Profanity in mods, [split by Baronius; Domi's request] Options

[Domi]

BG1 is a PG13 game, so the developper to start with did not intend it for children. There are characters in BG1 that say stuff like "Will one of you rugged adventurers give me a good, hard shag?"

The mods/mods components are sometimes rated as well (for example some of BG1NPC Romances are rated R for language or adult situations), while the mod itself is the same as the game, to avoid embaracing the selective players. It will be nice, if people used the rating system more vigorously.

I guess this is why most sci-fi/fantasy tv creates new profanities - frac, frell etc

And that is why the authors who have guts to carter to adult audience and have no pangs of guilt about it, read so real and have their own appreciative following. (Points to Martin).

In other words, do what you feel is right, just warn the consummer about it. I always make a point of explaining that Martin is gritty, uses the obscenities and does not draw curtains when his characters decided to make love, when I recommend his books. Yes, I love what he does. No, I don't expect everyone to agree with me that it is how it should be done.

This post has been edited by Domi: Jan 9 2006, 09:03 PM

[Thauron]

Yeeeeees?

(You are really, really making such a mod?)

Well, I have been thinking about one such scene - I don't think it's that unusual in a fantasy game (not PnP anyway, computer games are usually a bit more careful with such a theme) - It's a perfect start for a good barfight isn't it? - I wasn't planning to let it come to rape or make it too gross, if that's what you think. - just the usual annoying drunk-man's talk and behaviour.

I strongly disagree with that. The subject may have been taboo amongst the upper classes, but human sexual urges have changed very little over the millennia. In medieval times, sex was a frequent topic of discussion for groups such as miners, farmers, lower-end craftsmen (e.g. blacksmiths), guards, sailors, etc.

Going even further back, there are examples of societies which were in some ways even more liberal than the modern western world. For example, in Roman society, barely anyone saw anything wrong with bisexuality or homosexuality, many people (particularly nobles) deemed incest to be acceptable, and orgies were commonplace.

I know, I am an ancient Historian - and I think I could tell you things about especially Roman sexual ethos... I believe you're wrong on incest and orgies, though. The latter were not THAT common, and on the first you're correct only if you replace incest with pedofilia (which is not entirely the same thing - you keep away from your own children or other children from your social class, but children of slaves are yours for the taking. )

I probably should have explained myself better, cause I actually did mean the opposite of what I seemed to imply. I wasn't referring to our liberal attitude on the subject - rather the opposite, our lack of it. I believe we are still somehow trapped in the Victorian Age - a bit like f.e. a satanist who denies everything a christian affirms and affirms everything a christen denies, is still trapped in a christian way of thinking.
I believe our way of talking about everything sexual betrays that in a way. It's not a coincidence allmost all our 'profanities' and insults circle around sexual themes, and not f.e. around honour and pride, the social status of your parents, etc. It's also remarkable that when we talk about sex or f.e. hear people talk about sex, profanities are rarely absent.
I honestly don't know if the miners, farmers, from the past talked differently, somehow a bit more at ease, about sex, but I think it might be possible, especially in a pre-Victorian or better a pre-christian/pre-stoic age. One thing which is certain however is that not only those at the bottom of the social ladder talked openly about sex (Doesn't the fact that we associate talking about sex primarily with them indicate something?) - in certain symbolic ways (- you don't believe that a medieval bard who wrote a song about brown and white bread, was actually singing about bread, do you? ) or just open and direct (like the ancients did - look at some Aztec, Mayan, Egyptian pottery or mural paintings!).
Of course this is a matter of opinion - and a rather complex historical/anthropological discussion at that.
I only wanted to say that I consider our mostly sexual profanities most of the time out of place in a mod (or any fantasy setting) - The way these fantasy worlds seem to be designed (Sune, Sharess in DnD, Rahja in DSA) implies a different view on anything sexual.

This post has been edited by Thauron: Jan 11 2006, 03:21 PM