When was the first time you heard a curse in a game?

[Norithics]

I'm pretty sure it was Megaman X3, at the end, where X says "Damn! A dead end."

Then the next time was Megaman X4, with Zero at the Sky Lagoon saying "Damn! This isn't good!"

It almost felt kind of silly to me, like they were trying to be edgy and it just sort of came out awkward. Hearing Zero say something like "You evil son of a *****, everybody in the city died because of your goddamned petty grudge" would've felt far more genuine.

But then, anything is better than X6's "Magmas are ready to destroy me!!".

 

[Lieju]

Was there cursing in Duke Nukem 3D?
Because I played it as a kid, but since I didn't understand English, I don't know if it counts.

 

[DSK-]

Carmageddon 1. "Shit!" & "God-damn mother!" are things I remember very well from when I was 10 years old

 

[ZCAB]

Probably the theme song to GTA, 1997.

NYPD (NYPD!), LAPD (LAPD!), SFPD (SFPD!)... don't fuck with me.

 

[bluepotatosack]

You know, I find it funny when people don't consider "damn" to be a curse when it's actually pretty much the only curse that's in common usage. Going by the literal definitions of course. When someone says "damn it" or something along those lines, they are basically invoking a higher power to condemn a person or thing to eternal torment. Literally a curse.

The vast majority of what people consider "curse words" are nothing of the sort. Just foul language.

The term "swear word" just confuses me. Maybe it received the negative connotation based on the most common usage being "swear to God", which could be construed as taking the Lord's name in vain?

 

[Evonisia]

It would probably be in FarCry 1, I can't remember the mission exactly but in my 1,679,456th replay of it that I'll begin soon I'll remember and think back to when I first played it and heard the word.

How I reacted to it was just like "Woah, didn't know games were allowed to do that."

 

[TehCookie]

Duke Nukem 3D, since the other games with swearing didn't have voice acting at the time.

Not taking the OP as literally, I only remember it being a mild swearword in a PS1 JRPG, but my reaction was "They're allowed to say that at this rating?". It wasn't important or shocking enough for me to remember. My parents let me watch movies with swearing and so I didn't see how swearing in games is any different.

 

[Rooster893]

I was watching my father play Metal Gear Solid 2 when Olga said "Damn!" in her first cut scene at the tanker. It was the worst thing I ever heard at the time.

 

[AD-Stu]

I don't rightly remember, but it was probably the original Leisure Suit Larry. I don't even remember if it had actual swearing in it, but if it didn't it certainly had enough blue content to make up for it... so that.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Probably earlier than what I remember. But earliest I remember is Breen in Half-Life 2 saying "shit" near the endgame.

 

[maidenm]

You know, I find it funny when people don't consider "damn" to be a curse when it's actually pretty much the only curse that's in common usage. Going by the literal definitions of course. When someone says "damn it" or something along those lines, they are basically invoking a higher power to condemn a person or thing to eternal torment. Literally a curse.

The vast majority of what people consider "curse words" are nothing of the sort. Just foul language.

The term "swear word" just confuses me. Maybe it received the negative connotation based on the most common usage being "swear to God", which could be construed as taking the Lord's name in vain?

You make a good point. I think I myself don't think of "damn" as a bad curse anymore because... it's not used as such anymore to me. It's a very casual curse nowadays. In my native tongue pretty much all "curses" which translate to "damn" or "devil" and similar are very tame compared to the foul words, which are almost exclusively sexual. But these words are more shocking to people to hear in everyday conversations, so they are considered worse.

I personally think the term "swearword" comes from being words meant to be expletives (not sure I'm using the word right, google translate doesn't help with grammar), so that the word spoken was about as powerful as a promise or swearing to god as it where. I grabbed people's attention because it was so strong and made people think "this guy is serious if he's willing to make god/the gods angry like that". This is of course just my own theory, I base it on nothing more than observation.

 

[Dominic Crossman]

If we're including the word damn then that would be shadow the hedgehog.
Otherwise, I honestly can't remem...
Scratch everything I just put I played South Park in something like 1998, there MUST of been swearing in that.

 

[FireAza]

For me, it was probably Conker's Bad Fur Day. Which is funny, since I was just re-playing that game a few moments ago

 

[teqrevisited]

Either Command & Conquer, where General Shepherd tells you to "Destroy the bastard." (Kane), or, quite a common text example, Barret saying something along the lines of "Shit, Tifa!" in FF7.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

You kids make me feel old.

Donkey Kong 64. Right in the intro of the game during the DK Rap.

"This Kong's...one hell of a guy!"

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The only one I can remember distinctly is Final Fantasy VII, and all the swear words that were censored as a bunch of symbols.

Yeah, Barret. They only censored the stronger ones, too, so it had uncensored examples of words like "damn," "hell," and "shit." I can't remember how I reacted. Probably with some way of minimizing it so my parents would let me play it, since I was under 10 at the time XD

The first game I remember with uncensored spoken F-bombs was the original F.E.A.R., and my reaction was "hey, that's awesome, the enemy soldiers swear like, well, soldiers when they realize I'm kicking their ass." You gotta love it when you hear them going "Fuck! He killed the heavy!" in that tone that tells you they know they're doomed, and it's because of you

It also helps that the AI in that game are bunch of friggin' geniuses, I still haven't seen an FPS with better AI. Not even the sequels.