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A Report on Swearing in Online Games
A Next Generation article references an informal study done on the frequency of swearing on Xbox Live. From the study: "When you logon to Xbox live more often then not you will be greeted by a 14 year old that learned a new word on the playground that day, or maybe it's the drunken 24 year old who hates black people, gays and anyone who isn't in his frat. No matter who you are if you have played on live you have run into cursing and lewdness. If you look at the rating for the game you can see that it is intended for ages 17+ but parents don't care/understand/listen so lots of underage kids have [Halo 2]." Warning: links contain profanity.
If you can just goad them a little bit into cutting loose with their mouths, you are are halfway to victory.
Conversely, it is important to keep your own cool and your focus on the game. A few taunts when the other guy is down may help in keeping him down as you compound his anger, but this must be done out of strategy, not out of an effort to verbally 'get back' at your opponent.
Don't Xbox Live games have optional profanity filters?
Even PlayOnline/FFXI had that, on PS2.
VOTE!
but parents don't care/understand/listen
And that's the problem. I don't care if every other f*cking word is a curse. Parents can't complain when they don't know what their kids are doing. I know parents that monitor what their kids play, watch on TV, and listen to on the radio. It's not impossible. Parents who claim they can't prevent their kids from seeing these curse words are simply irresponsible.
These studies aren't needed because it doesn't matter. If the fear is kids seeing/hearing it then parents are letting these kids get exposed to it, either knowingly or ignorantly.
Developers: We can use your help.
I recently slapped together a pointless waste of time and noted with an unfortunate lack of surprise just how many of the postings were profane or sexual or otherwise trollish. I think the average age of web posters must be about 14 or so and the average mind must be in the gutter. This does not speak well for our future... of course sometimes it can sure as hell be damn entertaining! Ah, nevermind. Screw the future!
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
I used to have a spray of the goatse man with the caption "I fucked you." Whenever I'd get a really good, or lucky kill I'd spray it.
I had a couple of server admins complain that they had kids playing there. My response was "It's OK for children to pretend to blow people's brains out, guard hostages, and plant C4 charges but it's wrong for them to see buttocks?"
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
This proves there should be an 18+ rule for the internet, to root out most of the problems. And besides, people judge you on the internet based solely on how you speak. If you want to be percieved as a total moron, it's not hard to do. In fact, most people don't even realize it. But nothing pisses me off more than servers that ban profanity of any kind. It's total garbage, swearing is acceptable to a point, but to restrict it entirely is disgraceful.
When I worked on a networked EA title a couple years back, we were required to put in a chat profanity filter. We were given some code and a file with the obscenity list that had been developed for a previous title. The obscenity file was pretty funny, containing some words we'd never heard before, and some ordinary words that we couldn't imagine used as obscenities. Combined with the code that tried to detect variations, it was weird, because it would allow some really standard obscenities you'd expect to filter out, and blocked stuff like "assume" and "sucker". Also amusing, the file ended up in plaintext on the disc. So if you dumped the disc contents, it looked like some disgruntled programmer had put all sorts of swears into the game.
Old people fall. Young people spring. Rich people summer and winter.
This is one of several resons I let my XBox Live! account expire. I don't mind swearing, I do it alot. It's the constant screaming; racial, sexist and homophobic slurs; the constant accusations of cheating if you're kicking their pasty little asses; the incessant trash-talking and the general meanness and abusive conduct.
I don't play games in order to listen to a bunch of obnoxious children who think the Internet gives them the right to behave like complete asshats with imounity. I play to have fun.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
You forgot mee krob.
Well, it was good enough for Chaucer.
Now I'm at a loss as to why such an important part of the anatomy (or any part really), should be regarded as an insult, but profanity? The origin of fuck, cunt, and a couple of others as vulgar language goes back to when the Normans invaded Britain. Fuck and cunt are traditional english words, whereas the educated and powerful were all speaking old french at the time. To use these english words was to show how common you were. Basically, it's a class thing. So if you like, you can proudly show your rebellious streak to the Normans with every fuck and cunt you say.
Being British (not to steretype here), I probably swear more casually than most americans... not necessarily more, but with less emphasis because I don't regard it as a big deal. I don't usually say cunt, simply because it seems such a odd thing to be an insult. I thought guys liked cunts?
Personally, I think the word has been used as an insult so much by now, that it's going to be hard to reclaim it. Vagina sounds far too clinical so I'd like to propose a new word for it. From now on, I'd like everyone to call it a "wooha" (emphasis on second syllable, like Bruce Lee is hitting someone). I think that it would be impossible to use this as an insult, and yet it still conveys a sense of fun.
What do you think?
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
"This is why it is very important to make sure that children don't swear. Swearing is addictive because it is easy to do and doesn't require thinking and as long as someone uses swear words he/she won't learn to take advantage of the full range of the language."
I think that's a crock. Swearing doesn't prevent vocabulary development, nor does it stunt verbal communication skills. What I think you're missing is the primary reason some people choose to swear so much -- because it causes a reaction different from non-swear words. If anything, people who swear all the time have better non-verbal and verbal intonation communications skills -- inflection is much more important when you use the same words a lot.
Considering that so many people on the planet speak a different language than a given person, that person would be well served to have better non-verbal and intonation skills.
Finally, swearing isn't addictive because it's easy to do -- it's addictive because people get positive reinforcement of the behavior. People swear to get a reaction, and it works. The best way to make swearing ineffective, and therefore to lessen the positive reinforcement, is for everyone to swear more.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai