Real-world sensitivities and game names

[Agema]

I don't think there's anything in the game that transgresses acceptable boundaries. In the forums, I think some people would find the adverts with women offensive, but it's nothing that isn't common in wider society. As for general conversation...

Zeldor: The short, one word answer is "context".

I wrote a long answer, but I've deleted it. Communication and people's feeling are complex things, and I suspect I'm going to be irritated with some of the arguments likely to emerge in debate.

So if you're okay with it, let's just leave it there?

[Gandalf Parker]

As far as context, if it hasnt already been mentioned, part of it might stem from Kristoffers day job which involves teaching this subject. The fact that he is so immersed in religio-mythology would seem to have been at the base of the type of game it became and much of the subject matter. He would have been torn between using his knowledge and trying to avoid anything that anyone might presently be using or might start up a revival on.

[HoneyBadger]

Agema, I disagree that PC is being used to label some sort of conspiratorial plot perpetuated upon the American (or otherwise) conscious as a Liberal bid to somehow take the stuffing out of arguments pro-human rights/human dignity. I agree about the conspiracy, but it's my feeling that it goes a little bit deeper and more insidiously than that.

PC, atleast the term as I use it, has the meaning of morally forcing terms which emulsify and homogenize human experience, detracting from the elements of those experiences which make diversification valuable, and either ignoring everything that goes into being a human, if it's deemed somehow unsuitable for public consumption, or Disney-fying it, and feeding it to the public, as if they're all sweet, elderly spinsters with little or no worldly experience.

It's call *political* correctness for a reason, and that reason is that PC is the idea behind the intentionally limited language used to filter the speeches of politicians, in order that they come out as wholesome as possible, so as to offend the least numbers of their constituents with their choice of wordage-facilitated by the fact that, as I mentioned, it is a limited language.

[Gandalf Parker]

And of course, Political Correctness tends to also apply to Corporate Correctness which does come into play here since this is a corporate forum.

[JimMorrison]

Damn, Badger beat me to it.

However Agema, I will ask, are you not familiar with George Carlin's rant about the PC phenomena? To illustrate, he relates how:

The term "Shellshock" had the connotation of "WAR IS FRICKIN HORRIFYING!"

.....which was then made politically correct over time, to the more sterile and inoffensive.....

"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder", which simply means, "in some situations human beings may be placed in very stressful situations which can lead to long term emotional disturbances".


This removes the impact intended, or accrued, by the original term. It also removed the connection that an outsider feels for the sufferer. Now other people can say "oh I know what PTSD is like, I fell off my bike in front of a truck once", not realizing that the original use referred to people who spent 3 days in a ditch, getting shot at, and biting their hand to keep from sleeping, for fear if their eyes closed someone would jump down there and slit their throat.


Human existence is quite gritty, and yet colorful and full of vivid experience. I don't give two shakes what the INTENT of the PC movement was, in your eyes. I only care what it does - it bleaches human experience, it sanitizes concepts, and it erodes free speech.

People have really lost sight of what freedom truly is. Instead of embracing their own ability to shape their immediate surroundings the way that they prefer (such as a public website like this having profanity or harassment rules, for example), people get all wound up and gather their influence and power to "democratically" impose their preferences on others.

You know what? I would rather have some measure of individuality under a benevolent dictator, than to have some sort of PC, democratic, right-wing conservative view of freedom limited "for my own good".

[MaxWilson]

JimMorrison said:
You know what? I would rather have some measure of individuality under a benevolent dictator, than to have some sort of PC, democratic, right-wing conservative view of freedom limited "for my own good".

Wow. "PC" and "right-wing" are not two terms I often see associated, let alone "conservative" and "for my own good." I guess all those conservatives in Congress had better get back to pushing their CAFE standards to force me to buy more efficient cars "for my own good" and mandating that I purchase health insurance "for my own good."

I feel like somebody just criticized Hitler for being a "namby pamby touchy-feelie type."

-Max

Edit: Well, maybe not quite so much. More like someone had criticized liberals for their laissez-faire approach to economics.

[Zeldor]

JimMorrison:

You meant left-wing, right? PC is the flag achievement of social-democrats. I don't think I have ever seen right-wing conservative politicians using it much.

[Tifone]

Yep, many rugged conservatives still are /proud/ to call homosexuals "f*gs"... no PC for them I guess. mmh.

[JimMorrison]

Oh my, people do pay attention to my rants.

Yes yes, I did mean left-wing in fact. I don't believe in any wings really, extremism is ALWAYS BAD. I guess it was a Freudian slip, as I do tend to rant about some people more than others. Mostly just because as mixed up as they may be, leftist extremists tend to believe there is something to fix, while the right claims everything is peaches and cream.


Can't we all just get along?

Oh oh, I've got a joke! Me, Elvis, JFK, and Hitler are in heaven playing poker.....

[Zeldor]

Yeah, Elvis is still alive!