On use of strong profanity in games

The thing is the character wasn't supposed to be. Or if it was that wasn't communicated in the trailers and or other info.

@Punamaagi that is a good point. In my game the character is supposed to be lost in an unfamiliar world so using made up words said by the others is probably better as it communicates to the player this isn't your world. Things are different here.

This here is the most hilarious example yet of alternative variations. And a very clever approach to boot.


Except for one thing, of course: assuming you are not planning on doing a "red band preview" this will not be universal because of the expectation of cutting back just before the bomb drops.

Of course this is technically a special case but ultimately it is your own vision at work.


And the reverse can happen as well, which is the approach I decided to go with. Unless it happens in a more formal situation, of course. That way, I have a means to spare those who would not be expecting it and not surprise them at the wrong time.

I typically try to steer clear of both excessive swearing and made-up language when writing dialogue. However, I think excessive swearing can be acceptable if a character just semi-regularly punctuates their speech with curse words, rather than rattling off long strings of expletives in moments of anger or frustration.

My reasoning is that semi-regular, individual curses peppered throughout a character’s speech can work to effectively characterize a rougher or less cultured personality without distracting most readers. Milder curses are better for this because they call less attention to themselves and are less likely to cause the reader to pause in the middle of reading a line. Even then, I think moderation is important to some degree. If you have a character casually swearing every line, lots of people are either going to get tired of it or just stop noticing completely, neither of which is a good outcome for you as a writer.

When it comes to strings of curses in moments of passion, however, I think there are relatively few situations in writing where it’s actually the most effective choice. In real life, people may swear excessively to express a variety of feelings, but well-written prose is generally structured very differently from real life conversations - it follows different rules and has a wider range of tools available to convey strong emotions. Personally, I think that while it may sometimes be effective to have a character use a string of nasty words to convey those emotions, there are often more subtle narrative choices available which would produce a stronger result.

I also don’t generally see the point of censoring words. RPG Maker games aren’t Hollywood productions or hit music singles, where the decision to censor profanity can have a significant impact on who experiences your work and how much money it makes. If you’re worried your audience will be offended by swear words, just don’t include them. Don’t take a half-measure trying to please everyone, because lots of people will end up annoyed with that choice, too.

For using made-up curses, I feel like you can sometimes get away with it, but it’s only really appropriate for long, narrative-heavy games, and you should leave it out of any scenes trying to deliver some emotional impact. Players will need some time just to get familiar with the language, and they’ll likely never have the same response to words in your made-up dialect as they would in their native tongue. This is even true in real life - people often need to speak a foreign language for many years before they’ll really “feel” its words in the same way as those in their first language. Many will opt to curse in their native tongue when they’re upset, even when they know how to curse in their second language, and even if they know that no one around them will understand it.

For a long time when learning a new language, you speak it logically rather than naturally. Even if you know the context and connotations of the words, you need to stop and process the meaning via your original language, and this tends to dampen the emotion of what you’re saying or hearing (compared to if it were in your own native tongue).

From my personal experience, I’m living in a country right now where very few people speak English. Here, one of the nastier “curses” you can throw at someone is to angrily click your tongue at them when you’re having an argument. The sentiment this expresses is “What you just said is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” I’ve run into this “curse” a handful of times when my culture has grated against what’s normal for people here. However, even though I’m fully aware of its meaning and the context it’s used in, I never feel it as sharply as the people who were born here do. Maybe it would start to upset me more if I stayed in this country for another 5-10 years, rather than just the couple I’ve already been here, but the point is that it takes a long time for unfamiliar language to emotionally affect someone the same way as their native one.

I’d say it’s fine if you want to use made-up language primarily for flavor in a fantasy setting, though it’s not a choice I think I’d personally make. I also think the immersion-breaking factor of using normal language in a fantasy setting is minimal unless you’re including blatantly modern slang (i.e. don’t make your wizards talk like stereotypical fraternity brothers). But don’t expect to get as strong of an emotional reaction out of readers in a scene which swaps out emotionally-charged English words for fantasy substitutes. Players just won’t be playing your game long enough to learn to feel the weight of those words in the same way as the familiar ones.

@watermark, I will try to be a voice of reason. I try not to side with one side or another.

The first question to ask whether to use profanity or not.

Why do you need to the profanity?
What is the purpose of profanity? ( insult rival, what is slipping by accident, or the characters feel very angry about something, etc.)


What is your main target audience for your game? (Young chicken, Mostly Adults in this forum, the queen of England, or the supreme court judge)

A profanity is a word. A word is a social construct. Some words people used all the time in the past, but now is a taboo or offended word.

This is generalized, do not take this as the absolute laws. If I offend someone, I am sorry.

Many people who go to college or university rarely use profanity.
Many people talk to their friends or family members sometimes use profanity in a conversation.

Someone here was discussed making up their own profanity language.
Please understand that many people have a hard time understanding English already. Do not add more language because it is confusing than entertainment.

Are profanity and insulting people do the same job?
Because you could insult people without curse words, it hurts people feeling the same way.

I think many people here focus on the wrong place. The profanity is funny because people react to the word, not the definition of the word. From what I observed here, people are so quick at condemned profanity.
Remember not many people here are professional writer or novelists. It is difficult for us to understand subtle language.

Personally I think both the use of Rl curse words and thought up ones is viable but it depends on the setting, enviroment, characters, story etc.
It's also different wether or not youre using voice actors.

Overuse is probably the biggest no no, outside of that it's personal preference.

Wether Im told to go F myself or stick it up my waazoozle it both gets the Job done

or a shling in your wubbet

@Countyoungblood then again I might enjoy A shling in my wubbet  :guffaw::p

Hey now, take your shling in your wubbets and fling them tabica to the gazolka. My goddledguck!

Ok, watch as we just insulted someone in a foreign language somewhere.

PS: You all really should see if you can find a video on youtube on gestures and phrases that are harmless in the USA but are grave insults elsewhere. Might be enlightening.

@bgillisp Yeah some gestures can get you in real trouble. I also think it's funky how everyone assumes english is the native tongue here, and I understand why, but it's funny still

:thumbsup-right: For instance in greece means something else then good Job lol

Right. BTW, I just youtubed a couple, the biggest one I found was good day is really close to telling someone to f off in Vietnam. It's not spelled that way, but it sounds really close to that when they say it. And the Finnish had a few that had no translation to English that was posted.

Yeah it's easy to insult people with everyday things if youre not careful. The dutch word for fat sounds like the english word for male genital and same goes for Cook

The swedish word for cook/chef also sounds like male genitals... Or rooster specifically. It's just pronounced slightly diffrently and spelled with a K.
And the word for folder is Fack.

Getting back to the topic at hand. If you don't want actual swearing, but still want characters to "swear" then, most things can sound insulting if you scream it loudly and angrily enough. And if they're foreign they could be translating an insult in their original language. (For instance, one of the worst things to call someone in swedish is a poopboot. Which... does not work well in english but you get my point.)

@Elissiaro, a poopboot look at the definition in English: http://lostinstockholm.com/2013/06/28/16-funny-swedish-insults/

@bgillisp and @Finnuval it is fun and plays in this forum. However, if you play a game and if the game just constantly use a made-up language. It is kind of like insulting a player intelligence instead. This is like someone speaking a foreign language at you and you have no clue of what is mean. The language invented for communicating usage and that is the main function of any language. You get the idea like of what I am trying to say. Nice to see both of you again.

I almost forgot. Some people here also ask how much of profanity? I would say just use common sense. If a character has a foul mouth, you should use flowery and polite words. This is just irrational.

People also talk about the self-censorship of your words in writing. According to my opinion, you can do what you want. If you like your version of censorship work, the con is that you will have hard time convey your information to a player. If you are going all out of your ideas directly for your head, the con is your content might be too strong and offense many angry people.

@Kupotepo : I see what you are saying, but it started with a debate on made up swear words (it's a few pages back), then it got a little silly here. Personally I don't mind them as I feel it adds personality to the cultures in your world so they don't all feel like carbon copies of each other (and carbon copies of standard person from Earth too), and it helps give your game a little uniqueness, but some others disagree.

I think it all comes down to implementation. And even then, remember one person's pet peeve = another person's gotta have it You will never please everyone in how you make your game.

@bgillisp, I understand and I respect your decision. If you can make work, I happy for you. The word " culture" I think as mean a way of living. I agree that language is one aspect of culture. It also includes religious norm, social norms, institution, taboos, and traditions. Sorry for my bable about socielogy.

Strong language should be used as appropriate to convey a message, and no more. It is no different than any other design choice when it comes to character actions and behaviors. If you have a character that is supposed to be a gentleman, you do not want that character to be cursing left and right. Similarly, a character that is supposed to be kind of crude should also speak as such. Otherwise, the characters are less believable.

As an example of a game that I feel handled profanity well, GTA 5.

the word damn is okay, but unless it’s in the character’s nature to be profane, other swears just feel strange. jackass is fine too, i guess. but a straight up f word feels a bit strange in a game, especially when damn could be used instead.