Kotaku
For the civil, Xbox Live can be a wondrous place. Chatting with friends, gaming with loved ones over vast distances, the crossing of cultural and national borders, it's just great. Indeed, it's probably the strongest weapon in Microsoft's console wars arsenal. Thing is, a lot of people on Xbox Live aren't civil. They're Asshats. And I'll have you note that's with a capital "A". Bigotry, unfair play and general, well, asshattery amongst a lot of users mean that for every pleasant experience on Xbox Live you may well end up having one that's thoroughly unpleasant. Maybe even offensive.
Which is where Stephen "Stepto" Toulouse (pictured, above) and his Xbox Live Police step in. Employed to fight injustice wherever it is found, serve the law and protect the public trust, Toulouse and his team are responsible for policing Xbox Live and enforcing its code of conduct policies across the globe. In other words, when you complain about someone over Xbox Live, the complaint goes to them. And if you get banned from Xbox Live, they're the ones who banned you.
Working mostly out of Microsoft's Redmond HQ (though some members are spread across the globe), the Xbox Live Policy Team and Toulouse, the team's Lead Program Manager are the guys responsible for - as their name suggests - overseeing the policing of Xbox Live so that, as Toulouse puts it, "members have a positive experience while using the service". They work "365 days a year", and even "process complaints even on holidays". Which they must. Because crime never sleeps.
Stepto's quick to stress that the majority of players have nothing but great experiences on Xbox Live. But Microsoft will also be the first to admit that, as their company stance on offensive XBL users states, when it comes to communication over the internet "unfortunately some of it can be negative". Those engaging in negative communications are the ones that come to the attention of the Policy Team, who have a variety of methods for both catching and dealing with anyone violating the service's guidelines.
COMPLAINTS: The first, and most obvious means of discovering and punishing offensive gamers are via public complaints. With millions of XBL users, this might seem like a huge undertaking, but Toulouse says that, thankfully, the vast majority of them are bogus, submitted either due to mistake or a player having a whine when they lose a game fair and square. Oh, and to those who feel like they're achieving something by hammering away 50 complaints against the same user in a night, you're not: the Policy Team's system screens for duplicate complaints and automatically bins them.
Any complaint that's not a duplicate, however, gets looked at. Every single one. In many cases, the violation is clear, and they can move on to any possible punitive steps. But for others, things can get messy. Where does good-natured shit-talking end and genuine offensive behaviour begin? Just because someone finds something offensive, does that mean it is offensive?
"Context can be a challenge", Toulouse says. "There's no context to tell someone your motto is a joke. What might not get a single complaint in one type of game suddenly might get a bunch of complaints in a more family friendly game. Even words you might hear in prime time television can be in violation of our Code of Conduct".
In these cases, the team has what Toulouse calls "online resources" to fall back on and consult with. Dictionaries, encyclopaedias, things like that. "But those resources are just simple guidelines", he says, "not the final authority. In the end, my team uses our best judgement in many instances on what violates the Code of Conduct". "Best Judgement" means they often will talk the more difficult cases over as a team, exploring whether the source of a complaint is in the intent of the accused, or simply the perception of those issuing the complaint.
Interestingly, Toulouse says that the volume of complaints is always consistent, and that he and his team are able to work through every complaint during a day's work, so as not to create a backlog. If the numbers are consistent, and don't spike on weekends or holidays, it says a lot about the kind of people that are gaming enough on Xbox Live to be issuing or causing complaints: they don't leave the house very often.
UNDERCOVER AGENTS: While the majority of complaints and disciplinary action result from user complaints - it's impossible to actively police that many users and games, after all - the Policy Team do engage in a spot of undercover work. Stepto says these are "employees who are out there on the system actually gaming and watching for situations where it's clear someone is impacting the LIVE experience negatively for everyone, or clearly violating the Terms of Use or Code of Conduct".
They don't just sit around playing Halo 3 all day, either: they play all kinds of games at all times of the day in order to best cover the entire spectrum of Xbox Live matches. So the next time you're at home, lose a PGR4 race and are about to let fly with a torrent of naughty words, remember: they could be watching you. Listening to you. At that very moment. And they're not just in the US, either, Microsoft have these guys spread out all over the world.
But it's not just cussing that can bring the hammer down. There are all kinds of things you can do that will cause other gamers to issue a complaint against you, and all kinds of things will give the Policy Team grounds to limit or even ban your account.
Boobs, for example. If it pops up in your Gamertag, or your bio, that's not cool. And no, you can't hide it. The Policy Team spend a lot of time labouring over alternative and slang spellings for naughty words (even going so far as to research global variations on offensive terms), so b00bs, 800bs and Bo0b5 are all just as bad. As are the Spanish, Korean and Latvian alternatives. If you're caught with a word like that in your Gamertag, you won't be able to sign into XBL again until you change it. If you're caught with it in something like your bio, it'll be automatically deleted.
(NSFW)
Those kind of issues are the minor ones. The more troubling, and more offensive stuff (like racism, religious intolerance, sexism, homophobia, etc), comes from the 360's ability to use voice and - in some cases - video chat. While big-time games like Halo 3 and Gears of War are naturally rife with douche bags, Toulouse also says you'd be surprised where else complaints can turn up. Uno, for example. Which uses the 360's camera. Let's just say the Policy Team are not big fans of genital footage.
Some of the more base-level stuff can result in temporary voice-bans. Repeat offences or really serious stuff, however? Your punishment will severe, Stepto saying that if you're guilty of this you can be "suspended from accessing the service either temporarily or, in very rare cases, for good". Which they're perfectly entitled to do, by the way, as when you pay your Gold subscription, you're also signing onto Microsoft's guidelines for XBL, which state that if you break the rules, they can break your account.
Though that happens, Stepto assures me, very, very rarely.
Comments
Yeah yeah sure, show me some evidence that the person doesn't get there banned account back the next day and then we'll see if these guys are helping
Good lord. If the amount of crap currently on XBL makes it through, I'd be willing to bet the garbage that gets weeded out would make your hair turn white.
ha i just played someone with the gamertag Asshat
Damn. i do not envy these guys' jobs. keep at it though, there's a lot of asshatery about.
I can dig it.
Not to mention feel for the folks behind the scenes doing that shit since I mean hell its what I do here multiplied by 1000000000000000.
A little cynical, are we?
So cursing and having bad words in your name isn't allowed, but running hacks, exploiting glitches, and just downright cheating are ok? That seems to be the point of the article, they've got a FORCE patrolling XBL, but only for bad words? Not to do something about the MASSIVE cheating going on? What a joke MSoft, what a joke.
Luckily, I'm on PSN.
Zing!
Though really, those annoying little kids really get annoying. I'm sometimes glad Brawl doesnt have voice chat.
I never understood how public complaints were any help. You only get a couple generic options to choose from, such as "cheating" or "offensive language," with no explanation. How do they determine anything from that?
This is all very interesting but how effective is it? Me and a friend used to joke about how sad we were if we weren't called a fag in the first hour of a Halo night.
Live is full of assholes, to the point where if someone is pilot and acts nicely it's almost double take worthy.
But hey apparently I'm repeatedly reviewed as "unsportsman like", even though I've never done any such thing to my knowledge.
I am a huge shit talker, but I keep it game related until the real douchebags come out bring up "yo momma" (really dumb, get original) or "get a life" (we are both doing the same thing at the same time, makes no sense). That is when I turn it up a notch and unleash the fury of you can't outplay or outspeak me. So I may make fun of your lack of skill at the game, but turn it personal and i'll unleash hell.
Glad to know there someone watching, but we all know how hard it can really be.
It something that will NEVER go away with online gaming. People assume a new personality when they realize they can't be tracked down and say whatever they want.
BTW....
67% avoided
Thats thing thing though. With a community as big as XBL, its very hard to police. Of course, if all members actively use the complaint feature. It makes these guys jobs easier.
I play Halo 3 and CoD4 quite a lot and there are quite a few trash talkers that will use some quite disgusting language. I'll use the complaints against them and so will my party, but its not like i'll ever see them again anyway because you rarely get paired up with the same people twice and you certainly are less likely if you "avoid" them using the avoid feature.
My final thoughts: Just because you might not see action or even hear of it, doesn't mean its not happening. Policing anything online is hard but Xbox Live has Mute, filing complaints and an avoid feature. Use it people.
@Brine: Exactly. They need to implement a "type out your complaint" option for when the generic options don't fit.
I got about 10 messages from one guy once after I beat him in PES, I didn't have a mic so I didn't even speak to him. They were VERY offensive about my partents etc, I filled a complain and nothing happened to him, so whatever, I don't believe anyone gets banned unless the say "Major Nelson is gay!" or "Hillary for President!"
:P
@TheSonicGamer: But how many people actually spend hours upon hours playing online on PSN.
While I've never had experienced the truly racist and homophobic rantings on Live I do think having a job just trying to police a place that his several million active users is a thankless one. Why thankless? Because no matter how good a job they do there will always be people who will blame them for letting someone not get banned fast enough or not respond to complaints in what they think is a reasonable time.
But then these are the same people who will complain about Live because its a Microsoft product and service. People like these look through the world through Sony-tinted eyes.
Whatever, these guys are the real asshats. I got code of conduct for having my dogs myspace link in my motto. and as far as cussing online, I only play M rated games so I should be able to say whatever the fuck I want.
so does this mean XBL is going to be dull now?
Hat off for sure to this team of guys.
Immature bigotry is by far the largest of the issues and generally the gamers police themselves but every now and then I sure feel like turning in a complaint for some of it.
One thing I think could really help it the ability for the "host" to boot people. Yes this can be abused as well, but I still think it is needed.
I ran in to a ignorant bigot spewing southern american confederate hate at anyone with an foreign accent in COD4 recently, and the whole server wanted him booted. I eventually just left the game because it was just too much and I'm even from Texas so I should be used to this kind of vitriol!
All things concerned though, XBL is still the best thing going for online multiplayer. The PS3 has a LONG way to go to even catch up to the fun going on with XBL.
-Vid doesn't exist anymore-
I hope these guys good luck because anyone of my friends with an accent is bombarded with racial slurs. He reported it before, but he stopped because it seemed to do nothing. That and he didn't want to report 7-15 people at a time. This is the only one good reason I think keeping the headsets out of the PS3 is a good thing. Quiet matches you say? Hell it's better than 10+ people bitching at eachother. Thank goodness for mute though, you can always do that.
"Though that happens, Stepto assures me, very, very rarely"
Thats a shame, it really is.
When I'm playing COD 4 I just ignore the rubbish talk and keep to myself. Doesn't really bother me, if a kid wants to shoot his mouth off over nothing (a bloody computer game) he can go ahead and make a fool of himself.
@goldwings: But at times I actually like having the ability to voice chat with team members when playing team deathmatches...or in the case of COD4...team HQ and Domination. As someone mentioned earlier there is a mute option one can use to block out those whose words may not be for one's sensitive ears.
That video is just sad.
Yeah, so much racism on Halo 3 at least - haven't had many other games with a online system that works very well, so Halo's the only place I've really noticed it.
whew, i like how gayboy was their friend in the end...
@AstrayPenguin:I find it hard to believe that you've ever played a full hour of Halo without being called a fag. YOUR CREDIBILITY IS IN QUESTION HERE
My experience on the 360 version of Xbox Live is this: if I have a problem with some "Asshat" spouting hate or quitting early or whatever the reason to Avoid Player/Mute/ or in the big cases like racist/hoophobic/sexist foulness File Complaint, it's almost always someone with like 110 gamerscore.
It's almost always the new people. I've been watching this over the past few months and it's true like 80% of the time. It's almost as if they read these articles and say "Hey I should buy that. It sounds like my cup of tea."
We saw it when Halo 3 first launched too. The peeps that were so wrong and foul with no consequences in Halo 2 came over with new 360s and continued quitting and screaming. Well guess what. They now either have 2 star rep, bans, learned their lessons or have given up. Because they are largely not in my 5-star rep games any more.
People complain about this and then I ask them if they filed a complaint and they say "No." Did you avoid them for future games? "No." The system only works if you use it and the community only gets better if you make it better: "Good game." Try it. It sounds nice.
I filed a complaint against someone for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I can stand the occasional fuck but don't go sending me pics of you flipping me the bird for no reason...
I'm glad I've had voice chat to be friends-only ever since I got my Xbox
I have mild turrets. That is why (CENSORED) need to keep their (CENSORED) mouths shut and just play the (CENSORED) game.
Have a nice (CENSORED) day!
BTW, I applaud these guys. Some folks think they can talk hatred and get away with it. Smack is one thing, but dissing a player based on race, creed and color is just not welcome. Time out achievement unlocked!
There's a handy little feature that has made my xbox live experience wonderful every time. It's called the mute all option. ^_^ No annoying kids, rappers, or asshats screaming obscenities when I beat them.
@Tull:
My ears arent sensitive. They just hate being called/hearing Nigger/Mistake.
=/
Being an alcoholic is certainly not a prerequisite for this job, but it is almost certainly an inevitable outcome. I cannot fathom how they can cope otherwise.
Aside from that, I really don't believe that Microsoft wants to TRULY clean up Live, because they know that a good chunk of users--maybe even a slight majority--find the "asshattery" more important than the actual gaming experience. As the Internet proves thousands of times a second every single day, people love drama and are looking for the slightest excuse to verbally and anonymously 'throw down' or provoke. Especially dipshit white males ages 8-38.* And yes, I fall in that 'demo', even if I'm apparently an 'outlier point' on that graph.
*--This is not to excuse/exclude other ethnicities, but just to describe the massive, massive hump in the Live 'community's' bell-shaped curve.
@illdaddyj: What's your gamertag so I can avoid you now and save myself the hassle later?
I'd like to hear that these bans happen very very regularly. I've been called more racial and sexual slurs than i can find on urban dictionary. Halo is the worst. I'll sit down and play PGR and get set up with a group that's quite amicable. But once i get on those FPS's...particulary halo, the behavior goes down hill. No, i just turn voice chat off all together when i'm not playing with my friends. Which of course makes it hard to make new friends to play with online. Point being, the problem is worse than they're making it sound. There are some SERIOUS issues that need fixing.
It's a thankless job, but I would probably be a lot of fun.
Hey, Witzbold... it sounds like this may be your next job after you master the Kotaku Banhammer :)
Level up your weapon, so to speak.
They say alot of complaints are bogus. How do they know which ones are? Because when I make a complaint usually to people who are completely offensive there's nothing for me to explain what happened. All I can do is choose "voice chat".
This one guy was calling people faggots and acting like he knew where everyone lives so he could "kill their asses" but how do they know whether im lying or telling the truth if I can't even explain exactly what happened?
well you know what people are like on Live so he was kind of asking for it with the gamertag of xxxGayBoyxxx.
@axiomatic: XBL Has more fun per square inch?
Anyway, it's a good thing when every single person doesn't have a headset, only the committed do. You really do get a lot less dickery.
I'd like a job doing this, it Sound like the type of thing I would enjoy doing. I'm a bit odd, I know.
@TinyLightning: Actually i've had more asshattery on .skate and burnout paradise than on all the shooters i've played combined.
Is Stepto pronounced (Step-to) or (Step Toe)?
These guys need to login with with a handle similar to that gayboy one in the video above and go on a ban fest. Teach those asshats a lesson big time!
I'd like a job doing that as well.
I have a best friend who lives four hours away. When we play, we go into private chat so we don't have to deal with the assholes. And if we feel like complaining about other people, they can't hear us, so we're not hurting anyone
@Purple-Penguin: I wouldn't mind being one of those undercover guys :P
@SeeOne: I would most likely just blow up all the servers to save humanity so I dont think it would be a good idea for me to take such a job.
Xbox Live police are probably as ineffective as TSA. If they made the service free they wouldn't have to employ people to monitor the service ineffectually.
what happened to simple civility among people?
is it THAT hard NOT to be a douche and play games to have fun?
a few gloating i can dig but going racist and homophobe is not why we have online chats....
I have yet to run into anyone saying anything derogatory. And you won't find me saying much at all. Yes, games have voice support but I prefer to not speak.
The only thing I have run into are those people with the speaker to close to thier noses and shouters. Maybe they have been saying something horrible but I'm too busy removing my head set so I don't go deaf.
Genital footage on Uno??? Sweet baby moses.
I hope they don't crack down on T-bagging..... It's the only reason I put up with all the idiots on Live. Speaking of which a friend of mine welcomed me to the 360 community by sending me a pic of his own t-bag. I have always wondered about him.....
Yeah, they go after folks with Boob in the name (and not something like FinalSolution88) because the geniuses at microsoft know what a boob is (its a naughty place). Yet it seems that none of them took history class. If they had they would understand that the final solution was Hitler's ultimate plan for the jews. Go look online, this is a real guy. he also has F4gg0t in his profile. I guess Microsoft can't speak 1337 speak either.
@SeeOne: Heh, Witz would have XBL cleaned up in a week or two. :P Prinny powah!
What xbl needs is a maturity filter that you can turn on and turn off if you pleace. and it would censor all the naughty, racist, and general "asshattery". Then if people report you for swearing and such you can tell them to turn on their filter if they dont like it. That makes a lot more sense then this does. Banning people for "swearing". Ooh he said "son of a bitch" REPORTED. There are plenty of times (like someone said before me) that you are just trash talking and such and then people start swearing at you and bringing up "yo momma" shit. So you gotta retaliate. Ok, so what if you a lot more crude and better at insulting, random ass people will still report you for your retaliation.