Topic
Booby joke
Kind of surprised at the language with the Spin game: Booby prize!!! Heh. I said Booby. Heh heh heh.
Beevis & Butthead + breast joke was jarring to me as compared with the rest of the writing I've seen and my perception of the game overall.
The stuff I've seen that might otherwise appear off color tend to be a few times removed from the cliche via made up words or actions.
So instead the joke here would reference something else in the game already synonymous with stupidity/idiocy but without the breast inference. (ie Flimflam prize!!)
Replies
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Booby prize isn't a joke, it's just an expression in English?
(Is this a meta-joke? I don't understand.) -
Yes it's an expression deriving from words for stupid or moronic, but the "I said Booby" part is what is potentially objectionable, and while I can see where there is an issue, my fondness for Beavis and Butthead makes it hard for me to wish that would go away.
The game has quite a lot of very sarcastic humor, which I enjoy, and then worry might offend someone else. I think the only part that really bothers me is the sarcasm of the shrines, those ungrateful bastids! -
Meat up the wazzoo, friend!
i.imgur.com/sHAeK.png
I love all the on-the-edge humour - so... unexpected :) - ... yeah, i don't get this, booby prize (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booby_prize) doesn't refer to breasts. I don't see a problem with it.
- "I said booby" does refer to them, not that I'm bothered by it.
- oh hah, i missed that but, yeah, doesn't bother me. apparently the spin game is a middle schooler.
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Booby doesn't seem very off-color to me.
But then again, public school colored my experience.
This game is not necessarily for "young" people - but even the word booby is at MOST tv-Y7...or perhaps tv-14 for the extreme crowd. I mean, turn on most any Nick/Cartoon Network show for kids, and you'll hear a fart/excrement/genital/breast joke at some point. -
"apparently the spin game is a middle schooler."
lol. -
Guys, you can both make and snort cocaine:
alpha.glitch.com/items/469/
And it keeps your energy at 100% for a few minutes before it potentially kills you from energy drain. Not to mention the whole alcohol/getting drunk bit. I don't think a boob joke is the "worst" thing here by a long shot.
Honestly, I doubt Glitch was ever a game targeted at a young audience to begin with. If a mature audience can't handle a boob joke or fictional cocaine, then you should be off playing Farmville. - quoo's right, actually — the spin game *is* a middle schooler. Just like rocks like making bad puns and butterflies grumble a lot.
- Soopa-fresh, people do refer to it being a great game for their kids a lot. And granted the devs haven't said anything, but the very fact that it's easy to play and involves a lot of similar activities as you WOULD see on a facebook game, might encourage people to play who aren't expecting the references you see. I see it as a problem of projecting a consistent vibe. Either you should make it kid-friendly or make it clear that it's not at all for kids.
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Just to reiterate:
I agree that Booby prize is just an English phrase, and is not bawdy -- but the "I said booby' makes it suggestive in a childish way. I didn't find it offensive
Also, I agree that this is not the potentially most offensive' element-- there is already a lot of getting drunk, getting high, 'wazoo's, and other things which are not for kids.
So ... maybe there just needs to be a PG13 warning? -
Will the people complaining about this just shut the **** up, please.
This is a great game and AS IT IS I would definitely let my kids play. Kids wouldn't understand these references in the derogatory way that you snotty adults do. Also, my kids come home every weekday hearing language and references far worse than this, and they are only in Elementary School.
The game is clean, and funny. The "adult" references keep it relative and interesting to us people that are 16+ and actually understand them. While at the same time the gameplay is simple enough kids can get the hang of it. I feel like I finally found something that I can play with my kids that we both enjoy thoroughly.
If any of you ignoramus' trivial whining changes the game at all, I will personally find you in game and repeatedly talk about the process of castrating young bulls, in detail. -
I think if you spend more than a few seconds fretting over the word "booby" (whether used innocently or as an off color pop culture reference) you're giving the word underserved powers.
My kids are pure and wholesome at 6 and 8 (as most kids are). They could hear someone drop the F bomb and the two would hardly blink. Though if asked they could explain what the word means in its myriad contexts, and they could tell you when it's appropriate to use (pretty much never, and certainly not around other kids).
Would I be comfortable with Glitch if the content was laced with F-bombs? Not exactly. But if it showed up rarely and if it was the right word for the job I certainly wouldn't let its being used turn me off to an otherwise incredible work of art. - I also don't have any problem with the "adult" humor (more like middle school like Lalu suggested) and I do let my 6 year old play (with me watching over his shoulder). There's no violence and it actually pretty kid friendly in terms of game play. You expore and cook stuff and plant stuff, that makes it a lot more G rated than many games out there.
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Glitch would be a lot less fun to me if it were PG. This discussion is making me think about how different it might be once it is released to a wide audience. And it will be wide. Glitch has got to be the cutest, most interesting multiplayer game I've ever played. Some of the elements remind me a lot of Kingdom of Loathing, which is not PG either and its an awesome game. I guess I'll need to prepare myself for the onslaught of lagged servers, friend requests, facebook updates and horrible grammar. Glitch is just too cool to not be above those things. But I would like to see it retain some of its offensively funny charm.
Anyways I agree that a warning would be in order :P -
I can't remember my position on all this from the Beer Quest discussion. But I have since decided any worries I may have had were misplaced.
So, a warning? Yes...like this:
At the point that the player is supposed to exit the brain into the world, he/she is presented with a giant papery EULA or similar content disclaimer that stretches across the exit, which glows beckoningly from behind the paper. The player has two choices: Sign or Don't Sign.
If you choose Sign, your little red X appears at the bottom of the paper and nothing else happens. I mean nothing, you just stand there until you give up and go away.
If you choose Don't Sign, your avatar is propelled through the paper and into the world like a butt-kicking quarterback running through the cheerleader's giant banner at a football game, yay!
Plus we can also start a group called Talk to Your Children About Glitch. -
Austang, could you point me to who's actually complaining about it?
Lauraglu's initial point was not that it was "dirty" or "bad" but that the silly/stupid level of humor jarred with the more sophisticated abstraction of adult humor elsewhere. I think I commented in another thread that resorting to some of the "heh heh fondling pigs" (or "hee hee booby!") kind of humor is primarily a turnoff because it gets old quickly. - I worry about the wide release too... if anyone remembers early-ish Farmville and the lag when oh so many people were in the marketplace at once, ugh. Things were a bit laggy at times when more than a few players were in a level at a time, especially if there were more than three players in a screen at a time. No suggestions on how to remedy this though -- I'm not a game programmer. :P
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To reiterate, most humor seems a degree or two away from the literal real-world terms, which is why this was surprising. Particularly when referencing a female body part.
Thanks for the threats! - It gives you bad and good effects of cocaine when you use it? That's pretty cool, especially for kids...they're going to find out one way or another, at least the game shows them that using it is in no way as fun as they think.
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@Meer, Tell that to the writers of Family Guy and see if they decide to change the most successful comedy cartoon ever, because you said "those jokes get old." Your personal opinion doesn't make things true, sorry.
Also, the OP said in her post "surprised at the language" as if booby were a bad word, it's not.
The comedy might be a little off-color, but that is what Glitch is all about. It's random and intuitive artwork mixed with the same type of comedy. Nothing in this game really makes sense, and that is what makes it great, at least for me.
It reminds me a lot of the original Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory (not the horrible version with Johnny Depp in it). Of course the humor has to be updated to the year 2010, that movie was made in 1971. Geez, 40 years and it is still a classic! -
Meer's personal opinion often makes things true for me...she has a pretty awesome eye for what I didn't notice to begin with.
Austang, I can see the point of what she is saying, even though I don't actually think the humor in Glitch is too off-color. If it ever leans more towards Family Guy though, I would have a problem with that, no matter how successful that show is. I think right now Glitch walks a rather uncomfortably wobbly line of appropriateness successfully.
In contrast? My 8 year old got introduced to some Halo vids on youtube yesterday by his friend who praised them as "awesomely realistic with the blood and stuff". I am way more worried about that exposure than anything I have seen in Glitch. -
I second everything Austang said, and I'll add this: Butterfield said it himself that they're targeting "people with above average intelligence and sophisticated tastes, in their 20s or early 30s...The intersection of NPR listeners and game players." Not kids. And this 27-year-old NPR listener/game player still thinks that the occasional smart off-color joke is pretty funny.
news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-... -
@Nanookie Nackhouse,
I have to agree with you completely, I actually use Kid Rex to block my kids from YouTube. I also normally would agree with Meer, I think it may have been his post just wasn't long enough for him to thoroughly explain his thought on the matter.
The uncomfortable balancing act that the game does is what makes keeps me interested in it.
P.S. Is your username a reference to True Blood? - Yes, striatic dared me to change my name to Nanook of the South!
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Three things:
1. This is definitely not a game intended for kids.
(Having said that, it would be great if we create something that works perfectly on multiple planes – the Simpsons does this pretty well: the slapstick makes kids laugh while the adult humor goes right over their heads. But, there will be an minimum age spelled out … probably 16, maybe 18.)
2. Austang - if you re-read your first comment above, it would not surprise me to hear that you regret the tone a bit. Everyone's been expressing reasonable opinions and it's a fair thing to discuss.
3. Re the joke that started the thread: the humor, such as it is, comes from the silly nature/clownishness and immaturity of the spinning wheel itself. I don't think it relies on implying that "boobies" are intrinsically funny. And, given the standards acceptable in contemporary entertainment across all major media, "boobies" is a pretty tame and inoffensive word, IMO. - "Its crazy, but it just might work."
- www.flickr.com/photos/cefei...
