14 DAY TRIAL // Fallout 3 is pretty much out at this point and you can head down to your local videogame distributor in order to enter the post apocalyptic wasteland of the game. But you won't see too many trailers of the Bethesda created game in the coming days because most sites are in the process of taking them down.
The reason seems to be that the Entertainment Software Rating Board has decided that there was way too much violence in them, which infringed on the guidelines that it has regarding advertising for videogames. If you look at them, the organization discourages: graphic and excessive depictions of violence; graphic and violent depictions of the use of weapons; graphic and excessive depictions of blood and gore. There's also the more general principle that “No advertisement should contain any content that is likely to cause serious or widespread offense to the average consumer”. Sadly, strict adherence to the above guidelines would probably mean that we would see no advertising for videogames which include weapons, magic use or destruction of any kind.
There's no doubt that Fallout 3 is violent. We've seen a lot of headshots which resulted in pieces of skull spreading around the game world and there's even a perk for your character, called Bloody Mess, which increases the level of gore in Fallout. Long time fans of the franchise were expecting to see this level of violence, which is a staple of the world that has been rebuilt following nuclear holocaust.
It's usually bad news for a videogame to have trailers and advertising pulled as it ships to stores, especially as the interest of the potential customers increases. But as players get their hands on the title, sites like YouTube will be likely flooded with videos which will convey the realities of Fallout 3 without any interference from the ESRB.