Unnecessary Violence, language, and 'Darkness' in games
 

There's been much more games that have senseless violence and swearing constantly featured in them now. It was once suppose to make the game more mature and make it appeal to a wider audience but now it actually ruins a part of the game.

In a few games I've come across...

In GTA: San Andreas, there was constant cussing. To the point where it was just dumb.

In Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow said "Damn" almost everytime he got hit. The sad fact was that the kids loved it.


I know there is cussing in the world and I know swearing can make a game more realistic but overusing it makes for a sad attempt to cash in on the "extreeeeme" teen generation.

Anyone else have any games to add to the list?

Well, I can't find any right now, but TWIN SNAKES pissed me off with it's over-used EXTREME action cut-scenes. I can't remember how many flips he did in the game. Too much.

This game takes place amongst criminals in a Los Angeles ghetto in 1990. No shit, there's going to be swearing. In this case, it's realism, not over the top marketing.

Really, too much of anything is a bad thing. It doesn't matter what you're talking about.

I have to agree with knkwzrd there that it would be more surprising if GTA:SA didn't have alot of swearing seeing that it's an M rated game, with gangsters... it's to be expected I thought.

I myself don't really notice excesive swearing if it fits the game and has good voice acting. Heck I'm probably swearing more when my guy gets hit then the actual character is.

So to answer your question there is a line where too much swearing or just swearing in certain games is a bad thing, but do I think that we've crossed that line? No. But I wouldn't reccomend having Jack saying "Shit!" when he gets hit any time soon.

San Andreas, that sort of thing is par for the course. In other games, yes, it's gratuitous. Shadow the Hedgehog is manufactured angst, and is mainly targetted at 12 year olds who think guns and "dark" themes automatically equal cool, and thrill at the taboo of hearing the word damn. Ditto for Kingdom Hearts 2, which despite being a crossover game with fucking Disney, goes absolutely overboard with the DeviantArt darkity emo theme.

It sells with the key demograph of teens and preteens, so that's why they do it.

I know the swearing actually made the game more realistic but it still annoyed me after a while. Just like when people excessively curse in real life. There's a limit to how much you can tolerate.

The biggest display of un-necessary violence is obviously in Jade Empire. I like how bodies explode for no reason if you do the stun thing then attack with a certain skil or something. Not only was it fucking stupid, but it didn't even fit the game. It gave it an M rating for no reason, not that that bothers me, but still.

I think the swearing was one of the best things in GTA SA!

okay, maybe not. but its not a downside for me. I'd like to see more games introduce swearing (in context obviously).

Swearing makes games kool!

I too have an issue with swearing in games, but I don't mind violence and 'darkness,' however you want to call it. I don't mind the occasional swear, but when they start swearing every few minutes, then that's going over the top, in my opinion. Unfortunately, movies nowadays, especially the action flicks, have too much swearing. Some actors swear every few seconds, and it's really annoying. Swearing does not make you look 'cool,' sorry to say.

I actually hate swearing in real life. I never swear, but I guess I'm the only one : /

The whole point of Metal Gear is to be insanely over the top. I mean come on, you fight fucking mechs and cyborg ninjas for crying out loud. If you want realism go play Splinter Cell.

I laughed when Snake jumped the missile from the Hind D. What is this, DBZ.

The cutscenes were directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, Japanese director responsible for such spazfests as Versus. Action excess is his specialty. It's so over the top, it's meant only to be awe-inducing or laugh-inducing, maybe both. I can easily understand why you wouldn't like it though, but if you want the more 'serious' MGS1, you could always get the PS version.

..It's the same game. TTS was a very faithful remake.

In terms of cutscenes, the action is decidedly less over-the-top.

it's because it was the same level design and what not with updated moves which gave the player a HUGE advantage.

It depends on the swear word and how it's used contextually. If it's an emotional burst, such as in a Grandia 3 shocking plot twist "Damn! We're going down!" then it's allright. I try and put myself in the same situation and see what I would say. If I were in an airplane and it was gonna crash, I'd say something a lot worse than "Damn."

However, if it's just there to be there, then it's retarded. Be in it GTA, Shadow the Hedgehog, whatever. I don't like listening to people who swear in regular context. "I went to the fucking store to by some goddamn grapes when the bitch cashier practically fucking shit on herself when she spilled a fucking soda on the damn conveyor belt. What a bitch."

That's really annoying.

Are people seriously offended by "damn"?
You can't be serious.

Swearing doesn't bother me, but I grow tired of all the realistic and joyless looking games coming out. Games like Black (the title's name is fucking black! How unoriginal!), the Ghost Reacon series, and many others off the top of my head. Though my issue with those games are probably with my tiredness of military inspired FPSes.

I haven't played a game where the cussing wasn't gratitutious, and ditto with violence.

Also I find it hard to believe that we're having this discussion without mentioning Prince of Persia Warrior Within. You know the game that because of the poor sales of it's predecessor was overloaded with violence, angst, swearing and darkness. Despite everyone agreeing this was for the worse, it actually sold more copies.

While we highbrow gamers may look down on this, the casual market lapped it up.

Quite right, my bro.

While having a conversation with some of my bogan friends back in 200...3 I think, we were discussing games...
"Prince of Persia is coming out! Remember the old game?"
"Nah that fucking sucked shit mate. I wanna play GTA3 man! It's like fucking awesome! The fucking graphics are shit cool! You can fucking like, fucking use a fucking bazooka and fucking tear up shit!"

And I quote this from the "Green Guide" in "The Age"...

"Mr. Iwata stated, 'Many people will think we are weird for producing Brain Games where other developers are concentrating on war, gore, excessive violence and racing games.' "

Holy shit (intended), are the elements of war, gore, excessive violence considered a "normal" game now?

Cheap games like Capcom's Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance for PS2 tend to be filled with mindless swearing.

Although I don't mind cussing all that much, a lot of games that have it usually have too much of it that it just sounds ridiculous and forced. San Andreas felt like that for me, while I thought both GTA3 and Vice City did a better job of having just enough so it gets the point across but doesn't go overboard.

Gore and Excessive Violence does seem to be increasing as games become more realistic, but to me it isn't really a big deal. Horror movies have been around for a long time, and new ones are always pushing the line far more than video games are.

No, it matters how much it is used. Shadow said it so much it just got annoying. I'm fine with Damn being used, people use it all the time but, again, everyone has their limits of how much of it they can tolerate.

Well, it was funny in San Andreas when you had CJ jump out of a plane and he's screaming profanity as he falls. But the awkward thing about SA is that, well, the excessive swearing was true to real life. That's more a function of the reason why people turn their noses down at ghetto culture.

Also, don't remind me of PoP: Warrior Within. -_- The fact that the game sold better with more swearing, blood, and Godsmack just makes me hope the terrorists win.

Woah this reminds me of a conversation I had about the game.
"Hey guys this Prince of Persia Sands of Time is so fucking awesome you should all get it, you're lucky because normally only Nintendo get's the good games but this one's even on Xbox!"
"Prince opf Persia? Nah faggy kiddy nintendo shit"
"WHAT!"
"You heard me"
"HE KILLS HIS OWN FATHER!"
"..."
"THERE'S A SEX SCENE! HOW IS THIS KIDDY?"
"Whatever man jsut the way it looks, kiddy shit"

FISTS of Vengence! FISTS! This game sounds extreme.

The whole GTA "Hot Coffee" thing when the "hackers" made it...

:/

I can't find most of these God of War/GTA/Prince of Persia games that appealing. I mean, it's fun, but with the mindless violence, and constant profanity, it gets boring after a while. In my opinion, I believe they should be added to spice up a certain moment, not whore it out in the whole game, regardless of how realistic it's meant to be.

no not really. me and everyone I know IRL has no problem with swearing whatsoever. this is a non-issue IMO. its 2006...

swearing/violence isnt going to make a good game worse.

And Yes, it can. It can make you annoyed with the game and thus make it worse. Besides, Shadow wasn't even a good game to begin with.

Sinceless violence and swearing is just stupid to begin with. But since the kids love and want it, I'm sure many more games will continue to use it to get higher ratings.

I was gonna say... that game was pretty realistic and accurate when it came to setting and atmosphere. It made me feel like I was back in the ghetto of my old neighborhood in southern California xp

I just don't like unimaginative games that are not unique in any way, games that just fit the mold of a stereotypical game and have no substance to them besides generic graphics, generic music, generic sound, and generic controls with a made-to-order one-size-fits-all plotline.

The thing is though that when it comes to simulation or a game that is supposed to feel real, it has to have accurate violence, too much it's unrealistic, too little and it just looks stupid.

Take BLACK for example. Most review sites gave it a lower rating just because it didn't have blood. Where games like Prince of Persia 2 got hit for HAVING blood.

So really it depends on what the developer is shooting for, and then adjust things like violence and swearing accordingly.

You can't really complain about the swearing in GTA, because if you've ever been to a ghetto, you'd know that the "F" word is just part of speech around there and not so much a swear word. Where in fantasy based games, if it were to have the "F" word in it would just be downright dumb. And then for genres in between is the grey portion where there's no real right or wrong, but only educated guesses.

In the end though it tends to be only the "bad" games that have these violence or swearing inbalances (ex. 187 Ride or Die) so there's no real loss in quality in these titles, so I don't really see the point in arguing an issue that's not that much of an issue. Just because something's questionable doesn't make it wrong. Heck if it was, we'd still be saying that the world is flat.

A weak example but this reminds me of Cid and Barret from FFVII.
Oh no! Cid and Barrett are so badass because they can swear: 'Shara, get me some G**damn tea!' What a rebel!
Oh no! There's blood on the floor in the Shinra tower! Whoever left that mess is so cool!

The Suffering has shitloads of unnecessary shit, like those cussing!

"You sodomizing, baby-raping sack of shit!"

God of War had an excessive amount of nudity in the game. To the point where they were going to include Minotaur's with penises. Except the finished version of the Minotaur was dickless.

Why did Kratos have sex with two girls again, and why does that affect the story? Rockstar can't get through with nudity yet you see perfectly natural breasts on some of the characters in God of War. It's stupid.

Games with excess fog/blur really piss me off. This applies to ICO and SotC, as much as I love them. Stranger's Wrath had this as well. In the darkness department, games such as Call of Cthulhu and Silent Hill which have low contrast kind of get me as well. If you turn the contrast up, it isn't as "scary" or "realistic" but hey, you can actually see where you're going.

I'm of the opinion that God of War was gratuitous to an artistic level, I loved how over the top in mature content it was. Maybe it still falls under the category of unnecessary, it certainly didn't detract a single thing. I'd say the carnage and vice of God of War lends a ton to the atmosphere of the game.

So, how hasn't Mortal Kombat come up yet? Sure, it was awesome when I was 10 and my parents hated that I played it over my friends house, but how much of a gimmick were those fatalities?

I disagree. Now whenever I play it, I actually think I'm in LA

I admit, GTA:SA is one of the few games where the overabundance of swearing makes me crack up everytime. I think this should be the new anti-depressant.

I can tell I wouldn't like San Andreas if I tried it. I don't mind a little swearing now and then in games, but when it gets excessive like people are describing with San Andreas, I think it'd make me lose interest in it pretty quickly. Not that that game really interested me in the first place, though.

As for the unnecessary violence, I guess it depends on what's going on. Like if somebody splatters when I cut them in half, well duh. But if it's the same animations of blood and gore over and over again, or if they spew gallons of blood just because I poked them with a stick, then it's just dumb.

I remember Blue Stinger for Dreamcast had this:



I don't know if this really counts, but in Dew Prism/Threads of Fate, Mint cussed a lot, but they replaced it with the censor <explicitive> a lot. Even though you couldn't see it, you could tell what she was saying.

I personally don't care about all the foul language because of all the garbage I hear constantly anyway. Video game foul language is tame in comparison.