Offensive Swearing in L4D / Halflife

[Kill_the_Bug]

I don't know if your religious or not but I'm a Christian and that's not the part that I'm discussing.

But why does Valve insist that I want to hear My Lord's name used as a swear word? I've heard it a couple times now - it started with Half-Life 2 and I guess because there wasn't a whole amount of complaints - they only did it once and in one part in HL2 - I guess they decided to go the whole hog in L4D.

I've always considered swearing pretty much to be a bad habit, regardless of what type is used. So what makes it so important to promtoe vulgarity by these corporations?

Sure it's a very violent game, but I don't need to hear the swearing constantly.

I'm sure that if they wanted to swear about Mohammed - they'd get a much different reaction. Unfortunately, both for me and Valve, this type of swearing is unacceptable to me and I feel that I have to make a stand somewhere and that is not to play L4D or buy future games from them.

I'm sure that I'll be garnering some choice comments, even some potentially derogatory ones, but does hearing swearing truly enhance your game play or not?

 

[Icarus]

does hearing swearing truly enhance your game play or not?

As long as it's not overly excessive, yes

 

[GrimGriz]

It enhances the realism. The characters in L4D aren't necessarily Christian, and even if one was supposed to be I certainly wouldn't peg Francis as one. You'd be shocked and awed what would come out of my mouth if zombies were attacking me.

 

[Ida]

I don't think you should take it too seriously. Valve obviously want to make their characters believable, and swearing is a part of that. I don't think Valve wants their characters to run around dropping F-bombs all over, though. Would you like that?

It just happens that "God damn" or some variations (I assume you're talking about that...) are natural parts of some people's vocabulary. I hope you realise that most people aren't actually trying to say anything in particular about God when they say it.

I think you should suck it up and remember that the words are there to express strong anger, etc, and not to annoy Christians.

 

[Artesia]

I agree, I find it more offensive then the F word (I use the F word but not that.) and feel that it isn't too much to ask to have a language sensor option. Unreal tournament has the option to turn off mature taunts, and most violent games have the option to turn off gore... doing this would only widen their audience to those who don't want to hear it, and to those young players whose parents are more likely to allow playing a game with censorship turned on.

 

[Delusibeta]

Don't forget: Valve are American, and hence would tend to use American phrases.
And if there was a bunch of aliens shooting at you/hoard of zombies hunting you down in a film, a plain "Oh my..." will probably not be accepted by the director unless you had an excuse (e.g. "I'm a scientist!"). Same principles.

 

[UKCS-Alias]

In L4D there are actualy more details that arent good for religion. On dead air i already spotted some roofs with the writing: god is dead.

And i also noticed they tried to avoid using the F word. And then the things like god damnit, for gods sake come to their minds faster. Many of those can all be changed to the F varriant easily (god damnit then would be F it and for gods sake is then for F sake). By using god as replacement for the F word they still get that realism that a game needs.

The downside is that some people dont like god being insulted just like muslims with allah. The major diffirent that allah isnt used however is i think because there are alot of insults with god in it already and many dont even realize there is a problem with it. Christians never realy acted against that bad language as much as muslims did.

 

[Vander]

It doesn't bother me. I try not to say things like that, but I understand and accept that I live in a world where language like that...happens. I tolerate it.

I think Valve's use of the word fits in perfectly with the game worlds they construct. No complaints.

 

[eerieone]

Counterquestion, i´m an atheist, but i catch myself saying "thank god" as a natural phrase, which doesn´t really means the literal to me.
Do you like people saying "Thank God"?

If so, then you also have to accept the counterpart, where his name is used in swear phrases.

My point is: Any Religion is invasive and tries to spread their tentacles into everything, school, politics, families; but once they are a tidbit under fire, they get all defensive and feel offended by everything

I for one like the detail "God is dead", it´s the way i believe people would react in such a scenario, it´s realistic and not offensive in any way.

I would feel betrayed and treated like an infant if there was a language filter on game, it would be another proof of invasive religion and the way it tries to influence atheist lifes.

Lets make a deal, once religion stops telling us how "wrong" we live our lifes, we stop the swearing

 

[MangyCarface]

Wow. This is some really pathetic shit.

 

[Icarus]

lol

 

[kwagner]

As an individual, this may seem a clear cut right/wrong issue. But for a company trying to meet the desires of a complex demographic, it's much more a shades of gray thing. Some people object to games with any violent content whatsover, so a game like L4D is already offending a portion of the audience. The question for Valve is whether to risk offending 5%, or 7%, or 25%, or 75%, etc. No matter WHERE they draw the line, someone will object.

Personally I think Valve does a fine job of tuning their language choices to the themes of their various games. The language used in L4D, for example, fits it's more apocalyptic atmosphere. But I think it would be inappropriate in Portal, which I see as much more tongue in cheek. Valve seems to have thought so too, replacing '*** is Dead' with 'The Cake is a Lie.' Switch those two lines and you shatter the ambiance of their worlds.

 

[DJive]

Although it has been i just wanted to step in with a friendly reminder to keep it civil..

And I'm backing that up with this..

 

[DucatiBon]

Counterquestion, i´m an atheist, but i catch myself saying "thank god" as a natural phrase, which doesn´t really means the literal to me.
Do you like people saying "Thank God"?

If so, then you also have to accept the counterpart, where his name is used in swear phrases.

My point is: Any Religion is invasive and tries to spread their tentacles into everything, school, politics, families; but once they are a tidbit under fire, they get all defensive and feel offended by everything

I for one like the detail "God is dead", it´s the way i believe people would react in such a scenario, it´s realistic and not offensive in any way.

I would feel betrayed and treated like an infant if there was a language filter on game, it would be another proof of invasive religion and the way it tries to influence atheist lifes.

Lets make a deal, once religion stops telling us how "wrong" we live our lifes, we stop the swearing

QFT woot!


I'm a satanist and I'm offended when you say "stupid as hell" or "what the hell"
but you still say it.....

(my sarcasm has a point)

and frankly would you still believe i your god if there was zombies taking over the world.
the rapture says nothing about zombies....
altho that would make the book of hessalonians a lot more interesting if it did

 

[HeaH]

Wow. This is some really pathetic shit.

Yeah, Mangy is spot on.

I don't understand why people can get so upset about religion. I'm not american either, I guess you have a different way of "being christians".

 

[eerieone]

and frankly would you still believe i your god if there was zombies taking over the world.

I would start believing in got when the zombie-hordes are controlled by a giant spider-demon with wings

 

[laghlagh]

Counterquestion, i´m an atheist, but i catch myself saying "thank god" as a natural phrase, which doesn´t really means the literal to me.
Do you like people saying "Thank God"?

If so, then you also have to accept the counterpart, where his name is used in swear phrases.

My point is: Any Religion is invasive and tries to spread their tentacles into everything, school, politics, families; but once they are a tidbit under fire, they get all defensive and feel offended by everything

I for one like the detail "God is dead", it´s the way i believe people would react in such a scenario, it´s realistic and not offensive in any way.

I would feel betrayed and treated like an infant if there was a language filter on game, it would be another proof of invasive religion and the way it tries to influence atheist lifes.

Lets make a deal, once religion stops telling us how "wrong" we live our lifes, we stop the swearing

Way to go shitting yourself over religion. I never inderstood why 90% of atheists are more focused on shitting on everyone else (read: christians) than just living their lives without a god, which supposedly is such an amazing thing.

Bashing someones religion sucks, but phrases like the ones I think you're talking about are as said natural parts of peoples vocabulary.

I don't understand why people can get so upset about religion.

Mainly fundamentalist atheists...

 

[eerieone]

you must have misread me, i´m not bashing, just stating my view,
the only "offensive" word in my statement was "tentacles"

i´m not shitting on anybody´s religion, but as soon as they try to control what i am supposed to see and hear i get mad, like christians trying to anchor christianity in the EU-Carta, Biology lessons etc.

As long as they don´t try to get to me, i´m fine and have no problem with believers

 

[drp]

I don't know if your religious or not but I'm a Christian and that's not the part that I'm discussing.

But why does Valve insist that I want to hear My Lord's name used as a swear word? I've heard it a couple times now - it started with Half-Life 2 and I guess because there wasn't a whole amount of complaints - they only did it once and in one part in HL2 - I guess they decided to go the whole hog in L4D.

I've always considered swearing pretty much to be a bad habit, regardless of what type is used. So what makes it so important to promtoe vulgarity by these corporations?

Sure it's a very violent game, but I don't need to hear the swearing constantly.

I'm sure that if they wanted to swear about Mohammed - they'd get a much different reaction. Unfortunately, both for me and Valve, this type of swearing is unacceptable to me and I feel that I have to make a stand somewhere and that is not to play L4D or buy future games from them.

I'm sure that I'll be garnering some choice comments, even some potentially derogatory ones, but does hearing swearing truly enhance your game play or not?

Swearing adds to the atmosphere. In this particular game, it fits very well.

I really don't think an old bearded guy in the sky who allows mass murder and child deformities to occur, is really bothered by what a video game consists of.

I'm sure Thor is pissed about there not being a hammer in the game.

 

[TMP]

In the games chosen, you have to realize the context.

L4D : Zombie Overrun. You naturally freak out when there are millions upon millions of zombies to go against. You can't help it, it's the apocalypse!

HL2: Combine. Seven Hour War. You're now a slave.