WHAT'S UP WITH THE DAMN PROFANITY?

Posts

author=LockeZ
I do have to disagree with the argument about "those swear words didn't exist." Swear words exist in almost every language. They have existed for an extremely long time. What doesn't exist in your world is the English language - but even though the characters are presumably talking in Common or Elvish or something, you are going to write their dialogue in English. So when they curse, you are going to write an English curse word. Obviously they didn't say "shit", they said "pfoodoo" or something, but if you're translating the other 99.9% of the game to English, you've gotta translate the swear words too. So this is not really a valid argument against cursing, though it is perhaps a valid argument against the characters making puns. (But when a movie or something is being translated in real life and has a pun in it, a really good translator will try to find an equivalent pun in the new language. So you can still maybe justify puns that way.)

well, I think the bolded part is exactly what I said. i am not sure why you did not just quote me and say "jericho you are so smart and handsome." please do that. in your next post. but also, I disagree with translating swear words to the english equivalent as far as uniquely magical/medieval time periods go on the basis that the english equivalent at the time was not fuck or shit or eggbabies. shit, for example, wasn't even really used until the 20th century (and nor was its olde english equivalent) so it is very jarring and seemingly lazy when I see speech mixed in games like this.

you can argue that nothing from earth like say the english language would exist in your game universe anyway, but mixing language from different time periods is, to me, like putting a television or cell phone in magical elf kingdom x.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
What if it's a steam powered cell phone?

What if it's steam powered profanity?
I don't mind swearing in moderation or for impact. When a character's every third word is "fucking" I usually get bored quickly.

I actually find the fantasy/medieval objection interesting, because although people have always sworn, the ways they've done so and the words they've used have changed over time. For example, blasphemy packs a lot less punch nowadays. It can be tricky to pull off the right atmosphere with an audience that doesn't necessarily realize that change, especially viscerally. At least if you make up your own swears here people won't be feeling "'Damn'? Couldn't he have picked about 200 more forceful things to say?"

(I've also read, though not from any particularly reputable source, that medieval oaths were more likely to occur as part of actual sentences and not the interjectory "Oh shit!" sort of thing.)
"By the Thunder God's left nipple!"
I tend to use cuss words for 'softer' language (things like bastard, Hell, bloody, bitch, whore, damn, festering pile of puke and what have you) and if I can't steer away from strong language all together, then something made up.
"By <insert name of deity here> <insert offensive body part here>!"
A made up word that has a harsh sound: "You tharka!" "Bloody shinkt."
Or sentences that involve a mix of disgusting bodily functions, descriptions and odd nouns. "That fen-dwelling, rat-sucking festering pile of donkey droppings!"
Or a mix of all three...
"You bastard son of a three-legged, goat-molesting whore!"

Yeah, so remember, it's not all fucking and shit - there are a lot of words in the English language that can be just as - if not more - offensive when joined together. ^.^ Of course, it should suit the character and time period.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
author=Liberty
"By the Thunder God's left nipple!"

author=Versalia
author=Emanzi
if its funny whats the problem? It's not like every rpg maker game has a PG limit.
If you bother to read any of the other comments above you, you will see that the issue is not the fact that swearing is used but that it is often used inappropriately or in a jarring manner.

Oh, sorry. That does get annoying, I think its a phase, I used to swear for everything when I was like 12 but then it got boring.

author=DFalcon
I don't mind swearing in moderation or for impact. When a character's every third word is "fucking" I usually get bored quickly.

I actually find the fantasy/medieval objection interesting, because although people have always sworn, the ways they've done so and the words they've used have changed over time. For example, blasphemy packs a lot less punch nowadays. It can be tricky to pull off the right atmosphere with an audience that doesn't necessarily realize that change, especially viscerally. At least if you make up your own swears here people won't be feeling "'Damn'? Couldn't he have picked about 200 more forceful things to say?"

(I've also read, though not from any particularly reputable source, that medieval oaths were more likely to occur as part of actual sentences and not the interjectory "Oh shit!" sort of thing.)

Yeah their like 100 other words that can bring the same feeling other than "oh shit", but in effect its also less expressive to swear in a very polite manner in an extreme case or vise versa, swear words should be reserved for intense situations only otherwise it seems like someone's just trying to sound bad ass but pulling nothing off.
good example lockez, pretty much felt the intensity
benos
My mind is full of fuck.
624
Fluffing fluffers. A great censor.
What about symbol swearing? It adds a cartoonish swear-effect to the small adorable sprites.
@&€%=#€*]§£$!
Puddor
if squallbutts was a misao category i'd win every damn year
5702
I got complaints about symbol swearing and got told to not bother censoring. A lot of the dialogue I wrote with swearing I wrote on a whim or a long time ago so I've revised a lot of it. Though, I did keep a lot of a specific character's cussing- he's a pissy, alcoholic jerk most of the time so it's appropriate.
<- ahem

When I use swearing I try to make sure it's in character and in the moment. Usually when it sounds off I'll rewrite. I think cussing can give more depth to a character when appropriate because most people swear in real life (most adults around me and my peers). I agree it's not fully appropriate in settings beside modern- I mean, in my personal experience, cussing in Cosplay Crisis felt natural, and that's set in 2010, while my written story (set in the 1850's), using 'fuck' just felt wrong, and I ended up changing the line to 'sleeps with'.
Dudesoft
always a dudesoft, never a soft dude.
6309
The problem I have with profanity is that I have worked in a lot of jobs where 'fuck' is the general filler word like 'uh' or 'er' morelike; 'y'know, that fucking thing the fuck what is it that fucking guy knows!'
So in general, I tend to incorporate this with my quasi-modern day RPGs. At least one character will have Fuck in his vocabulary.
However! I do agree that profanity is often mis-managed by some writers. If a character like Princess Zelda is around, she's PROBABLY not going to use Fuck, unless it's for funnies down the road after traveling with a swearing protagonist.
Swearing is a tricky tool. It's almost as important to use as it is important NOT to use.
If CJ from San Andreas talked like Carlton Banks from Fresh Prince of Belair, no doubt you'd be equally as jarred.

Edit:
I made Megaman.EXE because he's a modern day Internet crawler! It always bugged me how 'clean and PG-13 the Internet of those games was.
author=WCouillard
author=Nightblade
Looks like Legion finally made it big.
This is the funniest thing I've watched all month.


I second that good sir.
On topic for again:

Personally a curse word every now and then can be a good thing when dialogue becomes stale. Could you imagine playing a Shakespherian RPG without having something modern thrown in to wake you up from all the 'thee's', 'thou's', and 'thine's'?

When a game does it in excess is when it becomes a little hard to swallow. Take the GTA serious for example: I think the most 'tame' game was Vice City. Mainly because Tommy cursed by at the same time said aggressive lines without cursing. Then you had San Andreas and...well, let's face it, when you play for an hour and hear the N-bomb enough times to feel like a member of the KKK, you know they've taken it a tad far. Though in that game's defense, it's a part of the...'culture' the main character's from?

For dramatic effect by all means swear like a sailor if it calls for it but don't string together a 'Dictonary of Naughty Words' to make a point. Although a good 'fuck' in a well placed manner is always acceptable. Or Shit. Or dammit.
author=Alrubedo
Personally a curse word every now and then can be a good thing when dialogue becomes stale. Could you imagine playing a Shakespherian RPG without having something modern thrown in to wake you up from all the 'thee's', 'thou's', and 'thine's'?


"shakespherian rpg" is this some kind of new wave joke i dont get
author=Jericho
author=Alrubedo
Personally a curse word every now and then can be a good thing when dialogue becomes stale. Could you imagine playing a Shakespherian RPG without having something modern thrown in to wake you up from all the 'thee's', 'thou's', and 'thine's'?
"shakespherian rpg" is this some kind of new wave joke i dont get


Somewhat. New Wave though I don't know--what I meant was the games that have poetic dialogue can get stuffy so a little 'sprinkling' of curse words here and there would break it up. Unless of course the script just wows it's audience.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Oh, so it's not a pun involving the Sphere software, it's just a typo of Shakespearean. Lame.
benos
My mind is full of fuck.
624
author=Alrubedo
author=WCouillard
author=Nightblade
Looks like Legion finally made it big.
This is the funniest thing I've watched all month.
I second that good sir.


That's like saying fracken in BSG.
author=Alrubedo
Personally a curse word every now and then can be a good thing when dialogue becomes stale. Could you imagine playing a Shakespherian RPG without having something modern thrown in to wake you up from all the 'thee's', 'thou's', and 'thine's'?

Throwing something modern into such a project would be possibly the best way to kill suspension of disbelief, which seems to be the main gripe against profanity in RPGs. Unless everything was a translation of Shakespeare...
author=Alrubedo
author=Jericho
author=Alrubedo
Personally a curse word every now and then can be a good thing when dialogue becomes stale. Could you imagine playing a Shakespherian RPG without having something modern thrown in to wake you up from all the 'thee's', 'thou's', and 'thine's'?
"shakespherian rpg" is this some kind of new wave joke i dont get
Somewhat. New Wave though I don't know--what I meant was the games that have poetic dialogue can get stuffy so a little 'sprinkling' of curse words here and there would break it up. Unless of course the script just wows it's audience.


okay. I don't really like the "shakespearian" modifier (sphere pun aside) as a lot shakespeare's works were, uh, rather dirty (good king of cats!) and if someone could emulate them well I would be pissed if they just threw in the word fuck. that said, if you really need to throw curse words into your poetry so people don't get bored, you should stop trying to make something poetic.
author=Jericho
okay. I don't really like the "shakespearian" modifier (sphere pun aside) as a lot shakespeare's works were, uh, rather dirty (good king of cats!) and if someone could emulate them well I would be pissed if they just threw in the word fuck. that said, if you really need to throw curse words into your poetry so people don't get bored, you should stop trying to make something poetic.

Well... you can write poetic cursing. Using those really common swearwords.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqMWBpwXX80
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q4o72jBZRY&t=27s
not to forget this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQbsnSVM1zM