Pokemon Go players left baffled by bizarre naming restriction
The Pokemon CompanyThe Pokemon Go community was left baffled after one player showed off an odd naming restriction surrounding their Ultra Beast, Kartana.
Just like in the mainline series of games, trainers who play Pokemon Go can give their caught Pokemon nicknames to differentiate them and give them personality.
Similarly to the more modern titles in the series, there are restrictions placed on what is allowed in a nickname. Naturally, Niantic and Game Freak don’t want players tying offensive language to Pokemon that could be traded to young or impressionable players.
However, Pokemon Go fans were left confused after one trainer pointed out an odd restriction placed on the nickname they wanted to give their Kartana — and players still don’t know why.
Pokemon Go fans left baffled by nickname restriction
A post on the Pokemon Go subreddit gained traction after one fan made a thread titled, “Anybody know why ‘Kartana 7’ is considered inappropriate but ‘Kartana7’ is fine??”
The OP included screenshots that showed their chosen nickname: Karatana7. However, when trying to add an additional space before the number seven, the app told them that “this name contains inappropriate text.”
Naturally, the trainer was confused as to why simply adding a space would be “inappropriate” and asked the community for input.
While most trainers made jokes like one trainer who simply wrote “Spaces offend me,” others concluded that the profanity filter has strange gaps in its logic.
“I have a practice of putting an exclamation point at the end of the name of the 3 star mons I want to keep. So a good Kartana becomes Kartana!, which is also rejected as inappropriate,” one fan guessed.
Others wondered if the very end of the nickname, ‘ana7,’ was the offending instance as it could possibly be construed as having a resemblance to a sexual act when using ‘leetspeak.’ Still, it was the nickname with the space that was rejected — not the one without.
Others found the restriction odd given that they claimed to have gotten away with far worse through Pokemon Go’s nicknaming mechanic. “And here I was able to call my shiny Hitmontop ‘Sh*tmontop’ with no problems.”
While trainers may have gotten close with their leetspeak conclusion, the real reason the nickname ‘Kartana 7’ was banned remains a mystery.