Fifa 21 removes celebrations to combat racist and ‘toxic’ behaviour

One of the features being removed is the “A-OK” celebration, which can be used to communicate white supremacist sentiments

Electronic Arts will remove two goal celebrations for the upcoming Fifa 21 football simulation game in an effort to reduce toxicity among players.

The “shushing” celebration is being taken out amid concerns that players use it to gloat and stall kick-offs after scoring.

Also being removed, according to Eurogamer, is the “A-OK” celebration, which features a gesture which has ties to the white supremacist movement.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare also recently removed the “OK” gesture from its list of emotes, amid fears that the signal could be used to communicate racist sentiments.

In a media call, Fifa 21‘s lead gameplay producer Sam Rivera said: “We were told by the community that there’s toxic behaviours in the game and we wanted to make sure we removed them.

“So we removed some of the celebrations that people thought were not the best idea to have in the game.”

While the changes were made to curb offensive behaviour, there were also practical reasons behind the changes.

Said Rivera: ”The flow is shorter, which is to try to keep you playing most of the time instead of just waiting. All together the intention there is just to keep you playing instead of doing other things that may not be necessary in the game.”

Fifa 21 is going to other lengths to reduce wasted time while playing multiplayer games, including the removed of the “walk back” animation that sees players return to the centre circle, and the time given to take set pieces has been scaled back from 30 seconds to 10, 12, 15 and 20, for kick-offs, throw-ins, goal kicks and free kicks, respectively.