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How many “Fucks” can a T-rated game have?

Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Crisis Dino
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Oct 25, 2017
38,481
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DyrVoQ4V4AAlLzr.jpg


This is something I just randomly thought of. I think most people know now that a PG-13 film is allowed one F-bomb but I've never heard of such a rule for video games.

I also can't recall any teen rated games with the word fuck, as my hazy memory tells me they were censored in Rock Band/Guitar Hero. However, the JSRF soundtrack is full of them but I'm starting to doubt these tracks were uncensored in the actual game.

So does anyone have an idea or a example of a Teen Rated game with the word "fuck"?
The esrb page doesn't exactly help
www.esrb.org

ESRB Ratings Guides, Categories, Content Descriptors

Use the ESRB video game ratings guide to understand how the rating system works and how to use it to select appropriate video games and apps for your family
www.esrb.org www.esrb.org
 
NightShift

NightShift

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Oct 25, 2017
9,020
Australia
I don't know if it's rated T in the US but I remember that Remember Me had an out of place f-bomb that felt like that. It was rated M in Australia which I think it is equivalent.
 
waugh

waugh

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt-account
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Feb 21, 2020
1,401
This reminds me of how "damn" is all it takes to bump a game from an E rating to an E 10+ rating. "Damn" is such a no no word unless you're a grizzled mature 10 year old who has a decade of life experience to handle the blasphemous word.
 
Mekanos

Mekanos

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Oct 17, 2018
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I don't think I've ever played a T game with fuck in it.

I feel like until about a decade ago, they were pretty rare in M games even.
 
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OP
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

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Oct 25, 2017
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NightShift said:
I don't know if it's rated T in the US but I remember that Remember Me had an out of place f-bomb that felt like that. It was rated M in Australia which I think it is equivalent.
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Just checked, was rated M in the US. Thinking about the content that was in that game, starting to wonder if that instance was enough to bump the rating since I don't recall anything overboard to be M rated. But I has been awhile.
 

Nuclear Muffin

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
4,721
Couldn't tell you exactly, but I know that the ESRB became a LOT more lenient around the mid 2000s. All of a sudden T-rated games could get away with humans being killed with realistic weapons, could get away with Shits and Fucks and basically became what would've been M-rated games prior.

It was around this time that basically every major franchise starting chucking in F-bombs and such that would never have done prior. MGS4 is a prime example. F-bombs never appeared prior at all in the MGS series; then all of a sudden, F-bombs are literally everywhere. It was really weird and jarring actually.
 
SanTheSly

SanTheSly

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Sep 2, 2019
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Jawmuncher said:
However, the JSRF soundtrack is full of them but I'm starting to doubt these tracks were uncensored in the actual game.
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Slightly off topic but I think they were censored in JSRF. Birthday Cake has the line "I don't give a flying fuck though!"cut from the game's version of the track.

Dunno about the rest of the OST but I would assume it's probably true across the board.



EDIT: That said, the original JSR had Rock It On and Miller Ball Breakers which both got away with using "Shit", so who knows?
 
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Kydd BlaZe

Kydd BlaZe

Member
Apr 17, 2018
322
If I'm not mistaken, I know that 1 F-bomb is allowed in a PG-13 movie. I'm not really sure about videogames though. ESRB seems a bit strange at times. I never understood why Halo was rated M to be quite honest (the Flood, maybe...idk. It always felt like it should've been rated T).
 
Het_Nkik

Het_Nkik

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Oct 27, 2017
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I remember Crazy Taxi had an unedited "fuck" in the lyrics of the Offspring song Way Down the Line. At least on Dreamcast. Never played any of the other versions.

www.youtube.com

Crazy Taxi (Sega Dreamcast) - CRAZY Run ($20,831.76)(Original Course)(Axel)

I dusted off one of my favorite arcade style games ever and took to the roads of Crazy Taxi on my Sega Dreamcast! I've still got it, compiling just over 20k ...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

"And all the things you learn when you're a kid, you fuck up just like your parents did."

3m30s if timestamp doesn't work.

Crazy Taxi is rated T.
 
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TheZynster

TheZynster

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,285
F words I don't think show up.


But infamous was Teen rated and had a ton of use with the word shit
 
Drayco21

Drayco21

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,371
I would've thought one, just like PG-13 movies, but can't think of any examples, so I'd believe it being zero.
 
Moara

Moara

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Oct 25, 2017
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Weird how many shits are allowed but apparently 1 fuck is too much
 
Chaos2Frozen

Chaos2Frozen

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Nov 3, 2017
28,041
I know why you didn't do it, but you should have named the title "How many 'fucks' can a T-rated game give?"

Also, Kingdom Hearts characters would be a much better if they were allow to say "Bring it on, bitch." or "Let's dance asshole!"
 
Stefarno

Stefarno

I ... survived Sedona
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Oct 27, 2017
893
IIRC in Europe that PEGI would consider it a 'sexual expletive' meaning it would be 16 or 18.

Which always seems odd considering that they allow a surprising amount of sexual content in games rated 12+.
 
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Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

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Oct 25, 2017
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Het_Nkik said:
I remember Crazy Taxi had an unedited "fuck" in the lyrics of the Offspring song Way Down the Line. At least on Dreamcast. Never played any of the other versions.

www.youtube.com

Crazy Taxi (Sega Dreamcast) - CRAZY Run ($20,831.76)(Original Course)(Axel)

I dusted off one of my favorite arcade style games ever and took to the roads of Crazy Taxi on my Sega Dreamcast! I've still got it, compiling just over 20k ...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

"And all the things you learn when you're a kid, you fuck up just like your parents did."

3m30s if timestamp doesn't work.

Crazy Taxi is rated T.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Looks like this might be the only example. So it either fell through the cracks or you're allowed maybe one if it's just a part of song lyrics.
 
Curler

Curler

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,604
If I remember correctly, Halo 3 got changed from a T to an M due to dropping just ONE. I worked at a gamestore, and I think I recall having to cover ESRB stickers over a batch (pretty sure it was Halo 3...)
 
Canas Renvall

Canas Renvall

Banned
Mar 4, 2018
2,535
You can't have any F-bombs in a T-rated game. Crazy Taxi was a slip-through-the-cracks mistake. I did absolutely notice the increase in swearing in T-rated games though. In fact, I can tell you what game it was where I first heard "shit" in a T-rated game and was rather shocked: the first Uncharted back in 2007.

Then everyone followed suit. Hearing Aerith say "shit" in FFVIIR made my jaw drop, lmao.

Nuclear Muffin said:
Couldn't tell you exactly, but I know that the ESRB became a LOT more lenient around the mid 2000s. All of a sudden T-rated games could get away with humans being killed with realistic weapons, could get away with Shits and Fucks and basically became what would've been M-rated games prior.

It was around this time that basically every major franchise starting chucking in F-bombs and such that would never have done prior. MGS4 is a prime example. F-bombs never appeared prior at all in the MGS series; then all of a sudden, F-bombs are literally everywhere. It was really weird and jarring actually.
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MGS has always been rated M though, not T... And again, T-rated games cannot have any "fucks".
 
Madao

Madao

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Oct 26, 2017
4,696
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waugh said:
This reminds me of how "damn" is all it takes to bump a game from an E rating to an E 10+ rating. "Damn" is such a no no word unless you're a grizzled mature 10 year old who has a decade of life experience to handle the blasphemous word.
Click to expand...
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this made me remember that they removed a "damn" from Metroid Prime 3 when they released the Trilogy version. it doesn't make sense since these games are rated T so the word should be fine.
 
Cian

Cian

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Feb 17, 2018
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Jet Set Radio Future's OST was mostly censored, although multiple instances of the n-word are present
 
DanarchyReigns

DanarchyReigns

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Oct 25, 2017
34,788
I feel like the Rock Band games were a good litmus test of what can and can't be said in a T-Rated game.

Like, you can't say fuck or shit, but you can say the majority of Cannibal Corpse's Hammer Smashed Face (just not the single instance of "fucking"), and in Tenacious D's Rock Your Socks you can still say "drop trou and squeeze out a Cleveland Steamer on my chest"

Though I think the "shit" rule has changed since it's so very common in FFVII Remake.
 

Nuclear Muffin

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
4,721
Arta said:
FF7R really suffers from a lot on unwarranted cursing.
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To be honest, so did the original. The original PS1 version's English localisation added a LOT of unneccessary crass language, purely for shock value (The You Won't Find This On Nintendo! factor basically). The other PS1 Final Fantasies and Squaresoft RPGs (outside of the work done by Alexander O' Smith for FF8, FF9 and FFT) suffered from this immature attitude tremendously too.

Nowadays we've just come full circle. Now we're living in an age where everything has to be EDGY PRESTIGE TV; and so, we're right back into the realm of unneccesary crass language, sex and violence being added to classic game remakes and new series entries for no good artistic reason.
 
Modest_Modsoul

Modest_Modsoul

Living the Dreams
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Oct 29, 2017
23,605
All Uncharteds are TEEN rated and they only have two of the trinity in English profanities.

It has S-words and A-holes all over, but not one F-bomb.
 
Het_Nkik

Het_Nkik

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,401
Het_Nkik said:
I remember Crazy Taxi had an unedited "fuck" in the lyrics of the Offspring song Way Down the Line. At least on Dreamcast. Never played any of the other versions.

www.youtube.com

Crazy Taxi (Sega Dreamcast) - CRAZY Run ($20,831.76)(Original Course)(Axel)

I dusted off one of my favorite arcade style games ever and took to the roads of Crazy Taxi on my Sega Dreamcast! I've still got it, compiling just over 20k ...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

"And all the things you learn when you're a kid, you fuck up just like your parents did."

3m30s if timestamp doesn't work.

Crazy Taxi is rated T.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I was just watching some videos of the GameCube and PS2 versions and it's definitely edited there. Seems like they reversed the "fuck" so that it's "cuff"? So basically the end result is that it still pretty much sounds like "fuck" but with a hitch in the audio, lol.
 
pleaseinsertdisctwo

pleaseinsertdisctwo

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
14,991
Nuclear Muffin said:
To be honest, so did the original. The original PS1 version's English localisation added a LOT of unneccessary crass language, purely for shock value (The You Won't Find This On Nintendo! factor basically). The other PS1 Final Fantasies and Squaresoft RPGs (outside of the work done by Alexander O' Smith for FF8, FF9 and FFT) suffered from this immature attitude tremendously too.

Nowadays we've just come full circle. Now we're living in an age where everything has to be EDGY PRESTIGE TV; and so, we're right back into the realm of unneccesary crass language, sex and violence being added to classic game remakes and new series entries for no good artistic reason.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

FFVIIR's cursing was great.
 
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