Comments on: “MindQuiz” Pulled from Store Shelves for Offensive Content

By: James

James — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 15:57:57 +0000

I’m very disapointed in the way gamers have been reacting to the news. Firstly its not censorship, the game was pulled by the publishers for customer relations reasons. It is a family game designed for a diverse audience and the term ‘Spastic’ is clearly out of keeping of the intended audience. It slipped through quality control and was initially included because the translators didn’t realise the level of offensiveness entailed.

The fact that the terms spastic and retard are seen as less offensive that Nigger and Paki (And I’m guessing this board will autocensor only one of those four) merely indicates how far behind we are when it comes to the rights for the disabled. Furthermore it is telling that the insult has been further misapropriated, the term spastic refers to muscle co-ordination difficulties, not mental deficiencies. However its missuse has sprung from the tendency to treat all disabled people as stupid.

Would people have the same reaction if the phrase was ‘As dumb as a Nigger?’ There is little difference.

I would also like to indicate that this is entirely different from complaining about a game which portreys murder. The insulting is being done by the game directly, and the offense is direct, not circumstantial.

Now this isn’t to say I’ve not also been diapointed with the way some sections of the media have used this as another chance to yell ‘games are offensive evil things.’ However on seeing the reaction of the gaming community I can’t help but feel that some of the criticisms are at least partialy justified.

By: William

William — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:01:18 +0000

If this keeps up, I’m waiting for the book burnings to begin soon.

By: lisa

lisa — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 15:51:48 +0000

Its Super Spastic

By: Joey Crack

Joey Crack — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:04:33 +0000

I really want to know what the word was!

I’m thinking retarded/spaz…this is the fourth website ive been on to try find out, its fast becomming an obsession.

By: Hugh Jas

Hugh Jas — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 06:55:44 +0000

I love how the actual “offensive” word was not listed in the news article. Ah, there’s nothing like censorship in news reporting in the name of political correctness to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Too bad that warm and fuzzy feeling is the result of oncoming bile and puke.

By: somewhat

somewhat — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:32:34 +0000

I guess all those games with murder should be pulled also, as I’m sure someone out there knows someone who was killed. Oh, and while they’re at it, cancel all of XBox Live, because the little kids are always telling me how they ‘raped’ me in that game of capture the flag on Halo-2, and there are certainly people who know someone that has had that happen. I know I do. Oh, and also, a close friend of mine killed himself by driving his Nissan Pathfinder off of a 200 foot cliff into the base of a waterfall as the police were following him to convince him otherwise (no joke) just a little over a year ago. So could they please also cancel all those games with trucks, and police, and water, etc… ? On the other side of the coin, I’m not quite sure what terms were used in this game, and it may just have been inapropriate, but a line has to be drawn on games being pulled because it offended someone. If we didn’t offend anyone, there certainly wouldn’t be any comedians or humour.