For those who don’t know, France has various governmental departments dedicated to the ‘purity’ of the French language – ensuring that not too many English (or other, but vastly primarily English) terms enter common usage in French. Their argument is that it makes it harder for people to communicate if the language is diluted with words from another. This week they’ve targeted various gamer words to switch to French versions.
Included in the ban is ‘esports’, ‘pro-gamer’, ‘streamer’, and ‘cloud gaming’. In order those are now ‘jeu video de competition’, ‘joueur professionnel’, ‘joueur-animateur en direct’ and ‘jeu video en nuage’. Of course, the French government isn’t going to be knocking down doors to check people’s homes, but this does make it the law to use those terms as a government official in various contexts – teaching, for example, or documentation/policy.
As explained by The Guardian, the departments in charge of this have been at it for over 100 years at this point. It’s certainly an old-fashioned and short-term view of the world, given the inevitability of the evolution of language and the homogenization of, well, everything, with enough time. That said, breaking down the “barrier of understanding for non-gamers” is a good goal and helps to destigmatize the industry. Especially important in boardrooms and super-senior environments where clarity is required and many norms of gaming may not be accepted or familiar.
Written by Ben Barrett on behalf of GLHF.
