Minecraft language update inadvertently contained racial slur (but it's fixed now)

by Jessica Conditt on Jan 28th 2012 12:00PM

Minecraft has demonstrated some magnificent feats of community creation, but now it's also offering a lesson in the volatile side of crowd-sourcing. Changing the language to Afrikaans, spoken in South Africa and Namibia, yesterday caused the title screen to display the phrase "You are a NIGGER." As Minecraft Forums user EgXPlayer commented, "Thats racist."

Mojang's Jens Bergensten apologized for the slur and encouraged fans to check the new translation via Crowdin -- the Afrikaans home screen now reads "enkelspeler," which translates to "single player," as it should.

[Image via Minecraft Forums user TripleHeadedSheep]

Via: Kotaku
Source: Minecraft Forums

Tags: afrikaans, crowdsourcing, language, microsoft, Minecraft, pc, racist, xbox

Reader Comments (89)

I feel so bad for laughing...

@Alphonze

I'm black and I giggled.

But, I'm allowed to. Black privilege.

@Alphonze

why? it's funny. :D

@Troy Powers

ugh, don't be stupid. no one needs permission to laugh at something. is there anything wrong with laughing about things that might (but in actuality, aren't) racist? some comedians base their entire act on poking fun of races. see: Russel Peters and it's pretty damn funny laughing at stereotypes. why can't everyone just lighten up???

@Liquidfingers
You see, in this timeline, the laugh police has not been established until 2172, and thus we have no fear of prosecution.

the fact i was downvoted just strengthens my point.

@Liquidfingers
No, it doesn't.

@Liquidfingers You go ahead and think that, friendo. You're the one sucking the fun out of the joke by reacting so seriously. There are certainly times when dark humor (hah!) is all-advised, but this is SO OBVIOUSLY not one of them. However, the fact that you've gotten so defensive (and, by that, completely missed Troy's intentions) means that you're probably one of those guys who'd defend telling an inappropriate race-based joke at an inappropriate time (with all the implications THAT brings). So, yeah, perfectly justifiable Downvote City.

@Liquidfingers

I'm white, and I found it f*cking HILARIOUS.

@rowd149

if you say so. maybe you could help me understand what Troy's true intentions were, since you seem to be on some sort of intimate level with the guy. all i got out of what he said is that it's OK if he laughs at it, because he's black...implying that it's not really OK for anyone else to laugh at it unless they, too, are black. maybe i am missing something, but i don't feel like i acted too defensively about it.

and yes, the downvoting really did strengthen my argument that you all are a bunch of overly sensitive nancy's sometimes. it's not like i made it a point to downvote Troy Powers...or anyone for that matter...ever.

@Alphonze

As they say on the internet, "I lol'd"

@Liquidfingers
You were downvoted by them cause it was clearly a JOKE lol, Im pretty certain Troy was being sarcastic and you've looked wayyyyyyy too deep into it lol, Im black and here with a white friend and we BOTH rofl'd at this So YOU Lighten up! lol

@Vampettrelli

lol ok lol haha rofl

@Vampettrelli

Americans. 'nuff said.

@Liquidfingers As someone already mentioned, he was being sarcastic. It was so obvious, that only someone looking to get offended would have been. (That would be you.) You're exemplifying the exact thing you say you're speaking out against, and you can't even tell. Sad.

@rowd149

Really, no one else is voting up rowd for the dark humor comment? Let's go people.

@rowd149
now that was funny

@Liquidfingers
"the fact i was downvoted just strengthens my point".

Hey! It's Paul Christoforo!

@Alphonze

my avatar is black and I didn't really find it funny, not offensive to ME, but just not funny. obviously it should be removed, its just nonsense.

That's what they get for not reaching out to Luddy to do the translation. Mock my smock.

Ha, blur it in the image but then type it out anyway :P

They have a multispeler mode?
I'm going to ned tht a lot.

uh... hahahaha

Hahaha oh wow.

Behold the wit of the common man.

Wow, crowd sourcing brings out the best and the worst in people.

Wait - how does one confuse that word with SINGLE PLAYER?

Is there some kind of similarity?

@Omega2822

I dont understand why I got downvoted when several other people asked the same question as I did. They even got answers as well as high rated.

I wasn't making a joke...

@Omega2822 It's because you're the omega. Belly up, runt! (I upvoted you.)

Whoah.

Awe-inspiring insight from user EgxPlayer...

How could that even happen? Seriously, that's my question. How could that happen?

@Ferrous

Step1: Crowd source the translations
Step2: Have little to no trouble up to this point
Step3: Let your guard down for a second and watch some Dbag strike

Seeing that most of the translation is being done in languages that none of the programmers are fluent in. They have to have faith in peoples honesty in submitting translations.

One bad apple and all.

Glad they were able to catch it before it made it into a live patch.

@Ferrous

From what I gather from this article, translations for the game were crowd-sourced out and no one bother to check the submitted translations. I can understand why they wouldn't check to make sure the translations were perfect, but they should've at least checked to make sure they weren't jibberish.

@Ferrous

Because a multi-million dollar company decided they'd get volunteers to write their translations for them, instead of hiring people. I can't POSSIBLY see how that could be a bad idea.

@Copybass Ah jeez zombies

Multimillion dollar company with 14 employees...

@(Unverified) Even worse. Shows they are clutching onto their money like no other.

@KuztomX
In all fairness, he has multiplied his staff by 14 within like 2 years.

I laughed a little.

@Resident Evil 6 Puppie Madness

I laughed a LOT.

http://imgur.com/1wK0N

@Rickers
I actually found his reply to be the funnier part.

Hmm.. http://imgur.com/1wK0N

Being black myself. I still can't help but admit that this was one hell of a troll.

Wait, what?

What a jackass, glad they found it. Plenty of losers out there

One of my absolute least favorite terms. It's sickening that someone would try to put this on the title screen.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you...the minecraft community,

@crookedking
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the quality of Mojang's QA team. Oh wait, they have none.

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Minecraft

Minecraft language update inadvertently contained racial slur (but it's fixed now)

Reader Comments (89)

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:03PM Alphonze said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 1:05PM Troy Powers said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 1:11PM Liquidfingers said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 1:14PM Liquidfingers said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 1:30PM Andrew12h said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 2:28PM Liquidfingers said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 3:10PM Soothsayer said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 3:41PM rowd149 said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 4:59PM lolkeits said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 5:02PM Liquidfingers said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 5:06PM Jenks said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 5:27PM Vampettrelli said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 5:45PM Liquidfingers said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 5:47PM Esposch said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 7:08PM rowd149 said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 7:17PM Vcize said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 7:38PM Dance Mofo said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 7:39PM Arcaria said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 8:25PM HighFiveJesus said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:03PM Ellimem said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:04PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:07PM Andrew12h said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:07PM wunwunx said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:08PM Coldbrand said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:10PM SisypheanLife said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:11PM evilkoala said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:11PM Omega2822 said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 2:58PM Omega2822 said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 3:43PM rowd149 said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:11PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:11PM dustandechoes91 said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:12PM Ferrous said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:18PM Scuffles said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:25PM Scuffles said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:25PM SisypheanLife said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 1:04PM Copybass Ah jeez zombies said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 2:41PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 3:34PM KuztomX said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 10:06PM KillaPat said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:14PM Resident Evil 6 Puppie Madness said

Posted: Jan 29th 2012 1:42AM lolkeits said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:31PM Rickers said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 5:15PM Special Agent Steve said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:32PM Rickers said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:32PM Faris Hilton said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:36PM ouenwoof said

Posted: Jan 28th 2012 12:50PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

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Posted: Jan 28th 2012 3:28PM KuztomX said

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