Firstly, I'll say this. This post contains my opinion. Mine. Not anyone else's, unless they happen to share it with me. It also contains specific mentioned 'swear words'. I am not trying to actually swear at anyone here, I'm merely using them as examples... I'm not even using them in a profane context, which should mean a lot more than it usually seems to...
Anywhoosle~!
For me, I only particularly care if people are swearing profusely OOC... I'm one of those people who grew up wondering why I wasn't allowed to say 'those words', thinking of them as some weird 'secret clique lingo'. Or something strange like that. Now that I'm older, I actually swear a fair bit IRL due to loving the freedom of saying what I /want/ to, and have no issue being sworn at, either. It's just how the English language is, both now and in the past.
However, I do also understand the fact that some people take offense at it, even if it's not directed at them or their friends/family. I personally think they're probably being a little too sensitive, but... eh, to each their own, I guess. The game is meant to be for 13 and above, isn't it? Chances are most people who are 'allowed' to be playing by that technicality have heard most if not all of these words before, anyways. Heck, I know for a fact from personal experience IRL that some 8 year olds can be far more profane in their speech than many 20 year olds!
In-game, I try to only swear if I really can't think of anything else to say and something /needs/ to be said. And even then, I don't use the more 'extreme' ones outside of Whisper, so as to try to avoid people puffing up at me over it. However, one issue I always have is what actually 'counts' as a swear word. Different cultures have different takes on the matter. Australia, for example, is a lot more 'lax' as far as the general usage of words is concerned than America seems to be, so a word that I don't consider to be that bad may be very bad to someone else. x3 It's tricky. Words like 'bloody' are a prime example... >.>;
If I'm playing a character that is just more likely to swear (not that there's many of those outside of fandom RPs in my case, as I try to be a responsible FHer), then I'd rather keep the character's integrity and get in trouble for swearing than destroying the way the character speaks just to keep everyone else happy when the words are in extremely-wide usage in other forms of media, and elsewhere on the internet. Harsh, but true.
Back on the note of 'what words are actually bad', I am a firm believer in using the correct terminology where I can... That means I refer to a child born when their parents are not married as a 'bastard', and a female dog as a 'bitch'... I do not consider them to be swear words in that context, and actually get a little peeved if people try to tell me I can't use them in their intended context, just because they've /become/ relatively generic insults. The older meanings of the words are always more important to me than the newer ones are... which can get a little annoying in the case of words like 'gay' and 'fag' (which mean 'bright, cheerful, happy', and 'cigarette' or possibly a shortening for 'faggot' which means something to do with fire kindling in an older context... Go figure, given what they 'mean' now, eh?)
If I'm truly angry at someone and can't leave the matter as-is at that point, that's one time where I'm /more likely/ to swear, as my usual tactic of growling at people IRL doesn't really work on a game like this... ^_^U
