Was playing the beta for an upcoming RPG today. I like the setting, the design. Looks to be fun.

Then I talk to the first character I meet. He says "Ex-fucking-zactly" after a few other "fucks" thrown out.

In this game and in most others I've played that are peppered with supposedly mature language, "fuck" seems disproportionately used and pretty much breaks the experience.

I reached a point in my life where I deliberately turned to puritan values, so others may not hold my distaste. But I wonder, is it just me that's turned off?

When I was 3 years old, I thought the word "poo" was like the greatest thing on earth. When I heard it I laughed. When I said it I felt like the height of wit. When I was a teenager, I think saying "fuck" a lot made me feel like an adult. When I was an adult, people who said it a lot seemed like teenagers to me.

There's a trend in PG-13 movies, especially comedies, to include "fuck" at least one time. Usually it's meant to be shockingly funny, like a wink. We're playing with the rules. The rest of the movie doesn't have that word, but one joke will. It won't be used again since that would break the PG-13 rating. But the feeling to me is that the films' creators are winking at the audience, saying, "we'd like to use this word a whole bunch of times, and we know you realllllly like it and want to hear it, so we're doing the best we can for you. Here, have one, enjoy!"

Is that what's happening in games? Is there any real reason to plop the word "fuck" down in the word "exactly?" I know it's a fantasy setting, but do people do that - straight faced - in real life without sounding like total tools? If not, if the dialogue isn't believable, then why do it?

My suspicion is that it is some sort of market testing gone awry. The word "fuck" must test well. Games ought to have a 13% percentage of "fuck" in them to please male audiences from the age of 14 to 23.

So tell me true, forum-crawlers. Do you prefer, actually prefer "mature" language of this sort, or do you just put up with it?