News

Racial slur removed from Minecraft
Posted: 29.01.2012 18:09 by JonahFalcon Comments: 33
Mojang discovered from fans that a racial epithet had slipped by their QA in the latest flash build update of Minecraft; when a player elected to change the language of the game to Afrikaans, the language spoken in South Africa and Namibia, the title screen greeted the user with the offensive phrase "You are a N------".


Fortunately, the epithet only appeared in the flash build, and not the general build that would have been released to the games 5M paid users, according to Minecraft's current producer Jens Bergensten.

According to the developer, the epithet had been left by a disgruntled user who had been banned. Bergenstein had tweeted to a Minecraft player, "Sorry about that =( I thought I had banned that user."

Hopefully, Mojang will be more thorough with checking what gets through in its crowd-sourced development cycle, which is one of the hazards of allowing relatively unknown users help work on your project.
Source: Kotaku
Related games: Minecraft (PC)

Comments

By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Jan 29, 2012
SirRoderick
Ah, Afrikaans. It's like lazy Dutch, I love reading it. I understand pretty much every word. No conjugations and most modern words are created by pulling together two other Afrikaner words, instead of Dutch which usually goes for English.

A subway for instance is a "moltrein". "Mol" meaning mole, the animal, and "trein" meaning train. Their newspapers are hilarious.

P.S.
Seemed to have slipped off topic there :)
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Jan 30, 2012
herodotus
I continuously find it fascinating that a word so abjectly offensive when used by "white" people is in such common usage by many African Americans (a contradictory title if ever there was one), and that's okay with them. If the word is so bad (and I find it offensive myself, no matter who uses it), ban it...right across the board.

Then slang words for "Whites" can be banned as well:
Whitie, Cracker, Haikogen, Gussak, Pale face, Round eye, Gwailo, O-fay, Buckra, Honky, Gavacho, Bolillo, Gringo, Beach-n****r (overly tan white people), Blue-eyed Devil, Buleh, Crizm, Egg (Asian reference for whites dating asians), Firangi etc.
I mean, fair's fair (no pun intended).
By djole381 (SI Elite) on Jan 30, 2012
djole381
I dunno, Blue-eyed Devil doesn't sound offensive to me. In fact, it sounds kinda cool XD
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Jan 30, 2012
herodotus
Well I guess it's better than "Brown-eyed Devil" - conjures up all sorts of unwanted images. Ech!
By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Jan 30, 2012
JonahFalcon
George Carlin preferred "blue eyed devil".

"We come from that northern European, basically the northern European genes, the blue eyes. Those blue eyes. Boy everybody in the world learned real quick, didn’t they? When those blue eyes sail out of the north, you better nail everything down. Nail it down, strap it down, or they’ll grab it. If they can’t take it home, they’ll burn it. If they can’t burn it, they’ll F--- it!"
By SiyaenSokol (SI Elite) on Jan 30, 2012
SiyaenSokol
Wow, they speak about Afrikaans!!! That is quite new to me. It is my home language xD

Very nicely put JonahFalcon, I like that comment.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Jan 30, 2012
herodotus
Yeah, but they were the Vikings, and we all know about those buggers. Or do we?
A bit like when I lived in Port Moresby, I could speak Pidgin quite well. Can't barely understand a word now, but an odd "language".
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Jan 30, 2012
SirRoderick
@ViGoth

In that case, do you find it easy to read/understand Dutch? Wondering if it works both ways.
By SiyaenSokol (SI Elite) on Jan 31, 2012
SiyaenSokol
I haven't read Dutch before, but I must admit that when listening to both Dutch, and Norsk, I could actually make out what they are saying.

I will look for a Dutch written sentence, and then I will get back to you on that one.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Jan 31, 2012
herodotus
Vooruitblik op hoe ga je, Vet. Veel succes!
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Jan 31, 2012
SirRoderick
Dat sloeg nergens op mijn beste. Ik neem aan dat Google vertaler daar iets mee te maken had.

Yeah, eat my bilingual dust.
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Jan 31, 2012
FoolWolf
Interesting that Vikings who had such a very brief period and other then creating the people that invaded England, burned a few villages and looted very little are mostly known for their very long travels in unlikely flat bottomed longships, hiring out as mercenaries and discovering lands far beyond where many other Europeans had gone before...

That and we could plant an axe between your eyes and cry to gods and shower your face with blood - but that is like... off the point... we don't do that as much these days...

OK - we are blue eyed devils.... yes my passport states so - blue eyed....
By SiyaenSokol (SI Elite) on Jan 31, 2012
SiyaenSokol
xD I must admit, that I can make out some of the words, and figure out what you are saying, but I have to concentrate.

Baie van die woorde is dieselfde as Afrikaans, maar daar is woorde hier en daar wat letters het wat bygevoeg is soos byvoorbeeld: "nergens". In Afrikaans is die "nêrens".
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Jan 31, 2012
SirRoderick
I'll translate that into Dutch and English :)

(Baie = sommige?) van die woorden zijn (vervoeging, warrom doet gij dat niet?) dezelfde als Afrikaans, maar er zijn woorden hier en daar waar letters zijn bijgevoegd zoals bijvoorbeeld "nergens". In Afrikaans is dat "nêrens".

Some(?) of those words are the same as Afrikaans, but here and there are words which have added letters, such as "nergens". In Afrikaans this is "nêrens".

Alright, I'm practically trilingual now. Yay :D
By Kres (SI Elite) on Jan 31, 2012
Kres
We need aliens to invade Earth. We would all love each other then. For a couple of days before we're all exterminated :p but good loving couple of days!
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Jan 31, 2012
SirRoderick
I like everyone!

Except the Dutch, the French, religious fundamentalists, people with wishy-washy ideas on the universe, pseudo-scientists, quacks, pop artists, people with no appreciation for history and culture, hipsters, anyone that doesn't know what Monty Python is, that guy in the corner across from me who is eating a burger with way to much enthusiasm, jazz musicians, people that do not realise Jeremy Clarkson is just joking and doesn't actually think they should be shot, people that put words into the mouths of great historical figures, people that make up stats on the spot, people that do stats for a living, people that try to teach me more stats, people that talk loudly in public places, those bastards that put way too much ice in my soda just now...that's all I can think of right now.

:P
By Kres (SI Elite) on Jan 31, 2012
Kres
You are really a tolerant and loving person Roderick :p
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Jan 31, 2012
SirRoderick
I try :)
By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Feb 01, 2012
JonahFalcon
They found another vile slur in the game: "Belgium". Some guy named Ford Prefect discovered it.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Jan 31, 2012
herodotus
Political Correctness gone mad. Is it ever anything else?
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Jan 31, 2012
SirRoderick
Prefect....Ford Prefect.

Also, nice one.
By Kres (SI Elite) on Jan 31, 2012
Kres
Interesting days for these kind of news pieces...
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Jan 31, 2012
herodotus
"So long, and thanks for all the fish....".
Brilliant way to close a Thread in future, if I do say so myself....and I do.
By SiyaenSokol (SI Elite) on Feb 01, 2012
SiyaenSokol
I remember that line... that is from the film: HitchHiker's Guide To The Galaxy.
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Feb 01, 2012
SirRoderick
BAH!

It's from the book! Yes, it's a book. And no film could ever do it justice. It's brilliance lies, for me at least, in the way he uses the written word.
By Kres (SI Elite) on Feb 01, 2012
Kres
lol will consider that Herod.

I started reading the book but I'm not sure if I read it all or stopped before the end. Was cool though anyway. My memory is such that I just can't be sure. Anything is possible.
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Feb 01, 2012
SirRoderick
You need the Ultimate Guide. I read that bad boy 3 times. Love it.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Feb 01, 2012
herodotus
I have the book of the original scripts for the BBC radio plays by Douglas Adams. That, along with "The Goon Show Scripts" are essential in anyone's library.
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Feb 01, 2012
SirRoderick
Where can I get it and how much does it cost?...Actually forget that last bit, WHERE CAN I GET IT?!
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Feb 01, 2012
herodotus
I'm not sure. I bought the Douglas Adams scripts about 20 years ago and the Goon Show scripts back in the '70's. Still in near perfect condition, though. I'm sure you'll find both in online bookstores.
Just found it on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy-Radio-Scripts/dp/0330435108
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Feb 02, 2012
herodotus
I also have the script by Douglas Adams for the 2005 movie and Douglas Adams's "The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide", if anyone wants them. Can't post the files here, though as they are PDF.
By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Feb 02, 2012
JonahFalcon
Little hint: Douglas Adams wrote the screenplay for the 2005 film, and I personally prefer the film to the books, which tend to be unfocused and over-cute.

Bill Nighy was brilliant as Slartibartfast.

"I'd rather be happy than right, anyday."
"And are you?"
(snorts a chuckle) "Eh, no! That's where it all falls apart, doesn't it?"
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Feb 02, 2012
herodotus
Yes that's the movie script I have, on top of the BBC scripts and "The Ultimate Guide", all written by Adams. I thought the movie was pretty good, and Nighy was brilliant....as always. Wasn't too impressed at the Cinema, but then I doubt any film adaptaion could have equalled the impact of the BBC radio show nor the television series.