Xbox Live Racial/Homophobic Trash Talkers In The Spotlight
Check out the video embedded above from a Milwaukee FOX station talking about the racism-laced and profanity-filled chatting going on during Xbox Live games.
The other video, above, is uncensored and even more disturbing, one showing what happens when you go on Live with a Gamertag including the term “GayBoy”.
There’s no denying this happens, and there’s also no denying that the biggest problems I’ve found with voice chat on the 360 are caused by teenagers. I’ve got nothing against teens, most of them are fine in real life, but put on a headset, anonymity, voice changing algorithms, and an atmosphere that offers the same verbal freedon felt by professional athletes, and you get high-voiced immature taunts from a bunch of idiots.
Is there a solution? I wouldn’t even know. I don’t put on my headset, I don’t play a lot of online gaming. I only have to deal with trash talk from my wife (and she’s always gloating, since she’s always winning). Perhaps that’s the solution: Don’t play online, play with your loved ones. They may get profane, too, but you know it’s all out of love.
Hey Nathan,
It’s terrible and a problem, like you said. But, having managed communities for so long and having started managing them when I was in my mid-teens, I’d have to say that I don’t really think it’s a teenager problem. I would have never thought to do that as a teen - would you? My now 18 year old brother wouldn’t have, either.
Some do, for sure - but some adults do, as well. More than just teens, there are plenty of people who look at the internet as some sort of fantasy world for them where they can act in a certain way in order to get reactions or anger people. Some of the biggest idiots I’ve had to deal with have been “adults”.
So, definitely a problem. More often than not, comes down to the person and what they’re really like, more than their age, in my opinion.
Patrick
Comment by Patrick | December 6, 2007
Those people are pathetic. They’re not even remotely funny. I’ve seen this behavior in real life too though. Most of the time they can’t stop staring at you while throwing insults and when they’re very drunk they can’t keep their hands of you. It might be a cliché, but I haven’t met any gay bashers who were completely at ease with their sexuality. I must say that xxxGayBoyxxx handles it all very well. The solution: don’t put gay in your nickname if you can’t handle this kind of stupidity.
Comment by AnotherGayBoy | December 6, 2007
I wouldn’t have thought to call people that stuff, except that there were plenty of guys I know in high school calling people “faggot” or “homo” at every turn, so I kind of expect kids to say stuff like that. And I know that every time I stub my toe, inside my head a litany of curses streams through, some of the worst words in the English language. I just don’t say them out loud. The anonymity of Xbox Live takes the words that never normally leave our head, and sometimes puts them right in the ears of people just trying to have a good time.
You make some really good points, though, Patrick. Sometimes its adults, or at least young adults, sometimes its teens. Sometimes its adults who still act like teens. Most teens probably don’t act like idiots on Live, but most people who act like idiots probably skew younger and skew male than the average player.
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | December 6, 2007
Hey Nathan,
Thanks for the reply. The reason I came back to this entry is that I had something last night happen on one of the communities that I manage.
This guy had a post removed as it was a violation of our guidelines. He didn’t like it, so he laughed at my moderator. The moderated passed it to me (as I instruct my mods to do) and I had a word with the fellow. Didn’t like that, either. So, he sent a nasty PM to my moderator and made like 15-20 posts on the community with this type of lewd, inappropriate behavior. He directed his insults at me and my moderator, instead of random gamers.
Not that big a deal. Cleaned up and marked as a troll. But, the good part is that he appears to have done it from work. His e-mail address (that he had to activate) was firstname_lastname@something.utc.com. And his IP resolves there, as well - the IP he used on all of his posts. In a post, he also said he was 37 years old. So, presumably, we have a 37 year old employee of United Technologies. I’m going to give them a call on Monday to see how they handle abuse reports, since he did disrupt the community.
But, it reminded me of this entry. This guy is just a slimeball and that’s why he did this stuff. But, like I said, I’ve seen it across the spectrum. Male, female - 13-60. Unfortunately, they are part of the downside of the net! (And society. :))
Thanks,
Patrick
Comment by Patrick | December 9, 2007