Yesterday's Switch firmware update expanded its list of blacklisted words. This latest batch includes several terms found in online discourse.
Profanity filters are commonplace among online gaming services, and Nintendo has prided itself on maintaining a family friendly platform. As such, it has historically been rather aggressive with its lists of banned words. This has led to some frustrating experiences for Nintendo fans. In 2019, user __Galatea__ posted on the Mario Maker subreddit about their run-in with the filter, which flagged the words "is expected" in the title of their level. The filtered word doesn't actually appear in the title, but instead resides somewhere in the middle. Commenters lamented similar stories in which certain Pokemon could not be traded, due to their proper English names containing an inappropriate word.
Still, Nintendo continues to maintain its database of swear words. According to Twitter user @OatmealDome, a self-described tinkerer, version 10.2.0's newest crop of words includes terms referring to hate groups, racism, and police brutality. In addition, words related to COVID-19, including the name of the disease itself, have also been banned. The swear list applies to player nicknames, visible to other players online, as well as text chat.
Nintendo's foremost goal in adding to the blacklist is, likely, to keep insulting and inflammatory language out of its services. With games like Animal Crossing intended for children as well as adults, the company tries to filter out provocative jokes and trolling. Racial slurs, or even morbid coronavirus jokes made in poor taste, are worth the effort to avoid. Online play is an unpredictable affair, however; it's almost impossible to completely remove the possibility of exposure to unsavory comments.
While ostensibly a positive move, the inclusion of words like "covid" and "acab" prompts a further question concerning the cultural role of video games. Like any other art form, video games are subject to the context of their time. Most recently, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris used Animal Crossing as a campaign medium--to the dismay of some, who feel that their entertainment should be independent of politics and social issues.
Yet the two are inseparable. Animal Crossing, in particular, entered into the most chaotic moment in recent human history. It's natural, therefore, for people to want to discuss, express, and cope with feelings and current events through the medium. As with the Pokemon example, profanity filters are sometimes inaccurate in their parsing, which opens the possibility of flagging well-meaning players. For now, the impact of the list's newest additions is unknown.
Source: /u/__Galatea__ on Reddit