[diamondgeezer]

Yes, I mean foreigners in an engrish sense. Badly translated swearage, sort of thing. The stuff you quote is funnier than it is atmospheric.

Anyone read 'Stark'? Ben Elton points out that human beings, no matter how fluent they are, cannot learn to swear effectively in another language.

Oh, and prolly right about the slang, but I'm keeping it modern - let's look again at the 'Aliens' example here. Also, I'm going to have to make a disclaimer along the lines of "if you don't understand the jokes, it's cos you're foreign. Don't worry about it". Very much an english sense of humour, even though most of the characters remain Merry Cans.

Well, Aldo liked it, anyway

BTW, let's steer clear of potential derailment, yes?

[Shrike]

Originally posted by EdrickV
You want to use words to convey feelings and/or emphasis? Be creative. There are many words that, when put together, can be, IMHO, better then the regular 4 letter words we all know. To quote an example or two from some of Anne McCaffrey's books:

"Rotoscoped, animated bastard from a bad, grade-D psycho-horror flick--in 2D!" from The Ship Errant

"..the son of a scabrous tarantula had stolen La Pobrecita." from Power Lines

"...the vomitus spewings of an excrement-devouring long-extinct reptile which would eat it's own mother without shame or serious second contemplation..." from Power Lines

:devil:

Better?  I think not.  Curse words are meant to be crude, vulgar, and express sentiment.  What feels better when you say it?  'Oh, poo' or 'Oh, ****'?  Those kind of overly clever replacements don't reflect, IMO, how people react in real life.  Or if they do, it's not how they react when under pressure.  Would you go on about how something spews excrement from all it's bodily orifices when you're mad, or just say '**** it!'

Remember, it should be in the heat of the moment, when you don't have time to make up an nice, pretty, intricate sentence.

[Goober5000]

I try to avoid foul language whenever possible, of any kind.  Even the popularly termed "mild" inappropriate language such as damn, which has been cliched so much that it has lost the force of its primary meaning.  Yes, this definitely causes a problem in missions where it seems to be unavoidable - the situation often seems to demand it.  But if you examine the situation carefully, you can often figure out a way around it, either by using different language or by rewriting the dialogue.

As has been mentioned, it would have been very easy to start out Into the Lion's Den by having somebody yell "@#%&@!#%&* get out of the way!"  Instead, they changed it to Dive, Dive, Dive, which was much more descriptive and perhaps also more dramatically effective.  If you think about it long enough, you'll usually see a way around it.

*If* those options have been exhausted, then I think foul language is appropriate in rare occasions.  For example, if the Lucifer shows up and nukes Earth, it would be appropriate for a pilot to let out a stunned curse - it wouldn't be realistic otherwise, and it would be quite powerful because it was never used elsewhere.  But using foul language simply because another ship collided with you is not really appropriate, IMHO.

[EdrickV]

Originally posted by Shrike
Remember, it should be in the heat of the moment, when you don't have time to make up an nice, pretty, intricate sentence.

There are some serious stretches without fighting, so atmosphere and tension building are all important.

I'm not talking about stuff in the middle of combat, and those were the first examples that I thought of, not necessarily the best. (And in context, those three do work well IMHO, and apparently in the opinion of a UK writer, from the country that created English. )

[Shrike]

Originally posted by Goober5000
As has been mentioned, it would have been very easy to start out Into the Lion's Den by having somebody yell "@#%&@!#%&* get out of the way!"  Instead, they changed it to Dive, Dive, Dive, which was much more descriptive and perhaps also more dramatically effective.  If you think about it long enough, you'll usually see a way around it.

See, but I could just as easily see them going "DIVE DIVE DIVE!" as they react professionally to the crisis, then when the crisis is passed "****, that was close."

[RandomTiger]

Originally posted by GalacticEmperor
Meh... FS2 is rated Teen. I think it should stay that way.

Hmmm... Sandwich has me almost convinced to switch sides on this though on an interesting side note I should point out that FS1 makes use of a swear in one of the cut scenes, actually I seem to remember being quite surprised.

[diamondgeezer]

Another example to consider: In Tiberian Sun Firestorm, you take a GDI bloke aorund warning villages about CABAL. The little dude you control use the word 'bastard' twice when it quite plainly isn't needed, and it annoys the hell out of me since it's blatantly there for the sake of swearage

What do you mean, I'm the only one who played TibSun? Oh, screw the whole bloody thing, see if I care...

My desire to put swearing in... OK, I'm guessing not too many of you crazy (but loveable) foreign types saw Lock Stock or Snatch, or similar London ganster films? That's the sort of thing I'm aiming for - trying to use strong language as part of clever dialog. Example:

What do you mean what are they armed with? Bad breath? Harsh language? Guns, you tit!

OK, so 'tit' isn't a great example of a swear word, but you get the idea... see, I'm a foul-mouthed cockney meself, and and I'm basically just writing what I think...

I have, so far, managed to either avoid old Mr F completely, or substitute him for something less 'offensive'. But I reach the stage where nothing else works. I mean, you've had a hard day dealing with wierdness and creepy stuff, and then you've got some huge great unknown thingy in front of you, and you say to the rest of the squad "what... but... what the fcuk is that?" (note, the pilot pronounces the stress on the swear word, to indicate the sense of and prolly anxiety that he feels). 'Hell' just doesn't work as well. 'Flip' is worse. 'Poo' is right out of the question

This is proving to be a most useful mass debate (damn I'm funny). Carry on

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Shrike
Putting curses into every second sentence would be stupid.  It has to fit the situation.

Aha!  But you're not Scottish.... we have probably the best swearers in the world.  You're not heard a good swearing session till you've sat next a 40 year old man at a football match, pouring obscenties in between mouthfulls of pie and bovril.  Or for that matter, me on a footbal pitch.

Besides which, i've tried voice acting.  and I can't do it without the urge to chuck in a dirty word somewhere.  Because I'd swear in the same situation.  A lot.

[Shrike]

Oh yes, I swear conversationally a lot in real life as well.  Probably not as much as said 40-year-old scott, but still.  I'd be cursing at the Shivans.

[Liberator]

One thing to remember is that the pilot is GTVA Navy flyer, and, IIRC, most naval fliers try to refrain from placing vulgarities into the official record of their missions.

[CP5670]

I personally have not needed to use any profanity my missions so far, but that is because your wingmen are mostly vasudans in those and I guess the translators would sound strange conveying strong emotional swings. Still, I would not mind seeing it in other missions as long as it is used in appropriate places.

Another example to consider: In Tiberian Sun Firestorm, you take a GDI bloke aorund warning villages about CABAL. The little dude you control use the word 'bastard' twice when it quite plainly isn't needed, and it annoys the hell out of me since it's blatantly there for the sake of swearage

I think that guy is supposed to be you.

[Galemp]

Elaborating on my last post; FS1 has the words 'hell' 'damn' and 'bastard' used in appropriate contexts, and that works fine for me. What I'd like you to keep in mind is that profanities don't always add to the game (there are other ways to convey emotion) but sometimes spoil an otherwise fun experience. That's why when Nintendo ported Tony Hawk, they removed the songs with objectionable lyrics from the soundtrack.

Another thing: if I'm playing a game, I'm not actually killing people, it's a simulation. But if people start swearing, that's REAL swearing, and I take offense to that. So I play UT and have no problems with taking someone's head off with a Ripper, but I turn off 'Mature Taunts' because I don't want the computer telling me to suck it's ****.

[diamondgeezer]

UT? Mebbe I'm mistaken, but as far as I can remember the strongest word it uses is '*****' (or 'beeeyatch', if you prefer)

[mikhael]

"Rotoscoped" is a real word. Look it up.

Originally posted by Liberator
One thing to remember is that the pilot is GTVA Navy flyer, and, IIRC, most naval fliers try to refrain from placing vulgarities into the official record of their missions.

Funny, when I was in the US Navy supporting antisub flight crews, I seem to recall catching a hell of a lot of profanity coming across the secure voice circuits. Now in the official military text message traffic, that's something different.

[Solatar]

Originally posted by Thor


OT:  Why does every one I know play football? (points at Hades)

I don't play football, I watch it. I didn't feel like trying out, and I'm not very good.

[EdrickV]

Originally posted by mikhael
"Rotoscoped" is a real word. Look it up.

I tried. Twice with rotoscope and once with rotoscoped. It's not in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary. (Or the root word is spelled differently enough that AOL's spell checker can't identify it.)

[Sandwich]

Originally posted by Shrike
See, but I could just as easily see them going "DIVE DIVE DIVE!" as they react professionally to the crisis, then when the crisis is passed "****, that was close."

But they didn't, now did they? No, Snipes was a pro about it: http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/qm/pub/sandwich/too_close.wav

Anyway, there are a number of exemplary voice samples from that particular SOC mission:

Dive dive dive!
Do I look Shivan to you?
Also, here's a sample I'd never run across before - apparently version 1.0 of "Dive dive dive!".

Anyway, as those samples will show, good voice acting, particularly when it doesn't sound like acting at all, can cover pretty much any supposed "lack" of profane emphasis.

Also, note that Lt. Snipes did say "...where the hell are we?", which I leave to you to decide whether that is swearing. I've heard hell preached from the pulpit, personally, but I tend not to use it in day to day life as an exclamation.

Rotoscoped is something to do with animating, I know that much.

[EdrickV]

Hmm. It's a film technical term so maybe that's why it wasn't in there.

Rotoscope Animation is an old technique where live action film images were projected frame by frame, traced and re-filmed frame by frame.

[Sesquipedalian]

Personally, I've never found it difficult to rephrase in such a way that all the emotional content comes through without needing expletives.  It really isn't too hard, guys...

[Star Dragon]

I got the wave of Delenn from B5 screaming "Bastards!" so you can bet it's going in a B5 mission!

"Listen up you primitive ScrewHeads, this is my BOOMSTICK!" (Points at Archangel)...

   Go to SpaceBattles.com and get movie "Space Battle" it looks inspired by Wing Commanderfor look and feel. The pilots seemed to behave as I'd expected them too with a reasonable amount of swearing... IMHO. So that is what I will try to attain in my missions.

BTW SAAB or not this line is getting used,

"The is Lt Nathan West, Planet Earth, Open wide you Chig Bastards!"