Rules: Regarding Profanity, Etc.

[zoutzakje]

I got a report once about an f-bomb. It wasn't a huge deal, and the reporter was more frustrated by it than offended I'd say.

All in all, this is a pretty good community about that kind of stuff. I've worked for another website where I literally spent 30 hours or so a week just dealing with stuff like that.

to be honest, I've never seen much abusive language on any strategy game forum (not that I've seen many, but still). It's usually the mmo's and shooters that attract people who enjoy cursing lol

[Nodor]

I spend a lot of time cursing as a result of this game.

However, doing so at people isn't necessarily effective in a co-op multi-player environment.

[Magron]

Starts with r, ends with pe.

I think when we let people decide for us all that non profane words aren't acceptable it's all going a little too far.
In my experience, people will act as self centered and childish as you let them.
There will be no end to it as it becomes about power, not respect.
I think the word Blue is offensive. Stop using it.  Silly of course but in time the whiners won't need the faint justification that cuddly hug  has regarding offensiveness.

[x4000]

Starts with r, ends with pe.

I think when we let people decide for us all that non profane words aren't acceptable it's all going a little too far.
In my experience, people will act as self centered and childish as you let them.
There will be no end to it as it becomes about power, not respect.
I think the word Blue is offensive. Stop using it.  Silly of course but in time the whiners won't need the faint justification that cuddly hug  has regarding offensiveness.

It has nothing to do with offensiveness, and everything to do with triggering.  Not using that word is not particularly an uncommon request.  It's a matter of polite respect in a certain social group, not a government crackdown on language usage.

[Magron]

Starts with r, ends with pe.

I think when we let people decide for us all that non profane words aren't acceptable it's all going a little too far.
In my experience, people will act as self centered and childish as you let them.
There will be no end to it as it becomes about power, not respect.
I think the word Blue is offensive. Stop using it.  Silly of course but in time the whiners won't need the faint justification that cuddly hug  has regarding offensiveness.

It has nothing to do with offensiveness, and everything to do with triggering.  Not using that word is not particularly an uncommon request.  It's a matter of polite respect in a certain social group, not a government crackdown on language usage.

exactly. a small handful of individuals forcing their view.
the appropriate response, imho, to such a complaint is "have you considered counseling to help you find a way to deal with your emotions OTHER than forcing other people arbitrarily to your will"
I see you completely missed the point of my post though... sigh...

[keith.lamothe]

exactly. a small handful of individuals forcing their view.
the appropriate response, imho, to such a complaint is "have you considered counseling to help you find a way to deal with your emotions OTHER than forcing other people arbitrarily to your will"
I see you completely missed the point of my post though... sigh...

The use of a term which means "to assault sexually" to mean "to defeat in military conflict" is quite unsettling to many people, not just a small handful.  I would not normally participate in conversations where that was very frequent behavior, for instance.

Put another way, we try to take reasonable measures to ensure that the community members (i.e. customers) can be comfortable here.

One reasonable measure is moderating the level of vulgarity to a point lower than the usual internet norm.

Another reasonable measure is not indulging requests like "I think (insert name of color name here) is offensive, please don't mention it".

If you don't see the very substantial difference, I don't think there's anything else I can say that would get through

[ZaneWolfe]

I'm impressed. What word was the most popular offender? 

Hybrid.

You know there might be a reason that Hybrids offend so many people Keith. But I can't see what it is. I just get some really shiny rocks and then all the mutated abominations just, go away.

Starts with r, ends with pe.

Having played at the higher difficulties, even with my hacking for infinite K, I can see the reason a certain word is used when describing AI tactics. I think many of us would complain less if the AI at least bought us dinner first. Or used lube.

Starts with r, ends with pe.

I think when we let people decide for us all that non profane words aren't acceptable it's all going a little too far.
In my experience, people will act as self centered and childish as you let them.
There will be no end to it as it becomes about power, not respect.
I think the word Blue is offensive. Stop using it.  Silly of course but in time the whiners won't need the faint justification that cuddly hug  has regarding offensiveness.

It has nothing to do with offensiveness, and everything to do with triggering.  Not using that word is not particularly an uncommon request.  It's a matter of polite respect in a certain social group, not a government crackdown on language usage.

exactly. a small handful of individuals forcing their view.
the appropriate response, imho, to such a complaint is "have you considered counseling to help you find a way to deal with your emotions OTHER than forcing other people arbitrarily to your will"
I see you completely missed the point of my post though... sigh...

Margon, I can see where you are coming from. Honest. Because having a small minority tell the majority that a certain word is very hard for them to hear so the rest of us are not allowed to speak it, sounds INCREDIBLY stupid. I can also see where the Arcen staff is coming from too. Pissing off either customers or potential customers is NOT good business practice, no matter what certain AAA companies get away with. Looking at you EA. They want to broaden their customer base, and more power to them. That also comes with the need to keep their forums a tad more PC than the rest of the general internet. Kinda sucks, but that's business.

However, I can also see where the third side of the argument is coming from. You can't. And I personally hope you never do. Somethings can't be understood until you are a part of them. This is a small request. And in all honesty, is it really a hard request to do? You don't need to understand the why and you don't want to.  Trust me.

[Kahuna]

Using the word that starts with r and ends with pe to describe victory or success is incredibly stupid. It's about as stupid as using "gay" to describe negative things. If one wants to talk like an idiot one can go play League Of Legends.

[Zeyi]

Using the word that starts with r and ends with pe to describe victory or success is incredibly stupid. It's about as stupid as using "gay" to describe negative things. If one wants to talk like an idiot one can go play League Of Legends.

I think it's more commonly used to describe military defeat, which whilst still inappropriate is more understandable. Perhaps not in a forum setting, but if we look at actual war, actual defeats where a soldier might be screaming down the radio for reinforcements because they are getting R'd  it becomes more forgivable as their level of suffering is debatably similar to sexual assault (although I'm not wanting to start that discussion haha). I'm fine with avoiding offending people but I do question when things might get too far (I don't think we are here) but I would point out that I know more than a handful of social groups that find the R word offensive would also find this very game deplorable.

I had a female friend get very upset at me after she had been laughing at the death sounds on Bionic Dues, she thought they were utterly hilarious until I told her the name of the game. She then decided the whole thing was a pun and disgustingly insulting. It was... odd but people will draw strange conclusions at their whim.

Basically, I'm all for maintaining a friendly community with as little vulgarity as possible but let's not forget who the demographic is playing these games. I don't think there is an issue now at all by the way but it's been a while since I read this post and noticed it mentions you plan to make children's games. I heavily suggest you make a separate forum for that when the time comes.

[Histidine]

However, I can also see where the third side of the argument is coming from. You can't. And I personally hope you never do. Somethings can't be understood until you are a part of them. This is a small request. And in all honesty, is it really a hard request to do? You don't need to understand the why and you don't want to.  Trust me.

Seconding this.

For most of us here on this forum, it's just a word. But for a very large part of the population, particularly in some places, it represents something they have to worry about constantly. And for a small segment, it's a concept that involves trauma that can last for years. Try to remember that.

The key point here is: It costs us essentially nothing to avoid using words carelessly, and it saves the other people involved a lot of issues. At the end of the day, it's just common courtesy.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

And there are such things as dictionaries which give us an abundance of new words that we can use instead of four letter words. The bonus side effect of learning new words is that you sound much more intelligent.

[x4000]

I had a female friend get very upset at me after she had been laughing at the death sounds on Bionic Dues, she thought they were utterly hilarious until I told her the name of the game. She then decided the whole thing was a pun and disgustingly insulting. It was... odd but people will draw strange conclusions at their whim.

Wait... what?  I'm not aware of a pun there, certainly not one that is offensive.  Now I'm just curious.

And for a small segment, it's a concept that involves trauma that can last for years. Try to remember that.

Like me, actually.  Never happened to me, but two people I am close to.  One was murdered after.  I don't get offended when people use the word, it doesn't "trigger" me, but it's not a topic I like discussing, either.  And having a taste of this, I totally get where someone who is closer in would be utterly traumatized to have it constantly brought up.

[Zeyi]

I consider it to be a unique case so I don't want to draw too much discussion around it and for this reason I will PM you.

However, the reason I brought it up was an important one in that it's very easy to offend people and often completely unintentionally, seemingly without logic or reason. We can't know what someone else has been though, or how they perceive and experience something, thus approaching new situations with caution is important but I wouldn't want to put a strangle hold on myself or others in the name of political correctness. Sometimes it is just better to accept that some people will find something offensive, for example games oriented around war. The way to balance this is to, in my opinion keep your war games on their own forum and if you ever do divulge into child friendly games give them their own shiny, colourfully themed Arcen games forum. I think this would go a long way to keeping kids safe, keeping parents happy and allowing your war mongering customers to continue to use violent (but not vulgar!) language here.

In case there is any confusion, I have no issue with the 'R' word being prohibited. I'm just making new points after re-reading this topic with regards to the mention of children's games.

[x4000]

Oh, yeah, if we did children's games it would be on a completely different website, let alone forum.  It's all good.  And yes, I know it's easy to offend people; that's just part of life, and being a grown up, as we all seem to agree.  Anyhow, enough said.  Back to work for me.

[Coppermantis]

I had a female friend get very upset at me after she had been laughing at the death sounds on Bionic Dues, she thought they were utterly hilarious until I told her the name of the game. She then decided the whole thing was a pun and disgustingly insulting. It was... odd but people will draw strange conclusions at their whim.

Wait... what?  I'm not aware of a pun there, certainly not one that is offensive.  Now I'm just curious.

I know this thread was necroed by a spambot but I hadn't read this far in before and I'm really curious about this too. I've been running it through my head for about five minutes and come up with nothing.

Maybe taking the "Bi" at the beginning of Bionic to refer to bisexuals which then follows that bisexuals owe some kind of due...no, nope, I got nothing. Bizarre.