No, they're ways of slipping in profanity for all the "immershun" nuts without bringing on harsh ratings. And in a world that's not ours, with potentially nonexistent languages, it's quote possible that in Morrowind "s'wit" was a far more "nasty" swear word than anything that exists on Earth. Just because you don't know exactly what it means doesn't automatically make it something on the caliber of "oh, shucky-darn."

Swear words from today would completely break immersion for me in a TES game. They were fine in FO3 and FONV, but those were in an alternate future. Give me "You N'wah!" any day.

I didn't mean that they are like saying "golly gee wilikers" or "gosh darn it", I meant that since those swear words have no meaning to us they are no more profane than kiddie swears. Of course I'm aware that in the world of BG frak is the equivalent of the f word or that s'wit could be a big naugthy word in the elderscrolls universe.

As long as it's given context, and not just there for it's own sake, because really it doesn't matter if you're on Earth or Nirn, whether you're man, mer, or beastfolk; if you bang your thumb with a hammer, you're going to swear in some fashion, even if you happen to mince the individual words. It's just par for the course when it comes to sentience.

So yeah, I wouldn't mind if a bandit tossed some mean words in my direction after I put an arrow in his belly.

Yes I would like strong language for some (not all) shady characters. The "normal" characters should use fictional race-specific languages when they need to swear. morrowind did it well.

If and when appropriate for a particular character, I'd be in favour of the voice actors searing the air occasionally. But modern real-world slang would be altogether unwelcome.

Given the option, I'd rather have verbosity than vulgarity, though; Vivec in Morrowind, for example, comes out with some pretty beastly dialogue, which defines a difficult-to-portray character far better than art assets ever could.

Really, I'd be happy for Jeff Baker to rasp "scum" and "n'wah" at us again.

Strong language adds absolutely nothing to the game. It's completely unnecessary for a fantasy game like Elder Scrolls. My son loves fantasy settings and occasionally watches me play Oblivion. I wouldn't allow that if it had FO3 style cursing. There's simply no need for it.

I get tired by how games abuse profanities. I'd rather none at all than for it to be misused.

STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM

I dont see anything wrong with strong language it's part of huma lives why does it matter if there is strong language in games?
also your going to kill hundreds of opponents when you play ANY of TES games so why do you hate violence in games?

and finally I dont think skyrim is going to have too much strong language, BUT is it really enough for someone not to buy a game if it has?!
though it's going to be your loss not mine

Should probably make up their own insults for the game world.

lets face it, people swear.. all the time. But specific curse words that we use probably wouldn't fit very well with the setting.

I liked the swearing in Oblivion, and some lore-based ones would be nice as well. Besides, I presume with the civil war and the darker tone the game seems to be taking, there are going to be situations where strong language is the only realistic dialogue anyone would say. I'd much rather the game got an 18 rating with that than get a 12 and just say 'darn' or 'crap'.

cursing is a little extra in life you dont need it and its unnecessary, BUT so are all the paintings or pillows over your sofa or leather jacket when you can have cotton jacket or fireplace in your house or any other language....just english....everyone knows how to speak it.

the list can go on...many things in life are unnecessary, but it's all spice in our lives.
the unnecessary makes things more peronalized
the unnecessary is what makes us all human.

the ones from morrowind are good, but wouldn't really fit here (they were used almost exclusively by the natives against 'outlanders')
I do think, though, that modern day words would fit, if only because saying 'frack' just sounds stupid. and they could justify it lore-wise by saying that they're actually using different words and those words are just the closest translation (obviously, the characters in skyrim aren't speaking english)

Maybe the profanity could be rare, for extra emphasis.

Methinks that Bethesda should just stick to the traditional tamrielic cursing!!! :') you swit!

Yes there are tonnes or curse words.

Just kidding it will probably be like Oblivion adn there will be no curse words.

I doubt we'll hear much in a way of modern, real life curse words, I meam, the sort of language that wouldn't even be censored on these forums like "damn" and such will probably be heard, we had that in Oblivion too, on the other hand, I wouldn't expect to hear things like the f word spoken in Skyrim. It seems to be a pretty common trend in fantasy that no matter how much graphic violence and sixual content you're setting has, it will still avoid any modern strong language. I wouldn't say this is necessarily more realistic, I mean, yes, it's a fantasy world, so logically speaking, they might not have the same curses as real life humans, but logically speaking, they shouldn't have the same language at all, yet you still hear people speaking English (Or whatever language you play the game in if you get one of the localized versions here.) And not Shakespearing English, or Old English, butchered or otherwise, I mean modern English that's probably similar to what the writers would use every day, minus the references to real world things that you don't usually see in the Elder Scrolls, of course, and with names like Skyrim and Khajiit and magicka and what not added in, of course. If the dialog DOESN'T sound like something a modern American would say in real life, chances are it's because the line wasn't written well and not because of design. In the end, I don't see how it's any less realistic to hear NPCs in an entirely fictional world use words like the F word than it is to hear them say any English word. If you need a justification, you can always say they actually use a word in some Tamrielic language, but it's rendered as a familiar English word for the benefit of the audience, just as we might assume all the dialog in the series is.

I still doubt we'll hear anything we'd recognize as strong language, though, I'm just saying that if you want to have that kind of language in you're fantasy game, it's fine with me, as long as you're consistent about it. Which is to say, for example, you shouldn't have characters who usually keep their language fairly tame suddenly changing to swearing in every sentence on a whim without explaination.

Truthfully, I'm trying to remember the last time I heard someone swear in real life ... and can't. I'm sure it's common in many circles, but the practice is by no means ubiquitous.

Wow, where do you live?
Church?

Naturally, it depends on what sort of circles you frequent and who you talk to, and when it's used in fiction, it should be like that too. Not every character should swear regularly, or use the same kind of language. What sort of curses a character uses, if any, should be something you can imagine that character using. In most RPGs, though, the player is likely to encounter people from a variety of different walks of life, and the types of people I could veey much see cursing a lot are often among those characters.

There was some swearing in oblivion but it was rare( I heard one or two NPC swear during the entire game), If there is gonna be swearing in this game then they should keep it at minimum of around 3 NPC.

There should be some swearing ( Nothing big but just to show how angry they are.) but mosty lore, try telling me that you wouldnt swear if you suddenly burst into flames or had a giant sword thrust into you. :flamed:

Bethesda should go the Bulletstorm way and have a [censored] ton of swear words. dike [censored] assmaggot. [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored]

Seriously though, I don't care if there is swearing, as long as it isn't every 3 seconds and it fits the setting.

I doubt Skyrim will get the "strong language" tag because Elder Scrolls makes up its own curse words. A few earth ones get in there but they're rare.

I doubt modern swear words would make it into elder scrolls. "Your mother svcks dwarf ****" is fine though, but seeing as there is no dwarfs I would have to settle for Bosmer.