The ban on gamer terms is part of the French government’s effort to “remove barriers to understanding” for French citizens who are unfamiliar with games.

French officials have been banned by their government from using various English-language video game-related “gamer” terms, including words such as streamer, pro-gamer and eSports.

The ban on the words comes from the French Ministry of Culture. As for the reason? Because the games industry is full of “Anglicisms” that can act as “barriers to understanding” for people who don’t know games. French culture ministry officials say the change aims to make it easier for French-speaking people to communicate and that they have scoured French video game websites and magazines for alternative French terms.

This is not the first time French officials have warned that English gaming terms are a problem.

According to the Guardian, “France regularly issues dire warnings about the degradation of its language from across the Channel or, more recently, the Atlantic”. The Académie Française, France’s language watchdog, recently expressed concern about English play on words and published a list of alternative French expressions in 2017. In February, the Académie Française warned that the “degradation” of the French language “should not be considered inevitable”.

The decree is legally binding on French government employees but does not restrict the use of English terms by ordinary French citizens or publications.

This means that the terms will probably continue to exist in some form. While English phrases such as streamer, pro-gamer, eSports and cloud gaming can no longer be used, French officials have come up with approved alternatives such as “jeu video en nuage” for cloud gaming and “jeu video de competition” for eSports.

France is home to many game development studios and companies, most notably Ubisoft, based in Montreuil, France.

Source: The Guardian