Quarrel XBLA exposes baffling Microsoft word filter

By Fred Dutton Published 27 January, 2012

"Balls", "shaft", "train", "god" deemed unacceptable.

Well-received strategic wordplay game Quarrel has exposed a curious mandatory word filter imposed on developers by Microsoft.

As detailed by Edge, players have taken to the game's forums following its Xbox Live Arcade release earlier this week to complain of having seemingly innocuous words turned down.

Though ridiculously conservative, one can hazard a guess why Microsoft might not want the likes of "balls" and "shaft" being thrown around Xbox Live. However, the game is also refusing "help", "train", "start", "dice", "god" and various others seemingly innocent examples.

Gary Penn from developer Denki explained that it's out of his control.

"Quarrel uses the Collins official Scrabble dictionary comprising over 110,000 words up to eight letters in length, including a huge collection of words deemed 'offensive' by Collins, such as 'arse', 's***', 'w***' and 'f***'," he said.

"You can make any offensive word you can find in single player mode - unless you have the Xbox 'Family Setting' turned on.

"Microsoft has an additional filter in place for all Xbox Live games, which we have to support," he added.

"But while we have to use that filter, we don't know which words are permitted. From playing, we do know that it includes such oddities as 'help', 'start', 'skid', 'poop', 'bung', 'hung', 'dice' and 'god'. Microsoft clearly has its reasons for censoring such words within Live games."

We've asked Microsoft to explain exactly what's happening here and will update if we hear back.

The original iOS version of Denki's game was among Eurogamer's picks of 2011, while the XBLA version picked up a hearty 9/10 earlier this week.

"Quarrel is still the horribly compelling single-player game it's always been on mobiles, with an extra dollop of polish and a few new tantalising game modes for the console release - and all for the laughable sum of 400 Microsoft Points," read John Bedford's Quarrel review.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (64) Latest comment 5 days ago

  • otto #1 4 weeks ago

    I think I speak for us all when I say "FFS"

  • rotmm #2 4 weeks ago

    "...deemed 'offensive' by Collins, such as 'arse', 's***', 'w***' and 'f***'," he said..."

    Roofle :D

  • Restart #3 4 weeks ago

    I played a few games yesterday where it accepted "cunt", yet then refused to accept "zen". Strange game!

  • FatalHybrid #4 4 weeks ago

    It's mad that you can say 'cunt' and yet using 'train' is unacceptable.. No wonder an old lady was staring at me disapprovingly the other day when I kept mentioning "I was on the train".. Little did I know I was uttering a term worse than 'cunt'.

  • toythatkills #5 4 weeks ago

    @Restart Zen is a proper noun, it's not valid in Scrabble either.

  • toythatkills #6 4 weeks ago

    @FatalHybrid You can use train offline, you're just not allowed to submit it over Xbox LIVE. Cunt will be censored online too, but fine offline.

  • grover #7 4 weeks ago

    i used sperm last night but some douche beat me with PLUMS

    funniest game ever, going to have to try out douche now

  • threemoh #8 4 weeks ago

    >Though ridiculously conservative, one can hazard a guess why Microsoft might not want the likes of "balls" and "shaft"

    Clearly, if you're just talking about Shaft, Microsoft can't dig it.

  • Deckard1 #9 4 weeks ago

    Its ridiculous, I tried to put in "MINGE-BELCH" the other day only to find it was turned down. Its fucking PC gone mad.
    Edited by 1 at 28/01/12 @ 09:16

  • GaryHoward #10 4 weeks ago

    And 'c**t', that's also in there. It's a slang term for the female genitalia, so that's ok...

  • Po1ymorph #11 4 weeks ago

    Amazing. I hope Microsoft reply to Eurogamer about this. I would love to hear what load of old bullshit they come up with to justify censoring words like 'help', 'start', 'skid', 'poop', 'bung', 'hung', 'dice' and 'god'.
    Edited by 1 at 27/01/12 @ 21:19

  • Squidgywidgywoo #12 4 weeks ago

    Wouldn't let me have MINGE the other day. Sadface.

  • el_pollo_diablo #13 4 weeks ago

    Bizarrely, "SHITPIPE WOLF DISCO" awards the player 800,000 xbox achievement points.

  • FatalHybrid #14 4 weeks ago

    @el_pollo_diablo I really shouldn't have laughed as hard at that as I did.. Well played sir.

  • MysteryLamb #15 4 weeks ago

    'GIMP' is allowed

  • FluffyTucker #16 4 weeks ago

    This is why I play PC games online, you're not forced to play in a padded kiddy playground

  • uiruki #17 4 weeks ago

    The irony, of course, is that the cheat to massively increase the amount of swearing in the original PC version of GTA1 is "iamgarypenn".

  • KanePaws #18 4 weeks ago

    Alright, well, I'm really sorry if this offends anyone, but:

    god dang these Microsoft poop trains, they need to get the balls rolling and start getting some help with their language settings.

    Again, I'm sorry if I offended anyone with my abrasive language.

  • toythatkills #19 4 weeks ago

    @MysteryLamb Yeah, I beat some guys NIPS with my GIMP earlier on today.

  • adamholymoses #20 4 weeks ago

    I lost a round because 'spikes' didn't work, then 'spike' didn't, then I accidentally forfeit because I was pressing all the buttons on my joypad like an angry monkey.

    Still loving the game though

  • Mister-Wario #21 4 weeks ago

    Okay, "train"? Really? Why?

  • LukehMuse #22 4 weeks ago

    Clearly someone at Microsoft hates the band Train or never truly got over that haunted train episode of Thomas the Tank Engine.

    Then again, who has?

  • frostcircus #23 4 weeks ago

    the subheading of this article is my #1 sentence of 2012-thus-far

  • Ironic_War_Criminal #24 4 weeks ago

    It gave me (And the people I was playing with) Shat and Faggot, somehow on launch night. The filter acts weird. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.

    The game has far, far bigger problems though such as the anagram buzzer crash bug and the fact that people are already using anagram generators to cheat online in ranked games (Though IMO, the game gives you far, far too much time to make words) and pulling off obvious bullshit like hitting 9 anagrams in a row to stack up their backups.

    It's a wonderful game and it would be a shame to see it ruined by the usual XBL Tossers (I'd say thats 11 points there) but Denki really need to have a think about getting around these things in the inevitable title update.

    Edit: Actually thinking about it. Here's what I would do (To be constructive)

    - Remove Chatpad and keyboard support. There will be a lot of bellyaching about it, but it's too much of an advantage and basically destroys the game balance if someone is using a generator. The clunkiness of the pads would easily cut the time advantage of anyone trying to use a generator since they would have to type the letters with the pad.
    - Cut down the time for the two players battling maybe 5-10 seconds shorter or force a countdown of ten seconds for the other player when one player deploys a word. It gets really obvious when you punch in a 5 letter word and its getting near the end of a turn when someone is trying to grab an incrediword/anagram off their computer/phone. Putting a countdown in will force their hand and put more pressure on people to think quicker instead of wasting time using a computer or phone
    - Stop backups at three soldiers and only allow one deployed per turn. Most of the people ruining it are doing it by stacking their backups with bonus round anagrams taken from generators and then hammering the back up button when its their turn to gain an unfair advantage.
    - Autokick someone if they get a certain amount of anagrams/incrediwords in a row. Something that would be impossible for people to get normally like ten in a row. Not even Oxford professors or Carol Vorderman would be that godlike so when it's an obvious cheater. Get rid of them.

    Please do something Denki before it becomes yet another XBLA wasteland.

    And also do it before the Steam version because if XBLA is this bad already, it will be nigh unplayable on PC considering what they can get up to even without hacks.
    Edited by 2 at 28/01/12 @ 00:26

  • duckmouth #25 4 weeks ago

    I used 'shaft' earlier without any problem.

  • FuzzyDuck #26 4 weeks ago

    No swearing allowed here kiddies, now back to CoD where shooting people in the head rewards bonus points.

  • Okamiwolf #27 4 weeks ago

    Anyone who has ever used the PSN/PS3 chat knows it's equally bizarre how many innocent words it censors.

  • lucky_jim #28 4 weeks ago

    Any word game which doesn't allow "thundercunt" isn't one I want any part of.

  • Futaba #29 4 weeks ago

    Does it accept 'kwyjibo'?

  • grover #30 4 weeks ago

    Microsoft don't have a problem with all the racist/sexist/homophobic foulness you get on Call of Duty so it's funny that they're so squeamish about a few words for your nob. I think it's a symptom of a sort of colonial psychosis - I'm really into bombing the shit out of poor countries but I have a seizure when I see Janet Jackson's nipple!

  • MarketZero #31 4 weeks ago

    Fred, are we talking about THE Gary Penn here? The legend from Zzap?

    EDIT: I've just checked. It is him. Cool.
    Edited by 1 at 28/01/12 @ 05:13

  • nasanu #32 4 weeks ago

    Guess he has never played GT5, the game with the word filter to filter all word filters. If you even mention the word 'engine' in this racing game your entire message gets censored.

  • Rack #33 4 weeks ago

    "Train"?! Wicked child! Trains are the work of Beelzebub! At Microsoft we travel dragged behind a wild bull!

  • Slim #34 4 weeks ago

    Wouldn't let me play 'bong' last night!

    Cheaters: won't they simply rank up out of your range with the worldiq?

  • TooOldToGame #35 4 weeks ago

    Post deleted at 10:45:50 22-02-2012

  • TooOldToGame #36 4 weeks ago

    Post deleted at 10:45:50 22-02-2012

  • ShiroBen #37 4 weeks ago

    Wait, this is out? And it's only 400 points? Fantastic!

  • governmentyard #38 4 weeks ago

    @Ironic_War_Criminal why not remove wheel support from Forza while they are at it?

  • TheJuriel #39 4 weeks ago

    Yeah, I knew something like this would crop up.

    Because you can be called an assfaggot with a headset, but heavens if you type in 'balls'.

  • inutaihanyou #40 4 weeks ago

    Well there's no real way to censor what people say over a microphone is there? so i can kind of see their logic.

  • riz23 #41 4 weeks ago

    @duckmouth We don't want to know what you get up to when home alone mate.

  • DrMGinius #42 4 weeks ago

    "Poseidon is a greek g*d"
    Edited by 1 at 28/01/12 @ 12:12

  • UkHardcore23 #43 4 weeks ago

    Jesus fuckin Christ!!!!! "God" Really???????

  • Collymilad #44 4 weeks ago

    @FluffyTucker I bet you just love getting the opportunity to spout forth with shite like that. Hope you enjoyed it.

    As for the story is fucking ridiculous and I hope that other words for "god" are censored as well. Probably not though eh.

  • kangarootoo #45 4 weeks ago

    @FluffyTucker

    "kiddy playground"

    Your post is ironic, and funny.

  • DrStrangelove #46 4 weeks ago

    MIcrosoft bans God? I'm starting to like them.

  • agparrot #47 4 weeks ago

    I tweeted Xbox support about this (I also used the word innocuous, strangely enough), and they sort of denied all knowledge of it. Initially they referred me to the developer, who clearly are at the whim of 'the list' imposed by Microsoft, but as I pressed them further on it, they said I should also ask the publisher.

    I have asked the publisher, but they haven't replied yet.

    Id say that it's fairly clear that the disallowed words list is the same one that you can't use when creating LIVE Gamertags. For understandable reasons, some of the words you wouldn't want people using, in case they were trying to pretend to be support or HELP personnel, or in case they were spamming messages about game TRAINers or whatever. You could even see why they might not want people to pretend to be DICE employees.

    So perhaps the question ought to be why aren't there two disallowed word lists? One for gamertags and perhaps LIVE comms, and one for the words that word games do or don't allow you to use, because the context of trying to create accounts with innocuous words might not be quite as innocent as trying to use them in a game of Quarrel.

    I've been unable to ask MS about it again, anyway, as they won't answer me until I've had the publishers view on it. Perhaps you could start there, Fred?
    Edited by 1 at 28/01/12 @ 18:39

  • Mayhem64 #48 4 weeks ago

    It did allow me to use "god" last night online (those times when you're playing in the dregs of how many troops you have on a square). Conversely it did also allow me to use "yid". Sketchy filters are sketchy...

    I agree about the online anagram finders mind you, but not suffered them much so far.

  • Ironic_War_Criminal #49 4 weeks ago

    @governmentyard

    As a very heavy Forza player I can tell you Forza hasn't got a problem because it's balanced so pad players and Wheel players can play together and have no problems. I've beaten people with Fanatecs

    The chatpad is a problem because it's giving a huge speed advantage to people as regards getting anagrams and incrediwords from a generator online or on an iPhone/Droid and it's destroying the game. Especially in 3/4 player mode where you get a back up for each anagram you make in the bonus round. Cheaters are stacking backups and then hammering the back up button to get the full 8 troops and then set up for the Anagram. It's unfortunately annoying as all hell and putting people off the game.

  • SG #50 4 weeks ago

    For some reason, this reminded me of when you put in rude (and I do mean RUDE) words into the cheat selection screen on Conker's Bad Fur and the devil character would make a funny comment at it.

  • cardboardMonster #51 4 weeks ago

    What a start train disgrace.

  • the-stax #52 4 weeks ago

    So can I change my xbox gamertag to 'Ballshaft TrainGod' or what?

  • duckmouth #53 4 weeks ago

    Rumours that 'B. Odie' is on the list have yet to be substantiated.

  • dllord #54 4 weeks ago

    Kiss my train MS!

  • hulahoops #55 4 weeks ago

    motherfuckingkiwibastard

  • CaptainKid #56 3 weeks ago

    And this is why I'm against consoles and their closed systems.

  • Bullet_Tunnel #57 3 weeks ago

    i can use all of these words in all but one order in the location box on my profile.. black's, back, pack, cilla. i cannot use the sentence- cilla black's backpack, i tried every combo, with and without punctuation. i cannot think of any reason other than backpack.. ( ooooh scary terrorist, coming to take away our precious hedonism and avarice ), but it let me put in flaming backpack boom. i guess its taboo to live in an aging scouse cabaret singers hiking gear, no wonder im shunned by humans and animals alike.

  • Djimm #58 3 weeks ago

    Something very weird is going on with Xbox word filtering, especially when you throw differing developer solutions into the mix. For example, in CoD Black Ops you cannot have an custom class called "Assault" (presumably because of the ASS) - even though the game features the word on virtually every screen. Conversely, MW2 and MW3 will let you use it.

    If you want a laugh, try using words like "Shitake" or "Scunthorpe"...

    I think some developers and M$ need to go on a RegExp refresher course.
    Edited by 2 at 30/01/12 @ 09:35

  • Porcupine_I #59 3 weeks ago

    "press the S***** Button to S***** the game now"

  • RexRunti #60 3 weeks ago

    I'm guessing they're using the filter from gamertags. You don't want someone using words like "help" or "train" in that.

    /wishes he had the gamertag "God"

  • Colin8703 #61 3 weeks ago

    Press S***t button to begin.

  • Colin8703 #62 3 weeks ago

    @Porcupine_I Gosh darn you beat me to it.

  • MrZoolook #63 5 days ago

    @Ironic_War_Criminal "Autokick someone if they get a certain amount of anagrams/incrediwords in a row. Something that would be impossible for people to get normally like ten in a row. Not even Oxford professors or Carol Vorderman would be that godlike so when it's an obvious cheater. Get rid of them."

    Just because YOU cant string multiple incrediwords, you think others can't. Some of us actually have a good enough knowledge of the language to see 8 letter words when in this game. Your reasoning that no-one can get them with ease so they must be cheating is absurd.

  • MrZoolook #64 5 days ago

    @Ironic_War_Criminal "And also do it before the Steam version because if XBLA is this bad already, it will be nigh unplayable on PC considering what they can get up to even without hacks."

    If this gets onto STEAM, they could probably put in some kind of detection to determine if the game window lost focus or the in-game browser was called up, and if done during a quarrel, you can reasonably safely assume that they were trying to cheat. Anything that needed to defocus the game could reasonably be expected to wait for the players turn before making a move to initiate a quarrel. All in all, there is actually more potential for eliminating cheating over STEAM then there is over XBL.

    Add in the lack of (or even just an optional) word filter, or a game finder that matches filtered and non-filtered players. Pluss a possibility to use regional settings to match languages (and lets face it, the US dictionary is limiting even for British players) could mean a far better experience over STEAM by far!