ESRB Gives Up Sexytime Spoilers For Dragon Age

@mayfaire: But I see no tits there. That makes me a saaaaad panda =(

@vanchrian: I have no problem with tits, guts or controversy. But there is such a thing as "too much", certainly when it comes to advertising and promotion.

@Antiterra: My assumption has been that their biggest problem has been that EA's marketing arm came in and has had a lot of trouble melding with BioWare's style and pacing. The trailers have been awful, while some of the hands-on suggests a vibrant tale with lots of BioWare-grade writing and characters.

I just accepted early on that I'm not the one they're marketing to... they don't have to. I'm a lock-in sale already. They're trying to catch more elusive customers for whom the redolent bait of well-written RPG isn't quite as tantalizing.

Well if the game really is Mature, I think the developers should include real nudity (not forcefully the explicit sex scenes) and the ability to personally kill that possessed kid.

I mean, if it's only to be played by adults, it won't matter if you get these bonuses or not.

ToTTenTranz

@mayfaire: Do you find that there's something wrong with tits?

@ilac900: I've seen it in action a bit a while back, the RPG bits didn't seem at all watered down to me. I think those trailers are just a marketing decision to try to expand their player base.

juc

@RamonHelen: It's always tough convincing people to work on someone else's IP if they don't strictly have to to sell their title.
It usually ends up that everything you make ends up being the property of the original IP holder and then you can't do anything with it.

I remember hearing the guy that wrote the bits for HK47 or boo, always felt bad that he couldn't use those characters again, unless it was worked out with Lucas or WoTC (depending on who owned the IP)

You may like those systems and worlds, but you should make sure to give other stuff a shot too as you may find other stuff you like just as much, or possibly even more.

juc

What? No tentacles option in the brothel?
I'm sorely disappointed in you Dragon Age: Origins.

juc

@Jennacide: "The window when a male transexual still has male genitals and looks female is very small, non-exsistant for most. You do all the surgery at once, minus any facial surgery."

hahahahaha.
...hahahahahahahaha.

belthegor

This game is for 17 plus just make it 18 plus kids shouldn't play it anyways and I would love to see an unrestricted game

Pious_Augustus

Interesting. I'm guessing the bestiality thing is going to be a joke, as it was in Arcanum. As for the rest of it? A little choice and variety is a good thing, especially if it means Bioware won't force me to romance one specific character (I hate you, Anomen...).

Despite the Marilyn Manson trailer, I trust Bioware to use this dark and mature setting in a mature way. Hopefully they won't be overpowered by EA's current obsession with tits, guts and controversy.

@MrKlorox: Props to you! I was going to mention this myself. I love the dialogue option you get for it... I remember selecting it and then Madam saying she had something out back that might suit my tastes. I backed out of the conversation but went to investigate anyway. It was quite funny to open a door to a room with a sheep in it.

@Antiterra: The forgotten realms was a perfect setting for Baldur's Gate. Definitely one of the reasons I enjoyed Shadows of Amn so thoroughly.

@Gabbelgak: This was a reference to his post about earning M ratings, but did you mean blatant about containing sexuality? There are several still graphic/text-based Japanese 'adventure' games that explore this idea.You did say modern, however, and that fact is very limiting in the current climate of multi-million dollar developments made by large developers who only make sure or semi-sure bet games now. You'd have to look towards a small developer, or to Japan, home of the 'Guy who just inherited an apartment building whose tenants are all schoolgirls living on their own' kinda games.

The only modern NA examples that I know of are very tame, and usually stripped out altogether (Hot Coffee), to meet the censor's criteria of at least M.

Now I'm really excited for this game, lol!

@Deaf Mute: Err... you actually completely missed the point again. The original point that he made that I was refering to was the fact that he wasn't making a slippery slope arguement at all, he was simply stating that not all M rated games need to be chock full of tits to justify the M rating, and that there are more subtle ways of earning that rating through erotica.

Yes, I know it was prudish, and I know you said it was prudish, which incidently has nothing to do with what he said at all, besides the fact that Shakespeare was from that era.

Sex is not the pinnacle of romance at all. It is a totally seperate entity. What is sex divorced from any form of romance? Porn. Is it possible to have romance without sexuality? Of course. There is tons of literature about unrequited love, or romantic gestures that transcend sex, usually ending in death (before there is the chance for any sexual relations).

I reiterate, if you don't think Shakespeare was blunt about sexuality, I encourage you to actually read some of his works (sonnets about the Dark Lady especially).

@(Zombie) Jolan:

Disclaimer: This post is based on word of mouth, not personal study on the works of Shakespeare.

Wasn't Shakespeare anything but subtle when it came to lewd dialogue?

I came for the RPG, not the sex scenes. Still, doesn't hurt :D

I would have been way more excited if this was still in the Dungeons & Dragons worlds. Forgotten Realms specifically.

RamonHelen

beautiful shoulders

ladyx

@Deaf Mute: I grew up watching Looney Tunes cartoons, which featured a lot of cross dressing and weird sexual nonsense (Elmer Fudd in a giant gold penis suit chasing down viking drag queen Bugs Bunny may be the most overt example...), but I wouldn't say it really 'disturbed' me.

In any case, though, it seems pretty clear the ESRB is mainly basing their rating on the fact that the protagonist visits a brothel, and not as much on the fact that the brothel may contain gay people, transexuals, or animals.

Its about damn time they give us man on man. I was sad when I realized they let you do girl on girl in mass effect but no man on man.

Sirusjr

On one hand I'm happy DA will finally let me take another guy at the brothel (curse you NWN!) and on the other...wtf@beastiality.

Here's hoping the RPG experience wasn't watered down too much to attract the XBL kiddie contingent. The most recent trailer has me worried.

ilac900

@Jennacide: Actually, if you go by the book a transsexual is supposed to live for one full year as a woman before she can get surgery. Some jump the gun, but at $25,000 it takes many girls (if not most girls) years to save that kind of money. Still others elect never to have the surgery because of personal preference or the risk of losing sexual feeling altogether in the process of the surgery.

I personally do not know a single transsexual woman that got sexual reassignment surgery before living as a woman, and I know a lot more than most people. I'm sure they exist, but the numbers are very low.

In Japan, transsexuals can sing, dance, fight, shoot eggs out of their nose, and a whole bunch of other things.

In the US, they are prostitutes.

::sigh::

@Bokusatsu_Tenshi:You know. I'm just going to put this one out there and say it: I don't mind seeing nipples. Really. They don't bother me. Even digital ones. Yepp. Weird, I know. I've gotten a lot of crap from it over the years, but the honest truth is: nipples do not scare me.

That is, until they grow teeth and go chasing me in circles like in my deepest, darkest dreams.

But heck - I figure that the chance of that happening in reality is lower than the chance of digital nipples appearing in an AAA release more prominently than the most gratuitous, graphic and violent depictions of human dismemberment, decaptitation and other such humane acts of discombobulation. Which is, I guess to say, really, really low.

The Forgetful Brain

@Fluorine:
"not every game needs to be so blatant about it"

Please name one game for me that is blatant about it so I can purchase it. I've yet to see sexuality be explored in modern gameplay beyond the level of say Mass Effect or the God of War 2 Minigame, both of which I would hardly call anything more than subtle.

@Deaf Mute: Humanity will probably never learn the skill of not discussing Shakespeare. I mean, there are modern-day movies based on his work.
I've actually seen one of the modern film versions of Romeo and Juliet... Many a good laughs at how they kept calling their guns "swords", and talking in ways that had you bend your brain inside out to understand what they were trying to say.
Imagine how it'll be a thousand years into the future. I can see them calling energy cannons "swords", in tribute to the almighty guy whose name will be even more unpronouncable.

/random nonserious rantpost.

Janxer

Would any kid have the patience to deal with this in either case? Remember that it's a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate.

Janxer

Demon tits?! I'm in!

Ghostwize

GAMES SHOULD NOT DO ANY TYPE OF SEX SCENES.

I point you to Mass Effect and/or Mafia to see some of the funniest (i.e. worst).

turkish101

@sixfootgnome: Actually Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo won't even allow an AO title on their system, besides the fact that retailers won't stock them.

Pornosaur

@Capall: And a transgendered person hitting on the main character.

MrKlorox

@NKato: I do hope you mean a demon pussy that eats men... instead of the other interpretation.

Save the inter-species cunnilingus for Mass Effect 2.

MrKlorox

LOL @ "or an animal"... They had a sheep in the brothel (Madame Lil's) in Arcanum. Always thought that was funny.

Can't remember for sure, but I think you got a negative reputation in your journal if you chose this option.

MrKlorox

@ara:

it seems nice the brothel is a great addition ching$!

@Bokusatsu_Tenshi: Also, remember that M isn't the highest videogame rating that the ESRB gives, it is just the highest one that any successful game has. If they get all porny, they get rated AO (Adults Only).

Then Walmart definitely won't stock them, neither will almost any other big box store, and the game will be epic fail at making a profit...

unless you want to spend 3-30 mil per copy of your Dragons Age porn?

sixfootgnome

@Fernando Jorge: i'm pretty sure the game is based around the middle/barbarian ages. What do you think barbarians did? Text and braid eachother's hair? Fuck no, they killed stuff, burned down villages and had sex with everything that moved. Add dragons into this, and I think you'll have a good idea where bioware might have been coming from

tEddy rOKxbiN- That would be like Peter Molyneux and Uwe Boll getting together for a brainstorming session... O SHIT wheres my SHOTGUN!?

@Deaf Mute: That is not by definition a transexual. What you're talking about is hermaphroditism. Which is unbelievably rare, and almost always doctors have the parents treat it with medication to force the child to whichever side they lean more. (Typically male, since it's due to a broken X chromosome)

The window when a male transexual still has male genitals and looks female is very small, non-exsistant for most. You do all the surgery at once, minus any facial surgery.

Jennacide

@(Zombie) Jolan: How is a brothel with bestiality needed in that game? That whole brothel idea is unneeded in the first place. It's just there's even more sex in the game aside from the bikini armor of half naked ladies.

Fernando Jorge

Uhm, BioWare has lots of convincing to do to get me to buy this. So far all the marketing has been downright terrible and this sure doesn't sound any better than attention fishing. I generally like what they do, cliched stories and characters aside, but Dragon Age just seem to has nothing good going on.

@(Zombie) Jolan: Yes, but that would have made the scary remake worth watching.

@Deaf Mute: If his parents were so quick to jump at shadows that the mere explanation of non-heteronormative people was beyond their middling parenting abilities, then he was bound to be "disturbed" by any number of things during his childhood.

Besides which, why would you be showing pictures of beautiful women to sexually curious boys? "Here sonny, this is what you should be fapping over like a good citizen." Give me a break. Sexually curious members of either sex will find and seek out titillating material with or without parental permission. If they were at least clued in to the existence of people and lifestyles other than the norm, maybe they'd be a little less shocked when their inexperienced forays land them with the inevitably non-societally-sanctioned results.

(edit: grammar)

@ChaoticInfinityX: Google "demon tits." Even better, do an image search.

@Bokusatsu_Tenshi:Because it would be rated AO by default, and wouldn't get sold anywhere.

user_21938

@xxXX_Insanities_Birth_XXxx: Yeah, to be honest, I'll probably buy the game on BioWare's name alone, regardless of anything else. After all, Mass Effect certainly had its share of flaws, technical and otherwise, but that didn't stop me from enjoying to bits.
My biggest concern with Dragon Age is that it seems to lack personality, but it's true that we don't know much about the story, which could change everything.

EDIT: it's also called "Origins" for a reason, so I won't expect the game to immediately kick into high gear.

@SOPHOMORESeann: Lol that's hilarious

MrMister

@Outkastprince: No sex scene is necessary.

You see, that is the problem with arguments like yours. Lets just be honest about it, just say you don't prefer such sex scenes. Don't state they are unnecessary and those you do prefer somehow are.

@Antiterra: I found it to be a bit too slow and under performed in the dialogue part and that made me uninterested. Oh well I'm sure it'll be okay if you can get over the flaws.

xxXX_Insanities_Birth_XXxx

I loved Baldur's Gate, I played D&D for 10 years, I adore BioWare, and yet I can't seem to get excited about this game (unlike Mass Effect 2, which can't come too soon).

So far, the overall setting, atmosphere and characters look drab and generic to me. The game world doesn't look too good, animations appear lacking at best.
I sincerely hope that my current impression is merely the result of poor marketing and early code not doing the game justice, because I would love some sweet fantasy RPG.

@Fluorine: "Also, if you think Shakespeare was a prude, you'd better do yourself a favour and sit down and read it."

Talking about missing points.

Early European society was prudish, I even said that right there in the post. Shakespeare couldn't be so blunt about romance because of the audience, not because depicting sex actually somehow ruins a story between romance between two lovers.

Sex is the pinnacle of that romance.

Also can we stop comparing everything to Shakespeare.

@Bokusatsu_Tenshi:
Yes, I can see M-Rated Gears of War having full fledged up and down, in and out action... No, wait... Oh god, I don't want to...

300lbs. of man meat on top of 300lbs. of man meat =/= pleasant viewing for any age. =(

Mikolai

@Deaf Mute: No, I think you missed the point. He's not preaching against porn, he's pointing out that not every game needs to be so blatant about it. Also, if you think Shakespeare was a prude, you'd better do yourself a favour and sit down and read it.

@svetlana: I generally agree with what you have said, except the first sentence.

I'm sure a transsexual actually is disturbing to a lot of children. Show a sexually curious boy a picture of a beautiful woman, than show him that woman has a penis.

Then show me him 10 years later, if he wasn't disturbed in any amount by that he isn't the average kid.

@(Zombie) Jolan: Mmm yes

Justify your slippery slope obscenity argument with early European prude views on human sexuality.

@Bokusatsu_Tenshi:Full on sex? Wouldn't that make the game AO?

@NKato: Rated M for vagina dentata.

@Bokusatsu_Tenshi: because a game being M somehow means it should automatically be porn? Have you heard of subtlety? granted they aren't that subtle, but just because a rating allows it is no excuse to throw something unneeded into the game. Sometimes what is implied needs not be depicted. If Romeo just bent juliet over a table and fucked her brains out, Shakespeare would probably not be held in such high regard.

Demon tits. Mmmmh.

SmiteMeister

@Grinning Kestrel: Because reality is a Windows/DOS executable, but is being deleted in linux.

Or rather, because sudo rm sounds way cooler than del.

Oh, what the crap?
If you're gonna rate it M, why don't go full fledged the good up and down, in and out?

I mean, for implied stuff, we already have enough stuff out there...

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

"Hey there honey, got the plague, or something? WHA-- What? Did I say something wrong? Babe! don't get so mad! I was just-- I just... You know what? screw it, I'm gonna kill some dragons"

Words fail me on this one. But I can't wait to see my high level character wake up next to a cow/dragon/spider/goat/etc.
I wasn't all that interested, but this just sounds hilarious. Don't disappoint on the you know.... actual gameplay part either Bioware.

This game looks terrible, However demon tits might just save it.

@Owen Good: Pleased i r

@Owen Good: Excellent! i look forward to the day!

Deathimself

@Owen Good: We're more likely to get demon tits in Dante's Inferno than in Dragon Age. Actually, given the creature design in Dante's Inferno, I would imagine that you're more likely to get man-eating demon pussy.

@octalass:
Manbearpig is in there and we all have to kill him while we all have the chance, I'm cereal!

@svetlana:

I like how the ESRB, BBFC, MPAA etc. don't like being called censorship groups, but constantly go on like they serve some greater purpose when they usually serve the agenda of certain well funded individuals or groups.

@SOPHOMORESeann: Oh, god. My eyes.

@Clarke: Oh! The scandal! This will encourage moral turpitude ^_^!

Seriously, I have this film as part of an Edison DVD collection. Only for the historical value...I promise I won't get turned on by the licentiousness on the screen o_O

Mm hmm, because trannies are just hell on children's psyches, just right up there next to waking up next to an animal. Charming, ESRB. Is it beyond you to simply deal out a verdict--the usefulness of which is doubtful anyway, except as legal ass-covering, because as we've seen in the last week we don't exactly live in an age of responsible parenting--in a sterile manner, without these carefully-constructed pyramids of rising indignation? And does it really matter, ESRB, whether you're having het or homo sex? Do we really need to know? Isn't it enough to keep the kiddies shielded from errant body parts, and leave it at that?

Oh right, I forgot. You're supposed to keep your child in a bubble of 1950s-esque Disney heteronormativity for as long as humanly possible. Bravo, ESRB. Bravo.

Well I do admit this is some new shit.

Greatly looking forward to playing this for countless hours. The brothel interactions sound brillant, only for the fact that they went for the proper obnoxious idea of bestiality and the inclusion of shims. Media outlets and the circus of hysteric outcries that the fall of civilization is being led by the previous unknown 5th horsemen videogames.

ruckus138

@(Hollow) svenhoek: Try typing in "French Military Victories" in google and hit the 'I'm feeling lucky' button

@Deathimself: I promise more demon tits when more demon tits become available.

Same sex couplings? That may have been the single factor that convinced me to not pass up this game.

Demon side tits would have tipped the scale for sure. Or cockblock a potential NYTimes Best Seller list.

hmmm demon titties

HeavyMental

Will there be manimals?

Im certain fox will care more about the fact that there is human on human action rather than human on animal action.

K1NG EV1L

This reminds me of when I found out you couldn't actually get in the Bearded Clam in Age of Conan, and it was all downhill from there.

Rockabully

Demon tits.

First day purchase.

@Deathimself: kotaku "demon tits" bookmarked

llehuty

Ehh. It isn't a big deal. You click the dialog option of 'surprise me' and you fade to black, waking up next to a goat. It isn't meant to be serious, as far as I see it. It is meant to be humorous.

Wow. Im feeling lucky button in a brothel.

If google has taught me one thing, its not to hit Im Feeling Lucky, because you never GET lucky with what comes up.

@SaanZ: Still doesn't mean you have to add something so crude. I love girls wearing hand towels as uniforms like the next guy but these sex scenes really aren't necessary. It's like the makers of these games are craving for sexual content, though trapped in a studio for so long making a game might make me look at my dog differently.

@Grinning Kestrel: Because reality is running in Windows and he was able to hack himself out of the matrix using Linux :P

slimky

@Deathimself: Caught my eye too... are they starting a new theme?

I wasn't interested in this game.... until now!

Radz

Even demon tits can't titilate me enough to care about this game.

Shemales FTW.

Sullyville

@vwllss.: They want some tasty tasty ironic humour.

@Outkastprince:

I thought the choice in music for its trailer established that

@sudo rm reality.exe: Completely unrelated note, but why are you using sudo rm on an exe file?

Sure, I'll stare at a pair of demon tits, no problem. *scoffs*

@D Mitsuki : Gotta have guts kid!: I just did that, it was awesome.

Normally I'd say that they're trying too hard to be edgy, but then I remember that this game is from BioWare. Now I'm not really sure what to think.

vwllss.

Everyone is always comparing video games to movies and I think we still need to get past our "Kiss".

why is "demon tits" tagged if this is the only article that comes up? i was very disappointed...

Deathimself

ah well thats alright then...

Animals? Awesome

CaptainAtman

Oooh, animals? I'm totally down with dragon sex. Come on, Bioware. Don't disappoint me.

If you don't want THAT, at least sex with giant snakes? That "animal" classification had better not be mammal only :(

OH NO GUYS CALL FOX NEWS TONS OF SEX SCENES IN THIS WORST GAME EVER THAT IS DESTROYING OUR YOUTH WHO WE MUST SAVE FROM EVIL HUMAN BODY PARTS.

Just read that to yourself in Microsoft Sam voice...or that Half Life real life consequences machcinima's voice.

I get sexual encounters, they do have their place in certain video scenes. Maybe it explores the relationship of two characters while they fight mutant farmers with pitchforks.

But Dragon Age is just plain childish, you have to be pretty desperate to want anything to do with that feeling lucky feature. Animal loving? It's not even funny, just a waste of time.

Meh, in Vice City Stories there was a running gag with Sergeant Martinez watching bestiality on his tv.