zONE oF zERO tOLERANCE

Do you need to incorporate language to convey your message? Take a look at Penny Arcade, Kotaku and 1UP (to a point.) These successful and popular gaming webcomics/blogs/sites all use vulgar language as shrapnel in order to access their audience. Is colourful language necessary to reach your target audience? Language doesn't fit, but is associated with a specific age group. This age group makes it okay to say such language because certain ages of majority like drinking (19/21,) driving (16) and voting (18) all state that you are mature, and so language has become associated with maturity. It is also a staple in certain media environments to employ excess emotion. Take gangster movies and newer First Person Shooters. They all use language to help employ seriousness and the essence of danger and immediacy to a situation. But to use it in contexts of flippant anger at EA's matchmaking system or because someone won't sell you Bully is, well, silly. Thing is, language fits their audience and it is a device to help them seem more mature and purposful. In my opinion such language should only be used during moments of passion (sex), if you've lost a limb or if someone was harmed irrevocably.


C.G.M.

"As for you, my galvanized friend, you want a heart. You don't know how lucky you are not to have one. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable"
- The Wizard of Oz, The Wizard of Oz