When you head out into the real world to play Pokémon GO, catching new monsters who are happily chilling outside your local post office, you're given the option to choose a nickname for your new virtual pet - just like the main series games. As you'd expect, developer Niantic has some restrictions on what you can call your chosen 'mon, but some exclusions seem pretty silly.
Reddit user sliceanddic3 has spotted that Ho-Oh, the name of an actual, real Pokémon, contains "inappropriate text". Of course, it has that name when you first catch it, but if you edit that name and try to re-save it, the following message appears:
Interestingly, variations of the name like 'Hoe-Oh' are perfectly fine (should you be particularly fond of garden tools).
Further digging (thanks, VG247), reveals that other Pokémon names are similarly banned. Both Lickitung and Lickilicky are forbidden thanks to the word 'lick' not being allowed - despite the fact that there's an attack in the game called Lick - and Shroomish can't be used either, presumably preventing players from declaring their love of hallucinogenic fungi via virtual creature battles.
If you accidentally go to change the name of one of these Pokémon, you can restore its real name by deleting all text and clicking 'OK'. Still, surely the game should be able to recognise when you're using a name that was accepted by The Pokémon Company in the first place?
What did poor Ho-Oh ever do to deserve this?
[source vg247.com]
Comments 29
It's happened in the official games too.
When Black and White debuted on the Nintendo DS, you couldn't trade Cofagrigus online via the Global Trade Station.
Weedle has also triggered the offensive name filters in the past.
Reminds me of when my friend wasnt able to play x and y with his name. Its Humphrey
This is why you should never let Southern Baptists develop a game.
My standard screen name and any variation of that was off limits in Pokémon Go because crack is in it so I don’t find this too surprising.
I have a friend who couldn’t use the shortened version of his name in any game that restricted bad language, his name is Geoffrey Ukling
Meanwhile, I still make sure to name something in every game...
This isn't new, though.
Even some games that censored naughty words with equal lengths words have been a thing for a while.
I still remember Lost Saga and their Shadow Catcatin
Reminds me of the time Miiverse wouldn’t let me post about Moby Dick when I killed the white whale in AC4 Black Flag.
Pfft, ha ha ha! That’s crazy! What a mad world we live in!
Some times it's not censoring, it's due to copyright. I couldn't call my Inkling in Splatoon 2 'Squid' because it contained the letters 'id' which is a registered trademark for Bethesda.
Reminds me of the german names of Feebas and Basculin: "Barschwa" and "Barschuft" which both contain the word "arsch" which means ass (btw "Barsch" is german for perch) and therefore can't be traded since those names contain inappropriate language
Censorship is a load of love-making poo!
Yeesh, it's Gen 5 GTS all over again. I wonder if this also occurs with both Nosepass and Froslass?
I had an issue trying to nickname an Aggron "Arsenal" awhile back. Really? I finally settled on Panzer.
Do you find it... wisible... when I say the name... 'Biggus'...'Dickus'?
@sikthvash - Totes now understand why Hat Kid isn't in Smash.
Is there a Hugh Jass here? I'm looking for a Hugh Jass!
I remember in Gen 5 when you couldn't trade Cofagrigus.
Hoe-Oh ?! 🤨
My brother's name is MitcHELL... so i nickname him that, i'm the only one that sees this, so why does it need censoring? for me?!
Well I Know that “Spice” doesn’t work but “Apple Spice does”
Which I was going for a sugar/spice reference so I don’t think an actual human is looking at these.
“Ho” is a no but since “Hoe” is a garden tool etc
Once again this is what happens when machines are left up to it.
@mousieone
Be careful.
Hoe is also have another meaning.
Not just a garden tool.
Jiggly is also forbidden for a long time
I have a collection of 420cp Pokemon that I like to give stupid stoner nicknames, and not being able to name your evolved Bellsprout you caught in the wild "Weedpinbell" is a travesty.
Thank God I can still use Aipbong
Yup, recently noticed that I couldn't use 69% in any of my Pokémon names anymore (I name them with their stats).
I can name my Wailord 5318008 however. No one tell Niantic that you can turn a phone upside down!
In Pokemon Black and White you couldn't trade the Pokemon Cofagrius online without nicknaming because inside the name contains a 3 letter slur.
@sikthvash really that's abit silly given the circumstances here, oh well
and this is why censorship of words in any game needs to be scrapped. it never works and someone always by-passes the filter.
For the longest time, you can't ever name a pokémon "Mona" for some reason. I just wanted to name my Chikorita after the WarioWare character.
now, try to figure out why renaming a pokemon 11/14/10 is 'inappropriate'.....I cannot figure it out.......I started renaming the shadow pokemon so I know which ones are good and which ones I could throw out when there was those quests a while back where you had to purify like 10?
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