EA Is Fixing Its Nutty Battlefield V Profanity Filter That Censors Words Like ‘DLC’
One of the problems with multiplayer is that it only takes a small number of loud mouthed, racist jerks to ruin the experience for the community at large. In an effort to prevent this, Electronic Arts and DICE have implemented a profanity filter into Battlefield V, which is currently being tested in open beta ahead of the game's polished release. That's all fine and dandy, except that EA and DICE have chosen to censor some goofy words.
Like what, you ask? In its current state, players are prohibited from saying that nasty "D" word in the Battlefield V beta. You know, DLC, short for 'downloadable content'.
The overzealous and, let's face it, downright nutty word filter is causing consternation among Battlefield V players. An Electronic Arts community manager in North America acknowledged the complaints in a forum post, saying the filter is a "work in progress" and that the teams at EA and DICE would be taking the feedback into consideration.
"One of the new features we’re working on is a profanity filter in-game to reduce toxicity.
That being said, we have heard some complaints that the filter is blocking words that aren’t profanity or shouldn’t be blocked, like 'DLC', etc. and isn't blocking some words that should be (obviously, I will not be providing examples of these.)," the community manager said.
"Please note: This is a work-in-progress and we will be taking this feedback to tweak the sensitivity of the filter and improve its usage without censoring relevant conversation.
Healthy discussion is what drives improvement in our games, and we’d never want to impede that," he continued.
Somewhat ironically, comments to the post have been disabled, so the "healthy discussion" EA and DICE are interested in will have to take place elsewhere, such as Reddit and Twitter. There's already a fairly large discussion taking place at the former.
"Screaming out, "I'M F**KING BLEEDING OUT" is okay, but typing it in chat is a no-no," one user laments.
We certainly don't envy the task in front of EA and DICE when it comes to balancing gritty gameplay with trying to reduce toxicity. Criticism is inevitable, as there is no single solution that will be embraced by every single player. At the same time, common sense dictates that terms like "DLC" shouldn't be on the list.
Battlefield V releases to PC (via Origin), Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on November 20, 2018.
