14 DAY TRIAL // In a matter of days after Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion hit retail, using a series of hacks, Maeyanie, a fan of the series launched a mod that enabled NPCs to be seen topless throughout the game. Entertainment Software Rating Board's decision to re-rate the game came as a shock when it was announced on May 3rd. On grounds of over detailed depictions of blood and the presence of the aforementioned topless version of female characters, the ESRB gave a new Mature rating on the previously Teen rated role playing game.
" I completely disagree with them re-rating based on this. As Bethesda said, it was impossible without third-party software. I could post a hardcore sex photo on my Windows desktop even without using third-party software. Would that make Windows deserve an Adults-Only rating?" said Maeyanie in an interview on Game Politics. The portrait was done with the help of Oblivion. It seems the original goal was to release full frontal nudity, but the endeavor didn't go as well as planned. Still, while trying to add new content, she tempered with the models until she discovered that by changing the top mesh, skin texture would then become visible.
Bethesda is famous for the wonderful moding tools accompanying each new release so as well as when the controversy first took proportions, now the main question is if companies should be held responsible for content discovered by modders. "In the case of content in the game waiting to be unlocked by a certain button-sequence or whatever, yes, they put it there. In the case of mods requiring third-party software, downloads from the Internet, and other things, absolutely not. The ability to add content to a game is a great thing, and leads to much greater replayability (if that's a word) and all-around fun. Just because some people like me "abuse" this ability to add "evil" content based on a single culture's narrow definitions of what is and isn't appropriate isn't the fault of the developers."