The ban was not permanent but lasted “only” 168 hours, or one week.
In certain cases – like here – it can also lead to a ban. However, some games find creative solutions like Overwatch, which simply replaces toxic terms with embarrassing messages.
Players complain about “arrogance” of developers
The case has led to some complaints in the Apex Legends community. In a thread on reddit, players complain that such a situation only occurs because developers only consider filters for the English language (via reddit).
Words like the Spanish “negro” (“black”), which have their origin in Latin (“nigreos”), are very present in many of the derived languages – and would be punished for it. Another example from German is the word “weniger”, which can also lead to problems.
The user MaybeAdrian welcomes the Japanese player in the club “I am not an English speaker and I know that companies do not care about non-English matters”. The user MonoShadow responds that this could even be limited to America – even English dialects and accents are affected.
The reddit user DoolioArt even goes a step further and calls it “total arrogance.” You cannot regulate games with multiple languages in this way. There are hardly any opposing voices to these accusations.
Indeed, it is probably quite difficult for developers to satisfy all players. Especially since language can often have different meanings in context. Theoretically, each spoken language that the game offers would require its own expert to devise a filter.
For peaceful coexistence, such chat filters are indeed important. Intel is even already working on the next step: there are plans to censor voice chats with a special AI and protect you from flamers.
Anyone playing with other players should watch their language. This isn’t necessarily new, but a Japanese player in Apex Legends has now fallen victim to it. He was apparently banned from the game for trying to tell his teammates to flee in his native language.
What did the player do? A Japanese Apex player wanted to urge his team to retreat. He said “nigero”.
The word “nigero” consists in Japanese of two parts: the root “nige-” (逃げ, meaning “to run away” or “to flee”) and the ending “-ro” (ろ, the imperative form for verbs).
So he was just trying to strongly communicate to his teammates to flee. However, the chat filter of Apex apparently didn’t like that at all.
Why was he banned for it? Although “nigero” is a harmless word in Japanese, the chat filter of Apex Legends apparently recognized it as a variation of the word “Nigger”. That is a racist term directed at Black people and is generally condemned everywhere.
What is particularly surprising is that the character Octane in Apex Legends himself says “nigero” when he throws a grenade. Nevertheless, the player received a ban for the expression due to “hate speech”.
The ban was not permanent but lasted “only” 168 hours, or one week.
In certain cases – like here – it can also lead to a ban. However, some games find creative solutions like Overwatch, which simply replaces toxic terms with embarrassing messages.
Players complain about “arrogance” of developers
The case has led to some complaints in the Apex Legends community. In a thread on reddit, players complain that such a situation only occurs because developers only consider filters for the English language (via reddit).
Words like the Spanish “negro” (“black”), which have their origin in Latin (“nigreos”), are very present in many of the derived languages – and would be punished for it. Another example from German is the word “weniger”, which can also lead to problems.
The user MaybeAdrian welcomes the Japanese player in the club “I am not an English speaker and I know that companies do not care about non-English matters”. The user MonoShadow responds that this could even be limited to America – even English dialects and accents are affected.
The reddit user DoolioArt even goes a step further and calls it “total arrogance.” You cannot regulate games with multiple languages in this way. There are hardly any opposing voices to these accusations.
Indeed, it is probably quite difficult for developers to satisfy all players. Especially since language can often have different meanings in context. Theoretically, each spoken language that the game offers would require its own expert to devise a filter.
For peaceful coexistence, such chat filters are indeed important. Intel is even already working on the next step: there are plans to censor voice chats with a special AI and protect you from flamers.
