why not use the word hyper. wouldnt it have solved alot of problems?

Rich, West Midlands, England

Wow!!! You gotta be kidding me?? Spastic is offensive? Cry me a river. Just get over it and play the game and enjoy it.

Neal, Beaufort, SC, USA

In the US "spastic" is used for anything/one highly excitable. For the few who include it in everyday vocabulary at least. I never would of thought of it as offensive to anyone. Same language different culture.

Joe D, Cranston, Rhode Island

I in US am pretty surprised by this. This against the freedom of speech. I think Nintento pulled back just so as to get some good publicity on its part. It may be offensive to people, but it does not make it wrong - that is my understanding of the freedom of speech. Are there different levels of offensiveness ?
Muslims can be offended, but spastics can not be ?

jerry, chicago, usa

Hahaha - Mohammed, London, UK! That's quite funny... you are joking, aren't you?

If you're not, please do get a grip of reality! Your post's completely irrelevant to the matter in discussion. If you don't like "Satanic Verses" then don't read it. Simple really.

Pete, London, UK

absolute nonsense
my son, thanks to the worst efforts of the local health authority, has cp, not a little bit but horrendously, every day for him must be a nightmare

people understand the word spastic, it says what it is - as in spastic quadraplegic

if it quacks like a duck ................

just because you dont like the word, doesn't mean you shouldn't use it

( if anyone disagrees, come and look after him, learn what a spastic is at the worst of the extremes)

john saunders, preston, lancashire

As an American, I was really surprised to come across this article. "Spastic" is never used to describe a person here in the U.S. We might say that a particular movement is "spastic" but never that a person is a "spastic." And I've never, ever heard it used in relation to a person suffering from cerebral palsy, unless a kid is describing someone they saw suffering from it and says that the person had "spastic" movements. But it's never meant in a derogatory way.

Us Americans do, however, have the phrase "spaz"...like, "Don't be a spaz." Which doesn't refer to people with cerebral palsy. "Spaz" means more like, don't be a party-pooper, or don't be a downer, but the p.c. police haven't clamped down on it as of yet. I don't know if those phrases translate, but it's just really interesting to see that Brits take such an offense to "spastic."

Ah well...two countries separated by a common language.

James, East Brunswick, NJ

Ironic, because customer service and administration in London is so universally incompetent in all sectors, you'd swear "spastic" was some kind of UK national self-referent

Jay Huwieler, London,

"computer game translation – like film dubbing – was prone to errors because translation services often did not take account of the meaning of words in particular cultures."

Then they should choose better translation services. A good translator does more than just translate a text word for word - a translator should think of word order, rhetoric, and the associations that words have.

Tina, Düsseldorf, Germany

It's an obvious accidental error, nothing more. Nintendo did the right thing by re-calling the small numbers that slipped the net. There was no insult intended to anyone therefore no guilty party. It's a different interpretation in America. Time to get on with life.

Lee, Norwich, U.K.

"Nintendo has been forced to withdraw a computer game from sale in the UK because it contains the word 'spastic' in its script."

But we give knighthoods to writers who 'taunt' 1.5 Billion Muslims world wide? Amazing!

"Spastic' is an extremely offensive word."

So is 'Satanic Verses'

Mohammed, London, UK

Im not P.C. it is a genuine translation mistake and i enjoy the phrase in the "Mario Party 8" game I own. Thats so Tough, it makes this game with the spastic phrase in it worth more than its weight in gold, just like a printing error on a stamp.

Imelda Rodriguez, Mexico City, Mexico

I am glad that this game has been withdrawn as people need to realise that "spastic" refers to cerebral palsy causing stiff muscles and is absolutely nothing to do with intelligence. I have a degree and MSc and have cerebral palsy.

Two wrongs don't make a right, but I often wonder why companies think using the word spastic as an insult is ok, but using paraplegic, amputee etc isn't acceptable. I can't stand East Enders who have been guilty of the same thing, as is the film Love Actually, so am always interested in how a type of cerebral palsy is used as an insult, but amputee, arthritic, etc aren't....

Any ideas anybody?

Sarah

Sarah Jayne Davies, Leamington Spa , England

This is obviously an error, however, it is not that long ago that there was a "Spastics" society in the UK which has obviously been renamed because the meaning of the word became somewhat derogatory, this was not always the case though, big thumbs up to nintendo for realising their error.

Frank Morecambe, Morecambe, England

"Nintendo has been forced to withdraw a computer game from sale in the UK because it contains the word 'spastic' in its script."

But we give knighthoods to writers who 'taunt' 1.5 Billion Muslims world wide? Amazing!

"Spastic' is an extremely offensive word."

So is 'Satanic Verses'
Mohammed, London, UK

Being PC is the cancer of our times. The West will not kneel down to Islamic sensitivities. If you want to live here better get used to freedom of expression, of speech and the freedom to "offend".

Western liberal democratic doctrines guarantee one's right to express themselves regardless of whether another party may take offence to what has been said.

Words do NOT offend however people are free to take offence.
Muslims need to modernise and get with th times.

Nick, london,

A few thoughts...

Firstly, the game doesn't taunt the user as being 'spastic', it uses the term's US connotation of meaning 'overly energetic' (in a somewhat embarrasing way). You've added a comma to your story where there is no comma in the game script, distorting the original meaning (that the train was to be 'turned spastic').

Also, in the subtitle of your story, you mention how Nintendo has taken a game off the shelves for the second time, when in fact they were uninvolved in the recall of Ubisoft's title, which fell foul of the same cultural sensitivity disparity.

Lastly, I'm not sure why this issue is related to the 'Resistance: Fall of Man' cathedral controversy, considering that the latter story had no relevance to localisation. I imagine you'd be unlikely to mention controversy surrounding a horror movie in an article about the latest animated Disney title.

Rhodri Broadbent, Kyoto, Japan

A few thoughts... Firstly, the game doesn't taunt the user as being 'spastic', it uses the term's US connotation of meaning 'overly energetic' (in a somewhat embarrassing way). You've added a comma to your story where there is no comma in the game script, distorting the original meaning (that the train was to be 'turned spastic'). Also, in the subtitle of your story, you mention how Nintendo has taken a game off the shelves for the second time, when in fact they were uninvolved in the recall of Ubisoft's title, which fell foul of the same cultural sensitivity disparity. Lastly, I'm not sure why this issue is related to the 'Resistance: Fall of Man' cathedral controversy, considering that the latter story had no relevance to localisation. I imagine you'd be unlikely to mention controversy surrounding a horror movie in an article about the latest animated Disney title.

Rhod, Kyoto,