Yes, I’ve been absent for a long time. Sorry, guys - E3 was taking its toll on me. (More on what I’m actually doing is soon to come). I couldn’t miss, however, the ruckus about Bethesda’s Oblivion being re-rated “M” for mature. In case you’ve missed that one (how’d that happen?), it’s because Oblivion contains, out of the box, a semi-nude character. (Gasp!)
There are technical reasons for that, actually. It’s not just a bunch of 16 year olds having fun, as opposed to, say, Rockstar. Clothing in Oblivion is modeled separately from the bodies. And since some of the female costumes actually have a V-neck, they need some cleavage. So the underlying model has some sort-of breasts. The only part that got modeling love is the part actually visible in the V-cut of the dress. The rest looks, well, hideous.
But, of course, in our current climate, even a hint of breast (Oh noes! Nipples!) is too much. Now, I could say a lot about strangely skewed values of a world where necromancing, vampirisim, and dead people on stakes are OK for kids, but nipples are to be restricted to 18 year olds, but I’ll spare you.
Instead, I’d like to give you some food for thought: Every Barbie you buy in the next Toys’R'Us can be undressed, and, shockingly enough, is actually flesh-colored under her dress. (She wears painted-on panties, like the Oblivion model). We give those toys to 3-year-olds without thinking. If the same thing happens in a video game, it’s shattering the morals of the nation and needs to be restricted. So when will Mattel receive its first “M” rating?
Oddly enough, older Barbies didn’t have panties, they just had a small cleft with no hair that vaguely resembled external female genitalia. I believe the idea was that little girls would understand this to mean that Barbie looked just like them. My oldest Ken doll had molded, flesh-toned undies and probably still does….
The horrors of war are natural things that any soldier or anyone from a strife-torn land or one with competent news coverage can see. But in spite of the fact that everyone has one, nekkid bodies are still shameful things. Just goes to show that given enough indoctrination (aka religion), people will believe anything….