Excessive profanity in games

Cheesepower5

New member
Dec 21, 2009
1,142
0
0
RaginDrage said:
Cheesepower5 said:
RaginDrage said:
Cheesepower5 said:
To be fair, popular lines from actual marines tend to have about as much substance. Not that I mean to say they're a bunch of trucker-mouthed philistines, just that when they get famous it tends to be for screaming things like "TAKE A FLYING SHIT!"
Very true.

But I guess it sort of gets ridiculous when every marine within hearing distance begins saying saying that stuff whenever something both significant or insignificant happens in a game. I get the impression of "Trying too hard" rather than grit in these instances, but that's probably just me.
Well, I suppose it's situational. If you only program 4 or 5 generic marine battle cries and 2 of them amount to "fuck you!" There'll be a tonne of cursing. If it's in scripted or cinematic scenes it's more likely lazy writing.


I never played Crisis 2, so I don't know if it's one or the other or both. It was dumb as hell when they used it to make Shadow the Hedgehog more "mature"(who the hell though cartoon hedgehogs were mature?) for example, but it can go the other way too. Hearing the hero calling a villain who just killed his love interest a "dastard" in Fire Emblem just sounds silly to the modern ear, for example.
Oh god i'm getting back bad memories of Shadow yelling "Damn!" every time he falls down a bottomless pit.

I honestly don't know what the writer was thinking at the time.
Probably something like "This crack is amazing!"
 

frizzlebyte

New member
Oct 20, 2008
641
0
0
Tallim said:
Anyone who has played Longest Journey may well get blindsided by Flipper's way of talking....
To this day, I have no idea what Ragnar was thinking when he included that character in TLJ.

But OT: I think it's ridiculous when they just throw in swearing to sound "cool" or "edgy".
 

RaginDrage

New member
Jul 4, 2012
73
0
0
amaranth_dru said:
Never heard the adage "To curse like a sailor"? Ah... well yeah I agree that excessive swearing for the sake of being "edgy" does just the opposite.
There are reasons though that some games have repetitive voice acting. Most of which I believe have to do with budget constraints and perhaps data bloat. It does need balance in some games, but I do expect it from military games since I've actually been part of the military and most of the enlisted men and women are fairly foul-mouthed. Not sure if its background or just a product of a stressful environment. The latter seems to be more probable, as human beings under stress tend toward the id side of their personas.
Yeah I can agree with you there, people in the military do in fact curse. I'm not in the military, so I might be completely wrong in my post.

But my problem with Crysis 2 is that it kinda paints the army personnel as a ragtag group of misfits, playing up the swearing in the form of one liners to provoke badass intentions in an attempt to seem mature and edgy.

But maybe it's all appropriate, like I said, I might be completely missing the point and thinking it out of focus.
 

Slayer_2

New member
Jul 28, 2008
2,475
0
0
BF3 has a lot of swearing in the battlechatter lines, such as "Fuck, fuck, I'm getting pinned down over here, someone shoot those cocksuckers!" I think it adds to the combat. I have no doubt I'd be freaking out and swearing if someone was shooting at me. However, the actual dialogue in the single-player wasn't that heavy with it, outside of combat.
 

teebeeohh

New member
Jun 17, 2009
2,896
0
0
i always feel like the potential for profanity is wasted in games. when you have the characters converse in a normal(if rough) manner and when things start to go bad they start cursing. Showing how all the civilization is stripped away when in danger since we need a more primal blablablablabal... you know what i mean, right?
 

RaginDrage

New member
Jul 4, 2012
73
0
0
teebeeohh said:
i always feel like the potential for profanity is wasted in games. when you have the characters converse in a normal(if rough) manner and when things start to go bad they start cursing. Showing how all the civilization is stripped away when in danger since we need a more primal blablablablabal... you know what i mean, right?
Yeah when used sparingly, swearing can really give you a sense of how much tension the characters are going through.

Someone posted here saying Spec Ops: The Line, utilized that to great effect in order to really give you an idea of how much the characters have changed for the worse throughout their perilous venture.
 

SmegInThePants

New member
Feb 19, 2011
123
0
0
I remember cracking up at how much swearing there was in a game once - Kingpin. So much it was just funny some times. I don't mind it, but like w/any sort of dialog it can feel off and forced if out of place. You can tell when something is put in the game for the sake of putting it in the game rather than because it was appropriate to what was happening. And its not just swearing, its *any* dialog.
 

darlarosa

Senior Member
May 4, 2011
347
0
21
Combine Rustler said:
darlarosa said:
I think it depends on the situation and characters.
Profanity has a time and a place in dialogue...and if a character drops an F-bomb suddenly for no real reason a line can just feel dumb.
That and even though people curse a lot in real life not everyone curses the same way, furthermore we don't tend to do it in every other sentence either.
Marines swear. Military people really do swear an unrealistic amount. That's reality for you.
Eh let us put it this way.....in narrative it does not work well sometimes
 

Mirroga

New member
Jun 6, 2009
1,119
0
0
Majority of my games are single-player based as well as my only FPS games being Bioshock and Portal. I've never heard a lot of profanity from the ones I played.

I think the problem is, the games you love or play just wants to abuse profanity too much like it's cool to do.
 

Smythes

New member
Aug 12, 2012
1
0
0
Dead Island Cut Scenes - appalingly pathetic use of swearing.

Im mean, your a little peeved your holiday has turned into a bit of a nightmare (ok understatement) but its like being on the bus with the two loud people at the back talking and saying F this or F that in every sentance.

Doesn't add anything to the story apart from perceived "coolness and street rep" for certain parts of the audience.
 

Lieju

New member
Jan 4, 2009
3,044
0
0
I don't really have a problem with profanity, but I have a problem with bad writing, and escessive profanity can be a sign of that. Especially if it includes using the same expressions over and over again. Use some imagination.
 

Soviet Heavy

New member
Jan 22, 2010
12,218
0
0
The only time I've really had a problem with the swearing in a game was in Killzone 2. Jesus christ, Rico was dropping Fuck Shit Asshole Motherfuckers everywhere. So was Natko, and Garza.

The problem was that these foul mouthed assholes were your teammates. The evil Helghast? They say Fuck maybe once or twice in the whole game, and exactly one use of "*****". Otherwise, they sound really sophisticated.

So we're stuck fighting alongside unlikeable pricks while the Helghast have an incredibly organized and proud military that prides itself on professionalism.

They fixed this in Killzone 3. Rico still cursed like a sailor, and the Higs did more as well, but it wasn't as blatant. Plus it let Malcolm Mcdowell be awesome.
 

RyanBishop

New member
Apr 28, 2010
91
0
0
"SAY "FUCK" AGAIN! SAY "FUCK" AGAIN, I DARE YOU, I DOUBLE-DARE YOU ************! SAY "FUCK" ONE MORE GODDAMN TIME"

Erm. Back to the topic - I really don't mind swearing if it is well-placed, and adequately executed. My little epigraph - case in point, for those who get the (a bit modified) reference (if you don't, I probably hate you for not watching this epic film, or at least that particular scene).

I had no problem with massive amounts of swearing in games, films, and all that stuff... but it kinda bugs me when people swear too much in real life. I swear myself, and I am not the one to judge, usually, but I think moderation goes a long way to increasing the impact of swearing, be it comedic relief, venting of anger and frustration or even a positive emotion.

Hearing a normally polite person screaming "************!" makes a bigger impression, than hearing it from someone who swears constantly.

But all things considered, I guess I can't deny myself the pleasure of occasional "Fuck Yeah!" in moments of elation. =)
 

flaming_squirrel

New member
Jun 28, 2008
1,031
0
0
The swearing in BF3 really winds me up, especially as many of the lines make no sense in the situation.
For example when throwing a 'nade your soldier chappy will shout something along the lines of "EAT GRENADES ************!", why would you tell the opposition what you're doing? Just gives them a heads up.
Or the classic "I'M GETTING MY SHIT PUSHED IN OVER HERE!", which not only sounds slightly disturbing but how you'd find the time to shout something like that when tank shells are falling like red hot explosive rain I have no idea.

I suppose it's to give the impression that soldiers are all uber macho tanks on legs when in actual fact the experience would be much more intense were the characters to sound a bit more panicked by all the insane shit going on around them.


Combine Rustler said:
Marines swear. Military people really do swear an unrealistic amount. That's reality for you.
I recently read an email written by a British soldier talking about the swearing in BF3, he said it was a load of rubbish, during combat they'd never speak like that.
 

Xenowolf

New member
Feb 3, 2012
208
0
0
I'm not against swearing, but yeah, I dislike it when it's used excessively (like, more than you realistically hear in that situation) in a desperate attempt to pander to the sexually confused 12 year old boy crowd (unless it's for comedic purposes of course).
 

evilneko

Fall in line!
Jun 16, 2011
2,218
49
53
If they don't fuckin curse more than in fuckin Boondock Saints, it's not fuckin excessive.
 

RaginDrage

New member
Jul 4, 2012
73
0
0
RyanBishop said:
"SAY "FUCK" AGAIN! SAY "FUCK" AGAIN, I DARE YOU, I DOUBLE-DARE YOU ************! SAY "FUCK" ONE MORE GODDAMN TIME"

Erm. Back to the topic - I really don't mind swearing if it is well-placed, and adequately executed. My little epigraph - case in point, for those who get the (a bit modified) reference (if you don't, I probably hate you for not watching this epic film, or at least that particular scene).

I had no problem with massive amounts of swearing in games, films, and all that stuff... but it kinda bugs me when people swear too much in real life. I swear myself, and I am not the one to judge, usually, but I think moderation goes a long way to increasing the impact of swearing, be it comedic relief, venting of anger and frustration or even a positive emotion.

Hearing a normally polite person screaming "************!" makes a bigger impression, than hearing it from someone who swears constantly.

But all things considered, I guess I can't deny myself the pleasure of occasional "Fuck Yeah!" in moments of elation. =)
I agree completely.

And great use with the Pulp Fiction quote.
 

Windcaler

New member
Nov 7, 2010
1,332
0
0
I dont think cursing is mature at all. In fact I think its immature to curse a lot because it shows lack of discipline and overall ineptitude in language. There are times where I find its acceptable. Ill never tell someone they shouldnt curse if they have a moment of surprise where a friend goes for a jump scare or have a red hot rivet drops down their shirt.

Right now Im playing alpha protocol which has some cursing in it and sometimes its ok. Like there's a place in the game where you get pulled into an interrogation scale to basicly "relive" the game. As hes asking you questions there's a section where you can tell him to "f off" and thats fine. However in an earlier part of the game he's climbing a 5 or 6 story building and says "f of a lot of stairs" which seemed like a stupid comment

I kind of have this problem with battlefield 3 too. If my girlfriend and I were to have kids well I cant just turn the cursing off. Im not saying it shouldnt be there, Im just saying have a different option so both sides can be happy. That way when a guy whos getting suppressed shouts "Im getting f'ed up the a over here!" he can instead say "Im pinned down!" and I dont have to worry about my hypothetical kid repeating things like that
 

Angie7F

WiseGurl
Nov 11, 2011
1,704
0
0
I don't mind seeing it in games as long as it fits the narrative.
However, when I try not to use swear words at all myself, it makes me realize how limited my vocab is.