Xbox Live says Halo motto is "inappropriate"
Intrepid Joystiq reader Xyl (if that is his real name) has noticed that Xbox Live has an interesting interpretation of what words are and are not "inappropriate." Apparently, entering the word "Halo" as a motto for your Xbox Live account returns the message that "your motto contains inappropriate language. Please try again."
In our tests, it didn't seem to matter if the word "Halo" was written alone or with other innocuous words -- the error message was ever-present. Variations like H4L0 and Ha|o also set off the profanity filter, but other variations like I-IALO and halo.sucks were OK, as were words like Mahalo. Interestingly, "Halo 2" and "Halo 3" set off the filter but "Halo2" and "Halo3" did not.
Other MS game names like Gears of War and Kameo did nothing to set off the filter, making it unlikely that Microsoft is simply trying to quash discussion of its products in user mottos. We suppose it's possible that the word Halo is profane in some other language, but it didn't turn up anything dirty in Google's translations. Anyone have an explanation for this odd artifact? Has anyone else stumbled across any other odd language filtering in the Xbox Live system?
[Picture: Potentially dirty Halo 3 vanity plates ordered by an Xbox.com forum-goer. Thanks subzero.]
