Ubisoft had to issue a statement after it was found that the Nintendo DS title Scrabble 2007 contained an offense solution word in the anagram part of game play.
An article in the Belfast Telegraph reports that a father and daughter playing Scrabble 2007 were stumped on a five-letter anagram. Stuck, they hit the "give-up" option to find that the solution was the word "lesbo," a derogatory slang term for lesbian. The father, Zachary McAdam, said that he "nearly fell out of his chair," and then proceeded to "look it up" to make sure he wasn't over-reacting.
It turns out that this title uses 277,000 approved words from the Chambers Official Scrabble Dictionary.
A statement from Ubisoft apologized and added:
"The dictionary includes words used in the English language, but that may be considered unusual or offensive. It is for this reason that the game includes a 'junior' option which will prevent the player and computer using these 'unusual' or 'offensive' words in playing. However, 'lesbo' is not considered as offensive by the official dictionary and therefore is playable in both options."
Remind me not to invite these two to my annual Drunken Dirty Word Scrabble Tournaments.
[Via Next-Gen]
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
1:11 PM on 09.27.2007
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In all seriousness though, lesbo is pretty damn derogatory. Oh well. Like I need a DS to play Scrabble anyway.
damn breeders. love u too!
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destructoid
b
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you get it tho.
les·bo /ˈlɛzboʊ/ –noun, plural -bos. Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.
a lesbian.
Ubisoft loses.
But seriously, it's the scrabble dictionaries fault.
I hope so!