHarbinger · April 2016

Off topic but why are call of duty games rated 18 when you can join the armed forces and kill for real at 16? None of these ratings make any sense.

JimmyKeal · April 2016

Both Oblivion and Skyrim were rated 15 over here in the UK, both games of which had slightly more gore/violence to them than ESO, and also the ability to kill/steal from innocents. ESO over here is rated 18 despite less blood in game.

In Europe, we all seem to get slightly less ratings than the US. America might get a Mature/18+ rating whereas Europe would get a 15 or 16+ rating, we're slightly more liberal I guess?

My only suggestion for the higher rating in ESO would be that it's an MMO, you're more exposed to the public, and we all know the type of stuff some people tend to come out with in voice chat!

Zaldan · April 2016

MornaBaine wrote: »

I come from Age of Conan with its bouncing bare boobs and absolutely fantastic "fatalities" my favorite of which remains the one where your character shoves their sword through an opponent's chest and then literally plants their boot on them and kicks their corpse off your blade. None of it offends me. I realllly wish ESO would up the ante on the maturity levels here.

due to pvp lag been playing a mod'd Skyrim again and coming back to ESO with no HDT jiggle is a let down lol

ChrispyRambo · April 2016

It is a little disturbing but hilarious when you actually bleed. It looks like fountains of blood spraying out of your armpits. Maybe the armpit blood fountains warrants a "M" rating!

TheShadowScout · April 2016

bloodenragedb14_ESO wrote: »

im pretty sure the game has been rated M, at least in america, since launch. Though i was mad about it then too, i really want them to take advantage of the M rating and 'mature up' the game alot more than this bare minimum crap

Possibly... I can only comment from the european side after all, and here it definitely changed from "16" to "18" with the justice system. Like... check the patch notes for that particular update:

You will also notice that there is a new notification when you first log on asking which country you’re playing the game in. If you’re in a non-PEGI country, you will go straight to the game. If you’re in a PEGI country, there will be new legal text explaining that the rating for the game has changed, and you will need to either accept or decline this change to continue.

So... might have always been "M" in the US, but definitely was "16" here until then, and got "18" after.
Possibly they did keep it low exactly because they were worried about some other markets... could be.

In any case... I still say let us have the full range and push that "M" rating to its limits! Even if it comes as its own DLC, so only those who like grittyness, blood and guts, and perhaps also Age-of-Conan type raunchyness (...all the things I probably cannot say here on the forums...). I'd gladly pay for it.

Van_0S · April 2016

OP, I have no idea!!!
If it was more sexy like the sykrim modders have done or like BDO then I would consider it as mature...

threefarms · April 2016

"Its rated M because of the use of Alcohol"

Stupid ZOS.

bloodenragedb14_ESO · April 2016

TheShadowScout wrote: »

bloodenragedb14_ESO wrote: »

im pretty sure the game has been rated M, at least in america, since launch. Though i was mad about it then too, i really want them to take advantage of the M rating and 'mature up' the game alot more than this bare minimum crap

Possibly... I can only comment from the european side after all, and here it definitely changed from "16" to "18" with the justice system. Like... check the patch notes for that particular update:

You will also notice that there is a new notification when you first log on asking which country you’re playing the game in. If you’re in a non-PEGI country, you will go straight to the game. If you’re in a PEGI country, there will be new legal text explaining that the rating for the game has changed, and you will need to either accept or decline this change to continue.

So... might have always been "M" in the US, but definitely was "16" here until then, and got "18" after.
Possibly they did keep it low exactly because they were worried about some other markets... could be.

In any case... I still say let us have the full range and push that "M" rating to its limits! Even if it comes as its own DLC, so only those who like grittyness, blood and guts, and perhaps also Age-of-Conan type raunchyness (...all the things I probably cannot say here on the forums...). I'd gladly pay for it.

i want to see lined up the rainbow of boobies, from man to mer giggity!!!!!

but in all seriousness, a TES is a very dark setting, lets showcase that darkness a little

waterfairy · April 2016

You should check the esrb description if you want to know why-
"Some sequences depict large amounts of blood streaming up-close as vampires attack/feed on characters. In some quests players have the ability to mount creatures' severed heads onto pikes; some environments depict corpse piles or skeletons hanging from torture devices"

rotaugen454 · April 2016

Would blood spraying add to the lag?

Inarre · April 2016

Feeding as a vampire gets kind of gory. Take a look at your player after and youll notice blood dripping down their face and chest. Looks prettt prettyawesome.

dtm_samuraib16_ESO · April 2016

Bloody rediculous, them Americans.
We can have dismemberment, brain matter flying around, killing kids, you name it.
But as soon as they see a frikken breast, oh boy...

We can have Barbie being dismembers, but a ***, God forbid.

Saltypretzels · April 2016

In the US, the raters specificially mentioned the lusty argonian maid books as the reason for it being rated "M". Yes, that must be the lamest reason ever.

Xelrick · April 2016

Have you been to Malacath's altar... Large pool of blood, so big you can fish in it. <a quest leads you there>

Steel_Brightblade · April 2016

Question is does it really matter? Its clearly not enforced as half the idiots I hear yelling in daggerfall and stormhaven at the undaunted area sound about 12.

TheDarkShadow · April 2016

If you are a vampire you can zoom in your character after feeding. It's a BLOODY mess.

milkbox · April 2016

The ESRB rating includes the line: "No sweetmeat for you" as being one of the reasons for the M rating.

But really, it's the same reason that coffee has to have a warning on the cup that it contains hot liquid.

Because, lawyers (and the people who over-use them).

SneaK · April 2016

Well in the first quest (tutorial) one of the guards impales a person by throwing them by the neck into a spike. ie rated M for Mature.

Sausage · April 2016

I would love to see more blood and gore, and Ive found perfect way to add it, basically when enemy dies, you run to them press "resurrection" button, your char move closer to the enemy and smash his head or any kind of fatality will do. Shortly said, Darkfall's style.

bowmanz607 · April 2016

Outside of reasons already mentioned, don't forget this is an online game in which the substance of chat can include ulnar comments and the like which is not monitored and censored. So outside the graphical reasons, the content of the players go a long way in making the rating m and not t.

Ffastyl · April 2016

JimmyKeal wrote: »

Both Oblivion and Skyrim were rated 15 over here in the UK, both games of which had slightly more gore/violence to them than ESO, and also the ability to kill/steal from innocents. ESO over here is rated 18 despite less blood in game.

In Europe, we all seem to get slightly less ratings than the US. America might get a Mature/18+ rating whereas Europe would get a 15 or 16+ rating, we're slightly more liberal I guess?

My only suggestion for the higher rating in ESO would be that it's an MMO, you're more exposed to the public, and we all know the type of stuff some people tend to come out with in voice chat!

America's rating scale is EC (early childhood), E (everyone), E10+ (everyone 10+), T (teen (13+)), M (mature(17+)) and AO (adults only (21+)). Due to the lack of intermediate scales such as 15 or 16, it's either 13+ or 17+. And on why ESO was rated M from the beginning in the US, there was a controversy over it around ESO's initial launch back in 2014. ZOS was aiming for a T rating to appeal to the widest audience, but due to pre-established lore and themes (the Lusty Argonian Maid was cited among others) the ESRB assigned ESO an M rating. It wasn't until the beginning of new content such as Craglorn that ZOS started to take advantage of the M rating to create more morally grey and interesting stories.

dtm_samuraib16_ESO · April 2016

But serious, The Lusty Argonian as reason for M...

Just THAT alone...

Coming from a land in which everyone has *** at home, rofl.