Hey all,

I love the Worms series (in 2d at least). I recently purchased the Worms open Warfare game for the DS hoping to be able to battle my son in multiplayer. I saw that it was rated E (which is the standard i have set for games that my kids can play). As we were playing however - my sons worms yell out a very audible "****!" if they miss there target. He has selected the french language and it is said in a french accent. Humorous? yes. reflects the rating of E? no.

Ok. I say - just change the language to something other than french - how about german. So we keep playing and then as he starts to chage up his bazooka the worm yells out a very distinct "**** em!" and proceeds to do this at randoms times when the worms starts to charge his weapon.

Arrgh. I dont have a problem with language in a video game - i just want to have the rating reflect what is in the game so that I know what i am purchasing for my kids.

I left a message for the ESRB, as i believe that they did not rate this game correctly.

I will be returning the game for a refund.

Team17 - please. .. worms is terribly fun and entertaining and my kids love playing it. We started at WWP and fell in love - fortunately i could edit the audio files for the voice packs to remove the profanity. The 3d series never captured the same feel.

Please know that the foul language is not necessary for the humor or enjoyment of the game and leaving it out will open the game to a wider audience.

-Jon Streeter

Sorry, you're overreacting. Words in some languages can sound like completely different words in other languages.
Especially considering that we haven't gotten any complaints here from people who do understand and use French or German in W:OW about this.

If it does bother you, then simply don't use the French or German speechbanks. Simple as.

I will be returning the game for a refund.


Why are you refunding it over two or three bad words. in lots of E games they'll usually say at least one bad word. you can't do a thing about it.

OH NOES, TEH BAD WURDZ WILL EAT UR SON! :eek:

Seriously, grow some common sense or something man. They are just words.
They are uncapable of doing any harm whatsoever.
And besides, if you have been a good parent, chances are your son will know when the usage of said words is not appropiate and will refrain from using them. If he doesn't, then you haven't done a good job at parenting I'd say.

Do you even KNOW german OR french? If not, you wouldn't understand exactly WHAT words they were using! Some words in both german and french do sound like curse words, but seriously. It's a different language. The words are most likely to mean "FIRE!" "Wooops!" "Watch this!" "Attack him!" "Uh oh!" etc etc.

You do however feel perfectly fine to let your son play a war-game with lots of weapons of mass destruction?
You think war is fun?
WAR IS HELL!
And hell surely isn't rated "E".

All I can say is:
Ohh-Eff-Eff-Ess! ;)

got to love american parents....

seriously, the french and german sound banks are IN french and german. whatever you're hearing is NOT an english curse word. I've not played W:OW much, but unless they've changed the sound banks, which would make no sense, then you can't possibly be hearing what you think you're hearing. you're just overreacting to a demon that doesn't actually exist.

video games aren't the devil, we promise. even IF there were curse words in the game, you as a parent are in the position to teach your child not to use those words. take responsibility for your actions instead of blaming pretend horrors in video games.

got to love american parents....

*sigh* One day I really need to have a talk with people who make comments like this...

seriously, the french and german sound banks are IN french and german. whatever you're hearing is NOT an english curse word. I've not played W:OW much, but unless they've changed the sound banks, which would make no sense, then you can't possibly be hearing what you think you're hearing. you're just overreacting to a demon that doesn't actually exist.

video games aren't the devil, we promise. even IF there were curse words in the game, you as a parent are in the position to teach your child not to use those words. take responsibility for your actions instead of blaming pretend horrors in video games.

Correct! I understand beauxcphus is a parent that wants his child to grow up well and that's something to respect, but most parents like this take things a little to serious. E games and most T games and believe it or not some (very few) M games aren't all that bad. a lot of parents take back games just over one bad word or something small going against what they think. for example, this kid at my school name Andrew is a good guy and all, but one one day we were talking about N64 and how it was a good system when I brought up the question "have you ever played this game called banjoe and kazooie?" and he toldme how much he loved that game but he couldn't play it any more because his mom hated "witch craft" and that was one of the stupidest reasons I've ever heard of! It's a fiction game staring a bear and a bird named after instruments and their only "mistake" was the bad guy was a witch.

I'm no expert but I'm sure it's been said before that the ERSB is not bothered by swearwords buried in a cartoony voice in a speechbank - they don't consider that to be offensive enough for the next rating up.

Aha, found it. From the official site:

On further inspection it turns out that I've gone and made the only useful post in this thread

Great, now you're gonna get him to buy only ec games to his kids, which will be mentally scarring and will ruin their lifes. :(

I never remember seeing any ec rated games in my life.

I never remember seeing any ec rated games in my life.that's because they're only in kids educational games.

My copy of WWP is rated for ages 3 and older and I remember a few years ago when the computer's worm called my friend a b**** when we were playing.

I just simply changed the soundbank and kept playing (but now I play W:A).

Plainplane :)

My copy of WWP is rated for ages 3 and older

W:A and WWP is oddly rated T in america. I hate most of the ratings here, the guys who rate them were either too harsh or too light on the game. it's been a while since I've seen a correct rating in america.

Hey all,...
So, the ESRB misrated the game because, when you tell the worms to speak German, you insist on listening in English?

Why not teach your kids about the English, German, etc.? ("The Adventure of English" by Melvyn Bragg would be my recommendation.)

Great, now you're gonna get him to buy only ec games to his kids, which will be mentally scarring and will ruin their lifes. :(

eC games don't exist. "Material that parents would find inappropriate" is a pretty wide remit -- apparently it includes foreign languages now.

"Oh, bugger" - Yorkshire Tykes.

This is stupid. So what if they say a word or two. 95% of my games are rated M. I recently got Worms because I loved it when I had my N64. Calm down, it's just a game. It's not like your kids aren't going to swear when they get older.

This is stupid. So what if they say a word or two. 95% of my games are rated M. I recently got Worms because I loved it when I had my N64. Calm down, it's just a game. It's not like your kids aren't going to swear when they get older. you completely missed the point. the point is not to expose young kids to content unappropriate for them. the reason this thread is stupid is because she was using the german sound bank, which doesn't use any english, and yelling at T17 because the german words resemble english curse words...

you completely missed the point. the point is not to expose young kids to content unappropriate for them. the reason this thread is stupid is because she was using the german sound bank, which doesn't use any english, and yelling at T17 because the german words resemble english curse words...
Actually that should be the point, particularly with words.
There is no such thing as bad words. It's just sounds that come from your mouth for ipod's sake!
When someone is directly insulting you, in a personal way, it becomes bad... not because the word is bad, but because the person has the intention of hurting or annoying you, and that is the bad thing. But when you hear the word "f*ck" being thrown around randomly on the tv/radio/whatever, there is nothing wrong with that. It's just a word being thrown around like the rest of the words in whatever your favorite language is.

Actually that should be the point, particularly with words.
There is no such thing as bad words. It's just sounds that come from your mouth for ipod's sake!
When someone is directly insulting you, in a personal way, it becomes bad... not because the word is bad, but because the person has the intention of hurting or annoying you, and that is the bad thing. But when you hear the word "f*ck" being thrown around randomly on the tv/radio/whatever, there is nothing wrong with that. It's just a word being thrown around like the rest of the words in whatever your favorite language is.while I agree with that, most parents don't, so I was simply talking about the general opinion on this one. to me, curse words and people randomly making rude gestures to people they don't know mean nothing, but most parents are worried about exposing their kids to that sort of thing. that's pretty much all I meant :p

while I agree with that, most parents don't, so I was simply talking about the general opinion on this one. to me, curse words and people randomly making rude gestures to people they don't know mean nothing, but most parents are worried about exposing their kids to that sort of thing. that's pretty much all I meant :p

I agree with that too. Saying certain words are intrinsically offensive regardless of context (with the possible exceptions of racial slurs and similar) is absurd and shouldn't be encouraged.

On the other hand, the ESRB exists solely to let parents know what they're buying, so it arguably should just warn about anything that the majority of parents want to know about.

Of course, a further argument could be made that parents should take a little more interest than that, and play games they buy for their kids, read books the buy for their kids, and watch videos they buy for their kids, but that's not really as practical as it should be.

You could also argue that many parents object to quite irrational things: I could see parents objecting to a game that said there was no Santa, or that had a happily married gay character who was never shown so much as kissing his husband, and you'd be hard pressed to legislate that and get away with it.

Ultimately, ratings boards have an impossible job, so it's little wonder they make mistakes. But failing to censor words which sound a bit like swearwords in other languages isn't an example.

Ultimately, ratings boards have an impossible job, so it's little wonder they make mistakes. But failing to censor words which sound a bit like swearwords in other languages isn't an example.but let's not forget: not warning customers about the effects of third-party hacked mod files is an offense worthy of being sued over...

but let's not forget: not warning customers about the effects of third-party hacked mod files is an offense worthy of being sued over...

Oh, certainly. Also, I've found that if you buy enough copies of an Ec game, you can arrange them on the floor so they spell out curse words. I think there needs to be an inquiry of some kind.

Oh, certainly. Also, I've found that if you buy enough copies of an Ec game, you can arrange them on the floor so they spell out curse words. I think there needs to be an inquiry of some kind.*gasp!* how could that have not caught that?! I demand money to pay for a TV so my kids can watch MTV rather than playing those filthy video games!

Scrabble is the worst. It has every swear word in it, except maybe for zz*****er.

that's not true you could use a blank

Yes, but everyone knows that if you blank out one letter of a swear work you're fine.

you could write it on the blank

You could write the whole word across the box.

Or you could evolve the language after the thing is released so an innocuous name like "Master Bates" becomes lewd and hilarious.

you could write it on the blank
Hmm...
I've already ran out in my box with the blanks. There were only two of them.
Too bad I laid out "Quixote". Now I have two Qs and two Xs in my box. :(

Hmmm... I noticed it but i don't really know why the worms say that.

Hmmm... I noticed it but i don't really know why the worms say that.read through this thread. it's explained...

read through this thread. it's explained...

I know but why were they supposed to be made like that did Team17 go horribly
wrong? :eek:

I know but why were they supposed to be made like that did Team17 go horribly
wrong? :eek:read the thread. it's explained. now quit posting unless you have a valid question that was not already explained many times.

I know but why were they supposed to be made like that did Team17 go horribly
wrong? :eek:

Sometimes words mean different things in different languages! Shock!

Oh well, that is how life is you can't live a live without swear words, back in the 5 and 4 grade kids would always swear! Even the third graders do it now!

Oh well, that is how life is you can't live a live without swear words, back in the 5 and 4 grade kids would always swear! Even the third graders do it now!
Well said.
But still, I doubt that they'd put swear words in a Worms game.

Not to mention the mindless violence...