If Halo got an M rating for mild language and purple blood, Skyrim will definitely get M.

I voted E because I thought it stood for Elderly. Does it?

This game needs to be EC if Bethesda wants to reach as wide an audience as possible, because they don't want miss out on the very lucrative 3-year old market.

Who cares?

If I live to be 100, I will never understand how some people (Americans in particular) can be so incredibly prudish and backward.

Let them focus on making the best game they can, and let the uptight morality squad decide how to rate it.

Fans wont care, theyll buy it no matter what. I know I will.

E is for Everyone

I prefer an M rating.

I'm fairly confident it will be.

I would recommend Mature if they do AO/MA15+ then its not the worst thing to happen but knowing Bethesda they will try to keep the rating down unless the classfication board gets a false copy where its just flowers.........if only life was that simple all AO/MA15+ would be rated E

To be fair I believe Morrowind was released before the ESRB became as gun-ho about rating as they are now.

Anyways, M, if only to avoid any more "noes noes your game can be nvdes change the rating omg think of the children!" outcries.

We all want it to be M in America and 16+/18+ in Europe it seems

AO because:



;) a rapist-skooma-svcking-murdering scum who urinate on corpses would be nice as a main hero, dont you think?

It is?! Damnit. Alrighty, M for mature then. Or A for advlt.

I'm fairly certain that Skyrim will be rated M.

My box of oblivion says T so nyaa nyaaaaaa :3

It'll get an M and rightly so.

One question. I was under the impression that M rated games required the age authentication in order to access the website and other content for it. Is the age verification on the Elder Scrolls website an indication that the game could be rated M, or is that a requirement for games without ratings as well?

Also, to respond to the earlier comments about Oblivion's rating change, it was a combination of both the Blood and the Nudity factor. The nvde texture was what sparked the reevaluation, but both the skin and the blood were what prompted the rating change. [http://www.esrb.org/about/news/downloads/oblivion_release_5.3.06.pdf]

Personally, I'm hoping for an M rating. It really feels like the best way to preserve a game's image while not watering down or overhyping the extremes. Use some actual curse words or invent some new ones to make insults feel more insulting, you dirty n'wah. Keep the blood, but don't overdo it like some games do. Maybe allow for dismemberment like Fallout 3 (Though without the VATS) and make it an actual gameplay mechanic for melee combat. Alcohol and Skooma are a must. These aren't the Khajiit and Dunmer Skooma addicts that were so prevalent in Morrowind and severely lacking in Oblivion, but Nords would always be up for a good kegger I imagine. Lots of drunken mead parties in big mead halls. And maybe even another strip club like in Morrowind. The imperial province might have some moral standards, but those Nords are all bug burly men with needs to satisfy.

@ Proditus

No, rating doesn't completly block you from review, but video with rated content will requires to enter your birthdate (like age of conan, god of war) but only if the video contain rated content. normal gameplay will be fair game. It shouldn't block ordinary screenshots either.

However I noticed the facebook site is not accessible if you don't have facebook, which really isn't attractve to me. So I guess I'll never see that part of the info.

-----------------------------------------

Dear cyber spartan,

<>

ahem, yes, when you annonce 17+ rating prior to release you know you're doing a god of war type of game
in term of rating, not necessarily nvde, but certainly gorish. now one hope for both,
because throwing in extreme gore without any romance could leave some disapointed about the rating,
thought some games out there manage to get harsh rating without any nudity

<>

while I deeply love Bethesda and TES, and await hapilly Skyrim, It seems you are misinformed
(and really harsh on modders, might I add, do I need to remind you they are the developers of tommorow)
(and that Julian Le Fay, father of the Elder Scrolls, maker of Daggerfall,
was definitively pro-sixy-babes, in fact Daggerfall was rated M, with was rare at the time)

What you're quoting here is stuff I've seen in many places, but it's incorect.
However the ESRB back then (If you had seen the events unfold) specifically stated it had nothing to do with the topless hack.
I'm sure they were aware of modding, both using Bethesda provided tools
(Morrowind had such a tool, and such a nvde mod, and the rating never changed, someone even tried to make a six mod for Morrowind).

So what could it have been ? Obviously something Bethesda's officials didn't deem a problem because other games had done it, quite publicly and were rate teen. So what sort of mistake was made ? Could it have to do with a change of impact due to the high quality and ultra realism of the engine.

Some history

Diablo I : the "butcher's lair" scene
Might and magic 6 : the "canibal hunting ground" scene
-both rated teen-

Diablo II : better resolution, no such butcher scenes, gore only in the first area and barely visible
fans speculation: better graphics, more light, less shadows to hide the missdeed...
... Blizzard played it safe

TES4:Oblivion ... is there such a scene ?
Is it realistic and gorish ?
Would the ESRB panic

(a) yes
(B) yes
© yes

(hint: D.B.)

It's that simple. Bessides, I'm not even sure all games with some nudity get the M rating
And I'm 100% certain all games with T rating still get a nvde hack somewhere on the internet
(as long as the game got a really cute babe worth revealling)

It's also a lot more consitent with ESRB practice and the fact that Bethesda can't possibly give them a guided tour of every square inch of Oblivion

So my take is that while Skyrim may have nudity, it probably got some extreme gore,
probably on par with some recent games (god of war) both western and eastern (ninja gaiden, resident evil)
due to some Daedra and Dragons behaving in a verry aggravating way

I mean, is there any surprises there ?

Now as long as there is also a nice Ice Queen to seduce, Ill be happy
I must say I like the way romance was treated in Dragon Age,
and I hope they'll have some care for that

(after all it was suppose to be in Daggerfall)

Really? Because this is the official reason --

On May 3, 2006, the Entertainment Software Rating Board in North America changed Oblivion's rating from T (Teen 13+) to M (Mature 17+), citing game content not considered in the ESRB review. "The presence in the PC version of the game of a locked-out art file that, if accessed by using an apparently unauthorized third party tool,[107] allows the user to play the game with topless versions of female characters."[108] In response to the new content, the ESRB conducted a new review of Oblivion, showing to its reviewers the content originally submitted by Bethesda along with the newly disclosed content.

The ESRB reported that Bethesda Softworks would promptly notify all retailers of the change, issue stickers for retailers and distributors to affix on the product, display the new rating in all following product shipments and marketing, and create a downloadable patch rendering the topless skin inaccessible.[107] Bethesda complied with the request but disagreed with the ESRB's rationale.[109] Although as a result certain retailers began to check for ID before selling Oblivion,[110] and one California Assemblyman used the event to criticize the ESRB's ability,[111] the events passed by with little notice from the public and gaming journalists.[108] Although the mod was only used in the Windows version, the rating was changed for all systems.

M most likely. And I don't think thats why it was raised a rating, player made mods don't affect the rating.

M stands for Massivelyfunawesomegametime so yeah.... that

It should be rated teen if it's anything like Oblivion, M ratings should be reserved for rare cases. Although it doesn't matter in the end, if a person wants to play it, they'll play it regardless.
I hope it's rated T so that we don't have to waste time with those stupid mandated age checks every time we try to visit its website.
However, my opinion is based more on what the ESRB should consider M, not what content the game should have.

Every Bethesda game has gotten bloodier and gorier. It's inevitable that Skyrim will continue that tradition and definitely get a M rating.

I do have Facebook, and I can tell you that the information there is nothing major. Just showing off what we already know to the Facebook crowd. I also believe that you need to be over 17 to view the page by liking it, but I did that earlier today when I was far too tired to remember anything. If that was the case, then it might just be that the page is for Elder Scrolls in general, including the M-rated Oblivion, and even though they are showing off Elder Scrolls V primarily, the influence from Oblivion warrants the "warning".

M is not only the most likely but I'd prefer it to be M anyways. Much better.

*thinks about the mother's head* :clap:

I'm an American of the USA and I think the same way (so don't think we're all like that). It boggles my mind that you can show graphic violence and get an M rating yet nudity has a risk of AO, because six is just so much more offensive than graphically chopping people to bits and pieces right? I LIVE here and I think that's backwards.

I'm not saying I want it to be rated AO or that I want graphic six, but I don't want them to hold back due to theocratic prudes. To be clear I love my country, but I just strongly disagree that nudity should be placed beyond violence. It's just the opposite for me. I can say without question I'd be more offended by graphic gore than I would by graphic six. In either case, and there's no way the latter is happening anyway I know, they should have options to disable either of those things if included. I don't want to see gore, and some people find nudity to be offensive. In either case, options to disable stuff like that are a good idea.

I voted for M. Xenogears somehow got a T rating, so you can have a very mature game still get that rating, but I wouldn't want them holding back just to try and avoid an M. AO is a touchy thing. Video game system companies refuse to license AO titles etc, or some governments (such as Australia) outright censor entirely by refusing to classify some games. I think censorship is quite disgusting, and I'd hate to see self censorship if they try to avoid an M, even if I don't feel the game needs six and I personally dislike graphic blood and gore.

I'm sure that it's going to be M, given that in the official page at the beggining of the trailer there's a 18+ logo which is the rating that BSG thinks the game will get so.... violence!!! :gun:

I want to point out that for unrated games it's standard to have to enter a date. When viewing even Super Mario videos I need to enter a date sometimes. I do think it will be M, but I highly doubt the date is a definitive indication of that.