Frequency of Profanity in Halo 2
Thanks for visiting, please realize that I’m not writing this to advocate censoring or that I’m surprised by swearing or don’t like it, I was just curious to see what the frequency was.
When you logon to Xbox live more often then not you will be greeted by a 14 year old that learned a new word on the playground that day, or maybe it’s the drunken 24 year old who hates black people, gays and anyone who isn’t in his frat. individuals afflicted with IAS (Internet A-hole Syndrome). No matter who you are if you have played on live you have run into cursing and lewdness. If you look at the rating for the game you can see that it is intended for ages 17+ but parents don’t care/understand/listen so lots of underage kids have this game. Another important thing to note is that the rating includes a warning that the game experience changes with use of online features. Please do not confuse this with a plea for the government to crack down and tighten control on the gaming industry. If anything this information should be used by parents to educate themselves about what their child is involved with and then make an educated decision to let them play or not.
Last December I started recording the frequency of profanity that I was able to hear while playing Halo 2. The results of the study which lasted 33.9 hours were surprising.
Disclaimers:
1. The curse words were those which I could hear, more may have occurred and other players in a given game may not have heard the same number of curse words I did. The ability to hear other players depends on your proximity to them.
2. The times recorded are the times I was signed into Xbox live and either engaged in a game or in the process of joining a game or viewing the results and listening to the discourse of other players. The times do not reflect solely “in game” time. You can view my games at bungie.net with the gamertag Ca1vin. note the ONE in the gamertag.
3. Do not proceed if you do not want to view words which may offend some.
More after the Jump
The Results….
The Words and categories used are as follows.
Fuck: All forms, ing, ed, er
Ass: hole, bag, hat, etc
Shit: Self Explanatory
Racial: any derogatory term which focused on a player’s race
Sexual: Sexual phrases which were not homosexual. Fuck was not included in this unless it was directed at a person i.e. your mom.
Homosexual: Comments which called someone gay or any slang term with the same meaning or referred to two people of the same gender performing sexual acts on each other.
Damn: Self Explanatory
Bitch: Self Explanatory
Overall percentage use of curse words or lewd comments
Hourly breakdown of Curse words or lewd comments in Halo 2
Overall Usage of Profanity
You can download the Excel spreadsheet with my data in it here (right click, Save As) FIXED
If you have any questions about the study please leave a comment.
!UPDATE!
If you are unclear of the intent of this study or think I am a prude who wants the government to regulate our lives please read the update. Link
UPDATE 2
Cleaned up some broad generalizing in my intro.
Josh Smith is a blogger, database manager and adjunct professor of business and technology. 
I’ve put up about 70 recordings if people want to hear what he is talking about. http://www.soundspoof.com
Pensacola in the house( FL)
people who come to these sites just to bash on the author of the post really sicken me. God, you people act like he’s aggresivley trying to make a point here… Most likely all this post was for was for interest and amusment for other people…. Oooooh, all of you people irritate me so much i cant even express it correctly
you are cool
look dumbass everyone curses online becuase if you suck like you probably do, then your gonna get people yelling at you so if you wanna get your ass kicked then add me and ill play you Gamertag: Tm3Sniper
Interesting Study. If anything, I join the crowd of people chiming in thier surprise that the numbers are so low. While I was playing on live I must have heard at least an average of 20 fucks-per-hour. Oh well, perhaps one gets so jaded, and expects to hear it so often, that it just seems like you’re actually hearing more than you actually are.
We still run a clean CS server because we ban em all.
How the punks equate a fps game with a right to spew their hatred is beyond me. The arguments I hear are ridiculous, like the classic one about killing people, why not swear…its mature? You aren’t killing people, you are shooting targets in a game…its social. Go to war and see how much you appreciate civility. The game comes with a mature rating, clearly many players are not, regardless of age. We have players ranging from 9 - 50 years old who play our server. The only thing that ruins a good night of gaming is an “internet tough guy” and lag.
If only I cold ban the lag too :/
does the feedback work at all because ive left it before and nothings ever happened
I just ordered xbox live it looks pretty cool im not for shure that it will work for highspeed of 600. Well i think all your commets are good. But i half to admit when people curse its pretty funny sometimes.
Most of the players of Halo 2 are young men. Guess what? Young men swear a lot, either in normal conversation or while playing online games. So it is really more of a study of how young men talk than a study of swearing during online games.
I, too, am surprised the numbers are so low. How could you only hear “gay” a couple of times an hour? Listen to a group of teenagers talk and it is hard to go 2 minutes without hearing the word gay used to describe something or someone.
Good job Josh,
Many gamers on line are very bright kids. Unfortunately there are many profanities. I will continue to monitor my 13 year old to ensure he abstains from profanities or he will not play xbox 360 live. Excellent job with the powerpoint and the spreadsheets.
I really dont understand what the the big deal is with swearing, whats the benifit from say’in those words anyway.
To tell you the truth one of the only reasons i play halo 2 is so i can go on there and start cussing at people and telling people horrible things, because the ones who sit there and listen to the crap i spit are usually the funnest to play with
Yes, everyone usually cusses on this game….just mute everyone and play. I don’t think any kid under the age of 14 should play this game, i am almost 17 and i see alot of younger player. The curseing really doesn’t bother me that much, but this game really isn’t intended for younger gamers to play.
Wow, i found this searching up a online halo 2 tournament.
Guess what, i’m 14.
Guess what, I don’t cuss.
Guess what, no1 on my friends list cusses.
Guess what, the only people that really cuss are the ones that lose. I get cussed out a lot cause I win alot ( i really don’t care if you think that’s conceited.)
It’s all about personal choice.
Live above the influence, idiots.
None of this is a lie.
-.-
If you don’t want your kids hearing these things, then don’t let them play the games. It’s that simple.
The people that have responded thus far are mostly dumb. I mean, dumb.
A lot of people said, “Just put in earplugs,” or, “If you don’t like it, don’t play.”
That’s just stupid. To play Halo 2 on XBOX live everyone had to agree to terms and conditions that prohibit explicit language… on the feedback system in Halo 2 there’s a selection for cursing and lewdness. IT ISN’T ALLOWED.
But I’m surprised at all the people who are, in one way or another, defending racial slurs. What sort of redneck idiots think that calling someone an N word is “JUST PART OF THE GAME” ??????
I cery much agree wit you. I understand the arguing on halo 2 every day. I appereciate your courage to even leave your gamertag on this site. good thing for the xbox 360 to come out so you may file complaints aganst people right on your 360. I admire your leadership.
I agree, the extreme over-use of cusswords on Halo 2 and other LIVE games is rediculous, not to mention all of the little kids who brag every time they make a kill. It’s too bad bungie doesn’t do anything about it; for now the only solution I see that I’ve already implemented is to disable voice output, or set it to “xbox live commmunicator only” and leave the headset unplugged.
We all just want to have fun! Not have our online experienced wrecked by a bunch of 12-14 year olds!
TRUE - If 1 person gets into an arguement (mostly kids) then other people will either defend them or argue with them. so every one in the match will take sides.
y does every 1 always say little kids?im 14 and i can play the game and sware all i want. i probly have a larger penis than all of u anyway+i have a life(to all u 24 yeaar olds that should be in scool but spend all ther time on halo. some advise is to go outside .so if u c the gamertag McNastyJR 285 online remember that i have a large penis.
The statistics of this specific top really made me jump. I was writing a sermon on the Book of James, chapter 3, verses 1-12. I was looking for statistics on teenagers and there foul lanuage and i found this website. The topic of the specific passage is about “Taming the Tongue.” This has given me an interesting introduction to my sermon.
i also believe that these were off, there is alot more. and who really cares? they are jest words, and if youre offended then i think that you should stop playing xbox live. jest shut down youre headset and enjoy the game! i dont know why you even bothered looking at all of this…. do you, like , have no life????
Well, I was playing a custom game with a couple of my friends and then I randomly got booted even thought I was party leader, Then I got signed out of Xbox live.
I troubleshooted and found that there was somthing wrong with my Ip adress….. The next day i was just messing aroung on halo2 and i wanted to see if live was working … unfortunatly it was not but I did see a note that said.
” ESRB Notice: Gaming experience may change durig online play.”
And I was just wondering if it had any relavence to My xbox live problem..
I was also wondering why I got it and what it exactly meant.. -jared
If you want to contact me outside of this large conversation you can reach me on Halo2 —
Icy Pancakes- or [email protected]
I was also amazed how people can go on about something for this amount of time
I agreed with Josh. This is a study not a contest to see who can cuss better. Swearing isn’t an issue. It’s the people who are doing the swearing that worries me!
k its a fucking game. if u r above the age 30 u shouldnt be fucking playing anyway u should go out and find a chick and fuck her and get married. if ur playing and u hav a wife she will prob leave u soon. seriosly tho, we can say whatever we want it doesnt matter with swears u shouldnt even care. NOW… what i do agree on is racism cuz thats not fair, im white but i dont think racism is funny. but swearing i think we should go all out… in the words of cartmen “fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck”
HELP please halo 2 how do I get to KILL THE PROPHET OF REGRET. I have probably spent 20 hours tring to waste the Prophet, I brought all heavy armor thru from last stage, but can’t do it help me please
Dude, r u fuckin serious. R u gonna cry because people cusse at u. ive been playing halo 2 for 3 years and ur right, i learned how 2 cusse. but halo 2 teaches real life conflict danger. it shows the world out there aint so nice like u think. im in 9th grade and when i see other freshmen kids at my school act wierd, i think what faggots these kids are, they act like they own the school. but giv no respect 2 anyone else. my point is that if u can learn to control ur behavior around people who act crazy, then u learn to respect people and be mopre disicpline of ur self. so stop fucking taking notes and do something about it. people who give this nice feedback 2 u really arent so nice and u cant just think people have ur back on this because in the real world its EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF.
I’ve played Halo a few times, but Counter-Strike is still my favorite FPS and I can remember cursing up a storm.
I understand the whole factor on cussing and everything…..but there is also the freedom of speech….kids can use the right just like adults can……but i do agree that there is to much cussing sometimes…..expecially when its like 10 year old kids….they should ban kids with sqeuaky voices…..you know they arent 18……anyway thats part of the reason i bridge…..if fags get on my nerve i just boot them
u r such a geek! y wud u even bother doing tht? skools r full of language like this nowadasys anyway
To the guy who said those little 14 year old shit talkers is correct. I mean lets think intimidation, theres nothing intimidating about a little girl bitching you ou to prove a point, its just imature and it is the SOL reason why they invented mute options.
If everyone played mature wise or just did’nt give into other people’s shit we’d have no use for stuff like booting systems, and mute options, its all just a disgrace.
But no matter how you look at it, you can talk as much shit as you want, I mean just scream it, say it all day. But at the end of the day you’ve accomplished nothing, if instead you let your skills and gaming attitude speak for you, thats what makes you who you REALLY are. Like a wise person told me once… “anyone, can say anything, but only true men can back up what they’ve said, or even without saying anything, which leaves no argument.”
Say what you want about this comment, but I belive that 90% of the whole online community would agree with that statement.
I agree. Whats the point of cussing. It dosent get u anywhere, but being booted out and hated from your teammates and the other team.
Test is a lil outdated now, maybe you need to redo it 4 kicks lol, halo2 rules, n your test doesnt seem 2 b right, i go on live and hear something lewd from the moment i join a party to the second i sign off when some tool sends me a message of abuse because i pawned him lol, safe josh see ur point though
i hope you relize the results of this language and the lives you are effecting and the people you are hurting real men dont have to talk trash !!!!!!!!!!!
First, it’s a great study. Thank you very much for conducting it and posting it.
Secondly, I am a parent, nearly 50 years old, and I set the wireless xbox up for my sons. I have played the game to see what they do because I need to know. The swearing is completely out of control and despite commentary that “know one cares”, let me assure you that parents deeply care because it pollutes the minds of their children. I disabled the voice feature in system setup screen. Most parents probably are unaware and that is too bad. Xbox needs to give out better notification on the language and how to control it. I am warning all the parents I know about this and having them disable the voice feature or at least reduce it to friends. The problem with that is that the player can add anyone as a friend and thus overule the parents intention. On the up side as my generation ages, and we are computer/network literate, it becomes easier to institute boundaries for your children.
As a final note, the fact that society deems this type of language acceptable for those over 17 is absurd. It is wrong at any age. It dims your thinking, robs you of any innocence, and decays your very sole.
No audio - out.
Josh,
Thank you, sincerely, for this little survey. I’m sure you’ve gotten much more feedback than you expected when you wrote it.
I find myself in a bit of a predicament. On the one hand, I am a longtime libertarian and hardcore gamer (since 1980 on Atari 2600, 5200, 800 PC, Mac, Windows) and yet also now a parent with two young kids (bought a Wii in 2007, my first console since 1984) and I’m continually frustrated and annoyed at Nintendo for what appears to be an absurdly conservative policy on on-line communications, and yet I *know* what goes on with XBox Live and certainly would not want an involuntary earful. Even at my age, I don’t like profanity and certainly won’t tolerate being cussed at by a 14-year-old I’m not close enough to geographically to slap.
Is it just because nobody cares anymore about being polite and decent? Is not liking being cussed at my own condemnable character flaw and personal problem and I should just get over it?
Thanks again. I’ve hyperlinked to your article. I hope you don’t mind.
David V
@David V: Thanks for the link and comment, I’m checking out your site right now, looks useful!
Like to watch Stargate Atlantis episodes and also Lost. I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.