Halo 4 Sexism Earns You a Lifetime Ban

Karloff

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Halo 4 Sexism Earns You a Lifetime Ban



Halo 4 executive producer Kiki Wolfkill and 343i head Bonnie Ross decry Xbox Live sexism.

"There are always going to be jerks out there," says Kiki Wolfkill, the woman Microsoft put in charge of the Halo IP, talking about the problems giving adolescents a broadcast mechanism. "If you give them a way to express that side of their personality without being seen," Wolfkill went on to say, "you're going to see this type of behaviour manifest itself." That's why there's a zero tolerance policy for sexist or discriminatory comments on Xbox Live; players who fall foul of the policy face a lifetime ban from the network.

Both Wolfkill and Bonnie Ross, head of 343 Industries and thus in charge of Halo 4's development, see dealing with the jerk problem as the developer's responsibility. Hence the zero tolerance for sexist comments, but they also feel it's the developer's job to make sure that the game doesn't portray itself in a bad light.

"As developers, we have a personal responsibility to think about how our games come across," said Ross. "With Halo 4, we were very deliberate in thinking about who should be female and who should be male in the game, and if we came off stereotypical, we went back to question what we were doing and why."

Both Ross and Wolkfill are prominent female gamers, but neither wants gender to be their defining characteristic. "When Microsoft created 343 Industries to take over Halo," Ross said, "I was given first choice to run the studio because I had proven myself. My gender played no part in it."

Wolfkill went on to add that perhaps consumer responsibility had a role to play in the way the industry is perceived. A change in perspective, she thinks, is in order; gaming isn't an exclusively male-dominated area any more.

Halo 4 is due out November 6th, exclusively for the Xbox 360.

Source: Gamespot [http://uk.gamespot.com/news/halo-4-devs-speak-out-against-sexism-6399205]


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Terminate421

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If there is one thing I always respected is that Halo had the Aliens feel with its Marines, I know Halo was actually inspired by the Alien and Predator movies combined to make awesomeness (Not AvP) but the fact that there are marines, even ODSTs, and Spartans who are females only adds to the credibility of the franchise.

Now take that to the design team and BOOM great diversity.

Anywho, how come I feel like SOMEONE out there will see this as a bad thing?

Only a few more days......go faster......
 

Erttheking

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...I have no problem with this at all. Frankly Xbox live is fill of assholes who use swears the way some of us use the word "the". It could use a little population control. And while I haven't actually seen any online sexism (then again I can't remember the last time I actually met a girl on xbox live, place is a total sausage fest) I don't doubt that it exists and is a major problem. I don't see how a developer putting their foot down and saying "we're not going to tolerate this bullshit" can be considered a bad thing
 

Counter_Southpaw

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I hope this doesn't infringe upon my frequent habit of trashtalking the opposing team.

It's a Halo past-time, for God's sake!
 
Apr 28, 2008
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I'm ok with this. Now I won't have to deal with these pricks and have them shout "white knight ******!" at me when I ask them to stop harassing the one woman in the game because it's both rude and fucking annoying.
 

Erttheking

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Counter_Southpaw said:
I hope this doesn't infringe upon my frequent habit of trashtalking the opposing team.

It's a Halo past-time, for God's sake!
There's a difference between trash talking someone and throwing sexist comments around. I think you'll be fine.
 

Awexsome

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Mar 25, 2009
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The harder Xbox Live gets cracked down on the better. The community has gotten a whole lot better as a whole with CoD being the big "it" game right now but any thinning out of those kind of people should be accepted with open arms.

A lot of people will be brought kicking and screaming (banned) into this new attitude that needs to be adopted for the better of the entire gaming community. I hope they stick with it.

Quite the coincidence how I just finished watching the Big Picture episode on the old fighting game community controversy. I still agree with that. "It's just how things are" is no excuse. Change it for the better. By force if needed and with anonymity online it will be.
 

Mister Six

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I see two effects, either it has no actual effect and no one gets band, or the majority of Halo's playerbase get's the banhammer. Mostly because cussing people out has become so ingrained in the playerbase that if they do actually follow through with this it'll kill off a good chunk of their customers, which will only lead to bad things for 5 and 6.
 

Roxas1359

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Aug 8, 2009
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Thank goodness, maybe now I'll get Live again. Seriously the online community on Live is so out of control. I hear the f bomb dropped by kids than I can count. Plus I got tired of receiving spam from people thinking my Gamer Tag says "Mexican" when there isn't even a 'c' in it.
 

Nihlus2

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I dunno, what do you say Obi-Wan? Care to sum this up?

Obi-Wan:
I felt a great disturbance in the force... as if a million young socially ackwarded teens suddenly all cried out at once, then perma-silenced. Something wonderful just happened!
 

Rainboq

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Nov 19, 2009
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YES! FUCKING FINALLY! No more stupid comments just because I have two x chromosones!

captcha: move mountains

Seems like they have captcha, seems like it indeed.
 

Zombiefish

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Interested to know how they will handle this. Many 'sexist' comments are made jokingly. My friends often tease me 'oh no wonder you died you're a girl' and its never mean in a derogatory manner, but glad to see something is being done.
 

Snowblindblitz

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I like this. Hopefully, it's more of a report basis, followed by investigation.

Plus, I kept reading her name as "Wolfkill" at first, and thought to myself, now that's a hardass name. Truly. I wish I had a name as hardcore as that.
 

obedai

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I do approve of this zero-tolerance stance, although I think a perma-ban is a tad harsh. My personal strategy would be 3 strikes: warning, short ban (2-3 weeks), permaban
 

squid5580

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Feb 20, 2008
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I will not tolerate the sun!!! It just sits there up in the sky sending down heat and cancer causing UV rays. I am gonna ban it from the universe. It is about as believable as what she said. Good PR though
 

Meight08

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Feb 16, 2011
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Meh i'm not interested in another overhyped crappy 60 fov aim assisted console fps but it's good to see MS doing something about this.
 

kburns10

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Sep 10, 2012
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I can see people crying wolf with this because they got owned in a game, but I'm sure 343 is prepared for that and will do the proper digging before banning.
 

AnarchistAbe

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Sep 10, 2009
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erttheking said:
Counter_Southpaw said:
I hope this doesn't infringe upon my frequent habit of trashtalking the opposing team.

It's a Halo past-time, for God's sake!
There's a difference between trash talking someone and throwing sexist comments around. I think you'll be fine.
Is there? Is "*****" a sexist remark? Is it sexist when I say it to a female, but not when I say it to a male? Is it worth a permaban to joke about "getting back to the kitchen"? Why is it ok for me to be as blatantly racist as possible, but sexism is off limits? Who determines these invisible lines which we can't cross, or we are banned from the service forever?

These are all questions you have to ask. I'm not saying the IDEA is bad. I'm saying that permabans are bad. Find these players, and remove their in-game chat privileges, or temp-ban them for 24 - 48 hours. What we're talking about is COMPLETELY REMOVING THEIR ABILITY TO PLAY ONLINE, because someone found their remarks "sexist"...
 

AnarchistAbe

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Sep 10, 2009
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DVS BSTrD said:
As much as I think Xbox live badly needs to reigned in, I hope they're not ovary vindictive with the enforcement.
That's my biggest issue. It's a "who watches the watchers" scenario that we're lovingly embracing...

I'm all for muting players that are reported too much, but a perma-ban seems a bit extreme.