Rating systems are notoriously bad guides for making decisions about
this issue. We might already be some particular rating based upon the
violence in wesnoth, but that does not mean we should raise our
language use, sexual inuendos, and drug use to match.
Personally, I would find a comparison to Tolkien a much more useful
practice than movies and even other games. As a master of language
and storytelling, I think we would be hard put to find a better
reference.
In that vein, here are some examples of what Tolkien considered
acceptable terms for Orcs to use as insults in order to provide flavor
and show how crude they were:
In the Hobbit orcs call the dwarves "liars", "thieves", and worst of
all "elf-friends"...gasp. Trolls call each other by the insults, "fat
fool", "lout", and "booby." Ok, the hobbit is pretty tame, and we
don't really see much of the orcs, so let's look in the lotr.
Well, we get our most extensive orc conversations in the two towers.
here is some of what might be considered insults:. we catch the orcs
saying "Ugluk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob bubhosh skai." There
are at least two different translations of that: "Uglúk to the
dung-pit with stinking Saruman-filth, pig-guts, gah!" and "Uglúk to
the cesspool, sha! the dungfilth; the great Saruman-fool, skai!" We
also get insults like: "miserable rat", "little fool", "swine" "It's
orc-flesh they eat"*, "mountain maggots","Ape!","lubber","little
filth",
We get a little more in the RotK: "the dung","snaga"**,"bloody handed
elves", "filthy tarks"***, "dunghill rat","cursed sneaking
peachthief","slugs"
I suppose there will be different cultural views on the relative
crudity of tree-shagger as compared to Tolkien's insults, but I don't
find it particularly compelling that the particular use of
tree-shagger significantly adds to storyline or is necessary to make
the orcs appear crude. I think it says more about us as developers
than it reveals about the orcs. For one thing, it shows a lack of
imagination. Surely with all the talent in wesnoth we can come up
with a better phrase. Well, we probably can, but not without starting
another holy war on the order of what to call the drake faction.
Better, perhaps, than even Tolkien as a reference is the existing
mainline campaigns as an example. I think that the burden lies on
those who wish to include more crude comments into mainline campaigns
to justify it against the advantages of maintaining a clean wholesome
mainline which is not offensive to parents of children under 10. As
was pointed out already, there is a whole campaign server available
for other campaigns.
Personally, I would be quite happy to never have to have this type of
conversation again, but I expect that it will be a recurring feature
as long as we maintain any standards of decency.
Creeping crudism will be with us at least as long as creeping
biggerism and featurism.
*as opposed to eating man flesh which is considered a good thing to the orcs.
**slave
***man of Gondor
--
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"In theory, theory and practice are the same,
but in practice they're different."
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John W. C. McNabb
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