Great article on any interesting topic… the culture of wide-open Internet-based war-game playing… addressed by forming “communities of interest” …via social (Inter-) networking and filtering out that 4-5% group of offenders. Right on sisters.. Your oppression is also mine.

Art Johnson
New World Communications

Posted by Art Johnson | 2:08 pm on January 31, 2007.

ok. I agree. No one should have to put up with this crap. I am a male and have been subject to this sort of same immature BS.

BUT here is my question. With a formerly known clan name Like PMS, formerly known as Psychotic Men Slayerz or a gamertag like DirtyDiva what kind of message are you sending world about yourself. If I had a name like Niga-killa or something like that I can expect to recieve some heat for that….

Now if you had a perfectly nice sounding name and STILL got this treatment then its absolutely got to stop. !

Posted by SkinWalk3r | 3:59 pm on January 31, 2007.

I haven’t heard too many slurs against women on Halo2. The biggest thing seems to be insulting peoples sexuality and even then I don’t take too much offense as a hetro male being abused by a young kid that hasn’t got a clue what they’re talking about.
When I was learning I found that by sticking around the insults stopped.

Posted by twaito | 8:57 am on February 1, 2007.

Grow up,
You are on line pretending to kill and maim each other take it on the chin or join a different game.
You sound like someone who was bullied and now wants to bully - Psychotic Men Slayerz sounds a bit sexist?

Posted by John Shakespeare | 9:02 am on February 1, 2007.

I’m a frequent gamer on XBL, and yeah I hear alot of bad mouthing going about, but I think thats all part and parcel! As already stated if your in a game trying to kill each other of course its gonna get emotions running high when your killed or kill someone! I think racist remarks have no place anywhere…however if you can’t take general rantings and ravings go elsewhere! or start a private game, people get insulted every single day and some take it on the chin and carry on, others winge about it or let it get to them, you need to be more thick skinned if thats the case!Your sitting possibly thousands of miles away from the person who’s saying it, so who really cares they’re just words?! And also actually look @ the options that you can with XBL as you can ‘mute’ people which stops you being able to hear what they say…

Posted by Luke | 9:37 am on February 1, 2007.

Users of Microsoft products are usually uneducated, uncouth and unrefined. So it comes as no suprise to me that this childish name calling goes on from users of the XBox. I’m so glad that Mac users are so much more refined.

Posted by Philip McCaity | 10:47 am on February 1, 2007.

Philip McCaity - “Users of Microsoft products are usually uneducated, uncouth and unrefined. So it comes as no suprise to me that this childish name calling goes on from users of the XBox. I’m so glad that Mac users are so much more refined.”

Don’t you have a bridge you should be under?

Posted by a_c_e | 11:46 am on February 1, 2007.

cummon please!!! When I pay on-line no-one knows whether I’m a man, woman, black, white, christian or catholic. In an online gaming experience you are going to come across idiots who think that they are the big ‘I am’ the key is to remain true to yourself and not rise to the taunts and not accept abuse. Any resepctable online community is very efficient at moderating its users and if they don’t or can’t then don’t spend your $s on their products. Whilst its true that you shouldn’t have to put up with abusive of offensive behaviour whether online or not……we don’t live a utopia just yet….its a fact of life however un-palatable……just move on.

Posted by DuKk | 11:57 am on February 1, 2007.

I play on Xbox live every day, usually in multiplayer shooters like Halo 2 and Gears Of War. Use of racist slang is commonplace and I have to say it appears to almost always come from players from the US. I’m not sure if it is a cultural thing - if racist slang is a more widely accepted part of conversation over there than it is in the UK for example. It may just be a result of the fact that the vast majority of players are from the US - it being the biggest XBL market.

Anyway, in one game recently, in the space of two minutes, I heard someone use the term Jew in a perogative way, call someone a n*****, repeatedly, and then move on to insulting people from Japan.

When players are can be as young as 8 years old - lets face facts, adult certificates do very little to prevent young people playing unsuitable games or watching unsuitable films - I find it worrying that impresionable minds are being exposed to this kind of language. Given that this is as widespread a problem as it is I don’t doubt that it is giving advertisers a serious headache.

The problem is that, as it stands, you can’t police it. There are ways of making complaints against fellow players but, given that people will petulently make complaints against other players who simply beat them, it’s almost impossible for Microsoft to take these complaints seriously. I don’t know what the solution is - sending players out into the “live” community, undercover if you like, joining these games, monitoring them and being able to take action against individuals caught using inflammatory language - bans, accounts suspensions, that kind of thing. Expensive and, no doubt, unfeasible - but about the only suggestion I can think of.

Posted by Al | 12:53 pm on February 1, 2007.

…reveals Xbox Live’s community editor, known online as TriXie 360.

Moron. You’re speaking of avoiding online ‘hazing’ yet you allow your gamertag to be displayed.
Remember that you’re in charge of your own actions, you can always mute the voices or avoid mentioning yourself at all.
Furthermore, newbs always get picked on. Just like how seniors pick on freshman’s.
The majority in any community will always be able to get away with harassing the minority, either get used to it, adapt, or sign off.

Posted by Jax | 6:23 pm on February 1, 2007.

Some of the above comments look as if they were written by the idiots who commit this sort of behaviour on-line. You do realise that you AREN’T actually being killed don’t you, and that it’s only a GAME. It’s meant to be fun, not an excuse to abuse or exclude someone. Being abusive to new players is in no way constructive. You were new once, but you all seem to forget that. Hurling offensive insults at new gamers, especially women is never justifiable, right or amusing. ever.

Posted by mikemurk | 7:35 pm on February 1, 2007.

I play World of Warcraft and have found few instances of sexist or racist abuse against other players.
There is a real sense of community and with so many players to interact with, it is easy to ignore the less mature players.
The Guilds are generally self-policing and this allows the majority of players to enjoy the gaming experience without having to endure abuse from other players.

Posted by Lensman | 6:58 am on February 2, 2007.

Lensman, you are right, but then World of Warcraft players are a different breed of player. 99.9% are become part of a community on thier Realm and respect others as though it was Real Life. Although I do have an Xbox360 I have yet to venture to the online gaming area and this is a bad advert for it from what I have read so far.

Posted by Shewarrior | 8:02 am on February 2, 2007.

I loved this article. I believe online gameplay can become an easier experience if people really do use the feedback system that microsoft provides. Use it people!!

As for me, I am a girl gamer and these bad experiences happen a lot! but there have been few to really support me and we’ve come to form great relationships. When bad ones come up i just tend to turn my mic off and continue playing….

Thank you for this article. I enjoyed it very much.

Posted by GeeDeth | 1:53 pm on September 27, 2007.