Adult Language Filter option

[Falkon Swiftblade]

In the recent game play video's I noticed some adult language used throughout, and even spoken by some of the NPC's that is voiced. I realize the game was intended for adults, but these days it's surprisingly difficult to childproof your home for your kids and keep common areas like the computer room and family room family friendly. For many adults that may mean they have to enjoy watching certain movies or playing certain games after the kids have gone to bed. The main issue is for a good portion of home's I suspect they're like mine where the family room or living room also has the computer and there's very limited range of protection I can do to hide the gore and language from the ears of innocent ones. I would like to ask that Obsidian please include an adult language filter in the final release to remove the curse words and maybe include a bleep or substitute word for the cursing. I doubt the whole game is littered throughout with such thing's, but one can't be too mindful of our surroundings. I understand I could use headphones, but that's not to stop the kids from playing the game when I'm not there, and I doubt they seriously would go back in the options to turn off the filter to hear the language, especially how challenging the game is supposed to be to begin with. I think this should be an easy thing to put in even this late into the game. You can either swap out a friendlier word like 'friggen' or make up some fantasy word, or just take it out completely. It doesn't make the game better just because there's cursing in it even though I understand it is intended for adults and mature themes are on the box. Even cable TV shows certain thing's after hours and I'm just asking for an ability to protect the kids in the house. I appreciate it very much!

[tdphys]

I'll second this,  though I'm not holding my breath.

[Ineth]

I understand I could use headphones, but that's not to stop the kids from playing the game when I'm not there

 

...and explore blood-filled dungeons where horribly dismembered corpses testify to the human sacrifices that haven been performed there by evil cultists??

 

I wonder at what age your kids are if you're not worried about them experiencing such content, but worried that they might hear some swear words.

 

Dunno maybe I'm just ignorant, but sounds to me like headphones+screenlocker is the solution you're looking for.

[tdphys]

It's a little more nuanced then that.  I'd suggest,  (from experience)  that it's easier to get your kids to resist pulverizing monsters in dungeons then dropping f and s-bombs at school.  

 

If I'd ask a little bit more, it'd be the ability to disable the ridiculous blood spurts on every hit.  How can people find that immersive ?  That kind of blood loss would be death in a hit or two.  I get that people like that kind of over-the-top, but hopefully we can get a checkbox on it. 

 

Granted, the hanging bodies are graphic (I haven't seen too much dismemberment, but I haven't been poring over screen shots), though I've already had discussions with my kids about human sacrifice,  just from them reading history books on aztecs and incas,  or even tintin had a bit of that in it.  

 

I'll probably let them play POE when they're more late teens. 

[Elerond]

In steam you can select which games can accessed by everybody and which need password by using family options, which ables you to let your children to play those games that you find to be appropriate for them in your library and prevent them playing those that you think that they shouldn't play.

[teknoman2]

i never understood the point of preventing your children from hearing, reading or saying certain words. whether you do it or not, by the time they hit 13 they will already know and use these words daily (when not in your presence), just like you did when you were at that age. 

i think it is better for them to know the words, their meaning and why they are offensive, instead of simply "hiding" their existence and pretending they are not there. the sooner offensive words stop being "forbiden" and therefore "special", the sooner a child stops feeling that using them without getting caught is an acomplishment and the sooner they will become unimportant and unused

Edited February 14, 2015 by teknoman2

[Lephys]

True story: When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, I didn't know what the alternative word for donkey/butt meant. But I heard it like once in the movie Home Alone. So I said it on the playground one day, just because I was quoting that film. Some other kids gasped and got a teacher to take me to the principle's office. They were all "How could you SAY such a thing?!", and I said "I have NO IDEA WHAT THAT WORD MEANS?! Is it bad?! If it's bad, then I just won't say it."

 

And then I didn't, once I knew. But, I ended up saying it and causing a problem because I didn't know what it meant.

 

I realize that there's a certain point in time when a kid isn't old enough to really comprehend some things a certain way. Like, a 4-year-old probably isn't going to take the time to process "this is a reason you shouldn't say this word." They're just gonna think it's funny that they learned a new word, etc. But, yeah, approaching 10-11, if you don't allow your kids to be exposed to the things they're inevitably going to be exposed to, then the second they are exposed to those things, they're going to have no wisdom in how to go about them besides the powers of curiosity, resentment, impulse, and possibly chaotic adolescent hormones sparking a need to "rebel" (although, really, it's more like a need to be independent... the most convenient way to feel that is typically just to go against authority).

 

Not that you should go out of your way to expose them to them 24/7. But... just, that bubble only lasts until they're outside your controlled environment (school, sports, etc.)

[Falkon Swiftblade]

Thanks for the feedback and input guys. I already have seen there is a filter to turn off the gib's in game, so I don't need to worry about the excessive gruesomeness displayed, and without actually playing the game, I won't know what's going to be too much without playing it first. Thanks for the tip about steam, that may sway my version of the game I get. Since we're in a home with people age 3-64 it's a mixed bag for who's going to be there and we have to respect everyone in the home to the lowest common denominator. I can't control what happens outside of the home, and I want to support the game, but it's counter productive to buy something I can only play for 30 minutes a day when the kid's are in bed. I can't really play with headphones on and be a responsible adult with a toddler in the house. I understand it's a big game, and it's adult themed, but it's not like we know when x shocker moment is going to happen on screen. A suggestion like I requested is actually super easy to implement. It would take a few minutes to do, and I don't know what access we have to the text files outside of the game for modding purposes, but it's only a few lines of code to put in. The main issue with the language is not only is it unnecessary to communicate what's happening, it's a lazy way to write. The F word is used nonsensical as a filler word. Not only that, but it's a fantasy world never created before with creatures and worlds never seen. I just don't see how it belong's. 

[Sensuki]

@Falkon Switfblade

 

No need, all of the dialogue files are external, you can manually edit the words from the strings, and just use headphones or mute the sound when any VO containing them plays.

[Lephys]

That's pretty handy, but he'd still have to find them all, I suppose. Might spoil some of the dialog and whatnot, and/or take a while.

[Falkon Swiftblade]

@Falkon Switfblade

 

No need, all of the dialogue files are external, you can manually edit the words from the strings, and just use headphones or mute the sound when any VO containing them plays.

 

thanks for the tip, but that's kind of like looking for a needle in a haystack. On their end it's a simple as about 3-10 lines of code. you did give me an idea though. I would like to experiment with the text files if I have access to the dialog with sound filters and a speech program for grins.

[Sensuki]

You can get a program called grep to make it a one button search

Edited February 14, 2015 by Sensuki

[Falkon Swiftblade]

normally i just do ctrl/cmnd f but since i don't know which words are in it's a lil tedious thx though!

[ManifestedISO]

 

True story: When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, I didn't know what the alternative word for donkey/butt meant. But I heard it like once in the movie Home Alone. So I said it on the playground one day, just because I was quoting that film. Some other kids gasped and got a teacher to take me to the principle's office. They were all "How could you SAY such a thing?!", and I said "I have NO IDEA WHAT THAT WORD MEANS?! Is it bad?! If it's bad, then I just won't say it."

 

Same here, except it was 5th grade, in Sunday school, two other kids in the class secretly flashed the bird, giggling like the d-bags-in-training they were ... so i thought, hmm, what is this, a hand gesture with meaning ... so I tried it on the teacher, who promptly threw me out of the classroom and told my parents I was a horrible child. 

 

I had no idea what it meant, so I asked my mom, and she told me. I thought, well that's stupid, anyway, how about that Empire Strikes Back movie that just came out ... Vader is Luke's dad?!

[tdphys]

You can get a program called grep to make it a one button search

 

 

 

@Falkon Switfblade

 

No need, all of the dialogue files are external, you can manually edit the words from the strings, and just use headphones or mute the sound when any VO containing them plays.

 

thanks for the tip, but that's kind of like looking for a needle in a haystack. On their end it's a simple as about 3-10 lines of code. you did give me an idea though. I would like to experiment with the text files if I have access to the dialog with sound filters and a speech program for grins.

 

 

I'll happily auto replace (grep/sed/awk etc.. ) and send you new dialogue (I'll probably do it here too)...  though I can't guarantee  that I won't give in to the temptation to put in my own easter eggs

[Falkon Swiftblade]

hey, if can make up our own dialog without breaking thing's that would be a fun adon. i'd replace characters and portraits and maybe that could be a fun mod.

[Diogenes]

If you are worried about something low impact as your children as hearing bad words then don't play the game around them, if they are watching over your shoulder they will see much worse things than some rude words anyway. It's one of the sacrifices you gotta make as a parent, much like resisting the urge to do a victory dance every time you demolish your kids at basketball or pretending to be impressed by their terrible artwork they are always bringing home.

[aeonsim]

Even with a word filter I'm pretty sure this game isn't going to be suitable for children they've pretty much said they are aiming for a mature audience and even in the beta one of the 4 quests is pretty nasty. The noble impregnating his own niece and dragging her off to have the child in secret, combined with her trying to escape suggests she wasn't willing. Combine that with her being caught by a cult from which several members suicide or are murdered to brainwash her into murdering her uncle and possibly as much of his family as possible. With most of this explained in detail in the quest and the 3 common options to resolve it being, kill her, free her to kill her uncle or free her and inform the uncle so he can properly imprison her to prevent it, with the 4th option being dependent on some other factors which I've not fully tracked the implications of yet. But does that really sound like a story suitable for children? Considering it's only a minor story in the game and the devs have said that one advantage of the kick starter was that it would allow them to tell stories and touch on topics that publishers wouldn't let them because it'd pick up an M or R rating.

Edited February 14, 2015 by aeonsim

[Falkon Swiftblade]

geese, I get the feeling the box should have a warning sticker: 

This game contains every form of debauchery, sodamy, incest, cursing, murder, smoking, children smoking, animal sex, and gambling, and may cause cancer

 all in the first act!

Rated M for MOAR!

Edited February 14, 2015 by Falkon Swiftblade

[Falkon Swiftblade]

If you are worried about something low impact as your children as hearing bad words then don't play the game around them, if they are watching over your shoulder they will see much worse things than some rude words anyway. It's one of the sacrifices you gotta make as a parent, much like resisting the urge to do a victory dance every time you demolish your kids at basketball or pretending to be impressed by their terrible artwork they are always bringing home.

 

and I appreciate where ya are coming from, but the kid's aren't mine. They're guests in the house. And out of respect for the household I would have to play it after hours, but it's the common area in the home, and it's a lil weird to have to play in the dark with headphones on at midnight so the light doesn't wake anyone up. I don't know how well that will work out. The game seems pretty mouse and keyboard intensive.

[Night Stalker]

For the VO have you considered mobile phone earplugs? They are usually made so you can have one plug in your ear and the other dangling loose.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Night Stalker

[POLE7645]

I wonder if it's really needed.

 

I haven't played the beta, so I don't know anything on how the dialogue is, but Fantasy RPGs (with the exception of The Witcher) don't strike me as the type of game that would need a language filter. Even Dragon Age (all of them) which had it's fair share of bad language didn't feel like they needed one.

[Madscientist]

I am against such a filter.

 

I am from germany and I know those things:

- games were changed for the german market because they have blood and gore. (tons of shooters)

- games were changed for the american market because they show naked skin ( Gothic 1 )

- Right now I play Risen 1 and it was forbidden in australia because you can smoke grass and drink alcohol.

 

I hate all these things.

 

My opinion:

Games are produced with a certain target group in mind. Depending on the game, you may have violence, blood, sex, drugs or something else in the game. Those things are written somewhere when you  buy the game.

 

If you have a game and you think that this game contains things your children should not see or hear, then do not play the game when children are around.

[Falkon Swiftblade]

Madscientist, you are certainly entitled to your opinion! Although, they would never have made those thing's sensored had it not been for the research that has shown over the past few decades the games kid's and the troubled people who were playing were directly related to the mass shootings and massacre's involved. Not everyone playing a game will go on a shooting spree or hack their family up with an axe because they saw it in a movie or a game, but as a content creator there is a level of integrity involved because you're planting seeds into peoples minds. It get's taken a step further when the mechanic in the game is forced vs being an option. Further it's worse when it's something you are forced to practice at to be more effective. I'm not opposed for adult themes and situation in a game or story, but everything should have context and serve a purpose. 

[tdphys]

I am against such a filter.

 

I am from germany and I know those things:

- games were changed for the german market because they have blood and gore. (tons of shooters)

- games were changed for the american market because they show naked skin ( Gothic 1 )

- Right now I play Risen 1 and it was forbidden in australia because you can smoke grass and drink alcohol.

 

I hate all these things.

 

My opinion:

Games are produced with a certain target group in mind. Depending on the game, you may have violence, blood, sex, drugs or something else in the game. Those things are written somewhere when you  buy the game.

 

If you have a game and you think that this game contains things your children should not see or hear, then do not play the game when children are around.

 

We're not asking for government censorship.   We're asking to be allowed the ability to modify or play a game how we'd like to.  We're not asking that swearing be completely removed from the game,  just that it can be turned off if the user chooses.   We're all on the side of choice, dude, really we are...  I don't even care about an in game-toggle  just as long as I can have access to the text files, it's a simple text search and replace.  We can already turn the audio off.  We're all good,  we're not coming for your blood, guts, and porn,  I promise.  

Edited February 14, 2015 by tdphys