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04-16-2010, 12:38 PM | #1 |
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SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — It's not just cyberbullets that are exchanged during firefights on the XBox Live version of "Call of Duty."
Many gamers also exchange hate speech over their headsets as they stalk each other across the virtual battlefields. Players trade racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic insults so frequently that game makers are taking steps to tone down the rhetoric. The comments would shock parents who may not realize their children are constantly exposed to language that might make a sailor blush. Most parental concerns have focused on violence, not language. One gamer told an opponent he presumed to be Jewish that he wished Hitler had succeeded in his mission. Many exchanges involve talk of rape or exult over the atomic bombing of Japan. There are frequent slurs on homosexuals, Asians, Hispanics and women. Such comments can be heard on all online video gaming systems, including PlayStation Network, Blizzard Entertainment (World of Warcraft) and others. "Personally, I don't do a lot of online gaming for that reason," said Flynn DeMarco, founder of the Web site GayGamer.net, which has worked with Microsoft and other companies on steps to clean up online gaming. "I don't play with anybody I don't already know." DeMarco said hate speech has been a problem for years. Game makers, despite some serious efforts, can only seek to limit the amount. "A lot of the problem lies within the players themselves," DeMarco said. The widespread use of the slurs is partly fueled by the same anonymity that provides cover for abuse throughout cyberspace. Players can compete with people thousands of miles away, and know them only by the fictional "gamertags" they use to identify themselves. After years of tolerating abusive players, gamers have become more diligent about noting the gametags of abusive players and reporting them to game companies. Abusive players can be punished or even banned, but the process is slow. "It's a baby steps kind of thing," DeMarco said. Microsoft, maker of the XBox 360, has taken numerous steps to clean up the language on its Live service, which is by far the biggest online gaming service with some has 23 million members. Stephen Toulouse, director of policy and enforcement for Microsoft's Xbox Live service, heads a team charged with providing a safe and enjoyable experience for customers. "There is always a subset of humanity that goes toward miscreant behavior," Toulouse said. With 1 million to 2 million players online at any one time, most of the policing falls to other users who report hate speech to the company, he said. Those complaints are reviewed, and people who use hate speech can face punishments such as having their voice privileges suspended, making them unable to speak with other players in real time. They can also be banned temporarily or even permanently from the service, Toulouse said. Players whose conduct crosses into criminal behavior are reported to law enforcement, he said. The company has created a Web site to help parents control their children's gaming, Get Game Smart: Home. Parents can learn how to limit the people their children play with, limit the time and type of games they play and find other tools, he said. Gamers always have the power to mute out any other player they find offensive, or can block an offensive player and not encounter him again, Toulouse said. But the notion of companies monitoring and cleaning up cyberspace is troubling to some. Joan Bertin, director of the National Coalition Against Censorship in New York City, said she is uncomfortable with game makers serving as "nannies." "They respond occasionally and erratically and incompletely," she said. "Some people who are doing what everyone else is doing get caught." The coalition, which works to protect First Amendment rights, does not generally endorse actions to limit speech, she said. "The use of taboo language has a lot of different functions and they not all are evil," she said. "I don't think pulling the cover over it and hiding it makes it go away." Gamers themselves are also somewhat split on the issue. When Xbox Live banned the use of gamertags or profile information that revealed sexual orientation, in an effort to reduce taunting, some gays and lesbians were upset because they wanted to use such IDs, DeMarco said. A simple solution would be having gamers use their real names, but that presents a host of problems involving privacy and the protection of children from predators. "I don't want everybody out there knowing my name and looking me up on the Internet or Facebook," DeMarco said. Plus the fake names can be fun, DeMarco said, although they can also be offensive, making plays on ethnic slurs. Still, Toulouse said the use of real names is being studied as one possible solution. DeMarco said the best solution may just be continuing to educate people, especially parents of young gamers, about the problem. Racism and homophobia in gaming: Hate speech corrodes online video game experiences - Plugged In - Yahoo! Games |
Baron Samedi |
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04-16-2010, 12:44 PM | #2 |
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...And forgive my double post, but I have to insert my thoughts on this...
1. Your children have no business playing Modern Warfare 2. The Airport scene should have been an indicator. It is not the gaming industry's responsibility to monitor what your children are exposed to. 2. Using ethnic slurs and anti-homosexual speech is wrong also. Of course, i must insert the fact that anti-homosexual speech does not constitute homophobia. A fear of something and a hatred toward something are two different things. 3. When you have MILLIONS of people on something like, I don't know... the INTERNET and they're doing stuff like, say, trying to KILL ONE ANOTHER in a virtual war zone, you're going to get "those guys" who hide behind anonymity to say what they want. Get used to it, it doesn't matter who you are. America is the land of free speech, and that freedom gets abuse like the rest. 4. Of course, reporting does work. However, it can be DAYs before a report gets answered in some lobbies. By that time, who cares? 5. Using my real name in an online game is a terrible idea. I'd rather not play online at all than endanger myself. |
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04-16-2010, 12:47 PM | #3 |
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i personally think thats whole disgusting and another reason id ont do online gaming. so many foul mouthed lil snots and just plain out slanderous and disgusting...and this is ocming froma veteran gamer and someone whos a huge horror film fan (horror films have tons of language) and i find the online verbage heinous.
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04-16-2010, 12:53 PM | #4 |
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while the gaming gives them an outlet for their stupidity...
they're still stupid when they're not playing the game. i mean if you gotta put up with stupid people... at least you have a chance of embarrassing them by killing them in a game than having to put up with them in real life. heheheheh. i'm by no means excusing their behavior... i'm just sayin that the problem starts at home.
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04-16-2010, 12:55 PM | #5 |
That's lo!
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I just play them on mute. Always have. Can't stand the trash talk or the people that think everyone wants to hear their music, or the kids making weird noises... Just mute 'em all and let X-Box sort 'em out!
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04-16-2010, 12:57 PM | #6 |
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The thing is, you can mute the little pukes. I don't even plug in a mic unless some little snot keeps running their gums and I keep winning. I sneak up on them when they lay prone and tea bag them so they can see it in the kill cam. Immature, yes. Does it get them mad? Hell yes.
Kids really have no place playing some of the games but if the parents don't want to supervise then that's what you get. They release all their aggression on a anonymous individual thinking they are tough. It kind of relates to the deleted thread "interweb tough guyz". If you think language is bad, you don't want to know what goes on in games of UNO on xbox. You can enable a camera. Luckily, parents can set their kids settings to strict so they can't communicate with strangers. It mutes them to anyone not on their friends list. |
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04-16-2010, 12:59 PM | #7 |
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Quote:
Frag x3 > Trash talk. |
04-16-2010, 01:05 PM | #8 |
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Yesterday I was in a game of MW2 on a team full of racist-epithet spewing assholes. They were all in a clan together, too. Perhaps I should say 'Klan.' At any rate, instead of reporting them...because I have little faith it will do any good...I simply set out to ruin my team's chances. I refused to fire a shot and simply ran full speed towards any enemy I could find and allowed myself to get mowed down. I put on a class with the perk that allows you to detect Claymores and went and blew myself up as many times as possible. I ended the game with 0 kills, 0 assists, and 27 deaths, and my team lost quickly and efficiently.
I am willing to sacrifice my personal scores if it means ruining some racist asshole's game.
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04-16-2010, 01:06 PM | #9 |
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It gets to the point sometimes where I've actually left matches because the language gets so bad, especially the slurs, racial and otherwise. I'm no prude, and I'm sure as hell no saint, but I just really don't want to hear it. I'm there to have a good time, CoD is at it's best when you're in a room with adults, many times others with prior military experience who actually want to work together and use tactics. It's like modern chess, when little kids, and ignorant morons get involved it gets really hard to play it.
Lately I've been going back and playing WaW more and more, as the quality of gamer is generally a bit higher there. Atleast in terms of behavior.
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04-16-2010, 01:08 PM | #10 |
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Man, its so easy to just put people on your "block list" or just ignore them altogether.
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