I am expecting Skyrim will come out with an "M" rating, but as a parent of teens and tweens it sure would be nice if Bethesda would provide some options to turn off language and graphic content, etc. This would allow for some younger gamers to play a quality game without exposing them to excessive content for their ages. From what I have seen, it looks like there will be a lot of interesting and fun things to do in this game that don't have to involve blood, gore, bad language, sixual themes, or the like. With options to control this kind of content, those who want it can keep and those who don't could turn it off. Just my view...would like to know what others think.

Well if we make a big list of toggable content then it could be fustrating to turn them all. Still it could get beth to not attempt to cater with 5 year olds..

If you think there might be inappropriate content for children in this game, then don't allow them to play it. Some sort of filter for mature content is just unnecessary work for the developers. You can't just remove aspects from a game and still expect it to be quality, either. To truly experience a game of this quality, you need to experience everything. What's the worst that could happen, anyway? Oh no, a twelve year old saw a dead body. Better hope he doesn't see it when he watches TV or goes on the Internet- which he will.

Christ, it's not like this is going to be GTA, either. What "mature" content will really be in this game?

Why not get a game that's rating is lower than M?

Yep, the game will probably have an M rating, but i really doubt BGS would waste their precious development time in something like this.

I guess they could do that, but how many of Skyrim fans are actually under fifteen years? Just get them a game that is suitable.

Never understood why parents want to limit what there children can see, espically when there allowed to kill but not see the blood and stuff like that.
Parents never did that to me, so far I haven't shot up any post offices or anything...

http://i681.photobucket.com/albums/vv175/Proditus/Unnecessary.jpg




True also...what are those ratings for in the first place, right?

Not to mention...should there be ratings like "T through M, depending on settings?"

Turning off bad language would be difficult, because you would have to re-record every line of dialogue with a single bad word in it. Its not Bethesda's job to cater to children, thats the parents job.

waste of time... Beth can't fix parenting decisions/issues even if the game was rated T that would mean 12 year olds and under couldn't play which there is an abundant number of those in every online game today no matter the rating...

stabbing a guy(or anything really) or slitting his throat is still "mature" content with or without blood..

So to sum it up.. If the rating is an issue and your parents are not allowing you to play it then they are doing their job. For all those who have parents like me who let me play Resident evil 1 when I was 4 (never finished that puzzle of a game... ran away after 5 minutes at the first zombie xD) then that's the parents decision.

Yay! Time to finally play Skyrim!

Wait....what's this?

*sigh* Great...

Haha man I had the same childhoon...
"Mommy i wanna play the zombie game with the big boys"
I never got past the first level.

On a side note playing such a gory game never ever tempted me to shoot zombies in real life

If you don't want your kids to see things that to deem ‘inappropriate', then don't let them play M rated games.

It's unnecessary work for the Developers, and since they're fitting this game onto 1 disc for the Xbox, we need all the disc space we can get.

There might be an option to turn off blood.

Yeah, that is way more work than it's worth. Besides if your kids aren't mature enough to handle mature themes then they shouldn't be playing an M game nor should you be playing it in front of them. However regarding mature themes i will say this, high fantasy settings such as TES are much less acquainted with the real world than games like COD. I let my 11 year old step son play Oblivion but not COD, GTA or Fallout. Of course I don't believe in war toys either and as far as my kids are concerned guns are NOT cool.

The Governator's word is law! Violent video games make you violent!

Father...
Can you keep them in the dark for life?
Can you hide them from the waiting world?
Oh father! :mohawk:

Nah but seriously the fact that you care enough leds to me to believe your kids will be good enough to handle the small amout of mature content that is TES. They no doubt see much worse in public school systems.

I highly doubt there will be any language or sixual themes.
Violence on the other hand....

Like many others above me, I too was very young and would play Mortal Kombat on the Super Nintendo with my brother (losing horribly), and I have no wants or desires to uppercut someone into an acid pit with spikes...

You got that right. My son came to me three years ago and asked me to buy him a paintball gun because his friends had them. I bought him an ATV instead and promised to take him deer hunting when he turns 14.

there is a reason it is given a "M" I cant stand it when parents complaine about what is in game but yet they wont say.. ohh its rated "M" my kids shouldnt play it.. or ohh that game has bullying in it they cant play it! but yet they let there kid play GTA.... BS......

Don't you think your being alittle harsh? :confused:
I don't think the OP is saying anything like that

Just get it for the computer, it lets you toggle all the settings you want for blood and gore, not sure about the language though, there's been very little I would could inappropriate in past games..

#1) I highly doubt there will be any strong language used, it just doesn't fit the TES universe and they have never used strong language in the past.

#2) There will not be excessive amounts of gore in Skyrim. In fact, there will be little to no gore at all, there will be blood though.

#3) I can see options for cutting blood out of the game, however cutting the other things would be an enormous task because sometimes they are randomly scattered, or integral parts of quests. The designers would have to code mature and non-mature content for every single quest and location, because of the nature of a TES game, this would be nearly impossible to do due to time constraints. Only cutting blood would also not do much to change the mature content aspect of the game.

#4) Again, because of the open world nature of TES, it would be very easy to avoid any mature content, and it will probably be spaced far between, so you'd have to go looking for it if you wanted to find it. If your teens want to find this stuff, not buying the game won't stop them, we have internet. Bethesda has also said that they are not designing this to be a 'mature' game. There will be some mature content, but only were it realistically fits, or would add to the gameplay.

So all in all, I think it wouldn't be possible to have a non-mature option, and it doesn't really matter.

Children know a lot more then their parents think, remember when we were(or still are) kids?

Bad language in games/movies(if not overly used just for the [censored] of it) isn't something to shield a kid from, such as from the 5th grade up. They usually know all the major swears, maybe not what they mean though. If a game is somethig you wouldn't mind them playing, except for some mild swearing, then let them play. If you've raised them right they won't be swearing around advlts, and probably are already swearing around friends. It's all about image anyways, and they understand that to an extent. Now if you have a child who acts out etc, then you probably want to limit exposure to stuff like that. If they can't grasp when/where it's "right" to use foul language, then they shouldn't be allowed to even own a game(discipline).

As to sixual content, same thing applies I think. I saw my first playboy in 2nd grade at my private catholic school. Welcome to the age of internets, now kids can see worse things then playboy so long as the can spell six. If you are present, or in an ear shot, then when they play a game with sixual content they won't be so excited to see it, and more embarrassed. Because again, kids understand whats excepted and isn't, for them.

Kids live in a bubble, and don't fully understand all "mature" content, but they know about it from a young age. I remember being young and thought that gays and lisbians were actually something that just started happening in my lifetime. No one talked about it, beyond friends calling eachother gay etc. Growing up more, and starting to grasp all these things I began to realize that gays and lisbians actually weren't some new thing, and I was just a kid who lived in a bubble, along with the rest of them.

So my point, if I have one, is that kids are exposed to very mature things, just as I'm sure we all were. It just happens differently now, and probably a bit faster. As a parent I teach my son that some words are bad to say, but I know he's going to anyways. Just not around advlts, or those he perceives as authority figures. You can't protect your kid by turning off content. Either decide, is your child ready for the responsibility to play the game of life(knows how to act in "proper" in public and act a fool with friends) or is your child going to actually kill someone and have six(because they are emotionally unstable and not mature enough for their age) because they played a game with dragons etc, which is clearly fantasy.