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Originally Posted by dcb  To be honest, I stopped playing at "dwarf cock." Am I a prude? No. Do I want an immersive RPG? Yes. Do pop-culture references and modern cuss words ruin a medieval fantasy RPG for me? Yes. When a game tries to use humor in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way, it can definitely work. Overlord did a good job of this. But when a game tries to use humor to be "tough" and "edgy" it really just comes off as pathetic and annoying. |
Have to say, I completely agree. But then, most programmers (not all) are hardly good dialog writers. So you end up with games that are well-coded, but shoot themselves in the foot as soon as somebody opens a mouth. The classic example is Betrayal at Antara: attactive looking game for its time, even improved on the game mechanics a bit from Betrayal at Krondor, but the worst dialog I've ever read in any title, without exception. Every character acting a 12-year-old, quoting modern pop culture, contradicting themselves every 5 minutes, etc.
By contrast, I have no problems at all with cursing within a cultural context, though. Korgan (from BG2) is a perfect example. He uses a once very common method of employing similes as the height of vulgarity--"dirt chute" in his mouth, combined with a few other words, is the equivalent of an *******. He knows, and the person from his old gang that he's trash-talking knows it: Korgan's mouth can peel skin off your face. He's funny, vulgar, and appropriate.