I’m curious about just how far we can go in detail, for one, as well as how bad of language. While I haven’t seen anyone explicitly say “YOU CAN’T DO THAT” I haven’t really seen many that have said you could. Now, I’m not saying that I have any intention of being ‘that’ detailed in the games that I post in the WIP’s, but I do like to know my boundaries. Say, for language, am I able to drop the F-bomb every two seconds if I wanted? Or how about intimate details? Gore?
I have looked around, but I haven’t quite seen the answer I was looking for. While I have no intention of writing scenes with horrible language or explicit sex scenes, I am in the process of writing something particularly gruesome, and while it probably wouldn’t be near the line even if there was one, it’d be good to, you know, know where that boundary actually IS.
Oh, are there explicit language and content rules somewhere? Those would be a nice reference to have. I didn’t even know the f-word was a no-no, though in retrospect I haven’t seen it in games before.
@kakistocracy -It’s one of the reasons I ask. As far as I can tell I don’t remember any curse words, though I wouldn’t trust my memory on that. However, I do know that in Choice of the Vampire there is a intimate scene with Silas, while not explicit, it’s… a bit more than I’ve seen elsewhere, while not pushing whatever limit that seems to be placed on these stories, as I have yet to read anything with MORE detail.
EDIT: While Akatsuki9344 mentions what he thinks is and isn’t allowed, I haven’t really seen that anywhere else. I mean, if a mod said it I’d leave it as that, but anything else seems more like speculation.
EDIT again: I was also wondering if, for those that DO have scenes such as stated above, if there should be a warning set in place? As far as I can tell there’s not much of an age limit for this site, which means anyone and everyone can see whatever you post. Even though that warning will likely be unheeded, still, at least you’d have your bases covered?
@akatsuki9344 I’m not sure that your theory on vulgarities matches up with what CoG use in practice; for example- ‘Choice of Zombies’ uses the S-word very early on. But a game with too much swearing (and too much can be a very small amount) probably (I don’t know) won’t be allowed- in CoZ it was used for effect, but if it is overused it just ruins the game.
@Babisko I’m not sure of the rules on intimate scenes, but I don’t think they’re meant to be too descriptive. Take ‘Choice of Romance’ for example- not a load of description of the acts that occured, but the reader still knew (pretty much) what had happened.
@Babisko When I set my mind to designing a game with ChoiceScript, I sent an email to CoG support asking them to elaborate on what qualifies as “offensive” so that I could avoid including such content in it. The reply I received contained the most vague and unhelpful answer humanly possible. My advice is to aim for PG-13 material, and pray to your deity of choice that you’ll manage to meet CoG’s content standards.
I would imagine that the official games keep the adult content and language down for accessibility purposes (the various avenues of distribution, such as Apple, have their own regulations for what is and isn’t acceptable), but if you don’t plan on releasing your game through them there’s not much to regulate your content.
I, myself, use previously released games as a measure for the maturity level of content. Look at the games labeled with mature content and set their standards as a limit.
@Zel -considering what they allow to pass for PG-13 anymore, that may end up coming to a matter of opinion!
Though, I suppose the matter of gruesome/morbidity is a free-for-all? As I have a plot in my head (and a little in my word program) that is a bit dark, but still not touching on what I’ve seen as of yet from other stories…
EDIT: Though now that I think about it, I doubt I have anything worse than Choice of Zombie or Zombie Exodus. Even though mine’s not a zombie game…
There have been a couple threads on this topic before… I’ll dig them up when I’m not running to work.
Basically, CoG has no line – even if something is incredibly offensive but they think it has “artistic merit,” they’re happy to publish it.
The rules you need to worry about are the Apple store rules, which are much more squeaky clean. That’s the real reason there are few R-rated games on this site.
@Havenstone -I doubt I’ll get anything published to make money off of, so no worries there… Also, I don’t think I’ve come across any R-rated games, or else I’d do as Zel mentioned and use that as the ‘limit.’
Though, thank you for answering and helping to clear that all up!
@Havenstone Do the Hosted Games have to meet Apple’s standards to be accepted? Does the Apple store generate a substantial amount of revenue? The game I’m currently working on is pretty “clean”, and shouldn’t have a problem meeting Apple’s standards. The complex behemoth sci-fi game I plan to design once I’m finished with the current game, perhaps not so much.
Sabres of Infinity doesn’t have any f-words, but just about every other bit of profanity (except the dreaded c-word) is in there. It also includes hundreds of people getting sliced open, shot, dismembered with cannon fire and stabbed in sundry vital organs. I never had any problems.
I’m not a CoG rep, so can’t answer your question in detail, @Zel – but I think it’s safe to say that Apple is a very significant source of revenue.
In terms of whether CoG will publish a Hosted Game that has been rejected by Apple… I imagine so, but only they could say for sure. You’ll have noticed that all the current Hosted Games are available on (at least) Apple and Android.
Here’s the last thread where similar issues were discussed – though that focused mainly on violence rather than sex. And of course, as Cataphrak has reiterated, Apple (like much of its Western customer base) is much less likely to censor violence than sex.
@Havenstone Thank you for clarifying. I could create a game that allows the player character to go on a bloody, gruesome genocidal rampage and Apple would be cool with that, but a game that lets the player character have vanilla sex with an NPC would be deemed “offensive”. Got it.
Pertinent points from the 2010 App Store Review Guidelines are: (I’m not sure if there’s a more up to date version).
We view apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate. If you want to criticise a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song, or create a medical app."
Any app that is defamatory, offensive, mean spirited, or likely to place the targeted
individual or group in harms way will be rejected."
Apps portraying realistic images of people or animals being killed or maimed, shot, stabbed, tortured or injured will be rejected. Apps that depict violence or abuse of children will be rejected. “Enemies” within the context of a game cannot solely target a specific race, culture, a real government or corporation, or any other real entity
Apps involving realistic depictions of weapons in such a way as to encourage illegal or
reckless use of such weapons will be rejected
Apps that include games of Russian roulette will be rejected
Apps containing pornographic material, defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “explicit
descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings”, will be rejected
@Zel, it’s not quite as dire as that… you can let the player have sex with NPCs, you just can’t describe that sex in a way “intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.” Cue eye rolls. (thanks @FairyGodfeather for the research).
