'Long overdue': Players quit over controversial 400-word Scrabble change

More than 400 terms including racial slurs, sexuality and gender insults were taken off Scrabble's official online words list. Photo / Getty Images

Scores of scrabble players are quitting the competitive game after hundreds of "offensive" words were banned.

More than 400 terms including racial slurs, sexuality and gender insults were taken off the game's official online words list, GB News reports.

According to Spectator columnist and player Jonathan Maitland, many people are quitting the board game because of the changes.

"It's hard to find anyone in the Scrabble community in favour of the ban," he said.

"That doesn't mean that we approve of any of the banned words, mind you. Among them are some vile racial slurs.

"But the words can't be uninvented: they are part of our sometimes shameful history.

"And playing them in a private word game is very different from using them in any other context."

Author Darryl Francis, who was one of the co-compilers of Official Scrabble Words, quit the game in protest.

"Words in dictionaries and Scrabble lists are not slurs," he said.

"They only become slurs if used with a derogatory purpose or intent or used with a particular tone and context.

"Words in our Scrabble lists should not be removed for PR purposes disguised as promoting some kind of social betterment."

Scrabble's owner Mattel has not released an official list of words banned, but the company's global head of games, Ray Adler, said they look at "opportunities to be more culturally relevant".

"I've heard the argument that these are just words, but we believe they have meaning," Adler said.

"We need to modernise it.

"Can you imagine any other game where you can score points and win by using a racial epithet?

"It's long overdue."