The Escapist Issue #101 Now Available

The latest issue of Escapist Magazine features an article called “The Breasts That Broke The Game” that discusses the ESRB’s decision to change The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion’s rating from “T” to “M” because of a player-created topless mod. If you didn’t follow the story when it actually took place last year, then this article will bring you up to speed:

The Topless Mod debuted on the Oblivion Source fansite in March 2006. A woman calling herself “Maeyanie” created the mod because she hated “government/society/whatever forcing companies to ‘protect our innocent population from seeing those evil dirty things 50% of them possess personally anyways.'” In terms of shock value, the resulting nudity was fairly tame. With bottom undergarments intact and a lack of self-consciousness on the NPCs’ part, the modification was about as erotic as a doctor’s visit.

During the course of the ESRB’s examination, however, the organization saw even more it didn’t like. Though the Topless Mod didn’t change anything but textures on female NPCs, the ESRB found “more detailed depictions of blood and gore than were considered in the original rating.” That, combined with the revelation that the skin texture was among the files shipped with the game on release gave the Board cause to approve a rating change from “T” to “M.”

In addition, this latest issue features an article called “Blowing Up Galaxies” that talks about the devastating effect SOE and LucasArts’ NGE update had on Star Wars Galaxies:

As WoW barreled toward 5 million subscribers, SOE launched SWG’s Publish 25. The NGE replaced the combat system with a shooter-style twitch game, reduced the value of crafting and entertaining, and collapsed 34 professions into nine classes. Jedi Knight powers, once obtained only after torturous grinding, were now widely available. Creature Handlers and Bio-Engineers, previously stunted by the CU, vanished.

The launch, like the original game’s, went horribly: awful bugs, broken quests, lag. But these paled beside the main problem. For an unexpectedly huge number of players, the issue – the overriding issue that has burned in their heart down to, lo, this day and hour – was betrayal.