Nintendo: you're a spastic

[Kitsunexus]

Its okay for games to call you a/the 'loser', even though many kids who play games are already bullied at school and called a 'loser' on a daily basis.

No no, this wasn't "the loser", as in you lost. This was VERBATIM "_______ is a loser with no talent!", "_________" being the name you typed in before the match.

This was in a HOT WHEELS game. I'm surprised it didn't get recalled for that.


And no, I didn't purposefully buy said Hot Wheels game, it was a Christmas gift. However is is actually a very decent and fun game, I'd recommend it to anyone.

[Turbo D]

wow, that hotwheels game is pretty harsh, haha. I'm glad I didn't play it.

[Necromancer]

So Nintendo is pulling a game because of a slang word - what a crock of crap.  Spastic refers to muscles that contract uncontrollably (spasm), and I don't care if the Irish use it to refer to the mentally retarded any more than I care about any other innocuous slang term.  Next they'll pull games with words like bush, trim, organ, rod, beaver, box, jugs, gash, shaft, balls, bang, or twat (ha-ha).  Stupid, bitchy clown was probably drunk and confused anyway (P.C. to the core, ain't I?).

[Keranu]

rod, LOL!

And haha at beaver.

[nat]

So Nintendo is pulling a game because of a slang word - what a crock of crap.  Spastic refers to muscles that contract uncontrollably (spasm), and I don't care if the Irish use it to refer to the mentally retarded any more than I care about any other innocuous slang term.  Next they'll pull games with words like bush, trim, organ, rod, beaver, box, jugs, gash, shaft, balls, bang, or twat (ha-ha).  Stupid, bitchy clown was probably drunk and confused anyway (P.C. to the core, ain't I?).

Yeah, no kidding.

[Monster Bonce]

Hey, hey, I'm not saying they should have pulled it. I'm just surprised it got in there in the first place.

Spastic isn't just vernacular in Ireland, though.

What I'd really like to see the full sentence in its original context.

[offsidewing]

Hope no one puts out a game with the Potato Blight in it.

[Kitsunexus]

Heh, if the game said "SCOTLAND PWNS!", there'd be some major class action lawsuits going on.

[GUTS]

Well to be fair, I don't think a game calling you a "retard" would fly in the USA, and isn't spastic basically the same thing over there?  I mean yeah it's funny, but in a game marketed towards women and old people, wouldn't you assume someone is going to be offended by the word?  It's not like the game was GTA, it was a lame-ass Brain Age type "game" for 40 year old women who all have nothing better to do than get offended by everything.

[Black Tiger]

Well to be fair, I don't think a game calling you a "retard" would fly in the USA, and isn't spastic basically the same thing over there?  I mean yeah it's funny, but in a game marketed towards women and old people, wouldn't you assume someone is going to be offended by the word?  It's not like the game was GTA, it was a lame-ass Brain Age type "game" for 40 year old women who all have nothing better to do than get offended by everything.

I totally agree. I don't think that Nintendo should put that into kids' games. But it'd be funny getting heckled by a mature game intended for a 'mature audience'(whatever that means).

[Necromancer]

Well to be fair, I don't think a game calling you a "retard" would fly in the USA, and isn't spastic basically the same thing over there?

But, spastic is only common slang for retard over there (Ireland is an English speaking country, last I checked).  Spastic is not defined as 'retarded', but it would actually be an apt description of how some people play games - uncontrolled muscle spasms a.k.a. button mashing.  The word 'special' is often used to describe the mentally challenged, but everything labeled as special is not necessarily retarded (except me).

[Monster Bonce]

You know that's a really interesting point. Maybe they didn't mean to conjure up disability but were referring to muscular movements—literally reflexes.

FTR, at a guess I'd say that spastic is also used in Britain as a term of abuse, the news story just happens to be an Irish one.

[Monster Bonce]

(Ireland is an English speaking country, last I checked)

More or less, though cut-glass RP-speakers from Ingerland might have a few problems—if they still exist, that is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno-English

Is mise le meas,
Ceann na ollphéist.

[Turbo D]

In the US, spastic or being a spaz just means that you are crazy or out of control. I used to have a t-shirt of the tazmanian devil that said "spazin' taz" . Ya , that lady in France was just upset cuz her kid died.

[GUTS]

The guys on UK:Resistance use spastic in the same way we use retard, so I assume in the UK it means the same thing.