XBLA word game exposes Microsoft’s naughty word censor

28 January 2012

You can’t play the word “balls” on the new Xbox LIVE Arcade word game, Quarrel. That’s maybe not such a big surprise, even if it’s a bit silly – but you can’t say “train”, “start”, or “help” either.

What?

Although you should be able to play any word from the Collins official Scrabble dictionary – which includes around 110,000 words, including loads of rudes and swears – it turns out Microsoft has its own rules about this kind of stuff.

“Microsoft has an additional filter in place for all Xbox Live games, which we have to support,” Gary Penn of developer Denki told Edge. “But while we have to use that filter, we don’t know which words are permitted.

“From playing, we do know that it includes such oddities as ‘help’, ‘start’, ‘skid’, ‘poop’, ‘bung’, ‘hung’, ‘dice’ and ‘god’. Microsoft clearly has its reasons for censoring such words within LIVE games.”

Well, obviously Microsoft doesn’t want anybody soliciting help in starting a skid poop. Or something.

… Balls.

Okay, I can’t stop laughing. Baaaaaaalllllllls. BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLS.

Source: Edge Online
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