F**k this, what's the point?

[Dollywitch]

For some youngsters, swearing is a way to get the point across. Also don't underestimate the brain of a teenager. 12-15 years old know very well the meaning of those words and they know how to put them in right use too. And there is also that cliche "this is another age" argument. It's true. Somehow it feels, like every year the invisible line where kids start to play adults goes down. I wasn't surprised when I heard my 9 years younger (I'm 22) cousin (girl) saying stuff I started using when I was taking high school entrance exams. Also I wasn't mad or anything. The cleaner you keep it, the dirtier it gets when you finally take it outside. Fits perfectly for both, dirt bikes and kids. The difference is, that when your bike breaks, you can repair it or-in the worst case, buy another. Can't do that with a teenager, sadly. OK, now I got carried away... Sorry about that.
The point is, you can show them the difference between f*ck and fu*k. The difference you catch when you see two friends calling each other b@stard while happily playing some racing video game or the same duo arguing about one of them recently getting a girlfriend. And the other side of a coin is a genuinely rude @sshole who thinks calling all girls B****es will make him look cool. And then somehow point a it and say: This one is alright, but this one is totally wrong.

Honestly, 4 year olds know it quite well. My dad barred me from cussing after I was on a roundabout with older kids who kept swearing when I was 4, and I took it very seriously until I was 16. Funny, since he swears more than they did.

[OtomeWeekend]

hah, well, when i was still in the philippines, kids around age 4~6 are all noisy and stuff and you can hear them saying "putang ina mo"(son of a b*tch) like it was a normal speech for everyday use. The crispy way they say it makes me feel like i could curry them all cause i would have been kneeling on a floor of salt if ever my grandma or mama heard me saying that at that age Q.Q I was never used to curse verbally though I would curse A LOT when writing(be it my blog or just a simple comment or stuff). But I respect lemmasoft so I won't ever dare use my bad-typing manners on this forum(less it ever be needed or if ever it would be).

[Funnyguts]

[quote=The crispy way they say it makes me feel like i could curry them all cause i would have been kneeling on a floor of salt if ever my grandma or mama heard me saying that at that age[/quote]

I do not understand this idiom.

[Lumen_Astrum]

hah, well, when i was still in the philippines, kids around age 4~6 are all noisy and stuff and you can hear them saying "putang ina mo"(son of a b*tch) like it was a normal speech for everyday use. The crispy way they say it makes me feel like i could curry them all cause i would have been kneeling on a floor of salt if ever my grandma or mama heard me saying that at that age Q.Q I was never used to curse verbally though I would curse A LOT when writing(be it my blog or just a simple comment or stuff). But I respect lemmasoft so I won't ever dare use my bad-typing manners on this forum(less it ever be needed or if ever it would be).

You make it sound like "Anlutong mo naman magmura! Tara nga, bwiset kang bata ka, at paluluhurin kita sa isang bilao ng asin!" XD

What a "crispy" way to cuss! You damn kid, come here and I'll make you kneel an a pan of salt!

And a "crispy" cuss is a cuss boldly said.

[renpao]

And a "crispy" cuss is a cuss boldly said.

I don't really cuss in real life (not a cusser), but that crispy word brings back so much nostalgia! I tried to explain it once to my friends here in America, and all I got was blank looks, lol. xDD Sa pilipinas lang talaga maraming nakakatuwang kanto language hehe. xD

[Rewritten Ennui]

Censoring swear words is done for comedic effect if not anything else. Censoring non-swear words is also done for comedic effect, something I think this video exemplifies very well. Careful though, it might ruin your childhood memories of Sesame Street

IRL, I tend to cuss a lot depending on the situation. At school, I try to keep my language clean. With my siblings, I fling those words around like no tomorrow I only do it for teh lulz, but I rarely cuss when I'm angry. Weird, huh? That said, I think that censoring those words in VNs defeat all notions of realism. If you're entirely against swearing altogether, just use an alternative word. For example, f*ck becomes firetruck, and b*tch becomes biznatch.

[Darkmoonfire]

If you're entirely against swearing altogether, just use an alternative word. For example, f*ck becomes firetruck, and b*tch becomes biznatch.

Unless you're trying to be comedic, I don't think it would be a good idea to have characters shouting firetruck. If you're against swearing, it would probably be better to rewrite the sentence so that it doesn't need a swear word.

[Lumen_Astrum]

I suddenly remember a situation in Diary of a Wimpy Kid where Greg and his brother isn't allowed to curse.
So they made up code words to mask the fact they're cussing.
("Spooky Stork" and "Raspberry Plastic Tickle Bear"... XD)

[OtomeWeekend]

I do not understand this idiom.

lol, what i meant is, how I'd love to make them experience what I've had experienced when i heard my playmates at that age and imitated them and my mom made me go kneel down on on salt, that hurt like hell Q.Q ---you see my mom's family is like a very conservative or whatever and even now, my mom would rage mode if ever she heard me even saying "bobo"(idiot) or just saying "bingi ka ba?"(are you deft?)

but, since she doesn't really care in my internet life, she never knew how i curse like hell in the net Dx

[Glasskitten]

Reactions to various approaches:

*BEEEEEP!*: *snerk!* <--probably the intended effect
String of Perls, or !@#$%^&*: I guess I prefer this one in most contexts, as it's not often that the specific words are important. It's usually enough to know that the characters are swearing.
Partial covering: Is it just me, or is the primary purpose of this tactic a kind of insincere concession? I mean like, "I know I'm not supposed to write out this word, but let it be known that I WANTED to!" I guess it's useful in some communicative situations to b**** someone out with technical impunity!
Raw curse words: Because of the way I was raised*, and in spite of my own behavior under stress, I find it distinctly unaesthetic. I'll certainly admit there are times it's still relevant enough to go through with, as long as it doesn't violate any social contracts with the audience. When writing for teens and up, I'd assume the implicit social contracts allow for it.
^--My mother and I are still trying to figure out what I'm to do with a scene where a character known for purposely comedic word substitutions finally cracks for real. "There must be a prettier way to do this!"


*Imagine a sequence of expletives reverberating through the house in what could pass for a death metal roar every time a certain family member stubs a toe or misplaces the car keys.

[Cidz]

No one stubs their toe hard and shouts "BEEP!*

I'm tempted to do that now XD

ah, but I agree, who cares about cursing its not like you don't hear it on the streets or anything. I know that there are people that are offended by cursing but maybe if you put a rating on it or a warning like "my game contains cursing, etc..." then i really don't see the point in censoring it? If people know there's going to be cursing and still play it then i doubt they are offended by it.

I for one, don't actually curse (well other then a few mild things, ass, damn, hell, the occasional bitch as in "man that's so bitchn") but I'm not offended by people that did (if i was i wouldn't of lasted with my bf who curses immensely >_> )

I think it depends on the character too. I'd imaging a punker bad-boy rebellious type would curse more then a shy innocent type lol.

[Marcelo_Orlando]

Hmm....now this is an interesting topic. Reminds me of the little cartoon chicken on tiny toons that had a "cussing" problem and every other word was..bleep. Funny stuff but I don't see why anyone would censor a VN, just slap a label on it to let the potential buyer or player know that there is such language and be on your way. Oh one should also include in this label if the art is crappy and if the story has been told a hundred times already.

Should read warning, art is done by someone that proves the saying "don't believe the hype" and the story is the same story that you saw when you played those others games except we like our story better because it has our characters.

[Gear]

Wrong. It's (most of the) teenagers that like to swear WITHOUT any reason. Some adults still do but some of them stopped doing so... unless this is exclusive to people in my country/city (but I believe it's more or less the same all around the world).

Hm. Maybe it was just the group I hung out with in HS that never really swore. But we were the more mature group, I guess? That is a bit of what I'm portraying here. All of the characters are very intelligent and mature, though they tend to crack under the stress.

However, I WILL have one of my characters yell "BEEP!" when he hurts himself.

[Taosym]

Mandatory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8XlMYe_2Lo

[PervertPrince]

I'm half-tempted now to write a character who yells BEEP! instead of swearing.

I once knew a girl who did something like this once. She was a friend of mine and we were playing a game where one person thought of another person and that first person had to do a set of actions or say a few sentences and we had to guess which person they were thinking of. What this girl basically did was stand there and just yell BEEP over and over again. We were very confused but it turns out she was thinking of another friend of ours that swore a lot and said girl thought that this was the best way to describe our other friend but she just didn't want to actually cuss