Worst lines in a Bioware game?

[Lyric Suite]

I can't for the life of me understand what swearing has to do with "darkness and evil". And "real people" hardly "worry" about swearing, it just comes naturally with certain levels of culture.

Because of the way swearing is emphasized. There's nothing natural about the way people swear in movies, and since video games are for the most part trying to emulate the latter the result is just as awkward. In fact, since swearing occurs mostly by instinct, or reflex, without much real intent behind it, swearing in fiction just sounds artificial because it is deliberate.

 

[circ]

In fact, since swearing occurs mostly by instinct, or reflex, without much real intent behind it, swearing in fiction just sounds artificial because it is deliberate.

You might want to visit Finland if you think swearing only occurs mostly by instict and reflex. Stupid motherfucker. OH INSTINCT.

 

[Excommunicator]

I agree with LS in that I usually shake my head or roll my eyes when I hear characters swearing (in movies/games/whatever) because it is true - the swearing is usually put in so deliberately that almost every context in which it can be found leaves it coming across unnaturally and forcefully. If I was writing dialogue where such a thing would be relevant, I would initially get into the "zone" of the character's mind and let it flow naturally with slang etc., and then look it all over again at a later time when I'm not in that state of mind and start to soften and "normalise" the language for a more neutral mindset whilst keeping the content of the initial writings.

The thing with contemporary-styled swearing is that it pulls the player/viewer back into the real world as that is the context we know such language from, which just detracts from the believability/consistency/immersion of what is being said. The same thing really applies to any situation in fiction where one uses a concept or reference from the current-day in a non-current-day fictional context, and rather ignorantly forgets the real-world connotations that such a reference will carry with it.

Doing it in a manner like Morrowind - where they have their own little swear words that the writers have invented for the cultures - I quite enjoy, and it is a much more effective way of communicating the fictional cultural identity than the use of real-world slang, even if it requires the reader to learn the usage first.

At the same time, I don't think it is important to get too into the specific traditions and customs of language in a given period because it is impossible to ignore the fact that all writing is done through a filter for the audience. You need to put that line down somewhere between the consistent representations (the extreme of which is characters speaking entirely in their native tongue) and being communicative and relevant to the reading audience (the extreme of which is translating everything into the slang and native language of the reader), and I think you will get the most benefit by not leaning in either direction too much.
In my opinion, the best way to do it for situations that don't aim for an extreme effect is to keep the language generally neutral, with grammatical correctness such that non-native speakers can understand it well, enough style that it isn't just boring text, with small influences from the in-world language/culture but very little effort to shape what is being said to any specific audience (other than, broadly, those who can actually read the language/English).

On another note, I'm rarely a fan of seeing slang written into the text with broken words and apostrophes and drawls etc. in the attempt to make the text read like the character sounds; sometimes it works, but often it just comes across forced and annoying to read in such a way that I would probably rather it be written in normal, neutral text with tags or headers describing the accent/voice/style/language of what is being spoken. A lot less tiresome and presumptive I think.

 

[Flanged]

This thread actually makes me want to play the Dragon Age games. I'd no idea they were this entertaining in their retardation. Can't believe Bioware actually put that Leilani's Song in a game, and that there are people out there who didn't laugh. It is supposed to be a joke, right? I mean, as games developers they must know that lip-syncing only really works for normally paced speech - anything that requires a character to keep their mouth open "wide" for a sustained note will just look fuckawful.

So zooming in on the dead face of a char with her mouth open must've been an injoke to show how completely lifeless these digital dolls reallty are, to shatter the illusion, to break the fourth wall for a laugh... right?

 

[Black]

So is bethesda no longer the worst at writing or what? Steel be with you, mudcrabs and so on are bad, sure, but this is a whole new level.

Wut? The worst of DA2 isn't even as bad as the "good" of Oblivion/Fallout 3. Middle aged guy, fighting the good fight, etc, forgot those? When I make fun of some piece of Bioware writing it's still that: just a piece of the pie (some of which doesn't even taste like shit, see Varric). But with Bethesda, the bad writing is all there is.

Seriously, DA2 is worthy of ridicule, but there's bad and there's bad

I may have exaggerated a bit but honestly I think it has a lot to do with bethesda's and bioware's approach.
I don't think anyone at bethesda believes their writing is good, while bioware has those pretentious fucks like gaider, nom noming giggleesquee hambeasts. Fuck, they even try to write actual books and think that their games sell because of writing (and role-playing, duh).

 

[Longwinded & Pretty]

May I chime in with the "Oh, Cookies!!" moment in DA:O?

That... that was just something else. I'm one that has a certain patience for a lot of things, and can appreciate a myriad of different types of humour, but really? I can see it working coming from a minor NPC of no consequence(as it was followed up with a 'Getting to know Sten' conversation that was funnier, relatively speaking that is), but the NPC that it was said by, and the damn context behind it, nearly floored me from the stupidity of it.

 

[gromit]

Which latin word translates as "fuck", or "pussy"? I'm really curious.

Irrumatio is face-fucking. Contrast with fellatio, in which their face does the work.

 

[Black]

Which latin word translates as "fuck", or "pussy"? I'm really curious.

Irrumatio is face-fucking. Contrast with fellatio, in which their face does the work.

I can use that! In my google research...

 

[gromit]

Facefuck handily dispatches of irrumatio in a google-fight.

 

[Black]

Facefuck is too mainstream

 

[Lyric Suite]

Irrumatio is face-fucking. Contrast with fellatio, in which their face does the work.

That's a great example really. Fallatio has the same meaning as blow job, but does not translate into blow job. Its not a swear word. I've seen this trend a lot in post-modern translations of classical or ancient works, where certain concepts were translated using modern vulgarities (rather then relying on typical euphemisms) under the rubric that it was closer to the original intent of the poem. "He laid with her" becomes "he fucked her", and that somehow makes the work more "current". Just another example of how insane modern academia really is.

 

[circ]

You really have no understanding of words, language or anything at all do you LS? You try to come off as some academic, but you're just a Cleve internet crusader. Fellatio is a vulgar obscenity aka swearword, just like blowjob. You don't use either word, then or now at the dinner table in front of your parents. You seem to think that because 2000 years have passed and science has adopted the word, makes it anything other than what its origin suggests.

Now please shut the fuck up, stop hijacking, and let's get back to serious bizniz, aka BioWare.

 

[anus_pounder]

On topic, I would have to say the romance dialogue in DA:O takes the cake.

 

[Deleted Member 10432]

'"By God," quod he, "for pleynly at a word
Thy drasty rymyng is nat worth a toord'

 

[Lyric Suite]

Fellatio is a vulgar obscenity aka swearword, just like blowjob.

No it isn't.

You seem to think that because 2000 years have passed and science has adopted the word, makes it anything other than what its origin suggests.

You do realize that fellatio is an english derivative of a latin verb, I.E., it is not and never was an actual latin word.

 

[villain of the story]

Real people, not those basement dwelling omega losers or richy rich hipsters or what have you looking for attention, but the real scum of the world who don't ever think for a second about what they are doing and particularly not about "how they look and sound", they use their respective languages in ways that would blow your brains off.

Except real criminals do not talk like they do in the movies. Well, niggers do but that's a different matter. You are just some punk kid who's watched too many movies and played too many games and doesn't know jack shit about anything whatsoever. Real people have better shit to worry about then swear for the sake of showing how evil and darkness they are. That's what little punk kids do, to make themselves look tough.

I wasn't even talking about criminals or the way they talk in the movies. Movie stuff are often forced. The real shit simply blows your brain because of how alien and how stretching stuff they can come up with, to the point of making no sense at all. Back in high school, I even had one such teacher with the filthiest mouth who's still remembered today by the graduates because of how intuitively inventive he was with his insults.

In the end, it really shouts "SHELTERED" when someone mentions lowlife scum and you associate it with criminals. I'm afraid I don't have much experience with legally criminal people. I'm sure many of the type of people I'm familiar with acquired the title officially later on but I'm not *that* acquainted with them to know of such details. These are common enough people who are perfectly used to putting up a pretense of "proper exchange" because they deal with lots of different people but otherwise have nothing but filth spill forth from their lips.

And you find the nerve to accuse *me* of too much popkult exposure. Right. Here's what I think then: you are one spoiled little bitch who got raised sheltered in a "proper" environment, devoid of contact with "real improper" folks. Obviously, such isolation has sharpened your defences as the slightest affront to your family-imposed sophistication is met with incredulity, unwilling to accept how fucking nasty real world can sound.

But you know, it's good that you met some people from "older generations" (whatever significance *that* has; there are as many "older generation" people everywhere who speak nothing but filth) that you think represents all walks of life from all corners of the medieval Europe to give us an accurate idea. Well, not really. LOL

You obviously have little understanding of European history, and how much influence the middle ages still exerted upon the older generations. Even today there are still towns and places which are still rooted in traditions which are centuries old. I myself grew up in a small town in Italy at the foot of a medieval castle. Right now its all modernized but the older generations lived in a way which wasn't too dissimilar from the way people lived in the middle ages.

Wow, you make it sound like Disney World. In fact, Disney World is still a lot more grimdark grittymature than this romanticised idea of a medieval Europe you have been imprinted with. I could feel sorry for you, sheltered little Italian, but you are way too arrogant to invoke the feeling.

And it's noteworthy how it always comes down to an overglorified idea of an age long gone and how things were super good and how high virtues were held back then.

Perhaps it is you yourself who has been exposed too much to "contemporary decline" (what with "saying Fuck to look cool" and Tarantino stereotypes stuff) to be able to regard something like this as natural and not get bothered by it over trivial misconceptions?

There are a lot of things which are "natural" that i wouldn't want to see in RPGs. This is another reason why i find this entire argument pointless. It doesn't matter whether people in the middle ages ran their mouths so much to make Samuel L. Jackson blush. It still sounds juvenille and retarded and shouldn't simply be there, not for the sake of realism, but for the sake of good taste.

And if one is interested in the realism and not in some sheltered manchild's inaccurately romanticised vision? The really juvenile and retarded attitude is this desperate longing for "taste" and "proper" ways and an unwillingness to explore and accept nasty possibilities of life that's bordering politically correctness and actively being "disturbed" by it when the former is done.

But whatever, I'm just a popkult kid who's in love with the latest grimdark grittymature trends who "OBVIOSULY" have little understanding of European history while you are this brainwashed, sheltered and spoiled manchild of high virtues pretenses with absolutely ZERO understanding of European history.

In closing words; Le Fuck?!

 

[Lesifoere]

Thank you villain of the story and LS, this thread has delivered.

I myself grew up in a small town in Italy at the foot of a medieval castle. Right now its all modernized but the older generations lived in a way which wasn't too dissimilar from the way people lived in the middle ages.

So... nobody there has plumbing, electricity, and modern medical care? Wow. Now that's grimdark.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So... nobody there has plumbing, electricity, and modern medical care? Wow. Now that's grimdark.

They do, but at one point they didn't. And there are many places in Italy where you can walk around and feel the mantle of history stretching centuries in the past. I thought it was the same for you chinks but i guess i was mistaken.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

for you chinks

Perfect.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Right. Here's what I think then: you are one spoiled little bitch who got raised sheltered in a "proper" environment, devoid of contact with "real improper" folks.

Actually, its the other way around. I grew in a working class family and had my share of contact with "real improper" folks, which is why i have little stomach for it. Here's a few pictures of the place i grew up in:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32949167@N07/4381982782/

All this grimdark nonsense you see in modern movies and games is meant precisely to entertain immature sheltered little punks who are so bored with their suburb life they rely on cheap thrills to spice up their inane existence. This is why entertainment has become more "eXtreme" with each passing generation. More violence, more vulgarity, more depravity, always of course from the point of view of people who have never experienced any such things in the first place.

 

[circ]

Fellatio is a vulgar obscenity aka swearword, just like blowjob.

No it isn't.

Then what is it, moron? Just because some people think dick is milder than cock, doesn't make it any more proper under certain circumstances.

You seem to think that because 2000 years have passed and science has adopted the word, makes it anything other than what its origin suggests.

You do realize that fellatio is an english derivative of a latin verb, I.E., it is not and never was an actual latin word.

Holy fuck, you can't be that dense. Did I imply otherwise? Every single word in the English language has its origins elsewhere, mostly Latin.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Then what is it, moron? Just because some people think dick is milder than cock, doesn't make it any more proper under certain circumstances.

The subject may be improper, the word itself isn't. It is in fact the proper noun to use to describe this act, blow job being the slangerized, swear word counter part.

Holy fuck, you can't be that dense. Did I imply otherwise? Every single word in the English language has its origins elsewhere, mostly Latin.

You are not paying attention. The noun is derived from a latin verb, the verb itself translating as nothing more then "to suck". I don't remember which word the Latin used to describe a blow job but it had nothing to do with fellatio.

 

[Lyric Suite]

You made a retarded statement. I pointed it out. Deal with it. If you have electricity, the internet et al, then the way you live isn't "not dissimilar" to how people lived in Europe circa 1300--though actually now that you mention it, people in China circa 1300 lived much better than pathetic whiteys.

You are not paying attention either. I wasn't talking about myself, but my grand and great-grand parents.

(is it kind of like the Amish equivalent of Europe?)

No, its just a small agrarian town. Its fully modernized today but that's a relatively recent change, and its a very old town. I didn't always live there, and i actually spent my early childhood in a similarly small town near Rome:

http://www.google.com/images?q=passoscu ... 96&bih=666

Never been one for city life, always preferred to be close to nature, whether the sea or the mountain.

Of course, its funny that you would instantly associate an old Italian town with something like an Amish community. You almost sound American in your ignorance of what the rest of the world looks like outside of suburbia.

 

[Xor]

You almost sound American in your ignorance of what the rest of the world looks like outside of suburbia.

Irony.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

though actually now that you mention it, people in China circa 1300 lived much better than pathetic whiteys

chinky circa 1300 was sucking mongol cock, so i very much doubt it.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Found this elsewhere. You can read some party banter on this here wiki apparently.
http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Isabela/Dialogue

Isabela: Aveline. If you shove your thumb up his ass, I win.