It appears that Apex Legends is still banning players for using the word “nigero,” which is the Japanese word for “run.”
Back in March, it was reported that Electronic Arts banned at least two users for using the word. Reddit user 1zana shared a screenshot of an email from Electronic Arts revealing a player had been banned for “Inappropriate Reference – Hate Speech (Directed) for using the word “nigero.”
The player had their account banned for 168 hours or an entire week.
In response to this post, one user also appeared to claim they were banned for using the word “negro,” which is Spanish for “black.”
ApexToast wrote, “Relatable. Spanish: ‘Esta genial el skin negro del bloodhound.’ Translation: ‘Bloodhound’s black skin is so cool.’ EA: Banned for sayin the N word.”
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A few days later at the beginning of April, Reddit user Tesg9029 uploaded an alleged email received from Electronic Arts in Japanese claiming, “Another Japanese player banned from APEX Legends for saying ‘nigero’ (‘run away’ in Japanese).
In June, Twitter user Mokomoko0157 also revealed they were banned from Apex Legends for using the word.
Using Google’s machine translation, the user wrote, “After chatting with nigero, I can no longer play apex. Thank you very much. Well, I forgot about this.”
Interestingly, Apex Legends’ Game Director at Respawn Entertainment Chad Grenier expressed his desire for the game to be widely adopted in Japan following its release to the Nintendo Switch in March.
Speaking with Japanese outlet Famitsu and using Google’s machine translation, Grenier said, “We are excited to bring Apex to all Switch players in Japan.”
“I like Japan and it’s a country where Apex is played a lot. I hope we can deliver unique content to Japan,” he added. “I mentioned a little about Season 9, but there are legends in Season 9 that I hope you like in Japan. Thank you for your support. You can finally play on Switch.”
The Japanese word “nigero” isn’t the only word that has seen players get banned over. It had also been reported in July that an Indonesian player was banned for using the terms “ngga” and “nggak.” Both variants translate to “no” in English.
Reddit user skylvan shared a screenshot of the alleged violation to the Apex Legends subreddit titling his post, “An Indonesian player got temporarily restricted for saying “nggak” which means “no” in Indonesian.”
Now, a new allegation comes via gaming journalism and industry watchdog sub Reddit KotakuInAction, sharing a screenshot of a user allegedly violating EA’s Hateful Conduct policy. EA
informed the user that the violation was for using the term “nigero” in the text chat on October 21st. In Japanese this is “run” (or “run away,” “get out of here,” etc.)
The length of this alleged ban was not disclosed in the screenshot of the email.
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Under EA’s Rules of Conduct, it’s not hard to imagine why “nigero” would be banned; mistaken as an alternative of the n-word to avoid being detected by bots.
Some games even ban or censor input of the word “knight,” in case players attempt to hide the slur among other letters; as seen in Psychonauts 2 and Dark Souls III; despite the latter featuring knights in a dark high fantasy setting.
However, Apex Legend’s own character, Octane, uses the word when throwing grenades as Reclaim The Net reports.
What do you make of EA and Respawn Entertainment banning the use of the Japanese word “nigero” despite their own character using it in game?
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