Nintendo Scrabble Teaches Naughty Words

by Sandy Maple (Subscribe to Sandy Maple's posts) Dec 8th 2008 3:00PM

Categories: Kids 5-7, Kids 8-11, Teens & tweens, Weird But True, Gadgets & Tech

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.

Toys for Family Togetherness

Here's a riddle: What's the best gift you can give your children this holiday season that can't be wrapped up or put under the tree? The answer is ... your time. It's tempting to spend, spend, spend this holiday season to make them smile on Christmas morning. But when they look back, they'll never remember the latest must-have toy. What they'll remember is the memories you made together. Here are some holiday gift ideas that encourage family togetherness.

SXC

Cranium's Fun Folio: Cranium's Fun Folio screams family fun. Inside, you'll find several zany family activities that will get everyone laughing. Make family trading cards, write a silly story, or come up with your own play. Your kids will be pulling this one out again and again ... and so will you!

amazon.com

Card games: Got five minutes to fill? Try Slap Jack or Old Maid. Card games are a low-cost way to have fun together. Little ones can join the fun with a helpful card holder like this one.

toyscamp.com

Crafts: What better way to spend a rainy Saturday than creating? This big barrel of crafts has everything you and your younger need to invent all afternoon. Best of all, clean up means just throwing all back in when you're done!

highlights.com

Captain Clueless: Go sailing with Captain Clueless and find a treasure trove of fun. Designed for four to eight people, blindfolded players try to help Captain Clueless across the map with only the verbal clues of their teammates.

amazon.com

Blongo Ball: Blongo Ball is Lawn Jarts, without the trips to the ER. Safe and easy for younger children, but competitive enough for older kids and adults, Blongo Ball is sure to keep the whole family playing and laughing together.

fatbraintoys.com

Illustory: The inventive toy lets kids write and illustrate their own story, which is then turned into a hardcover keepsake book. Have Grandma or Grandpa share one of their favorite memories for your kiddo to illustrate, or retell one of your family's favorite or funniest stories.

fatbraintoys.comfa

Yackle ball: Give Dad a Yackle ball for Christmas, and never beg him to play catch again. Yackle ball makes catching easier and can fly farther than a football.

fatbraintoys.com

Models: Models, like this trebuchet, are a great way for parents to spend quiet time with an older child. The best part of these functional type of models is that when you're finished, you can try them out together too.

fatbraintoys.com

Hyperdash: Hyperdash keeps kids on the move, inside or out. It's also a great way to bring Dad -- who thinks he's faster than anybody -- down a notch or two. My five-year-old gets better times than her dad, which brings her endless amounts of pleasure.

amazon.com

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.

Source

Comments (10)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Baron 12-08-2008 @ 4:18PM

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.

Melinda 12-10-2008 @ 4:04PM

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.

dude 12-12-2008 @ 10:24AM

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

mimi 12-12-2008 @ 10:37AM

LMAO!!!

Rasha 12-12-2008 @ 1:22PM

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.

Leon 12-13-2008 @ 12:29AM

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. .

txblkleon 12-13-2008 @ 12:29AM

If the public don't buy and use these these toys and web sites, they'll change.

E.L. Kuwanoe 12-12-2008 @ 1:28PM

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........