How Dark is Darkmoor Manor?

Darkmoor Manor is the newest house on the block in Wizard101. Its super spooky and really eerie. The bundle itself (The Witch Hunter's Bundle) is very interesting and worth taking a look at. Swordroll's Blog takes an in-depth look at the bundle.

The house itself is very creepy. There's many places for monsters to lurk, and plenty of shadows and bats. The house gives an overall cemetery atmosphere. As you take a look at the house, you may stumble upon something very, very dark, and borderline inappropriate for a family MMO. The Darkmoor Manor features one lone noose, eerily swinging in the wind.

Naturally, this caused major backlash through out the community, and for good reason. KingsIsle claims to be a family-oriented  MMO, yet they included a very disturbing method of death. This isn't very appropriate for a family-friendly game, and KingsIsle shouldn't have added it.

At the same token, Wizard101's rating is E-10+ and claims that it includes mild cartoon violence. A parent would be able to infer that something like this may be in the game. After all, parents that are worried about their kids would be the ones in the most disapproval of it, and assuming they made this inference, probably aren't letting their child play the game.

However, this edgy addition doesn't have any other items nearby that could make it worse. The noose's location is very subtle and high up, making for it to be hard to notice. There is no bucket or stand, no corpse, bag, criminal or witch in close proximity to suggest that you are at a hanging. Also, the house, by context, is for a witch hunter. This is reference to the Salem Witch Trials, which killed almost all of the accused by hanging.

Although it isn't appropriate for young children, it is not entirely bad. Many of you have probably played Hangman, learned about the Salem Witch Trials, lynch mobs, and other scenarios of the involvement of the noose.

In my opinion, the noose is very edgy. There could be far worse things added, and it's not really appropriate. I feel it's a questionable addition that would have been better off not added.

What is your opinion? Should KingsIsle have left it out?

Special thanks to Aaron Lionhunter for the post idea and Iridian Willowglen for getting me into the house!