Swearing in official written reviews

If anything I support it.

It seems a little silly for it to be there. You can be conversational, professional, and informative all at the same time without having to resort to cursing.

But whatever. It's there. It probably won't be the last time we see it. So I suppose we'll live.

It's Giantbomb. They keep the cursing out of Gamespot videos and their reviews for the sake of ad revenue and keeping up their image as a clean and "family friendly" site. Giantbomb answers to no such rules and (normally) never has. If their videos can have cursing, then I see no reason reviews can't either. That's just the tone that Giantbomb has established.

I don't need or expect Giantbomb's reviews to be "professional"; they only need to be accurate.

If you enjoy the videos as much as you say, where they're saying fuck all the time, why the fuck do you care if they say fuck in a review?

Written words are no more professional than the written word. Personally speaking, I wish more writers would use more vulgarity in their writing because it's healthy and safe, since it's what we naturally speak aloud.

“Obscenity is a notable enhancer of life and is suppressed at grave peril to the arts.”~Brendan Gill

Don't most reviews use profanity of some kind? I could see why it would bother some, but I'm generally amused by it.

@thabigred said:

If you enjoy the videos as much as you say, where they're saying fuck all the time, why the fuck do you care if they say fuck in a review?

Written words are no more professional than the written word. Personally speaking, I wish more writers would use more vulgarity in their writing because it's healthy and safe, since it's what we naturally speak aloud.

“Obscenity is a notable enhancer of life and is suppressed at grave peril to the arts.”~Brendan Gill

Basically in most of those videos the crew are either in the stages of preparing the review (or have already written it) and they are casually commenting on the game. However this is not their official review. You hear them say quite a lot that the review will have their definitive opinion. I feel that no matter how much they swear in videos, they will produce an official and professional that expresses all the feelings they have had with the game. I don't feel they need to swear in the written review.

I agree that its good that GB don't have to worry about impressing advertisers or partners, but these guys are talented journalists and I don't think they need to swear to express themselves in an official representation of their writing.

Reviews are the writers opinion. You want to hear the writers voice in it, why would you want a clinical boring review?

This is not a scientific paper, swear away, use slang, speak how you normally would.

You're asking what people think about something that angsty teenagers typically identify with. You're just going to get a bunch of douchy responses about how you need to "deal with it".

The writers know the audience of this site, so I don't see it as a problem. Though, it does add more ammunition for the people who think gaming journalism is nonexistent, a view I can understand as well, but whatever, it is what it is.

@Levio said:

You're asking what people think about something that angsty teenagers typically identify with. You're just going to get a bunch of douchy responses about how you need to "deal with it".

touche.

I really don't fucking care. I just don't see the big deal.

@Unilad said:

@thabigred said:

If you enjoy the videos as much as you say, where they're saying fuck all the time, why the fuck do you care if they say fuck in a review?

Written words are no more professional than the written word. Personally speaking, I wish more writers would use more vulgarity in their writing because it's healthy and safe, since it's what we naturally speak aloud.

“Obscenity is a notable enhancer of life and is suppressed at grave peril to the arts.”~Brendan Gill

Basically in most of those videos the crew are either in the stages of preparing the review (or have already written it) and they are casually commenting on the game. However this is not their official review. You hear them say quite a lot that the review will have their definitive opinion. I feel that no matter how much they swear in videos, they will produce an official and professional that expresses all the feelings they have had with the game. I don't feel they need to swear in the written review.

I agree that its good that GB don't have to worry about impressing advertisers or partners, but these guys are talented journalists and I don't think they need to swear to express themselves in an official representation of their writing.

Frankly, I don't get your point about official review vs casual conversation. There should be no expectation in my opinion that a review is to be any more professional than video.

@Unilad: Actually, after forcing myself to read the comments, you seem to have gotten a better-than-average set of responses.

Ask something like this on Reddit, and the replies would be more banal than a 4chan thread

I prefer the GB staff to keep it real!

Meh. I don't think it's unprofessional at all. If anything, it makes the review sexier.

Yes. Sexy reviews are a thing now. There'll even be a Halloween costume by next year.

Seems fine to me. And it's exactly something Patrick would say. I can fucking hear him saying it in my brain now. Then again, I'm the sort of person who's against the very notion of "swear words."

@Levio said:

@Unilad: Actually, after forcing myself to read the comments, you seem to have gotten a better-than-average set of responses.

Ask something like this on Reddit, and the replies would be more banal than a 4chan thread

Really? Its a sad day if this is better than average. I understand why people would support swearing, but I get responses as If I'm attacking Patrick and GB which I absolutely am not. I feel that GB can be the site that has all the fucking amazing videos, crew and podcast (with all the swearing one man can handle) but when it comes to written reviews they would want to put out a professional review without swearing. I personally believes this website blows others out of the water because of its combination of no holds barred media and professional reviews. i just don't want to two to merge too much.

I don't mine it either. I don't really come to this site for professionalism. I come for real honest opinions and hijinx.

@Unilad said:

@Levio said:

@Unilad: Actually, after forcing myself to read the comments, you seem to have gotten a better-than-average set of responses.

Ask something like this on Reddit, and the replies would be more banal than a 4chan thread

Really? Its a sad day if this is better than average. I understand why people would support swearing, but I get responses as If I'm attacking Patrick and GB which I absolutely am not. I feel that GB can be the site that has all the fucking amazing videos, crew and podcast (with all the swearing one man can handle) but when it comes to written reviews they would want to put out a professional review without swearing. I personally believes this website blows others out of the water because of its combination of no holds barred media and professional reviews. i just don't want to two to merge too much.

Not a Patrick attacker. Not against swearing. Not even against the entire way the guys conduct themselves on the website. But I find swearing in writing, especially when it can be avoided, to be jarring. I'd prefer they weren't in GB's reviews, M rated game or not. Fuck.

I actually prefer it! My friends all swear, especially when they're excited when storytelling/describing something. The swearing makes me feel like I'm having a one-on-one discussion with a buddy...in this case, Patrick Fucking Klepek!

There is already a precedent on this site for using "fuck" in written reviews, dating back nearly three years. Granted, that review purposely used the expletive to highlight the nature of the game, and I'm not sure how many other reviews on this site use such language, but no new line has been crossed in the ZombiU review.

@Unilad said:

@Levio said:

@Unilad: Actually, after forcing myself to read the comments, you seem to have gotten a better-than-average set of responses.

Ask something like this on Reddit, and the replies would be more banal than a 4chan thread

Really? Its a sad day if this is better than average. I understand why people would support swearing, but I get responses as If I'm attacking Patrick and GB which I absolutely am not. I feel that GB can be the site that has all the fucking amazing videos, crew and podcast (with all the swearing one man can handle) but when it comes to written reviews they would want to put out a professional review without swearing. I personally believes this website blows others out of the water because of its combination of no holds barred media and professional reviews. i just don't want to two to merge too much.

I'm just super lost. Can you explain how a review is more professional, or I'm guessing mainstream (?), when compared to their videos and podcasts? Are you afraid that if someone saw he dropped an F bomb in the review they'd swear off the site forever? I'm just kinda curious and Planetside 2 is taking kinda forever to download...

No problem with this whatsoever

"I'm not [insert issue], but.."

Never leads anywhere good.

"I have a friend that swears."

Obviously, I don't mind it.

I'm perfectly fine with some swearing. It can be used to great effect, say in a statement like "Every fucking time". Some people take this to ridiculous lengths though, as if copious amounts of cursing automatically makes everything funny.

Naa I'm not a massive fan of it. Theres a time and a place but a majority of the time I find it jarring.

@takayamasama said:

@Bucketdeth said:

ZombiU is an M rated game, it can have an M rated review.

I like this statement a lot, and agree wholeheartedly.

Yup! And I'll take out of place swearing well before boring bullshit.

@thebroken: To be fair, fucking means a very different thing than feces, and even feces ya generally wouldn't find an acceptable topic of conversation in rather a lot of work environments.

Not that I disagree.

It would make more sense in a review of Hotline Miami or The Walking Dead, which are totally fucked beyond recognition. Insane, dark, depressing, that doesn't really do those games justice because they are just way more screwed up than that. To the point where having a problem with cussing means there's zero chance you'll like the game anyways. Just saying "you fucked up" is unnecessary, because you can easily sub that for "it's your fault."

I don't have a problem with it (or with Patrick, obviously) but I agree it should be used pretty sparingly in a review context, if only to keep the emphasis on the word effective. It's kind of like another semantic disagreement I had with Patrick a couple weeks ago, where he called Dust: An Elysian Tail "super-dark." Yeah, it's not the cheery Disney movie it makes itself out to be in the presentation, but this is a year where Mass Effect 3, Max Payne 3, Spec Ops: The Line, The Walking Dead, and Hotline Miami all came out, and Patrick played The Witcher 2 for the first time. Those games are "super-dark;" Dust is comparatively a mild grey. If he'd had the chance to qualify it or someone had asked him to do so, I'd feel more comfortable with it, but it just seems to so overstate Dust's story (which is fine, but ultimately disappointing IMO and ends with a super-Disney final shot) that it's harder to take it seriously when they call something "super-dark." Again, no issue with the dude, and a qualification (or a specific denial of one) would have made me feel better about a statement that seemed to be made out of omitted memory rather than actual deliberate statement.

Words are inherently meaningless anyway. "Dog" only means dog because English speakers unanimously agree that the word should symbolize that. It could just as easily mean what we know as a cat, or even a truck. Therefore it is silly to think of "swear" words as having any sort of inherent vile or unbecoming nature--so fuck it! Swear to your heart's content, wherever and whenever.

I'm cool with it. He's not calling the game a fucking piece of shit and the developers dickheads, it's used for stress.

I do kind of see where you are coming from. i work in a professional office environment and would not dream of swearing at work. also when i worked in retail, which i did for 11 years and i not once swore in the presance of a customer.

i do think this is kind of different though and don't really think swearing is out of place anywhere on tihis site.

Peter Traverse swears in reviews, and that's a "respected" publication...

Who cares its a review for a M rated game.

I could care le....more? (Am I doing it right)

Considering this is Giantbomb, where they swear a great deal... what's the worry in swearing in reviews. As long as it's not over the top.

Makes it legit.

To be honest, i didnt even notice that he was swearing in the review. I thought it was a good review though. In general, i wouldn't mind reviews having some vulgar language, as long as its not done excessively.

I never understood why people get so offended about swearing. This isn't first grade where we need to stay on our benches with the hands behind the back. We can express however we want.

But I guess people will bitch about anything...

It makes it sound like a review from an actual human being instead of a robot. And frankly, we are adults, I think we can handle swearing.

If you're old enough to play ZombiU, then you know what swearing is anyway.

It's a total goatfuck.

In the context of a well written review, like this, swearing is totally fine.

And let's not forget - this ain't exactly IGN.

@psylah said:

It's a total goatfuck.

Why did I literally laugh out loud at this?

I agree with OP, it's just ugly seeing them swear in official articles.

This topic should not have even gotten this far.

It did stick out to me as well, but that's more because I'm not used to seeing naughty words in reviews. It doesn't bother me, it was just a bit weird to see. However, given the kind of game that ZombiU is and the kind of site that Giant Bomb is, it's not a big issue.

I really think society needs to reconsider what it considers a swear and what words do and don't belong in certain places. The fact that we're having to discuss whether or not we're fine with fuck appearing in a review just makes me sad.

I think it's just fine. I don't see why a professional game reviewer can't say fuck when all kinds of other professional writers do. This is a site made up of mostly adults or near adults, and games are a somewhat edgy art form, so it all seems to fit to me. If it were PC Magazine, and a reviewer described some new anti-virus software as "really fucking reliable and easy on your goddamn system resources," I could see your point. But I don't think it applies here. It's a zombie killing game based on intensity and graphic violence. The word fuck might fit into the best description possible of certain reactions and scenarios.

People thinking of some words as swears or "bad" words is just a fucking antiquated way of thinking. Why should the word shit be any less professional than crap,? They mean the same exact thing to us, don't they? Fuck is a word that is perfectly acceptable in modern society and we need to start behaving like normal fucking people when we see or hear it in some unaccepted place. Words are just words and there is no reason why some of them just can't be used for ridiculous reasons that no one would ever be able to explain.

I ask all of you, give me a logical reason why the word fuck is unprofessional?