Streaming giant Twitch has removed the "blind playthrough" tag following community feedback.
As revealed by Twitch community and creator marketing director Erin 'Aureylian' Wayne, via Twitter (below), the tag has been removed to encourage inclusivity within the community.
However, as explained by Wayne "You can still use 'First Playthrough' or opt to use it in combination with 'No Spoilers' for the same sentiment."
Previously, streamers would use the "blind playthrough" tag to indicate that they have not played the game before, and thus do not know the story, gameplay or controls.
Happy to see Twitch has listened to everyone who shared feedback and removed the “Blind Playthrough” tag to encourage more inclusive language for our community.
— Aureylian △⃒⃘ (@aureylian) December 4, 2020
You can still use “First Playthrough” or opt to use it in combination with "No Spoilers" for the same sentiment.
Inclusive language
To better explain what the issue with the "blind playthrough" tag is, Wayne pointed Twitter users in the direction of a thread by AbleGamers COO Steven Spohn.
"Just as we used to say 'gay' when something was bad, using disability terms as an alternate word for a negative situation or feeling is common in today's language," said Spohn.
"But just as we stopped saying gay to mean bad, we can stop saying these words too. Think about the words you choose."
He went on to explain that there are other terms that can replace "blind playthrough." Such as "no spoilers playthrough," "undiscovered" or "first" if it is a streamer's initial playthrough.
"A blind playthrough would be to turn your monitor off, and that's not what most mean," said Spohn.
Last month, Twitch issued an apology to streamers that use its platform, as it acknowledged that it hadn't dealt with copyright claims as well as it should have.
