This question might have been asked before, but I looked back 15 pages and couldn’t find it. Mods, feel free to close/delete if this is redundant.
Okay, so COG says that they won’t publish games that are highly offensive, and I was wondering what that means? Obviously, I understand using things like the rape or racial slurs without a good reason is pretty icky and I certainly support not supporting those things. But would including sexual content (to be clear: consensual sexual content) be offensive? What about creative/descriptive violence? Is that offensive?
I ask because I’m rather desensitized to both areas of discussion, because I work at an abuse clinic where obviously both things are high on the list of things I deal with, and I wouldn’t want to write a game that couldn’t be published just because I casually wrote in a sexual encounter/excruciating death scene without thinking. (It happens!)
Bonus question: if you don’t think those things are offensive (or if you do), what do you think should be the limits of what people can write in these games?
You could use sexual content always you put +18 tag and warning about the nature.
You only dont include pederasty, rape Dont consent sexual activity. and all would fine.
I only ask you if you go post a game directly go sexist way against woman and or gays or transgenders please , put it right in the post to people like me dont bother to try and get angry.
The problem with creating clear guidelines for these things is that offense is purely subjective. Certainly, attempts have been made to detail exactly what sort of thing is “intrinsically offensive,” - and have failed totally. I could ramble on about farts and titties to my hearts content, and depending on who I’m talking to, offence could be all-consuming or not present in the slightest.
And even if we wish to try to locate “Offensiveness” in something more nuanced than particular words and phrases, based on vague notions such as “Respect for the beliefs of others” or whatever, questions may be posed to refute the objectivity of such: Is one at liberty to depict Muhammad visually, for example? Doubtless, Moslems would find this immensely offensive, akin perhaps to bookmarking the Koran with raw bacon (*cough* Anne Barnhardt *cough*), but ought that to restrict the expressions of those who -aren’t- offending by the idea of drawing somebody, even if said person is believed to be a prophet? What about something belittling to Christians, such as a female Pope? I know many people who classify the tale of Pope Joan as being nothing short of vile, anti-clerical hate-mongering, - and is that view shared by all others? Nope. You just can’t pin anything down, no matter how hard you try.
If CoG says it wont publish anything offensive, what it is really saying is it wont publish anything that IT finds offensive. So, basically, your only real guideline is to ask @Jasonstevenhill what he likes and dislikes (or tolerates and doesn’t), and then proffer games according to his whims.
@Drazen *heart’s
“I could ramble on about farts and titties to my hearts content” should be “I could ramble on about farts and titties to my heart’s content”. I am truly sorry, but I have never seen you make a grammatical error before and I felt that I had to pounce on this one before the moment was lost (but of course, I timed it so that you cannot edit your post ).
Also, it’s “jasonstevanhill”, not “jasonstevenhill”.
Finally, I completely agree with what you have said.
@SpaceLesbian a good guideline is that if someone would find it offensive enough to actually complain, then it’s too offensive. But by no means stick to that if you feel differently.
Grammar fight! Ladies and gentlemen, boys, and girls, Are ready to rumble! In one corner hailing from some place I don’t know it’s not green grave, blue grave, or yellow grave, it’s @Redgrave! With a username picture of some kind of knight smiling in some kind of funky dimension no where to be known. In the other corner hailing from a place I asume is some where in the United Kingdom it’s not dragon, frozen, or raisin it’s @Drazen! With the username picture of some dude with a big mustache in black and white. Now I want you to play fairly. Now FIGHT!!! sorry @SpaceLesbian I couldn’t control my impulses.
Choice of Games tends to be extremely lenient in regards to what is considered offensive content. Most things aren’t. The main issue is with the app stores and what they will and won’t publish. Even if the app stores won’t publish it Choice of Games may still publish it on their site.
For the forums, if in doubt put a mature/adult warning on your thread and it should be good.
Even if the story does contain graphic descriptions of violence and rape as well as misogynistic themes then you can still post a link to it on the forums. There’s one game I can think of that does this, and the discussion takes place over on its own site instead of here.
@SpaceLesbian if it will not conform to CoG Guidelines & you are not worried about monetary compensation there are a few other story sites that deal with extreme adult content & the only rule is the characters have to be 18+
As Drazen said, the CoG “line” is subjective, and can’t be captured in any set of rules. For example, while you generally won’t go wrong by following Mara’s “no pederasty” rule, any would-be Nabokovs out there can take heart that CoG haven’t closed the door entirely to a game that deals with those themes in an artistically meritorious manner (with the critical caveat, as long as it doesn’t get them banned from the iTunes store).
CoG definitely does not consider either consensual sex or explicit violence to be inherently offensive. So in your case, I wouldn’t worry - it sounds like you’re unlikely to trip their switches.
@SpaceLesbian
That’d just be bigotry on their part. A lot of the games CoG’s published have either violence, sexual content, or both, so I wouldn’t worry about it.
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