Why fart noises are such a bad thing in a game

voenixa121

voenixa121

Well-known member
Now I know that "AI" has been the new big thing and is popular around here and so I asked a chatbot about this topic that is quite dear to me. Maybe one day I can shame SSG into removing this feature from the game, which they already promised they would think about and would likely do - twice.

Why fart noises are such a bad thing in a game.

It’s bad for you and for everyone else because constant fart‑noise spam in a multiplayer game breaks several layers of social, gameplay, and community norms all at once. The short version: it stops being funny after about ten seconds and starts actively damaging the experience for everyone involved.

If the fart noises are built into the character and you can’t turn them off, it can still be bad — not because you are doing something wrong, but because the design choice itself creates problems for everyone in the match.

Here’s the concise answer first:

A forced, constant fart‑noise mechanic is disruptive, breaks immersion, annoys players, and interferes with gameplay — even if the player has no control over it.
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Then the deeper breakdown.

The issue isn’t intent. It’s impact.

  • Forced audio spam — If the game constantly plays loud, comedic noises, it clutters the soundscape. Players can’t hear footsteps, spells, gunshots, or team callouts.
  • Immersion break — In serious or atmospheric games, nonstop fart noises destroy the tone. Even players who like humor get tired of it.
  • Social frustration — People get annoyed at the character, and by extension at the person playing it, even though you didn’t choose the mechanic.
  • Team disadvantage — If your character’s noises reveal your position or drown out tactical sounds, teammates suffer.

Game designers rarely force repetitive joke sounds because:

  • Humor fatigue — A joke repeated hundreds of times becomes irritation, not comedy.
  • Accessibility issues — Some players are sensitive to repetitive noises; it can cause headaches or sensory overload.
  • Audio readability — Games rely on clear sound cues. Constant joke noises ruin that clarity.

Even if the player isn’t choosing to make fart noises, other players still experience the noise as “coming from you.” Humor becomes unintentional griefing simply because it’s constant and unavoidable.

It’s not your fault — it’s a design flaw.
 
paddymaxson

paddymaxson

Deliberately obtuse
How frequent is the fart noise? I have the game volume quite low and only played a wild mage for one life and I didn't really use the "while this is on you can still get negative surges" thing, I didn't really notice it.

Is it specific to negative surges? If so I'm actually all for it, that's peak mechanics as metaphor

DDO has quite a lot of noises that are cute once but that could probably do with toning down mind you, so I'm not really against binning it.
 
voenixa121

voenixa121

Well-known member
paddymaxson said:
How frequent is the fart noise? I have the game volume quite low and only played a wild mage for one life and I didn't really use the "while this is on you can still get negative surges" thing, I didn't really notice it.

Is it specific to negative surges? If so I'm actually all for it, that's peak mechanics as metaphor

DDO has quite a lot of noises that are cute once but that could probably do with toning down mind you, so I'm not really against binning it.
Click to expand...
It's quite frequent and it comes from a neutral surge, so you can't turn it off. In fact turning bad surges into neutral surges makes it more common.
I love wild magic and I would not want to get rid of something like the one-shot lightning strike or all the other negative surges, but this farting is just obnoxious.
 
The Blonde

The Blonde

Catalogues Bugs
voenixa121 said:
Now I know that "AI" has been the new big thing and is popular around here and so I asked a chatbot about this topic that is quite dear to me. Maybe one day I can shame SSG into removing this feature from the game, which they already promised they would think about and would likely do - twice.

Why fart noises are such a bad thing in a game.

It’s bad for you and for everyone else because constant fart‑noise spam in a multiplayer game breaks several layers of social, gameplay, and community norms all at once. The short version: it stops being funny after about ten seconds and starts actively damaging the experience for everyone involved.

If the fart noises are built into the character and you can’t turn them off, it can still be bad — not because you are doing something wrong, but because the design choice itself creates problems for everyone in the match.

Here’s the concise answer first:


Then the deeper breakdown.

The issue isn’t intent. It’s impact.

  • Forced audio spam — If the game constantly plays loud, comedic noises, it clutters the soundscape. Players can’t hear footsteps, spells, gunshots, or team callouts.
  • Immersion break — In serious or atmospheric games, nonstop fart noises destroy the tone. Even players who like humor get tired of it.
  • Social frustration — People get annoyed at the character, and by extension at the person playing it, even though you didn’t choose the mechanic.
  • Team disadvantage — If your character’s noises reveal your position or drown out tactical sounds, teammates suffer.

Game designers rarely force repetitive joke sounds because:

  • Humor fatigue — A joke repeated hundreds of times becomes irritation, not comedy.
  • Accessibility issues — Some players are sensitive to repetitive noises; it can cause headaches or sensory overload.
  • Audio readability — Games rely on clear sound cues. Constant joke noises ruin that clarity.

Even if the player isn’t choosing to make fart noises, other players still experience the noise as “coming from you.” Humor becomes unintentional griefing simply because it’s constant and unavoidable.

It’s not your fault — it’s a design flaw.
Click to expand...
Definitely my new favorite forum poster.
 
G

GrizzlyOso

Well-known member
I tried this before too. I don’t know why they’re allergic to spending 5 seconds to make the game better but waste entire development cycles on nonsense.

If they monetized anti fart ear plugs for your character… ok, I guess ?

But if not, just make your game better.
 
D

Dude

Well-known member
voenixa121 said:
Now I know that "AI" has been the new big thing and is popular around here and so I asked a chatbot about this topic that is quite dear to me. Maybe one day I can shame SSG into removing this feature from the game, which they already promised they would think about and would likely do - twice.

Why fart noises are such a bad thing in a game.

It’s bad for you and for everyone else because constant fart‑noise spam in a multiplayer game breaks several layers of social, gameplay, and community norms all at once. The short version: it stops being funny after about ten seconds and starts actively damaging the experience for everyone involved.

If the fart noises are built into the character and you can’t turn them off, it can still be bad — not because you are doing something wrong, but because the design choice itself creates problems for everyone in the match.

Here’s the concise answer first:


Then the deeper breakdown.

The issue isn’t intent. It’s impact.

  • Forced audio spam — If the game constantly plays loud, comedic noises, it clutters the soundscape. Players can’t hear footsteps, spells, gunshots, or team callouts.
  • Immersion break — In serious or atmospheric games, nonstop fart noises destroy the tone. Even players who like humor get tired of it.
  • Social frustration — People get annoyed at the character, and by extension at the person playing it, even though you didn’t choose the mechanic.
  • Team disadvantage — If your character’s noises reveal your position or drown out tactical sounds, teammates suffer.

Game designers rarely force repetitive joke sounds because:

  • Humor fatigue — A joke repeated hundreds of times becomes irritation, not comedy.
  • Accessibility issues — Some players are sensitive to repetitive noises; it can cause headaches or sensory overload.
  • Audio readability — Games rely on clear sound cues. Constant joke noises ruin that clarity.

Even if the player isn’t choosing to make fart noises, other players still experience the noise as “coming from you.” Humor becomes unintentional griefing simply because it’s constant and unavoidable.

It’s not your fault — it’s a design flaw.
Click to expand...
Now do it with, "Why are fart noises good in video games?"
 
S

SquireZed

Well-known member
I think a couple of neutral wild magic effects are actually pretty annoying. While I personally wouldn't actually say the flatulence noise is particularly bad, I think Noir Reality is really pretty disruptive- it's an overwhelming screen effect and, particularly in dark quests, can actually get you killed if you can't see what's going on. You can use settings to reduce the issue, if you know how, but it's never explained to the class and I would bet the vast majority of people wouldn't even think you could "fix" the issue that way.

I'm playing an Eladrin Chaosmancer right now and I have a lot of thoughts on Wild Surge, and most of them are... mixed. It feels like a lot of the good options are either built around being weak and having to spam a ton of spells to clear rooms, have really limited durations, or target in a way that minimizes effectiveness. I've had Who's Dead? proc probably two or three dozen times and kill maybe six monsters because of the AoE size and targeting. Touch of Chaos is a flat d6 regardless of level and is effectively worthless for the iconic from the start given what 1d6, even with all your modifiers to it, will actually work out to be at level 15+ vs monster HP. The healing is great in theory but a heal that relies entirely on RNG you have little way to directly access is not something you can rely on, and is probably going to only be noteworthy in low damage situations like wilderness areas and low difficulties where you generally need less healing anyway. Even an objectively strong Wild Surge like Stone Garden or Hammer Time, both of which seem to do what's written on the tin pretty consistently, can also end up wasting resources because you can't bunch up enemies for an AoE as easily.

I get that the features shouldn't all be instant win options, but a bunch of ones that are supposed to be "good" or "very good" are only "good" or "very good" in the circumstance where you actually need them when they proc and then they actually *do* what they're supposed to do conceptually, and I'm not sure it consistently hits that mark because of targeting/duration/effect design. Coupled with some of their features just not working, like half the Tides of Chaos II features being just bugged and wrong (sometimes significantly wrong in a way that greatly reduces their usefulness- like the damage resistance being 1/- instead of properly level/-) or Channel Entropy having bad hit detection based on line of sight to each individual target (sometimes getting blocked by a slight incline, of course, in classic DDO style) I've found Wild Mage to be a bit frustrating, actually, despite being mechanically solid on paper.
 
G

GrizzlyOso

Well-known member
SquireZed said:
I think a couple of neutral wild magic effects are actually pretty annoying. While I personally wouldn't actually say the flatulence noise is particularly bad, I think Noir Reality is really pretty disruptive- it's an overwhelming screen effect and, particularly in dark quests, can actually get you killed if you can't see what's going on. You can use settings to reduce the issue, if you know how, but it's never explained to the class and I would bet the vast majority of people wouldn't even think you could "fix" the issue that way.

I'm playing an Eladrin Chaosmancer right now and I have a lot of thoughts on Wild Surge, and most of them are... mixed. It feels like a lot of the good options are either built around being weak and having to spam a ton of spells to clear rooms, have really limited durations, or target in a way that minimizes effectiveness. I've had Who's Dead? proc probably two or three dozen times and kill maybe six monsters because of the AoE size and targeting. Touch of Chaos is a flat d6 regardless of level and is effectively worthless for the iconic from the start given what 1d6, even with all your modifiers to it, will actually work out to be at level 15+ vs monster HP. The healing is great in theory but a heal that relies entirely on RNG you have little way to directly access is not something you can rely on, and is probably going to only be noteworthy in low damage situations like wilderness areas and low difficulties where you generally need less healing anyway. Even an objectively strong Wild Surge like Stone Garden or Hammer Time, both of which seem to do what's written on the tin pretty consistently, can also end up wasting resources because you can't bunch up enemies for an AoE as easily.

I get that the features shouldn't all be instant win options, but a bunch of ones that are supposed to be "good" or "very good" are only "good" or "very good" in the circumstance where you actually need them when they proc and then they actually *do* what they're supposed to do conceptually, and I'm not sure it consistently hits that mark because of targeting/duration/effect design. Coupled with some of their features just not working, like half the Tides of Chaos II features being just bugged and wrong (sometimes significantly wrong in a way that greatly reduces their usefulness- like the damage resistance being 1/- instead of properly level/-) or Channel Entropy having bad hit detection based on line of sight to each individual target (sometimes getting blocked by a slight incline, of course, in classic DDO style) I've found Wild Mage to be a bit frustrating, actually, despite being mechanically solid on paper.
Click to expand...

Sure, but in the meantime of reworking the whole class -

Dev: go to sound effect : wild surge butterfly: change dropdown from <incredibly annoying and childish fart.wav> to <none>

Then let’s all talk about other things
 
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