Swearing in RPG Maker Games

[Orgaya]

The context is this: after being transported to a town via a ship, you and your accomplice are unexpectedly thrown overboard because the captain (who is a woman) just decided to on a whim. You land on the dock, your accomplice lands in the water. She climbs onto the dock, turns to the boat, and yells, "You *****!"

I wrote this scene as a joke, but every time I think about it or look at it, something about it rubs me the wrong way. To me the word "*****" is just kind of ugly. However, after going through lists of insults, I can't seem to find an appropriate alternative. In this kind of context, the insult is a very guttural, angry, and impulsive response. But at the same time, it just seems jarring. The scene was supposed to keep a lightened tone, but it just comes across as hacky. To me, anyway.

I could be alone here, but I would like to hear others' opinions.

 

[Roden124]

If heavy swearing exists elsewhere in your game, I wouldn't worry about it. While "cute" is too charged to be lighthearted in most contexts, being the sexist equivalent to a racial slur, the word is perfectly appropriate vernacular for a pirate*. If you really think you'll regret adding the line, don't do it, but as long as it doesn't come completely out of left field your conscious should be clear!

*EDIT: The pirate turns out to be a figment of my late-night imagination. Regardless, everything should be okay if you know what you're doing, and you know you know what you're doing!

EDIT EDIT: It appears the intended word is not the one I inferred. In that case, "b" is relatively light swearing and I wouldn't worry about it if it's not the only word of its kind.

 

[The Stranger]

Cute is a heavily charged insult? When the hell did that happen? Ignoring actual cute behaviour, animals, and what not, I've only ever heard it being used in a positive manner, or as a sort of sarcastic retort to someone annoying you. I've also heard it used, in a playful way, between couples.

I can think of a whole host of insults, curses, blasphemies, profanities, etc to fit your situation, though.

 

[Orgaya]

The profanity filter is making this conversation kind of hilarious.

I think I know what I'm doing. I may just have to wait until someone has a problem with it.

 

[Tuomo L]

How is cute an insult?

 

[The Stranger]

Ha-ha! I turned my filter off. It censors really weird words, such as mythological place names for places of eternal punishment. It also censors a commonly used word and replaces it with dayum, for whatever reason.

To be honest, you should do what makes sense in the context of your game and story. If your story doesn't need heavy insults, then don't use them. If your story already has a lot of curses, swearing, etc, then carry on using them. Just be consistent.

 

[Diretooth]

How is cute an insult?

What starts with C, ends with T, and is generally considered an offensive word for a particular body part?

As for what the OP asked, if you're going for more lighthearted, C**t is not the word to use, unless you're either Australian or planning to sell primarily in Austraila. If you're going for something more humorous, choosing a phrase that is as insulting, but silly sounding, would work. Such as her calling them a 'D*ck without a d*ck'. Alternatively, you could just make up a word that fulfills the use of a heavy swear, is utterly meaningless, but is treated as a horrific thing to say.

 

[The Stranger]

Oh! It's c**t. That makes a lot more sense. I really thought you meant cute was an insult. xD

I still have no problem with it - c**t is used a lot in the UK.

 

[Tuomo L]

Oh! It's c**t. That makes a lot more sense. I really thought you meant cute was an insult. xD

I still have no problem with it - c**t is used a lot in the UK.

Wait, a second did I just say that without knowing that cute means something totally else here.


Man, that's cute.


Honestly, I think it's more hilarious that someone swears at someone and calls them cute. "Damn, you so cute!"

EDIT: This censoring is hilarious.

 

[The Stranger]

@Tuomo L Ha-ha! No. I don't think it's cute at all, it's C**t - it can't be typed in full because it's censored. It's a word often used in the UK and Australia.

This forum filter makes it impossible to understand other people. xD I even disabled my filter, but it still filters things.

 

[Orgaya]

To clarify, I wrote the word used to describe a female dog. If I were to use the other word I think I'd have to be a bit more skilled to weave it in properly.

Edit: Also, glad it's not just me - I turned my filter off, but I'm still getting censors. Intriguing.

 

[mlogan]

What is the actual question here? Honestly curious, it's hard to see what you are wanting to discuss - whether you should have cussing or not?

In my opinion, it's totally up to you and whether it fits or not. If you yourself are finding difficulty with it feeling right in the scene, then that's a good bet that word doesn't belong there.

 

[Orgaya]

Oh, I wanted to see if anyone could come up with a better alternative. It seems to fit just right for me, but I'm not a huge fan of the word itself. Certain insults or swears sometimes come naturally when emotional, whereas other insults would only make sense when intentionally trying to be mean. I'll probably end up waiting to see if someone complains, though.

 

[The Stranger]

@Orgaya B*tch isn't really that bad of an insult. Go for it. The best way to write dialogue is to be as natural as possible - put yourself in the shoes of your character, and try to figure out how they'd act in the given situation. You're not going to please everyone, and there will always be someone who will be offended by something or another.

 

[Lihinel]

How about: "You lousy daughter of a manatee! You have the compassion of a shark, swim like a sardine on land and look like a whale! Unless you think wales are cute, in which case, you look nothing like them."

 

[mogwai]

I made a trashy game for someone in his 30's to make, and then I later redid the game replacing all the swear words with Unicode essence of MTV censored beep ▀▓▄▒ things.

Spoiler

 

[boyflea]

Stumbled in here looking for something slightly different, but will add my 2d: I just think swearing-as-seen-on-US-TV in games shows a lack of inspiration - a real turn-off for me 99% of the time.

Let's be honest: the text is the thing for a lot of RPGMaker content - the sexy title screen and cool profile pics get the player in the game, but the story keeps them there, and character dialogue is a massive part of that.


Language can be very fun and creative, so why not use alternative swearing:
for example, I went through this trying to think of how a lone lizardman PC would refer to his mammalian counterparts during a quest, and so he ended calling them all 'milk guzzlers' when grumpy.


for example, how delicious are these phrases?:
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2016/07/27/50-old-fashioned-insults-we-should-bring-back/

So if 'cute' has a back-meaning in your world (similar to how it does in the 'Zootopia' film for example) then that can only be a good thing.

Besides: insults can be terrific fun: we all remember...
http://monkeyisland.wikia.com/wiki/Insult_Sword_Fighting

Anyway... cheers.

 

[Orgaya]

I have to agree to an extent. Often swearing is used to the point where the words don't mean anything anymore, and thus just become empty air. Where I would disagree, however, is that I think, like any word in any language, when used correctly, they can be very effective. The use of the word mentioned in the OP is meant to provide such an effect, as swearing is very scarce in my game. In this instance, it's meant to pack a punch in a comedic way, to catch the player off guard and add to the weirdness of the scene.

This was my issue, though. I just didn't want to use that word in particular - it's just an ugly word to me. The swearing I don't mind. I would just like to have an alternative that creates the same effect. Using old fashioned terms or made up words wouldn't replicate that, I don't think, because it might just end up confusing the player or causing a sense of disconnect. I may be overthinking this, though.

 

[Reapergurl]

Yeah...

This girl is not afraid to use deliberate vulgarity in her games and actually cringes at ridiculous amounts of censorship.

As far as the woman being called b*tch or c*nt, those are perfect for the situation, followed by the woman laughing her arse off.

'Slattern' works as a replacement...

Yeah, Amelia was exposed to great amounts of obscenities throughout her whole life; she's better off because of it. Rock 'n' roll, baby.

 

[Punamaagi]

I think I might have mentioned this somewhere else already in the past, but I feel that games follow the same rule as most text-based media: curse words tend to sound stronger when they are written than spoken. That is why for instance subtitles tend to have less and milder curse words than the original voice over in movies. In my own game, most characters use "clean" or even silly exclamations instead (e.g. "Curses!" or "Blimey!") and stronger swearing is quite scarce (and even that is mostly limited to one character's habit of saying "What the hell?").

I'm not a native speaker of English and thus probably not aware of all the nuances, but the C-word does sound somewhat jarring, so I'd vote for replacing it with the, eh, female dog alternative, or something which might be partly related to the captain's personality or other traits.