Amazingly over this past year several of my gamertags have been banned on Xbox Live for making it blatently obvious that I am gay.. I'm really not sure how that falls under the offensive catagory but I've counted 7 times now it's been forced to be changed.. although it just may have made other players upset when they see kill spam that reads <You were just killed by gaygunner> (thats just an example..not one of my real gamertags) I personally thought it was funny as hell. It has, however, become extremely irritating. I'm not going to change my naming methods to please them. It seems as though Microsoft has not learned from Blizzard's kick to the junk - http://www.wow.com/2006/02/09/blizzard-apologises-for-glbt-blunder/ Anyone else have opinions on this?
DAMMIT I was gonna change my gamertag later on to something like that when I come out to my friends but now I can't
I know the feeling, Connor. The sad part about all of this is that they allow gamertags that include profanity (or they never see the need to change them), body parts, slang, etc but dont allow people to proudly state who they are... The whole thing just gives me a headache.
We actually had a heated argument over this months ago. I think the thread was locked (and most likely alot of that had to do with me haha; I remember being pissed at the idea Microsoft could force people to closet themselves on xbox live) As i remember it, the argument was mostly "Microsoft can do what they like; Its their service." verses "Microsoft should not BE allowed to do what they like; Its basic rights." My point of view is that even if someone or a group of people (in this case Microsoft) owns something, like a company, they should not be allowed to do whatever they want within that company. I strongly believe this is a horrible case of censorship and injustice. Id like to see them ban someone for using the tag "straightgunner" But that wont happen, because "gaygunner" is somehow more sexual/offensive/ect.?
big companies are still stuck in the nineties when it comes to this stuff but people are getting angry now a days and there going to be forced to change or lose a large customer base
Honestly when it comes to this situation, I think the problem is more the gamers, and not the full company thats to blame. There's a good player feedback feature on Xbox Live, but it can be abused quite easily, especially the "offensive name" option, in which many cheapskates will get their friends and random people to "complain" about their name so that they're forced to change it, which is what they want to do, rather than pay extra money to change their gamertag. I'm sure that in a lot of cases, but not all, this is what is happening with many of the gamertags that have references to the fact they're gay and stuff. A SIGNIFICANT portion of Xbox Live is very young and homophobic. It's quite ridiculous to hear most of the time, and you can imagine I've had arguments before, and you can also imagine me bragging about how a guy who's in love with a dude just owned all them xD. SO, it IS possible that Microsoft is also trying to prevent this type of harassment on Xbox Live, knowing that the homophobes will constantly harass and use fake feedback on the "gay gamer" to get him fucked over, which would just cause more work for Microsoft. And then there's also other ways I've heard of this type of banning, such as a Lesbian had her sexuality in her "Bio" on her Gamertag Profile, and they banned her for that. This also happened to other people as well. And of course, it could still very well be the homophobic users complaining. It's all really complicated. It'll get resolved though, just like everything else. But really, you can't expect all these pubescent kids who don't have girlfriends and are pissed off because of this to all suddenly become LGBT friendly xD It's just not gonna happen that fast. Microsoft will figure out a way to fix this. And Microsoft isn't the only one with this problem. http://glaadblog.org/2009/02/26/xbox-live-homophobia-and-online-gaming-policy/ In this article, it mentions how Sony's PSN network would censor the word "Gay" in messages sent to and from users. That's a lot worse
Yeah..I wont do that..every time they make me change my gamertag I don't change it more than 1 or 2 letters..lol. And if I do wind up getting banned..ill just make a new account.. it's only another what..40 bucks for a year? They are good at hiding it..I think I've only run into maybe 2 or 3 openly homophobic people who refused to play alongside me in a game.. many others just make annoying comments as if to be joking..some will team kill..but most are rather supportive and open about it..ive made a good number of friends on there that are gaymers as well. Actually with Xbox Live..on the clan tag option on call of duty 4: modern warfare and modern warfare 2, the word gay is prevented from being used by itself..and it is also censored in their forums..so yeah its along the same lines
^ Oh trust me I know =P They also ban a lot of other words, but those are more rightfully banned for obvious reasons. I used to have GAYY in my clantag for some reason xD It worked too
Wow I can't believe this thread is out. I'm part of a clan on the PS3 and some members didn't like the using of the word f*g by other members and well now there's a division. So tonight we're having a meeting to discuss possible kicking people out in the future for using the term.
I'm kinda glad I don't have Xbox live now... I loved their earlier games like Age of Empires and other PC games...
I still think its a bit of an overreaction =/ There are other reasons to dislike microsoft, like how they rip you off xD
Well, its obviously very important to some people. And the little things make up the big things. If i have to draw a line for censorship of homosexuality, this is definitely across it, for me personally, so i wouldn't say its an overreaction. And i personally like Microsoft. They as a whole company are definitely not homophobic and my brother in law works for them in Seattle, so i kind of have to like them... I just wish my gamer tag could be super gay sounding!
Well we just finished the meeting and I looks like nobody is gonna get banned. I made the argument that we'd lose members left and right because we can't control free speech no matter how bad the word is. We decided that we'd just tell people to not say it. Must people are reasonable.
Microsoft make perfect sense. This is like someone putting a recist remark as their gamertag. Some people will find it funny some people will find it offensive. You can't help being gay, racist people can't seem to mind being racist. I'm no saying we're alike, but it makes perfect sense. Also, WHY on earth do you NEED to state that you're gay in order to play games? Stop being attention seeking and awkward in my opinion. Just stick to the rules or don't go on xbox live.
As Surfer posted earlier..atleast in the link he posted.. I found one statement that rings true... Posted by Justin Cole, GLAAD's Director of Digital Media - "We’re truly in a new era. And with new technologies, come new challenges. LGBT people have fought hard for years to come out of real-world closets – we’re not willing to accept virtual ones." Atleast I'm not..if most people are..more power to them.
IGN just did an article very recently about this: link. It brings up many valid points. It doesn't seem like a discriminatory thing to me, but a way to prevent verbal abuse. Granted, they also remove it from your profile text, which I think is a little extreme. If I want people to know about it, I think I should be able to handle the flack I'll receive.
