Dragon Age 2 - ESRB Rating Annnounced

In this thread at the Bioware Social Forums, the ESRB ratings along with some comments on the game are revealed. The thread are now closed, but there is an open here. The game has gotten an unsurprisingly M-rating, but the interesting parts lies in how the ESRB has commented on the game:

"This is an action-adventure role-playing game in which players assume the role of a warrior who completes quests in a mythical land. Players use swords, bows and arrows, and magical spells (e.g., fireballs, energy beams) to defeat human-like enemies and fantasy creatures (e.g., giant spiders, demons, ogres, golems). Attacks are often accompanied by slashing sounds, large explosions, and cries of pain. Blood splatter effects occur when enemies are hit, and damage sometimes results in dismemberment or decapitation—blood stains and body parts occasionally appear in the environment. In one cutscene, a man's severed head is held up then tossed to the ground. During the course of the game, characters sometimes engage in sexual dialogue (e.g., "Why is it always about sex with you?" and "Sailing is like sex. Do it wrong, and it'll make you sick."). Players can also initiate brief cutscene sequences in which couples (male-female or same-sex) are shown kissing and embracing one another in a bedroom as the screen fades to black. In one cutscene, a woman kneels in front of a male character and appears to perform fellatio—there is no depiction of the sex act; the camera pans out to the rest of the room. The words "a*s," "bastard," and "sh*t" appear in dialogue."

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Direct link to the comments and the rating from ESRB.
For some reason, people like to discuss certain oral activites in the game:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/5956125
Why it is so, I really don't know...

More information.

I can't believe that thread turned into a usual Internet douchebag buzzkill thread. Rough times.

Cutting away is certainly better than the awkward sex scenes in the first game, bras being put on for sex being a particularly stupid thing.

The original Mass Effect actually did a videogame sex scene quite well... shame none of the games after that have matched it.

I dont really care who my character is banging when im playing an RPG . Biowares formula for this soap opera interactive experience is TIRED !!! If you look on Bio forums they eat it up , they are hoping for 3 sums and all want to see Morriagans ass in DA2.

The reason for the bra in dragonage and the fade to black is because of fox news and the sex scandal on masseffect. Blame the media and conservative people for not seeing how it was used in masseffect.

rich ruffo said:

I dont really care who my character is banging when im playing an RPG . Biowares formula for this soap opera interactive experience is TIRED !!! If you look on Bio forums they eat it up , they are hoping for 3 sums and all want to see Morriagans ass in DA2.

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Well yeah, shallow people are shallow.

I like sex to used in RPGs when it has real meaning or importance, not forced into the game as some sort of staple. Fallout 2 did it well.

DoctorNarrative said:

Well yeah, shallow people are shallow.

I like sex to used in RPGs when it has real meaning or importance, not forced into the game as some sort of staple. Fallout 2 did it well.

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The fans on the bio-forums have some very strange fantasy's. Makes me wonder what there minimum age is. Don't forget this is a supposedly M-rated game. Oh wait you mean kids under 17 don't play m-rated games. We know they do just go play online on the 360 and see all the immature kids playing m-rated games. At least the sex in fallout 1+2 was realistic and implemented well.

rich ruffo said:

I dont really care who my character is banging when im playing an RPG . Biowares formula for this soap opera interactive experience is TIRED !!! If you look on Bio forums they eat it up , they are hoping for 3 sums and all want to see Morriagans ass in DA2.

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Yeah, that's what worries me most. What started as a nice sub-plot in earlier BioWare games has now become the host of massive amounts of fanservice. Some of it really reminds me about classic Anime Soap-Opera inspired games.

What some fans are asking for... And the way people worship Morrigan (apparently I'm the only one who didn't think she was a good character)... It gets a little frightening at times. I think I recently read an article on IGN (I know, the joke's on me) where the editor was excited at the prospect of having sex with characters you aren't actively pursuing a romance with (so being in love with each other is no longer a requirement, in other words). He was happy that the game was going to contain "hot hate sex" (his exact words). It's all slightly odd to say the least.

I don't mind having sex in my games (be it through discussions in dialogue or actual depictions of the act). In fact, I think we should have more of it, because it is an important expression of human emotions in our society. But so far very little games have shown signs of being able to handle it in a serious/mature way. There always seems to be a lack of a certain "human" element.

Though, as others have pointed out, ME2 handled it pretty well. But I still find the entire "path to sex" scenario slightly unsettling. You basically talk and talk to your characters because of you know at the end of the road there is this shining beacon of light: Sex with a virtual character! Making the structure of the actual romances less boring might help a lot.

What's more is the point that sex is NOT the main most important point in playing ANY game !

This thing's just exaggerated -> people want to play something "forbidden". Which sheds some light on who really is playing these games …

The more forbidden, the greater the attraction of the forbidden things …

And also, I think, that this is also a sign of prudery - which gives the forbidden things a lot more attraction, too, imho.

I suspect that the more something is an integral or even innate part of a culture, the less it is "forbidden", and the less it gains thus attraction through being forbidden in itself ...


Me, when I'm writing my own fantasy short stories (and currently a longer piece) set in my own fantasy universe, I do love writing romantic love scenes … But sex ? Unthinkable ! It would just not fit in there, imho !

However, there ARE a few fantasy settings where sex plays a part … In TDE remember the Goddess called Rahja, for example … In the Aventurian pantheon she is responsible for inebriation, for love and for sex at the same time. But no TDE game has shown this so far … well, apart from a few brothels in the Realms Of Arcania Trilogy … But her church isn't portaited at all - in contrast to the churches of Praios and Efferd, for example.
And sex scenes … yes, there are said to be some in really bad TDE novels … bad in terms of quality, I heard …

What would a next-gen Bioware game be without a nice blowjob...

They should try to remake Sierra's Larry Laffer adventures, then ...

DoctorNarrative said:

The original Mass Effect actually did a videogame sex scene quite well… .

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I don`t recall ever finding my remote as fast as when those polygons started rubbing. It was godawful

Flirting was ok but they didn`t have to go the whole nine.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

They should try to remake Sierra's Larry Laffer adventures, then …

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For the ultimate sacrilege, perhaps. Last three ones were enough of a joke anyway.

Inside of the old help file of Pegasus Mail there is a so-called "joke page".
Inside of it, there are two imho very wise sentences :

Definition of "Erotic" : using a feather
Definition of sex/porn : using the whole duck instead

(Quoted from my memory; I cannot recall the *exact* wording anymore …)

zadokAllen said:

I don`t recall ever finding my remote as fast as when those polygons started rubbing. It was godawful

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My point was more that it was very brief flashes in a dark room, so you got a sense of sex but without really seeing "polygon rubbing." At least that was my experience with it.

Flashes, eh? Well, thats better than what I thought happened, but still found it rather awkward. Guess I like my videogames the old fashion way...

So far, I haven't seen any sex scene that changed a game for the better - in any game ever. I wouldn't say they make the games worse, either, I just have absolutely no interest in them. That's mostly because developers utterly fail to write characters that I can truly relate to, and because writing in gaming is generally so very bad - that it's like watching sex between cliché robots.

That said, I think I can count on one hand what Hollywood movies are better for their sex scenes, so…

However, there's another kind of movie where the sex scenes are quite vital