In a CG or HG would slurs such as “whore” be allowed? Now, I don’t mean in a sense such as this: “And Jackie had sex outside of marriage. What a whore.” I mean in a sense similar to the way ASOIAF uses it. For the purposes of finding out community opinions of it, I made this poll.
0 voters
depand on the setting . I know some peoples are allergic to curse words or slur words…
I aint , but they can be jarring in some setting…as in…they dont fit . Or make me feel like ‘‘My character…would never say that !’’ .
though…i believe cursing is different then a slur word right? arent those always…racial?
I mean, your poll doesn’t really cover what you asked specifically, but I assume it’s allowed. I don’t recall any CoGs with cursing in them, though? Authors tend to subsititute actual slurs for their own in-universe ones, like in Heroes Rise. Not my preferred method but it makes it easier to reach a varied age demographic, I guess?
HR uses bitch, bloody, damn and stuff.
Oh, my bad. Haven’t read HR in a long while 
Sooo…not racist, but potentially sexist? Like, there is still context behind the way that ASOIAF uses it.
Anyway, in general, it’s not just what HG and CoG readers think of it (though there are definitely standards for the company by which said context matters in these issues and an appeal to certain demographics that can be impacted), but game submissions also have to meet the scrutiny of individual app stores to get published. In my humble experience, there is wiggle room, but you’re generally encouraged to use them sparingly and with discernment. YMMV.
Then again, aside from bitch (which is mostly reclaimed) non of what i listed are slurs but swears.
I’m not certain HR substitutes slurs (not counting that awful “gene hazard” thing)
As for other games, we had this discussion when Gilded Rails had been released.
I think the general concensus is in general:
I am not native, most of slurs doesn’t come in any dictionary. Then the only slur does are insult. I don’t want be calling whore and mean stuff to people It is gratuitous it is unfair. And gives nothing in exchange. Due slur heavily depends on knowledge of a locally idiosyncratic using of language. I only advice using them if the objective is or a insulting or b make your game incomprehensible for many non natives . If a game say HEAVY usage of slurs and racist xenophobic wording is a BIG NO
To me it’s more about what you are doing with those slurs, as an author.
You brought up ASOIAF which I am a fan of, so I’ll refer to that. The use of gendered slurs conveys something about the setting - it’s a misogynistic place. Some people don’t want to read that and will skip your game. If you are fine with that, proceed.
Slurs also say something about the character using them. They will most likely not be viewed favorably by the audience. Is that your intent? Go ahead.
In ASOIAF you’ll notice it isn’t generally the women using slurs, nor is it the more heroic male characters. Jaime would, because he has given up the idea of chivalry and honor and just acts like a selfish dick most of the time. He also tried to murder a little kid and sleeps with his sister. Using slurs is kind of part of the not-a-good-dude package. Jon Snow would never. He’s guilty of more subtly sexist things like thinking women shouldn’t fight and being puzzled by wildling women and their behavior, but he would never deliberately disrespect a woman by using a slur.
ASOIAF also presents several female point of view characters, and illustrates the effect these slurs and the society in general have on the people they are directed at. Arya and Brienne are both gender nonconforming to some degree. Brienne in particular has been the subject of abuse because of this for her entire life. Is this something you can portray sympathetically? Then I’m okay with it.
Don’t just use them for the sake of realism or edginess. In the sake of your example of the word whore, I am not a fan. Who is calling someone a whore, and why? I better have the option of shutting the person down verbally or starting a fight over it. Sex workers IRL are abused with this word and I have Opinions about it.
I won’t get into the weeds about racial slurs since you specified non-racist, but for the record I am on team Do Not Do It.
I personally don’t mind any type of course language in general. Just part of our language where I come from. Ain’t nothing off limit down here so I don’t mind at all when naughty words or mean words are used in COGs either.
And as I believe has been stated already Slurs can be used as characterisation or establishing a setting. If you are playing in a plantation during the 1800s or something it would make complete sense if basically everyone reffered to black people as “You all know the word and I’m not allowed to say it here”
And meaner people tend to use slurs more then nicer people so, easy characterisation there.
I have no issues with slurs and other stuff in games at all; if I did, I’d have to stop playing a lot of games.
Those are a few examples but there are probably a lot more in other games I played; since I don’t mind them that much I probably forgot most of them at this point and I had to check TvTropes to remember some, and those are just the fantasy ones. To me text games are no different in this regard and seeing such wouldn’t be a big deal to me. Still, I’m not talking about rules or what should published or not, just my opinion as a player of what I would play.
It’s something that happens and makes sense for real life stories (when they are correctly applied, such as in the example @LordNanachi gave above). For fantasy games having its own slurs can actually be interesting because it’s part of the worldbuilding; so much occurred between different groups that hateful labels were created, meaning that historical events were thought out and developed in this universe and could even be further explored during the story.
I would recommend you censor some of those slurs, even inside of the cut.
As for my own comfort with slurs, depends on the setting and the word.
…y’all. Re-printing a bunch of actually racist and homophobic slurs is utterly unnecessary for this conversation. Even under a spoiler cut.
I also don’t think “other games do it” is a compelling reason to do something without thinking about it.
Hard agree with everything in @bobsmyuncle’s post earlier.
I believe context is important in use of these words my man. If he was directing them at someone your annoyance may be more justifiable but in this scenario of simply listing words, and if they were apparently under a summary tag which means one willingly opened it, I personally don’t believe there is anything wrong with that.
I did not see the original post however to be fair and despite me spouting ideology like a fuck boy I do know however that it is against forum rules to post such words so I will not be as much of a fuck boy to start a argument or war over this.
What does listing them add to this conversation?
Nothing to be fair.
Unless he gave examples of uses where the words could be used in a good way in stories, I again did not see the unedited post however.
Maybe I am just unique in the case of me seeing these slurs really doesn’t effect me but if it really does actually upset people I apologise for my seemingly fuck boy comments.
You can click the orange pencil-shaped button in the top right corner of the post to see the original message, if it matters. It is literally a list of slurs.
It wont let me open the list annoyingly.
From what it appears though he was listing the slurs and games that they were used appropriately so I believe it was for example purposes.
Either use the back/rewind button or believe me when I say it is literally a list of slurs.
And again I ask: what does that add to the conversation? Giving the example, “this game uses this slur,” generally just listing the game and the slur, does nothing. Some discussion of how a game uses a slur (see, e.g., @bobsmyuncle’s post) could be productive, but you don’t need to list the slur to do that.
Also, it is my understanding that this thread is about discussing what “appropriate” use of a slur would be; you unilaterally declaring something is appropriate does not make it so.