The F-bomb in video games

[Adeptus Aspartem]

I've more problem with the "F-Word" "N-Word" bullshit.
Say what you want to say, don't hide behind that shit and make me think what you're to scared saying.

 

[ninjaRiv]

Fuck this fucking shit to fuck, ya fucking fuckers. Ha, sorry. No, I see your point. But I think you might be looking for it, sometimes? I don't notice it, personally. I noticed it in Bulletstorm but thought it was hilarious.

 

[SquidVicious]

If it suits the situation then I don't see much of a problem, but often times the case seems that it's used for artificial purposes like the whole "Catwoman/*****" fiasco from Batman: Arkham City. There were a few instances where the cursing getting ramped up between games was incredibly noticeable and annoying, case and point Vinnie Gognitti between Max Payne and Max Payne 2. In the first game he uses the word "freaking" in pretty much every scene he's in, and then in the sequel it's changed to "fuck". Now I can't really think of any video games that had the f-word in them before 2002's The Getaway (also the first game I ever played with regenerating health and cover-based shooting), but around 2002-2003 was when I started noticing M-rated games having the f-word in them.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Do you find this to be a problem at all in games, or have you ever felt this way?

It does often pop up incongruously in games, which is annoying and puerile I agree.

In Dead Space's case however, I don't think they go far enough. Given the subject matter, every line in all three games should just be the characters screaming FUCK as loud and repetitively as the voice actor's lungs allow.

I also think this way about a lot of first person shooters too, like the opening/closing of Battlefield 3 or the run from the Hunter in Crysis, there shouldn't be any smart arse dialogue, it should just be fuckfuckfuckfuck(jumps... thump landing on top of the train) fuck fuck fuck FUUUUU(through the window, grabs the gun and nails three bad guys)UUUCK!

In context this makes far more sense than even experienced soldiers like Black and Nomad staying apparently calm.

 

[TaboriHK]

One of my favorite minute details from The Wire is that Omar never swears once.

 

[bananafishtoday]

This is a "problem" only if you want it to be one.

This. For fuck sake, people swear. Some people swear a lot. How is this a problem?

The problem is bad writing. Whether characters swear or not (or how much) doesn't really matter, but if the writing sucks, excessive swearing just ends up sounding really unnatural. That "Fuck you" "Fuck you!" DMC video is a good example of that. The dialogue is atrocious and weird overall, but the swearing especially jumps out at me as sounding... off.

I dunno how to describe it, since it's more an art than a science, but speech has a certain natural flow and rhythm to it. Good swearing fits into the flow, while bad swearing is jarring because it breaks that flow.

Glengary Glen Ross is pretty much the perfect example of excessive swearing done right. The characters curse like crazy (the actors filming the movie version jokingly called it "Death of a Fuckin' Salesman), but it works b/c the playwright has a good ear for natural dialogue.

But yeah, anyone who complains about "too much" swearing is either being puritanical or (I think more likely) inarticulately trying to communicate that it's just written badly.