Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Bethesda Responds: Not Our Mammaries, Mate

Here's an excerpt from Bethesda's official statment (thanks IGN):
There is no nudity in Oblivion without a third party modification. In the PC version of the game only - this doesn't apply to the Xbox 360 version - some modders have used a third party tool to hack into and modify an art archive file to make it possible to create a mesh for a partially nude (topless) female that they add into the game. Bethesda didn't create a game with nudity and does not intend that nudity appear in Oblivion. There is no nude female character in a section of the game that can be "unlocked." Bethesda can not control tampering with Oblivion by third parties. Bethesda is taking steps to ensure that modders can not continue to hack into Oblivion's art archives to create partially nude figures.

That's a huge distinction. Bethesda's statement appears to say that there wasn't a nude character on the disc at all; rather, that a hack was used on an art achive file which THEN made it possible to create a mesh for a topless female character.

Like I said, that's a big difference. If there was a nude character on the disc, and enterprising hackers just unlocked her, that's one thing. If they had to "modify an art archive file" and use it to create a mesh that then makes the character topless, that's a totally different situation, and the ESRB has lost its mind--again.

Good grief, this entire situation is absurd.

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