Shut The F UP!
Gratuitous Swearing In Games Growing
by dkpatriarch
© 2009 David Hilton:- 2IC-Sub Editor
I swear (figuratively), playing all the gung-ho “I’m cool ’cause I’ve got tons of bad language” games these days can feel like I’m on Xbox Live with drunken foul-mouthed sods from the Country That Shall Remain Nameless.
Case in point: the recent Chronicles of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena. The enemy just don’t shut the f*** up! Here’s a few examples of their inspired passages of dialogue: “You don’t know who you are f****** with!”. (Yes I do actually…and you’re a joke to kill…). “Eat shit and die!” (Wow, original). “F****** die!” (No! You first!).
Sure, when I picked up 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand I knew I was heading into obviously colourful language territory, and I can admit that some of it was even mildly amusing. The gameplay begins with: “It’s a f****** ambush!” followed by “Mother f******” when a guy gets shot, and then “That bitch took my skull!”, all while a thumping song in the background streams constant ‘f’, ‘b’, ‘n’ and ’s’ words. Click the left stick constantly and Fiddy’s taunts sound like he’s got Tourette’s Syndrome.
Though this is 50 Cent so I knew better, more and more games are doing it and they just sound stupid when they do. Fiddy’s swearing is at least in his music’s context, like all the fruity words in the film In Bruges is in context. Take out the swearing there or even in more Oscar-friendly films like Schindler’s List, and you reduce the impact of what they are going for; comedy in the first instance and intensity in the second.
The same applies to games. A game character muttering “Oh Shit!” works fine when a huge boss or a row of enemy tanks suddenly burst in, but constant gratuitous profanity by your “I’m cool because I like to say the ‘f’ word “ annoying side-kicks-with-attitude in games like Killzone 2, Army of Two, Conflict: Denied Ops, Kane & Lynch and many more just get on my nerves.
And unlike Gears Of War 2, you can’t choose to filter out the bad language.
The idea that tough guys have to shout profanities constantly to be seen as tough is quite simply full of crap: the three hard-as-nails JBs (Jason Bourne, Jack Bauer, and James Bond) don’t need to do it all the time.
Even if I wasn’t personally annoyed at constant cursing, I can’t play these games in full cranked up surround sound without my family, already kicked out of the living room due to the graphic violence, hearing it. “Can you and the kids go visit your parents so I can play that game with tons of obscenities” just gets me a glare in response.
With the average gamer getting more mature with every new survey, more and more of us are of an age where we are no longer single young adults rooming with three others the same, and the more adult content creates some time management issues. On the one hand we have less gaming time; on the other our games are often no longer seen by many of us as appropriate for those youngsters around us.
I admit that I get myself into trouble all on my own, like when my 5 year old innocently asked me why I wanted ‘Mum to dance when I play a game’ after shouting one too many “Dance mother….(next word not spoken)” after shooting another Nazi in COD: World At War. But at least I try to hold back that next word, whereas in recent games there’s no holding back.
So with so many games upping the vocab, will I now be stuck playing only the Prince Of Persias of the gaming world?
© 2009 David Hilton:- 2IC-Sub Editor
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Filed under: 3rd Party Games, Console Customizing, Console gaming, Editorial, Parental Gaming, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 News, Xbox Community Network | Tagged: 50 Cent, 50 Cent blood in the sand, blood in the sand, Chronicles of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena, COD World at War, Gears of War 2, Jason bourne, Nazi Vombies, Nazis, naziz, swearing in games
I so agree with you, I am getting annoyed with how many games are now adding swearing just for the fun of it. Why do they need to do this? its not like it makes it better. its the same with movies. the bourne movies have nearly no swearing and they are so much better and funner to watch. in games its the same, the dialog was so much more interesting in CoD4 compared to W@W. W@W got cheesy because of all the language, Cod4 had a good balance and seemed realistic. when will developers realize that language does not make a game better?!?!?
Killzone 2 has been the biggest for me with swearing. I’m pretty sure I mentioned it in my review.
Rico was the most annoying character in a game this generation – half the words out of his mouth were ‘F***!* or ‘Mother f***er!’
Completely destroys all immersion.
I didn’t have a problem with it in the original Chronicles of Riddick though – it seemed in context and not there just for the sake of it.
I was referring to the NEW Chronicles of Riddick…don’t know how it was in the first.
It just seems that more and more games are throwing it in as a “we’re trying to be a mature game” on one hand and “we’re trying to make our bad guys and goodies tough and cool”. Many games end up failing at both.
I totally agree. It has gotten rediculous. I have a little child, and don’t get me wrong I like KZone2 and games like it, and I can’t play those games with the freedom I would like. Game devs need to just chill on the foul language.
If a game really needs to use a fair bit of language, they should at least use the Mature Language / Taunts switch all Epic’s games do so it’s the player’s choice if they want to hear it.
I personally believe that there is definitely a cultural difference between us and the “Nameless” country when it comes to swearing. I remember watching Jeff’s review of 50cent: BoS on Giant Bomb and the fact that he loved the taunt button not because of what 50 says but because of just how down right gratuitous some of the taunts can actually be, but they backs up that the “Nameless” country’s enthusiasm to swearing.
I think Australia is a lot more of family orientated country (Heck we get tax bonuses for having one), so we are a little bit more aware of the content that our children are being exposed to.
Now I’m not saying that this doesn’t apply to “Nameless” country. It just seam that most of the gamers in said “Nameless” country are single and love their explicit dictionary. Each to his own.
Well put Doveman… god knows which “Nameless” country you’re talking about though!
As a younger gamer (teen) I know my mates swear a lot, but I don’t mcuh. If I play games with a lot of swearing then my parents won’t like me playing that game.
Then i miss out.
@ Doveman
You may have a point there. It’s also age related: when I was younger I swore a lot more than now…with a wife and kids I’ve toned down my language (though not perfectly) and now don’t like hearing a lot of thrown in swearing unless it is genuinely funny like In Bruges. In most workplaces that language isn’t a good thing either.
Game developers still think most gamers are that teen-twenty-something age bracket…and a lot are. Like I said, there’s no problem with the swearing to denote tension and fear, but when it is overdone it just becomes annoying for some (even those that do swear) and offensive to others. As a younger man I might have thought differently…
@ Allegionary
I think though they know that teens play their games they hide under the “It’s rated mature or whatever” excuse. So depending on how old you are they think only the older teens who apparently like swearing will play it.
Easy thing is just as Axis has said: the Epic filter option as used in Gears 2. Not that hard.
same my mum and dad dont let me have many swearing games, the language is just pointless it adds no sort fun it just makes less people buy the game.