Any ethical limits?

[Lionmonkey]

Hello everyone! Today I would like to ask you, how far can I go while creating a game, before getting kicked out of this great site. Is there any limitation for amount of sexual references, violence, racism, insults to Chris Jones, puns on disabled people, and any other stuff that can be offensive to someone? I mean, like if the limit is breached, my game is deleted from this great website and I'm banned from the forums or get some other kind of punishment? Please tell me if there is anything like that and if there is then, what are the punishments and what exactly is the limit.

[Radiant]

"County library? Reference desk, please. Hello? Yes, I need a word definition. Well, that's the problem. I don't know how to spell it and I'm not allowed to say it. Could you just rattle off all the swear words you know, and I'll stop you when... Hello??"

-- Calvin & Hobbes

[scotch]

You're not going to be banned for making a game with AGS, it's nothing to do with CJ or the forums. Obviously your game could be removed from the adventuregamestudio.co.uk games database if it was likely to bring legal trouble or was specifically aimed at offending people. So far it has never been necessary to remove anything except spam, as far as I know.

[JimmyShelter]

Why would you want to how far you can go? I think of no mature and good reason.

[GarageGothic]

If you're aiming for a P3N1S award, you should know that those were cancelled a couple of years ago. Keeping inside the limits of the law, according to CJ the only thing that will keep your game from being featured on the AGS games page is to have it feature a massive erect cock, so throw in plenty of those to be on the safe side.

As for punishments... let me get back to you on that, I'm sure we can come up with something appropriate.

[Radiant]

If you're aiming for a P3N1S award, you should know that those were cancelled a couple of years ago.

No they weren't.

[GarageGothic]

Oh my bad, I actually thought it was part of the FOREGOs, which were cancelled. But then  he actually has more than a month to finish his epic masterpiece of obscenity. Go Lionmonkey!

[m0ds]

Let's just say people making games about n***** & the KKK probably aren't winning the sympathy of the majority of forum users. But it's not like they'll be banned, unless it causes some kind of real upset. Why would you want to push the boundaries and limits of whats acceptable? It's not a particularly great hook for an adventure game. Personally I'd respect you more as a developer if you created a fun game with a good atmosphere, that wasn't trying to break rules. Still, it's up to you. This question though is a little worrying  :

I can't name any successful adventure games that have tried to offend people or "cross the line". But I'm sure someone can name one..!

[GarageGothic]

You know, this thread might make for an interesting MAGS topic...

[Buckethead]

You know, this thread might make for an interesting MAGS topic...

Why don't you win the MAGS and do this topic then? 

[m0ds]

A controversial parody game would be quite good. But it'd really need a kick-ass writer, someone who can nail that kind of humour. And of all the "pushing limits" games I've seen so far, the writing has been shockingly awful. My own included There are some very good "shocking" AGS games but I think they fall into a different category than to whats being suggested here..

[mouthuvmine]

You know, not that Lionmonkey has said this, so I'm guessing, but it's possible they just came to a point in game creation when they had something in mind, but wanted to ask us (well, you guys...my 2 cents are just my 2 cents) before including it in the game. And this IS  a good way to ask something like this without deflating the shcok value, should it be added.

Or they're trying to push the boundries and I'm wrong. As usual. ;]

[GarageGothic]

I wonder if "dead baby" has been suggested in the "things that haven't been inventory items" thread yet?

[vertigoaddict]

You know, this thread might make for an interesting MAGS topic...

Why don't you win the MAGS and do this topic then? 

I wonder if "dead baby" has been suggested in the "things that haven't been inventory items" thread yet?

And then be responsible for 30 games about rape, murder, peadophillia, the KKK and women with my **** in their mouth.. all the things this community loves...

'The female kkk nigger rapist who shagged (via John wayne Bobbit's penis) my dead baby hermaphrodite- Part 30'

...can't wait for that game  :

[JimmyShelter]

I wonder if "dead baby" has been suggested in the "things that haven't been inventory items" thread yet?

I must admit I laughed out loud after reading this.

Now I'll have to clean my brain.

[Oddysseus]

Hey, Lionmonkey.  According to threads I've read in the past, the only thing that can keep your game from being featured on the website is if it qualifies as hard-core pornography (meaning it features, as GarageGothic so elegantly put it, a "massive erect cock").  Anything else should be fair game as long as you warn downloaders if it contains sex, violence, potty mouth, etc.

Of course, we're all going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you're including possibly offensive material (rape, incest, etc.) as part of a serious and dramatic storyline, and that the material will be treated with maturity and intelligence.

Because doing otherwise would be a major waste of our time.

[Lionmonkey]

Hey, Lionmonkey.  According to threads I've read in the past, the only thing that can keep your game from being featured on the website is if it qualifies as hard-core pornography (meaning it features, as GarageGothic so elegantly put it, a "massive erect cock").  Anything else should be fair game as long as you warn downloaders if it contains sex, violence, potty mouth, etc.

Of course, we're all going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you're including possibly offensive material (rape, incest, etc.) as part of a serious and dramatic storyline, and that the material will be treated with maturity and intelligence.

Because doing otherwise would be a major waste of our time.

Thanks, Oddysseus for FINALLY answering my question.

mouthuvmine: You are right, that's the reason, why I started this thread.

Also, It's not like I'm going to add something offensive just, so my game has something offensive, but I've noticed a strange normal fact: Controversial games are popular. Think GTA (Especially San Andreas) and Postal1+2. But, as mods has already stated, there are no successfull controversial adventure games yet. So this is something new to dig into.

[Radiant]

I've noticed a strange fact: Controversial games are popular.

That's not strange, that's human nature. Forbidden things are exciting. That, and many people want to find out what everybody else is so excited about. This has been going on for ages. For instance, any story by De Sade. Or the faux-novel Naked Came The Stranger. Or basically any film by Tarentino.

And, while we might not have any controversial adventure games per se, there's a number of them that focus heavily on sex and are popular mainly for that reason. It probably explains why Leisure Suit Larry was so popular - they're poorly written, but OMG boobies! The proven fact is that you make a book, adventure game, or whatever with "sex" in the title, people will download or buy it, regardless of its actual quality.

[LimpingFish]

Would quality actually count in an overtly pornographic game? I mean in the initial download phase.

There must be such a thing as a good, depending on the criteria used, pornographic game.

Like I said in another thread, if a pornographic game is intended to arouse the player, is eliciting a desire in the player to masturbate to it/over it/whatever - the seal of quality?

If a pornographic game fails to achieve such a result, is it a bad pornographic game?

This isn't a "masturbating to video game/anime/manga characters is sad!" question (indeed, in my humble opinion, there is little true difference between fantasizing over a picture of a "fake" woman/man and a picture of a "real" woman/man; the viewer detachment and sexualization of the object is more or less the same) but rather a clarification of the intended "goal" of the creators of such games.

[Ishmael]

This is just my opinion, which I concider to be just plain healthy open-mindedness...

I think you can put basically anything into your game, as long as it's within the law of wherever the server hosting the file is located, and you can put it on the Games page as long as it's not crossing any rules CJ has defined for adding the game to the page. It's the players call wether to play it or not.

If I come across offending contents, I don't play the game if said offending contents repulses me from it with other elements failing to keep me hooked on. And if reviewing, I'd state it as my personal opinion that the game has contents I do not like.

The only offending contents I can right now think of actually finding offending is putting down visually impaired or otherwise handicapped people, or any other often attacked minority in an humiliating manner while attacking the minority. They're all human beings after all, and have equal rights to everything just like "normal" people. Sure, you can have a laugh at them, as long as you keep them as humans.