Racial Term in DS' Scribblenauts?

[Krakn3Dfx]

Nintendo DS title Scribblenauts has players solve puzzles by writing words. The game has a database of tens of thousands of words ? writing words causes objects to appear on screen. So what happens when you write "sambo"?

You get a watermelon.

Story

 

[mugs]

Washington State-based developer 5th Cell said in the game the word sambo refers not to the racial term but to the Spanish term for a fig leaf gourd that resembles a watermelon.

http://wdm.cs.waikato.ac.nz:80...=Cucurbita%20ficifolia

In Spanish it is known as alcayota, cayote, cidra, chilacayote, chiverre, or sambo

Found by searching for "Cucurbita ficifolia":
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/ric...res/Smallermalabar.jpg

Sounds plausible. In addition, the article says other racist words don't appear in the game, so I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.


Edit: Before someone points out that the picture in the game has lines and the "sambo" picture does not - this is how the conversation between the word guy and the artist probably went:
Artist: What does a sambo look like?
Word guy: A watermelon
<Artist draws watermelon>

 

[gorcorps]

Never even heard of that term, so I'll side with the devs on this one.

 

[Kromis]

Samba de Amigo

 

[BD2003]

I've never heard anyone call someone a "sambo" on xbox live, where racism is still alive and breathing. This is a bum rap, and everyone knows it, but it makes a good story.

 

[Spoooon]

It's plausible (more like probable given that any number of those employees could be of foreign birth), but seriously, you would think someone there would have said something like "hey, doesn't sambo sometimes refer to..."

edit: For the record, I knew prior to this making the "news" how sambo had been used in the past.

 

[Pheran]

Originally posted by: gorcorps
Never even heard of that term, so I'll side with the devs on this one.

Exactly, this is completely idiotic. I have never even heard of this (apparently archaic) racial slur before.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

look at a picture of a Sambo, it is a gourd that looks exactly like a watermelon.

Kotaku wanted clicks.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

Originally posted by: Pheran

Originally posted by: gorcorps
Never even heard of that term, so I'll side with the devs on this one.

Exactly, this is completely idiotic. I have never even heard of this (apparently archaic) racial slur before.

I've got to say, while I think it's quick to refer to it as a racial slur in terms of the game, it's a term I did hear living in southern Georgia when I was a kid.

I also got one of those record/book combo things from Hardee's once when I was 8 or 9 called "Little Black Sambo". If you google it, you can find the background on it.

Again, I'm not saying anything malicious is going on in this situation, and I'm pretty much inclined to believe it's nothing more than an oversight. I just thought it was interesting.

 

[purbeast0]

OMG MONKEYS ARE IN SCRIBBLENAUTS!

OMG CRACKERS ARE IN SCRIBBLENAUTS!

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

Originally posted by: Krakn3Dfx

Originally posted by: Pheran

Originally posted by: gorcorps
Never even heard of that term, so I'll side with the devs on this one.

Exactly, this is completely idiotic. I have never even heard of this (apparently archaic) racial slur before.

I've got to say, while I think it's quick to refer to it as a racial slur in terms of the game, it's a term I did hear living in southern Georgia when I was a kid.

I also got one of those record/book combo things from Hardee's once when I was 8 or 9 called "Little Black Sambo". If you google it, you can find the background on it.

Again, I'm not saying anything malicious is going on in this situation, and I'm pretty much inclined to believe it's nothing more than an oversight. I just thought it was interesting.

How is it even an oversight? There is an item called a sambo....it is a real thing that actually looks like a watermelon. How is including that along with the 22,000 other items in the game an oversight?

 

[Dorkenstein]

People are so quick now to accuse someone else of wrong motives. Ridiculous.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

Originally posted by: bl4ckfl4g

Originally posted by: Krakn3Dfx

Originally posted by: Pheran

Originally posted by: gorcorps
Never even heard of that term, so I'll side with the devs on this one.

Exactly, this is completely idiotic. I have never even heard of this (apparently archaic) racial slur before.

I've got to say, while I think it's quick to refer to it as a racial slur in terms of the game, it's a term I did hear living in southern Georgia when I was a kid.

I also got one of those record/book combo things from Hardee's once when I was 8 or 9 called "Little Black Sambo". If you google it, you can find the background on it.

Again, I'm not saying anything malicious is going on in this situation, and I'm pretty much inclined to believe it's nothing more than an oversight. I just thought it was interesting.

How is it even an oversight? There is an item called a sambo....it is a real thing that actually looks like a watermelon. How is including that along with the 22,000 other items in the game an oversight?

Oversight is probably the wrong word.

Funny tho, if you typed in cracker, and it gave you the option to create a white dude, as one of the whitest people I know, I would laugh my ass off.