Board game publisher renames Lovecraft deity over content filter concerns

Chaosium has changed the name of a deity in its upcoming board game Call of Cthulhu: Old Ones Origins. The creature Shub-Niggurath will now be called Shub-Gorath.

The company gave several reasons for the change. First, the original name can be blocked by automatic content filters on social media. This is a known problem where innocent words get flagged because they contain offensive-looking letter combinations. Chaosium also said some players feel uncomfortable saying the name out loud.

The company mentioned Lovecraft's well-documented prejudices as another reason. However, scholars who study Lovecraft's work say the original name has no racial origin and was not based on any slur.