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Nintendo Scrabble Teaches Naughty Words
Filed under: In The News, Weird But True
The game of Scrabble is a great way improve spelling skills and expand vocabulary. I play the old-school board version with my 8-year-old and sometimes go online to play by myself. When playing online, I have often found myself in possession of the necessary letters to spell out something naughty. Like F*CK or SH*T. But when I try to play those words, they are rejected for not being in the dictionary. Often, the rejected words really are in the dictionary, but I guess they are trying to keep in clean for the kids who might be playing.
Nintendo, however, clearly has no interest in keeping Scrabble clean for the sake of the kids. Their Scrabble 2007 game for DS not only allows the use of profanity and slang, but actually has the virtual opponents playing and defining those words.
UK resident 36-year-old Tonya Carrington learned first-hand the extent of vocabulary expansion to be had playing this particular game. When trying out her 8-year-old son's game, she was horrified when her virtual opponent laid down the word "T*TS". The next word her opponent played was F*CKERS, defined as a slang word for chavs (a derogatory term in the UK for an aggressive white teen or young adult). To add insult to injury, that word was a triple scorer and won the game for her virtual opponent!
Carrington complained to Nintendo,who in turn blamed game's publisher, Ubisoft. A spokesman for that company said: "We are sorry the game has caused concern, but it includes a "junior" option that stops it using unusual or offensive words." Carrington says she never read anything about a 'junior' version and thinks there should have been some sort of warning on the package. "The worst thing is that there's an age rating of 3+ on the box and no advisory warning about adult language on the packaging at all," she said.
Nintendo, however, clearly has no interest in keeping Scrabble clean for the sake of the kids. Their Scrabble 2007 game for DS not only allows the use of profanity and slang, but actually has the virtual opponents playing and defining those words.
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UK resident 36-year-old Tonya Carrington learned first-hand the extent of vocabulary expansion to be had playing this particular game. When trying out her 8-year-old son's game, she was horrified when her virtual opponent laid down the word "T*TS". The next word her opponent played was F*CKERS, defined as a slang word for chavs (a derogatory term in the UK for an aggressive white teen or young adult). To add insult to injury, that word was a triple scorer and won the game for her virtual opponent!
Carrington complained to Nintendo,who in turn blamed game's publisher, Ubisoft. A spokesman for that company said: "We are sorry the game has caused concern, but it includes a "junior" option that stops it using unusual or offensive words." Carrington says she never read anything about a 'junior' version and thinks there should have been some sort of warning on the package. "The worst thing is that there's an age rating of 3+ on the box and no advisory warning about adult language on the packaging at all," she said.
| Absolutely not! We dont' use those words, why should a game? | |
|---|---|
| What's the big deal? If it is in the dictionary, then it's all good. | |
| My kid wouldn't play Scrabble if I paid him. |
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
12-08-2008 @ 4:18PM
Baron said...I have a hard time believing that 1) it put down those words and 2) it put down those words in that order. That particular game allows you to go online and compete against anyone else playing. I would almost bet (though sometimes odd things do happen) that he was playing online opponents and she doesn't understand.
Reply
12-10-2008 @ 4:04PM
Melinda said...This is something we have to deal with too. I am part of a startup that does online animation. It is a free website that allows people of all ages to draw and animate. It is a lot of fun, check it out at www.doink.com. But making sure that things stay PG-13 or better is a lot of work for administrators. We have a flagging mechanism if profanity or questionable content is put on the site. But again it takes a lot of time and not a lot of website are willing to put as much time into it as is required to keep it PG-13.
Reply
12-12-2008 @ 10:24AM
dude said...Well F*CK what kind of SH*T is this? Do those F*CKERS at NIntendo and Ubisoft have T*TS for brains or what? Posted by Timmy, age 6
Reply
12-12-2008 @ 10:37AM
mimi said...LMAO!!!
12-12-2008 @ 1:22PM
Rasha said...LOL.
But seriously... there is no reason to complain. If you're not comfortable letting your kid play the game, than take it away. Simple as pie. And wtf kid voluntarily plays scrabble anyway. It seems to me that his mommy's a little high strung as it is or else he'd be playing regular 8 year old video games.
12-13-2008 @ 12:29AM
Leon said...It is sad that 25% doesn't know the difference of good and bad speech. And, you can hear it in their conversation in public. But can you expect when the parents are using the those words. It disheartning listening to young children speaking. Unable to understand and speak correct English adds to America being 15 in the world for education. .
Reply
12-13-2008 @ 12:29AM
txblkleon said...If the public don't buy and use these these toys and web sites, they'll change.
Reply
12-12-2008 @ 1:28PM
E.L. Kuwanoe said...I doubt that those words came up. My reasoning is that I was playing a spelling game on a DS and out of last resort put SH*T in. Got a message back that that was not a word to be found in the dictionary. Of coarse, this report seems to come from the UK, so who knows........
Reply
12-12-2008 @ 4:00PM
remartantiques said...Continuing evidence of a degenerating, decadent society......and not too subtle in this case.
Reply
12-12-2008 @ 5:29PM
undrgrndgirl said...if its in the dictionary its legit - maybe scrabble needs to put a warning on the "old school" boxed version, too...it contains the same letters.
Reply