XBL gamertag - Satans Pistol
PS3 ID - DEMONSofHADES

SatansPistol

The US didn't make XBL. Microsoft did. And that makes XBL suseptable to legal catches like, "Don't call everyone you don't like a f**got." It's bad business to let the decent ppl be berrated by small-minded insignificants who can't think of more than two words to belittle everyone around him. XBL is a private orginization, and the Constitution, for better or worse, has nothing to do with it. Get over it.

AxelHunter

lawless

One thing, how do you play unfair exactly, it's not like you can mod or cheat on x360 (well I guess you could but you should probably get a job at ms or some game developer if you can)!!!!!! glitch, no matter how many people say it is, is not a cheat, granted it shouldn't be in the game but it's not like the user did something to cause the glitch. It was just missed in the testing of the game, so stop calling it a CHEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

freespeech

The whole "I can do whatever I want on the internet" feeling is what has really destroyed many promising concepts from social networking to wikipedia. All great ideas negated by the user base.

Edidid

Kojiro

I agree with you completely. People should be sensitive to the context and history of the expletives they use. If someone uses the N-word, they should be sensitive to what that means and how it makes people feel, even if it means nothing to you personally.

Now let's talk about your use of "Christ" as an "alternative swear word"

Juminatriascala

I'm with you on the mute. Now if MS could just make is really easy (and consistent) to mute people.

They did a fine job with Halo 3 (I can silence the morons in a couple seconds), vs. CoD4, which isn't so elegant

Juminatriascala

There's a world of difference between "feeling" how you want to about others, and verbally harrassing others. As for words like "fag" and "nigger" being just another cuss word like "shit" and "hell" ..... Are you serious? Really? I guess you've never had your local christian youth group scream things like "you fags are going to hell, you should all die" at you through a megaphone while you were just walking down the street in the "gay" section of town. Free speech does not = verbal harrasment.

robinandtami

inphanta

invisiblewok

invisiblewok

Pornosaur

Blake Snow

Free speech only guarantees that the government won't censor you (more or less, exceptions abound, etc. etc.). MS has absolutely no obligation to let you say whatever you please.

Also, for the record: go up to a black stranger and call them a "nigger." Go up to a homosexual stranger and call them a "fag." See what happens. Learn a lesson. These are not just "alternative swear words." They're hateful pejoratives with a very long history that should not and must not be forgotten.

Really: "alternative swear words?" Do you scream "motherfucking nigger" when you stub your toe? Please. Grow the fuck up.

JustThisGuy

fullmetal7

gusiskirby

Glare

They are not doing anything wrogn UNTILL they start shouting inapropriate slogans, insulting and shouting "YOU'RE A F*G!" to whoever is their target of their ignorance at the moment. The same applies to racism.
I won't even start telling how many times i've heard "lol!1!! you are eurotrash!!1!lolol!1lol, eurotard!" etc etc.

Not sharing someone's life style/religion/ideals... doesn't necessarily mean they've got to hate that someone, or humiliate that someone.

And I think we're losing the focus on the article.

Mr. Pie

VAMP

@Atheist Jew:
"People should be permanently banned far more often. The ratio of douche bags to non-douche bags is off the fucking charts, and bigots, fascists, homophobes, and other scum should have the privilege of XBL taken away on the FIRST offense."

Bullshit, we're all bigots about some things. I suppose you want them kicked out of the country too? What you're saying is bigotry. Homophobes aren't doing anything wrong, they have every right to feel any way they want about anyone else. If someone said on xbox live that "happy is he who seizes your children and smashes them against the rocks!" would you get offended? Would you ban someone for being Jewish and quoting their scripture? It's funny you complain about fascism as this is exactly what fascist people want, to ban things. "I may not agree with what they're saying but I'll defend to the death their right to say it." I understand free speech rules don't apply in a private service but in violent games they certainly should. It strikes me as consistent with your ideals that you would make GTA illegal. You're a hypocrite.

valleyshrew

Kickstone

lionkitten

But if you report the tag or motto they look at every one that comes in. So if you see "j3w ki113r 360" or whatever, you need to report it and it will be gone.

I reported a couple and tried to search for them on xbox.com later and it said they did not exist or "no gamertag found" or whatever the message is.

The way to make it better is to use the system.

lionkitten

I think you have a point. When complaints are reviewed, I wonder if the game's age rating is taken into account.

Foul language in an M game would be more acceptable, IMO, than foul language in a T or E game.

N-Bomb

Example, everytime i'm on COD4, we'll have a group of guys come in and say the usual "we're gonna beat you noobs" and we reply with "You will not win, you're garbage!" Then the insults fly for about 20 seconds (mother this, fag that) and the match starts. About 2 minutes into any match we get a massive lead and they drop out like bitches.

Feedback time.

Of course i'm not talking about COMPLAINTS, it is different for that, you have to be a complete and utter d-bag or cheater for me to file a complaint.

Collapse The Control

the guys' gamertags will probly be like "XBL-Policy-Team Frank".

khronos27

So maybe it was just a fluke for me. Oh Well, I would think they would ban all mention of religion in a gamertag, but it could very well be due the the spanish name "jesus" also.

I_Hate_This_Place

iamnotdryad

WatershipDown

UncleScrotar

adventchild08

Kind of takes the fun out of the game period, win or lose. Cause they probably figure like I do, that if you lose there's gonna be a verbal shitstorm out of it, and nobody wants to listen to that.

Norellicus

Pornosaur

reptile168

-AS

Archaic Stigma

cavingman

I don't think so. I had a friend that had the gamertag JesusDied4U. Again, something that would clearly be against XBox Live terms of service on the grounds that it could incite bigotry, but again, I don't think they would ever actually ban that tag. Selective enforcement is my beef.

robinandtami

Oh boy, after a couple of maps you want to call him ''pretty things''. After 4 or 5 maps, you just need to tell him how much you love him, and, oh, in the name of mario bros, after 8 maps, you HAVE to crush his skull with his controller... I don't know if you get my point here :/

Anyways, I'm not THAT much obsessed with gaming to just get mad and yell at some random teenager over an argument in a videogame, and I really pity those who just insult, threaten, make fun of others through xboxlive or (insert any online gaming service here), even if they're just kids. PARENTS, GET YOUR EYES ON THEM, DAMNIT! :P

Mr. Pie

sbarbati

OrionTheSmiter

[en.wikipedia.org]

thoruen

The point of this whole story/discussion is the fact that good-natured, polite gamers trying to have a good time shouldn't HAVE to deal with morons.

I took a few years off Live, got hooked on WoW, and when I quit WoW and started playing on Live again, the difference in the communities was astounding. Live is like the puberty of the online gaming world.

Bruce Skillis

Gam3r

OT79

I_Hate_This_Place

And to the fools who think muting is the option- there's no reason rational, sensible people should be excluded from using the online service FULLY because loud-mouthed nitwits enjoy trying to offend/anger as many people as possible.

dabu

I have at least 15 friends that have 420 in their gamertag or some other reference to something called "pot".

would turning in all the drug users drastically reduce their subscription rates?

thoruen

ShaggE

He's right, why should you ruin someone else's fun of being an a$$hat?

If TheHun where to walk by me with an ice cream cone and I decide to take a crap on it, he should shut up and eat it or, go somewhere else if he doesn't want crapped on ice cream.

thoruen

tonjohn

Amiash

Tull

MuslimGamer would not be in and of itself offensive. If it were MuslimGamerSux... then yes. And I think it should be up to you if you want to make yourself a target. Gamertags should not be banned unless the tags themselves are offensive.

robinandtami

wisconsinista

Naurgul

Ma9nuM

Isn't that the truth? I finally just got tired of it and started muting everyone but my friends.

dead_red_eyes

I think I've found the problem!

SFLegend

I realize the task of policing XBox Live is difficult, but c'mon.

Charlie Kerfelds Jetsons Tee

I also notice that a lot of people say heinous shit at the Call of Duty 4 loading screen because you can't see who's talking.

AnEternalEnigma

RickyTV

FLegion

NateN

TheHun

XvCowboyvX

Atheist Jew

Everything was flowing smoothly, it captured my attention, and there was so much depth... and then it just stopped. This really felt like a great piece of in-depth investigative reporting, but lacking the little part that would make it fantastic.

This could have been an awesome feature story. All it needs is a day of Luke working with the undercover team. Make it a narrative. "My Day With the Xbox Live Police," or whatnot. Kind of like a ride-along with Cops: Intertubes, if you will. Go with them into an Uno sting. See them in action as they decide to take a Halo 3 asshat down. Slow motion non-steadycam banhammer action!

I know you guys are constantly under deadline pressures (broadcast reporting spouse here), and I'm sure they're exacerbated by the constant updating focus of Kotaku, but this story really just needed another day or so to add that extra little oomf to make it shine as a feature. As it stands, very solid. But man, when I think about what could have been...

That said, kudos to Luke for the solid piece.

dilpickies

Genital footage on Uno??? Sweet baby moses.

Yeah, it gets pretty rough when you play a Draw Four Wild on someone.

@dabu:

If they've been operating for so long, then how come there's been no appreciable decrease in asshattery?

Greater Internet Dickwad Theory's transitive properties?

@wildknight:

Personally I think they need to bring down the Perma-Banhammer down more often.

Live is too important for them to go banning paying customers.

doubtful

hotfiredude123

XvCowboyvX

Collapse The Control

How hypocritical -- Halo 3 is one of the most homo-erotic games out there. "Come over here and get on my warthog!" "I'm riding the man cannon!" "He just stuck me from behind!" If I ever have the time I'll make a video of all of the gay Halo innuendo I hear. Listen out for it next time.

KindaGamey

bigots.

not for the usual reasons, but for ruining so many good insults.

take the big two for example, ni**er and fa**ot.

horrible, ignorant terms... that sound really offensive.

now imagine they didn't have anything to do with skin color or sexual preference.. imagine they were as plainly insulting to anyone as calling them an a**hole or a dickhead.

if only you could call just anybody a ni**er or a fa**ot, for that extra "F**K YOU!" factor... like an upgrade to the word 'moron,' with just the intent to insult.

such horribly, awesomely offensive terms, and i cant use them because they have roots set in bigotry.

oh well, guess ill stick with a**hole.

TiberianViper

smitty1123

I don't think it's "whining" to complain when someone is throwing around racial slurs or the ever popular "faggot," mainly because shit like that is just in bad taste. If you want to be a tactless asshole, be my guest, but if you do it around me, I'm going to call you out/report you/do whatever I can to get you banned. I go on Live to play games and have fun, not to be swore at by some squeaky voiced 13 year old who has the world's worst parents.

As some other people said, I have a few friends with accents, one of them is from Spain, another from Barbados, so when they talk they stick out. People just tear into them for no reason, it's completely absurd. In some rare cases, I run into Europeans who just rip into any Americans they run into (me being Canadian, we don't sound much different). It's absurd, I guess they think we're all little George Bushs.

It's just disgusting at times, and I don't get offended easily. If they ever gave a job like this to me, Live would run red with the blood of the offenders.

Bruce Skillis

KindaGamey

AnEternalEnigma

My friends and I play competitive, we don't play to lose, it isn't that much fun losing. When we win and "gamers" cry/complain we let them know we don't care and they will never beat us.

It really is funny hearing some people's responses.

If you can't handle smack talk, sign out or mute us.

Shit talking & gaming has been hand in hand forever, it is just evolving.

Collapse The Control

I'm definately not defending male gamers, just thought it was humorous. :)

cornunderscore2x

JonRemedy

frank0127

It's like people who complain about violence and sex on TV. They'll complain about the companies not doing anything to solve the problem when the solution (easiest one) is already available. Just mute the offending gamertag and/or play with people you know.

Tull

i hear the same stuff on psn while every asshat on psn blast out rap music through their mics.

both psn and xbl have too many asshats, the service is totally unenjoyable on both because of it and a main reason people only play against others they know.

kneehighspy

If I can run into that without a problem, these "cops" need to up their game big time.

Figcoinc

On another note, I wish you could limit the people allowed to talk to you in a match to those over 21. I was playing COD4 yesterday and ended up in a game with a 13 year old from Georgia (guessing the location) with diahrea of the mouth.... Nothing offensive, but nothing productive or wanted either.

Yes, I know you can mute... and I did.

JohnnyHundo

1) Only play brand new games or "old" games. Aside from HUGE releases, the idiots usually won't show up for the first few weeks, then the game becomes a living hell. Eventually, they get tired of the game and move on and thus, the community improves again.

For example, I played Forza with probably 95% good people when it first came out. About a month later I was happy if I could find a race that wasn't a "Let's race backwards!" or a "Let's demolition derby!" race. Now, it's getting back to the dedicated and I am happy(even if they tend to be way better than me :S).

2) Like TinyLightning said: mute all whenever you have any intention of playing an FPS or action game online. These genres seem to draw idiots like mosquitoes to a bug zapper. It's probably best for your sanity just to force yourself to not listen.

Rhawb

COLDBLOODED_BMC

excel_excel

After receiving pictures swollen, unkempt privates from two completely different users on two entirely seperate titles (and yes, they were different sets of Frank & Beans)including an 'E' rated XBLA title (Carcassone) I had given up on ever ever ever using my headset online again.

It's not as though I had done anything to invite such behavior - and am still feeling hesitant on using my headset in the future - but having someone around to wrangle those... ethically challenged crack-puppets... would be most welcome.

On the other hand, the idea of giving up that freedom - even on the terms of offensive words - I also feel that it would be preferable to allow people to group by title rating. If loading an 'E' title, 'E' naming conventions for user profiles etc should be displayed, whilst if I'm on a 'Mature' or '18+' title - terms like 'Boobs', 'Gusset' & 'Nobber' shouldn't be as much of a concern really.

Goes to show that young ones shouldn't be playing the M/18 titles anyways... Yet it doesn't impede on adult 'entertainment'...

MKS

Bon5ai

Personally I think they need to bring down the Perma-Banhammer down more often. Make an example out of some to show that dickery and asshatery will not be tolerated. Of course they won't do that since every member they ban is a lost customer.

wildknight

OGHowie

aveneyer

Dude From Dubai

I_Hate_This_Place

Actually XBL caters to the homophobes and racists. See my previous post. We wouldn't want gamertags that offend the delicate sensibilities of racists and homophobes.

robinandtami

smitty1123

I_Hate_This_Place

They probably have really low gamerscores because they just created that account after their previous account got banned.

I think these guys do the best they can most of the time, but sometimes it is too strict.

For example, one term of service is that you can not create a gamertag that could "incite bigotry." This was used against me when I created a tag with the phrase LezBeOwn in it. My tag was banned because it was too similar to the word lesbian (yeah one guy at XBL actually told me that word is OFFENSIVE) the ban is of course covered in the TOS because of the "incite bigotry" clause. Of course under that clause, anything that showed your race, nationality, gender... almost ANY kind of personal descriptor would be against TOS. Somehow though, I don't see them banning tags like "Lady Ranger" or "Southern Boy" or "UK General" even though they are clearly against the terms of service, in that they could incite bigotry. I've heard tons of bigotry against women on XBL. Same goes for bigotry against non-Americans and southern Americans. No, they reserve the actual tag ban for homosexuals. Who's the real bigots? Oh well, still love my 360's and XBL though.

robinandtami

icerink

keyrat

dabu

I have not played a ranked game or online with anyone other than those on my friends list since the original xbox entirely because of those who can't play nice.

Collapse, I have no issue with you, it's just that I am curious to better my own understanding. What do you get out of it?

Hagame

TheBoxNinja

ShaggE

mafakka

Mr.SithNinja

Crack

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.

DarkDragonDave

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....

icepick314

HurricaneDave

Witzbold

Cchrist

AxelHunter

I'd like a job doing that as well.

GPman

yashichi8bit

Cchrist

Purple-Penguin

Friendly_Nemesis

RaepGoblin

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?

T3kNi9e

Hey, Witzbold... it sounds like this may be your next job after you master the Kotaku Banhammer :)

Level up your weapon, so to speak.

Juminatriascala

lionkitten

TinyLightning

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.

jollydwarf

=/

Beyene

Fox609

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!

SigmundTheSeaMonster

Billy Bob Joe

Cchrist

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.

lionkitten

Habits

Scruffay

sir_carrot

Billy Bob Joe

Tull

MrSoursop

Thats a shame, it really is.

Morberis

goldwings

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.

axiomatic

Sailorcancer

illdaddyj

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.

Tull

:P

Zeuxis

ShaggE

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.

Walker

67% avoided

Collapse The Control

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.

exkon

Collapse The Control

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.

AstrayPenguin

Brine

TheSonicGamer

TheNonGenius

wheezo

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.

Witzbold

TheIrishNinja

subterfunk

MisterSleep

excel_excel