A non-player character in Sega MMO Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis underwent a name change with this week’s scheduled maintenance. The black and brown member of the robotic CAST race formerly known as “Diggah” shall henceforth be known as “Excator.”
Brought to our attention initially by Joe “Kongablooey” Negron on Twitter, Diggah was originally the name of a non-player character in the recently released Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis responsible for handing out mining missions to players. He introduces players to Dualomite, a rare purple mineral used to upgrade equipment in the massively multiplayer online game.
The name Diggah isn’t inherently offensive, but it is a single letter away from a very bad word indeed. It’s doubtful the name was intended to be offensive, as it’s basically the English version of the character’s original Japanese name, Dighoru (basically Digger). However, combined with the CAST’s relatively unique coloration and the fact that he asks players to find Dualomite, which sounds very similar to ‘70s blaxploitation comedy film Dolemite, it’s easy to see how the name could be considered pretty damn offensive.
In a post about the name change on the Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis Reddit group, some players lament the renaming, while others wonder why it was necessary in the first place.
The name change occurred quietly with this week’s patch, listed in the update notes as “Corrected NPC names that were determined to be inappropriate as character names.” So far it seems like Diggah is the only name that was changed. We’ve reached out to Sega for comment on the name swap, but have yet to hear back.
Thanks again to Kongablooey on Twitter for bringing this story to our attention. It took us a while, but we got around to it.