A little disappointed... Ep4

[Sherri]

Honestly did not expect to see this discussion here. Anyone who follows the episode progress/news/teasers knows that we were heading to a *prison*. It would have been absolutely unbelievable if the prisoners weren't swearing up a storm.

In a game where you can get graphically mauled by a bear - complete with screaming - a few cuss words has players upset? You can turn swearing OFF in the settings... or just realize that words can't hurt you.

I don't think there is anything wrong with not liking harsh language, but criticising the game for including it is too much.

--

Re kids: if your children are in school... they have heard swearing. In fact we took our kids to the park yesterday & there were other kids under 10 who were swearing. Made for a good moment to teach our kids (3 boys 9 & younger) about bad language - that it exists, it isn't nice & can hurt other people's feelings, etc. No sense hiding from reality.

[ElleJoy]

10 minutes ago, Sherri said:

Honestly did not expect to see this discussion here. Anyone who follows the episode progress/news/teasers knows that we were heading to a *prison*. It would have been absolutely unbelievable if the prisoners weren't swearing up a storm.

In a game where you can get graphically mauled by a bear - complete with screaming - a few cuss words has players upset? You can turn swearing OFF in the settings... or just realize that words can't hurt you.

I don't think there is anything wrong with not liking harsh language, but criticising the game for including it is too much.

--

Re kids: if your children are in school... they have heard swearing. In fact we took our kids to the park yesterday & there were other kids under 10 who were swearing. Made for a good moment to teach our kids (3 boys 9 & younger) about bad language - that it exists, it isn't nice & can hurt other people's feelings, etc. No sense hiding from reality.

I really wish before folks replied they'd read the whole thread, instead of just commenting on something that's already been discussed. 

Again - I wasn't suggesting that I expected the prisoners to be fluffy puppy huggers. No one here has said that. But there was certainly not any indication in the previous episodes that such gratuitous amounts of swearing would be presented. I'm happy with the filters (tho as a previous poster pointed out, it does miss some of the words), but it's significantly jarring when you aren't anticipating it and there are more than 10 F words in one cutscene at the very start of the episode. I'm just glad my mother played it first and warned me, because (not anticipating it) I intended to play it when the kids were awake. The previous chapters had only a few words here and there, and the violence has always been what I'd consider relatively tame - I don't enjoy the bear-mauling (mostly because it gets irritating after a while), but I also don't see that as a comparison to the gratuitous swearing. 

And for the record, while my kiddos are actually homeschooled, I'm not delusional enough to think they won't eventually hear bad language. I'm well equipped to turn that into teachable moments. I don't see where you got the impression I was 'hiding from reality', but I personally find there's a big difference between reality, and a video game rated T for 'mild language' dropping in M rated language usage. If my kids hear the F word in real life, I will explain to them that it is a swear word and shouldn't be used liberally... But I'm not just going to throw on Wolf of Wallstreet and let them go nuts watching it.

 

Edited October 10, 2021 by ElleJoy
typo

[Sherri]

29 minutes ago, ElleJoy said:

I really wish before folks replied they'd read the whole thread, instead of just commenting on something that's already been discussed. 

Again - I wasn't suggesting that I expected the prisoners to be fluffy puppy huggers. No one here has said that. But there was certainly not any indication in the previous episodes that such gratuitous amounts of swearing would be presented. I'm happy with the filters (tho as a previous poster pointed out, it does miss some of the words), but it's significantly jarring when you aren't anticipating it and there are more than 10 F words in one cutscene at the very start of the episode. I'm just glad my mother played it first and warned me, because (not anticipating it) I intended to play it when the kids were awake. The previous chapters had only a few words here and there, and the violence has always been what I'd consider relatively tame - I don't enjoy the bear-mauling (mostly because it gets irritating after a while), but I also don't see that as a comparison to the gratuitous swearing. 

And for the record, while my kiddos are actually homeschooled, I'm not delusional enough to think they won't eventually hear bad language. I'm well equipped to turn that into teachable moments. I don't see where you got the impression I was 'hiding from reality', but I personally find there's a big difference between reality, and a video game rated T for 'mild language' dropping in M rated language usage. If my kids hear the F word in real life, I will explain to them that it is a swear word and shouldn't be used liberally... But I'm not just going to throw on Wolf of Wallstreet and let them go nuts watching it.

 

Good points actually.

Not so funny story... I was playing once & my kids were watching over my shoulder for a few minutes. I thought what harm could it be I'm just walking in the snow, I was sure no wolves in that area... and I walked right into a bear!! Almost tore my monitor apart trying to turn it off because you can't hit Esc in the middle of a bear mauling! 😭 Needless to say I learned that lesson the hard way! 🤦‍♀️

I do think think that if there isn't already a warning at the start of the episode - there should be. You make a good point that people are expecting a certain level of language based on past episodes & Episode 4 is drastically different.

Sorry to hear that the filters don't catch it all. That's a bummer.

[ElleJoy]

3 minutes ago, Sherri said:

Good points actually.

Not so funny story... I was playing once & my kids were watching over my shoulder for a few minutes. I thought what harm could it be I'm just walking in the snow, I was sure no wolves in that area... and I walked right into a bear!! Almost tore my monitor apart trying to turn it off because you can't hit Esc in the middle of a bear mauling! 😭 Needless to say I learned that lesson the hard way! 🤦‍♀️

I do think think that if there isn't already a warning at the start of the episode - there should be. You make a good point that people are expecting a certain level of language based on past episodes & Episode 4 is drastically different.

Sorry to hear that the filters don't catch it all. That's a bummer.

Yeah 😛 I definitely only play the bear part (in story mode) when the kids are in bed. The amount of times that stupid uber bear ate my face made me wanna put my shoe through the TV and the unskippable nature of it. Ugh. 

A warning would be a decent idea. I'm wondering if they may have to implement that when the game is finalized, if only because I doubt they wanna see the rating shift to M. Also would be handy for folks to know the filter exists (because I know I completely missed it in reading the patch notes). The filter skipping is a little annoying, but it was only maybe... 5 words total that it missed (and I think it had something to do with the suffixes confusing the filter) -- Ultimately it works really well and is greatly appreciated. 

[Sherri]

5 minutes ago, ElleJoy said:

A warning would be a decent idea. I'm wondering if they may have to implement that when the game is finalized, if only because I doubt they wanna see the rating shift to M. 

It would blow my mind if language is enough to give a game an M rating... but all the animal killing doesn't? I have no clue how game ratings work though. 🤷‍♀️

[ElleJoy]

Just now, Sherri said:

It would blow my mind if language is enough to give a game an M rating... but all the animal killing doesn't? I have no clue how game ratings work though. 🤷‍♀️

I don't know if the ESRB follows the same guidelines as MPAA, but I know the MPAA's new ruling (it was different for 80s/90s movies) allows one F word for PG-13. Anything more and it gets an R rating. 

[Sherri]

4 minutes ago, ElleJoy said:

I don't know if the ESRB follows the same guidelines as MPAA, but I know the MPAA's new ruling (it was different for 80s/90s movies) allows one F word for PG-13. Anything more and it gets an R rating. 

Wow!

I've seen some uber violent PG-13 movies. Some priorities are outta whack here. 🙃

[ElleJoy]

Just now, Sherri said:

Wow!

I've seen some uber violent PG-13 movies. Some priorities are outta whack here. 🙃

Haha welcome to Hollywood. It makes literally no sense. 

[Serenity]

4 hours ago, Sherri said:

It would blow my mind if language is enough to give a game an M rating... but all the animal killing doesn't? I have no clue how game ratings work though. 🤷‍♀️

Americans are extremely weird. Violence is no issue whatsoever. Stabbing someone with a screw driver in Episode 2 is delightful family entertainment. Perfectly fine for the little ones. But say a "bad" word and people freak out.

This has nothing to do with "Hollywood" by the way. Film ratings aren't set by the movie industry, but by an opaque and extremely conservative ratings board. Although it does reflect society in some ways as the double standard between violence and sex/swearing is obvious everywhere.

Edited October 11, 2021 by Serenity

[twyn1]

I actually agree that the violence (against people & animals) is disturbing too, which is why I usually play Pilgrim or Custom Survival mode. I don't like killing the wolves, and I take advantage of wolf kills for most of my meat & hides/guts. I try to get one moose for the large amount of meat (really too much) and the hide for the satchel. Don't bother with the bear bedroll or most of the animal clothes. And I have never "stoned" a rabbit and then twisted it's neck. Snares still kill them, but it isn't so horrible.

But that's really another thread subject and somewhat a strawman argument in this thread.  You can dislike both the language and the violence on the more graphic levels, but still play the game & do the story, even if you cringe at times.

[SladeyGaming]

On 10/8/2021 at 1:49 PM, ElleJoy said:

I actually don't disagree here. It would've made sense, had the intentions been thoroughly character based. The problem I have is two fold.

The first is that it wasn't just Mathis and his goon squad. The caller (don't wanna spoil) was also swearing quite frequently, which gave me the impression this was a decision to amp up the 'adult' levels, rather than a choice to make bad people sound bad. Sort of like when a show changes primetime slots to a later slot and they decide to ramp up the violence/language because the kids are in bed. There's no real reason to and it doesn't further the plot, but they can so they do. Only problem with TLD doing it, is the game's rating didn't change... But the filter does help (though it misses quite a few words haha) so there's that at least.

The second issue is that this isn't the first time these types of characters were introduced. In chapter one Mack interacts at length with the same breed of creeper and while he's definitely a ruthless brute, he manages to convey that without dropping F bombs. Same with the end of episode two, when you first encounter Mathis. 

It all gives me the impression of a preteen first exercising their 'adultness' by throwing cuss words into their sentence structure on the playground, meanwhile knowing they'll get their mouths washed out with soap at home. It was a strange direction to take, for Devs who seemed to take great care in effective dialogue structures in the previous chapters, particularly because their writing is one of their greatest strengths. Before, the swearing was minor, but it had effect. Now it's just sprinkles on a cupcake... Useless sugar flavoring the already sweet. Glad I can filter it, but still a shame they went that route. Hoping episode 5 won't follow suit, cause it really isn't necessary for the game to be good.

Eh Jace is a young student type tbh. Its also a high pressure situation. I don't think the swearing here is over excessive considering the circumstances the characters are in. Very high pressure and very rough characters. 

[Admin]

Closing thread as answered. Thanks for the feedback.