Microsoft Apologizes to Gay Gamers, Considers Solutions

Lord_Ascendant

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Jan 14, 2008
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i do not believe this will go to court and win, seriously

all the anti-homosexual stuff today will keep it from getting fixed.


good luck if they try, I've got time to work on my Geothermal Ion Array.
 

Jumplion

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Mar 10, 2008
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Infiniteloop said:
Jumplion said:
And just for the record, putting your personal info on a personal profile is private.
If it's on the internet, it's not private.

/thread
Maybe I was using the word "private" to a stretch, but it's still personal info that you choose to put up. It's not required or necessary, so I don't see why people are all arguing about how "she deserves to be banned!" and "let her put whatever she wants on her profile!".
 

keptsimple

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Feb 26, 2009
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Jumplion said:
Maybe I was using the word "private" to a stretch, but it's still personal info that you choose to put up. It's not required or necessary, so I don't see why people are all arguing about how "she deserves to be banned!" and "let her put whatever she wants on her profile!".
Exactly. Your XBL profile has a section called "Bio" which instructs the user to "Enter some information about yourself." Clearly, Microsoft is telling users to talk about their life outside of gaming.
 

jad4400

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Jun 12, 2008
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I think that the check box thing represents a decent compromise, sensative stuff like your sexual orientation can be in your profile, without retards being able to use bashing terms in their profile. So basically I think that the censorship should remain (so that the aformentioned retards cannot use derogatory terms, or the terms in a bashing or derogatory manner), but sensitve topics should be in the check box, so that the honest people who just simply want to express themselves can.

For those rare cases, like Mr. Gaywood, just use common sense, did the man really think that using his last name on Xbox live was a good idea. I mean I can understand wanting to use your name in an Xbox profile or even a gamertag (I have my first name in my gamertag), but using the name Gaywood, even if it is your true name strikes me as inprudent thinking considering how easily the name can garner insults, laughs and jokes. Just ask yourself, if you herd the name Gaywood on Xbox live what would you do?

A. Say "what an interesting name, what part in the world did it come from"?
OR
B. Laugh and chuckle

I bet that even some of the more mature gamers would giggle at the name Gaywood
 

Raven's Nest

Elite Member
Feb 19, 2009
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I don't see why being gay or lesbian has anything to do with playing games. Much the same as being a man or a woman. Or transexual for that matter. Anyone who breaks from societies 'norms' can expect a few raised eyebrows and most that I know of deal with the criticism admirably. At the end of the day your profile is your profile. You should be able to put whatever you want in it. Personally I wouldn't care if your gay and and I'm playing a round of Quake III with you, as just what the FCUK does it matter to me anyway.

I don't like hip-hop or R'n'B, so I don't go to clubs that play that music. If someone walks into the pub I happen to be in and puts it on the jukebox, that doesn't give me the right to walk over and turn it off.
 
Feb 13, 2008
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Uncompetative said:
I think your profile should contain specific fields for:

- Gender
- Sexual Orientation
- Height
- Weight
- whether you are Left or Right handed, or Ambidextrous
- Date of your last sexual conquest
- How fast you can run
Going back to this jest for the moment; can you see people being hounded for being female, lesbian, short, fat, lefthanded, virgin/slag, liar?

Any personal info allows asshats to bully you. What Microsoft should do is, on the title screen (not stuck in the EULA on page 17), come out(heh) and say that certain people do get targetted online and here's how to report them.

Then state which words it doesn't allow and why.

Title screen. Not just hidden away to keep either Nutball#101 or GayNutball#102 happy.
 

Seydaman

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Nov 21, 2008
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Vanguard_Ex said:
Yeah, ok, I can see why this is being looked into by Microsoft, but to be fair, like Rednog said before me, XBL is just for gaming, it's not a dating site. Besides, it's not like they've censored vital information, she doesn't really need to inform people who look at her profile that she is a lesbian. Like anyone gives a shit anyway?
there are assholes who do..
 

keptsimple

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Feb 26, 2009
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I am continuously surprised at the number of boneheads who believe one or more of the following:

(1) She listed herself as a lesbian because she was looking for a date.

(2) XBL profiles should only be about gaming, even though the profile contains fields clearly intended for non-gaming information.

(3) Sexuality should always be kept private.

(4) If you personally feel that a piece of information is irrelevant, then others should be barred from talking about it.

(5) The term of service at issue was neutral, even though it relied entirely on user complaints for enforcement.
 

Anton P. Nym

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Sep 18, 2007
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Has anybody caught Major Nelson's "blogcast" [http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/03/01/show-310-xbox-live-policy-h-a-w-x-and-wheelman.aspx] this week? The first fifteen minutes (roughly) are taken up by this very issue, discussed in a round-table between the Major, e, litheon, and Stephen Toulouse... the latter being the Chief Wielder of the Banhammer on Xbox Live, who is asking the member in question to contact him so she can give her side of the story directly; he's decidedly not happy about how it was handled. The round-table goes over why the policy was in place, what it was set in place to prevent, previous attempts to change the policy and why they weren't implemented, and discussion of what should have happened when this boiled over.

-- Steve

edited to add: Oh, yeah, almost forgot; all those folks who said Live wouldn't ban anyone with "straight" in their profile? Um, bad call apparently, as a great many people found out firsthand.
 

Ragnaught

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Oct 3, 2008
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My 2 Cents,

Straight to the point, Terms and Conditions state clearly that any Sexual related information is not permitted on Xbox Live, period.

That is how they were at the time of the incident, it's stated in black and white, or green and white if you're signing up on an original Xbox.

Political correctness is no excuse for blatantly ignoring the rules.

I haven't and will not write "I am straight, engaged and soon to be married to the most gorgeous person on the planet, planning to start a family" in my profile despite it being the truth from my point of view, why? Because quite frankly, no one wants to hear it on Live as it is purely a gaming and video sharing system, if someone does, there's facebook for that and I'll gladly give you the link upon request if you give a damn.

It would also breach the terms and conditions of Xbox Live.

This argument is utterly pointless, for there is no right answer, just a number of solutions with problems in each. I say that they should not let her state it as it does breach the contract that you had to tick the box of when signing xbox live membership, had the common man/woman bothered to read it and take it in, they would know. Richard Gaywood should also know the common knowledge that unless it is hidden from plane site, you use an alias online as it's very risky to have your real name in your live account name, but I'd suggest you maybe get a better name, it doesn't take long to get your actual name changed via a form from the government, it would take what, 2-3 days, just think of all the workplace and online bullying you could prevent. Common Sense just isn't that common it would seem.

Ragnaught
 

Sylocat

Sci-Fi & Shakespeare
Nov 13, 2007
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I still remember Cracked magazine describing Xbox Live as "an online homophobia club for pre-teen Tourette's sufferers."
 

Kodlak

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Feb 5, 2009
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Why am I not surprise that 95-98% of people were using the word 'gay' in a derogatory way. It all those kids that think it's funny and they are cool. It doesn't bother me much personally but I know some homosexuals and they get really upset about that sort of thing.
 

the monopoly guy

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May 8, 2008
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Jumplion said:
I think the HOME fiasco and this situation are a little bit different.

With the HOME censoring "gay" "lesbian" and "bisexual" or something, those words are easily used for insults and can easily be shown in front of a crowd and shown in a large group, which means that anyone can see it whether they like it or not. So to prevent from "offending" anyone, they censored it, though ironically they offended someone anyway. (I guarantee you that if they didn't censor it it would be a fiasco anywya, but I'm not going to say if what they did was "right".)
And thus the monopoly guy's law comes into play

"No matter what, no matter how hard you try, someone will be offended"
 

IsoNeko

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Oct 6, 2008
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For the most part, the banning and reporting system is automated. If alot of people, in a long amount of time. Reports on the same thing, then the appropriate measures are taken. Like an Automated ban. This doesn't include multiple reports all at once by a group of people. So obviously this had been going on a long time.

Besides, in the Xbox 360. Your looking for a media system, not your blog. Microsoft didn't need to back down.
 

Miral

Random Lurker
Jun 6, 2008
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CantFaketheFunk said:
While some gamers have suggested that Microsoft simply just allow people to use the word "gay" in their profiles, the problem isn't quite so simple, says Mr. Toulouse. After issues first arose regarding complaints about the use of "gay" in profiles and user names, Toulouse's team combed through the profiles in question and found that in 95% to 98% of the cases, people who used the word were using it in a derogatory sense.
This is the bit that really puzzles me. Perhaps it's just because I don't use XBL myself, but how exactly can a user profile use it in a derogatory way? The profile is presumably written by the person that it is about, so the only one that they can demean by it is themselves. And, well, if someone wants to insult themselves on their profile, I guess it just provides evidence about what sort of person they are anyway.

(Not that it's demeaning in itself, although evidently some people think so.)
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Miral said:
CantFaketheFunk said:
While some gamers have suggested that Microsoft simply just allow people to use the word "gay" in their profiles, the problem isn't quite so simple, says Mr. Toulouse. After issues first arose regarding complaints about the use of "gay" in profiles and user names, Toulouse's team combed through the profiles in question and found that in 95% to 98% of the cases, people who used the word were using it in a derogatory sense.
This is the bit that really puzzles me. Perhaps it's just because I don't use XBL myself, but how exactly can a user profile use it in a derogatory way? The profile is presumably written by the person that it is about, so the only one that they can demean by it is themselves. And, well, if someone wants to insult themselves on their profile, I guess it just provides evidence about what sort of person they are anyway.

(Not that it's demeaning in itself, although evidently some people think so.)
"I hate gays"? "If you're losing and quit you're gay"? Something like that.
 

Orekoya

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Sep 24, 2008
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Anonymouse said:
Yeah, Ima go ahead and side with the "why the fuck do we need to know your sexuality" group. Its only a issue with gays and lesbians. How often do straight people feel the need to advertise. Plus well, I like blue cheese. Why don't all gaming sites have a special section for what my favourite cheese is?

As for the name thing perhaps a auto checker and those that do not pass get sent to a human to read and choose to validate or not.
Oh jeez another one of these threads. Gay Gamer Issues. x.x And it inevitably always turns out the same, two groups, one group screaming "this is for gaming, not your sexuality" to the other group that's trying to remind them in vain that everywhere, including gaming, the heterosexual agenda is routinely jammed down our collective throats to which straight gamers turn a blind eye towards usually because the heterosexual agenda comes with showing lots of tits.
 

scape

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Mar 4, 2009
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If you're online and playing games then, thats it.
It should not be taken into account whether or not your single, taken, hetro or homosexual, white or black, big or small.

I can't seem to think people are missing the point...