(Warning: Wall of text comin through!)
What's this? A topic demonizing the essence of profanity in gaming?
Hell no!
I honestly couldn't care less about the notion, people curse all the time. It's pretty common and would almost seem weird these days to have certain mature games without it.
But that's not the point, i'm talking about games that embrace profanity with the same subtlety and grandeur as a raging twelve year old on Xbox Live, trying to achieve some gritty standard in order to be more "mature".
Case in point: Crysis 2
An overall good game with great graphics and well thought out aesthetics that fit the apocalyptic theme.
Back to the subject.
Within five minutes into the game i'm introduced to an antagonizing force of grunts with about as much personality you'd find in a cardboard box, spouting "Fuck" and "Shit" multiple times in each line as if there's some sort of quota to fill. Now of course, this is just one of the writer's techniques in deliberately dehumanizing them in order to establish them as the bad guys, in the hopes that you'll render no guilt as you haplessly gun them down to progress further into the game.
I guess I didn't mind this until progressing towards the part where you meet up with marines of the game.
At this point I was annoyed to see this game picked up on the "Fuck Yea!" bad ass gun toting marine with an attitude archetype that has pretty much graced almost every shooter supposedly going for an dark and edgy tone, only to end up feeling satirical at the end.
At this point, I realized too late that the "Fucking Fuck Shit" attitude displayed by the bad guys in the beginning wasn't established to make them appear bad, but also to mostly imply some sort of overall mature atmosphere in the game, because even the good guys do it excessively at the point of seeming comedic. So rather than wit, this game tries to appear mature and edgy through lines like:
"Let's kill the Alien Squid Motherfuckers!"
"Stop standing around with your dicks in your hands marines, lets move out!"
This is a lot of what I hear in the game, and it's unintentionally hilarious from the way its presented. It feels contrived and unnecessary, like the game's writer is trying make it sound like like popular titles such Gears of War, which really isn't engaging in terms of characters and story anyway(Just my opinion, your Mileage May Vary on that statement).
Try picturing those kind of lines being said in movies, with serious themes. I guess you can argue this sort of behavior is supposed to provoke some sort of raunchy emotional support to progress, or maybe even to add a fun tone to the game, but that's probably not the case since the game feels the need to show several dying citizens suffering from a horrible alien virus throughout my venture, as if the game is saying "Stop having fun and look at how serious this is!"
Yeah I know this argument may seem one-sided, but it's sort of a thing I've noticed a lot of games try to employ, and yes I'm well aware this has been done for a while now. Maybe i'm nitpicking and over analyzing it, maybe i'm so much of a wuss that I can't hear the word Fuck without crying to the nearest adult to complain too, either way, it's just something i'm taking note on.
I never said swearing in games is bad. Profanity can be used to great effect in writing, it can tell a lot about characters and the way their personalities hold up.
But in games like Crysis 2 and several others it feels like pandering to the lowest common denominator of maturity.
What's your take on this?
What's this? A topic demonizing the essence of profanity in gaming?
Hell no!
I honestly couldn't care less about the notion, people curse all the time. It's pretty common and would almost seem weird these days to have certain mature games without it.
But that's not the point, i'm talking about games that embrace profanity with the same subtlety and grandeur as a raging twelve year old on Xbox Live, trying to achieve some gritty standard in order to be more "mature".
Case in point: Crysis 2
An overall good game with great graphics and well thought out aesthetics that fit the apocalyptic theme.
Back to the subject.
Within five minutes into the game i'm introduced to an antagonizing force of grunts with about as much personality you'd find in a cardboard box, spouting "Fuck" and "Shit" multiple times in each line as if there's some sort of quota to fill. Now of course, this is just one of the writer's techniques in deliberately dehumanizing them in order to establish them as the bad guys, in the hopes that you'll render no guilt as you haplessly gun them down to progress further into the game.
I guess I didn't mind this until progressing towards the part where you meet up with marines of the game.
At this point I was annoyed to see this game picked up on the "Fuck Yea!" bad ass gun toting marine with an attitude archetype that has pretty much graced almost every shooter supposedly going for an dark and edgy tone, only to end up feeling satirical at the end.
At this point, I realized too late that the "Fucking Fuck Shit" attitude displayed by the bad guys in the beginning wasn't established to make them appear bad, but also to mostly imply some sort of overall mature atmosphere in the game, because even the good guys do it excessively at the point of seeming comedic. So rather than wit, this game tries to appear mature and edgy through lines like:
"Let's kill the Alien Squid Motherfuckers!"
"Stop standing around with your dicks in your hands marines, lets move out!"
This is a lot of what I hear in the game, and it's unintentionally hilarious from the way its presented. It feels contrived and unnecessary, like the game's writer is trying make it sound like like popular titles such Gears of War, which really isn't engaging in terms of characters and story anyway(Just my opinion, your Mileage May Vary on that statement).
Try picturing those kind of lines being said in movies, with serious themes. I guess you can argue this sort of behavior is supposed to provoke some sort of raunchy emotional support to progress, or maybe even to add a fun tone to the game, but that's probably not the case since the game feels the need to show several dying citizens suffering from a horrible alien virus throughout my venture, as if the game is saying "Stop having fun and look at how serious this is!"
Yeah I know this argument may seem one-sided, but it's sort of a thing I've noticed a lot of games try to employ, and yes I'm well aware this has been done for a while now. Maybe i'm nitpicking and over analyzing it, maybe i'm so much of a wuss that I can't hear the word Fuck without crying to the nearest adult to complain too, either way, it's just something i'm taking note on.
I never said swearing in games is bad. Profanity can be used to great effect in writing, it can tell a lot about characters and the way their personalities hold up.
But in games like Crysis 2 and several others it feels like pandering to the lowest common denominator of maturity.
What's your take on this?
