Halo 4 Sexism Earns You a Lifetime Ban

[6_Qubed]

I realize that being a gamer that is both 1.) male, and 2.) not involved with Halo online play at all, my post here will probably count for goose eggs. However, just the other day, I was playing Minecraft on XBox with some friends (a rare enough occurrence on its own) when one of my friend's other friends came online and joined the game. She was a female XBox gamer, literally the first one I've met since I bought the damn thing. It was like having a unicorn join the game. Being a fairly sweary ************, I found myself having to watch my language and mentally censor myself for fear of pissing her off.

You know something? I didn't really mind.

She was awesome. Her name was Theresa, she had an emoticon in her gamertag, we got into a punching match, it was awesome. If having to obey the cardinal rule of social etiquette (i.e. "Don't Be A Dick.") is the price of having similar gaming experiences, I really don't mind. I kinda hope I can play online with more unicorns.

 

[TheAsterite]

And I'm sure he would think you to be a racist for saying that his ideas created by his personal racial/cultural upbringing is inherently sexist. And it's not like his wife or daughters have no rights or anything, I went to highschool with his oldest daughter and he gives her complete freedom to do as she wants. Just because he and his wife (she chose to be a housewife mind you) are more old school doesn't make him sexist, at least not in my opinion.

You're operating under the assumption I'm white. Jokes on you cause I'm Asian and eventually realized that many things in Asian culture aren't right, and that all people are created equally. You know at one point it was just culture to own slaves, is that ok too? Did you ever stop to think his wife "chose" to be a housewife not because she wanted to but because she was pressured to because of the society they lived in?

 

[maddawg IAJI]

I think going to go to knitting clubs and blog sites and do manly things like swear a lot and talk about rough sex and heavy metal music. I mean, most people don't do that right? Well most men do that while playing games, it's normal and to be expected. So ladies, get used to it and stop swinging the double standard axe, because I'm tired of getting banned from my favorite servers that I insult and smack talk my friends when I killed but then one girl has an issue with me calling her a ****.

To delete this post, is to only solidify my point.

To solidify what point? That you have no self-control over what you say and believe that others should stand for your hurtful rhetoric? No, I'm sorry, but as a fellow Xbox-Live guy, you don't speak for me.

You're the maker of your own actions, if you get banned for what you say, you shouldn't go blaming others. That just shows that you didn't bother learning from your mistake.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

Sounds awesome, as long as it applies to both genders of course.

 

[Adaephon]

And I'm sure he would think you to be a racist for saying that his ideas created by his personal racial/cultural upbringing is inherently sexist. And it's not like his wife or daughters have no rights or anything, I went to highschool with his oldest daughter and he gives her complete freedom to do as she wants. Just because he and his wife (she chose to be a housewife mind you) are more old school doesn't make him sexist, at least not in my opinion.

You're operating under the assumption I'm white. Jokes on you cause I'm Asian and eventually realized that many things in Asian culture aren't right, and that all people are created equally. You know at one point it was just culture to own slaves, is that ok too? Did you ever stop to think his wife "chose" to be a housewife not because she wanted to but because she was pressured to because of the society they lived in?

I never said I agreed with anything he said, and I never assumed you were white (not that your ethnicity makes even the slightest difference in this anyways). What I was trying to get at was that what one person feels is sexist is not universal. And I was very good friends with the daughter so I did interact with both the man in question and his wife and I feel I can safely say that I have no idea whether or not her choice was originally her own or not, but i do know that she agrees that men should not raise children and women should not be breadwinners unless in extreme situations. I disagree, their kids disagree and clearly you disagree. That is fine, I don't care and they don't care. The eldest daughter decided not to go to university and instead went into a small business with her boyfriend. The parents don't agree with that but they haven't tried to stop her or anything, so what's the problem? I believe that anyone can have any opinion, no matter how good or evil it may be, as long as they don't actually hurt or actually act on that opinion (for all you know I really hate jews, but so long as I never say or do anything to express that, I have done nothing wrong)

Look, there are truly horrible things done by people exclusively due to what they feel are their cultural beliefs. Slavery is a good example I agree, but you're equating a belief with a practice, which is basically comparing apples to oranges. I don't think that anyone who feels slavery is a good thing is an evil person so long as they never act on that feeling. I very heavily disagree with the idea that slavery is good but so long as it is only a belief and there is no way for that person to enforce that belief, then I don't see how it could be inherently evil.

Now on the other hand, yeah I definitely would not want to associate with anyone who believes slavery is good or who believes women are inferior (not what the guy we're talking about believes btw, he thinks men and women are equal but different, in that they are of equal importance but not important in the same way, if that makes any sense). But I do believe that freedom of thought is the most important right a human can have and nothing can ever trump that.

One final thought, I know very well that the man we're talking about would not stop his wife if she one day decided to leave him and get a job and make a new life for herself, and I know that she knows this. In that vein alone I believe that she does willingly stay with him and willingly accept the position of a housewife, and that even if she was forced to marry him in the first place (I have no clue if she was or wasn't) she does love him and she doens't regret the fact that neither of them believe in women in the workplace.

 

[Awexsome]

Harassment in online games is a serious problem. If only there were a way to combat it.


But, why do that when you can just whine on the internet?

http://gemakei.com/content/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/clap-gif.gif

You win the thread.

herp de derp. It's not that hard.

But I have to admit, I feel this is awfully well... hmmmm...

Fuck it, being blunt, I keep thinking it figures a woman in charge would pull this permaban stunt over sexism... it just... I hate it but it's true.

Yes, those harrassed have the ability to ignore it. But why tolerate those kind of people in the first place? Get them the fuck out of my matchmaking. They wanna cry about it? Tough shit. Try not being a sexist asshole for Halo 5.

You're using the same process that said bigots use.

They wanna be black in the first place? Get them out of my fucking matchmaking. they wanna cry about it? Tough shit. Try not being black on halo 5.

It doesn't feel right. All you have to do is PERMA MUTE them for yourself and you'll never have to hear their shit again. and you can go right along and pwn their asses. It's not that complicated.

Telling the victims to use their means to ignore it is a worse option than actively stopping and kicking out those who are in the wrong in the first place.

Not really. The whole point of the mute system is because everyone and their dog fucking knows you cannot get everybody punished as they probably should, and it cannot always be done in a timely manner. (or EVEN FAIRLY, there are tons of people wrongfully punished) Otherwise when I report someone 5 seconds later said person would be punished and there would be no need for a mute system controlled per player...

Did you seriously just equate one person being sexist and an hurtful asshole to others to another person's race?! I would think people are sane enough to tell that being black isn't a reason to be kicked out but being a harassing sexist is.

I refuse to accept that doing nothing is better than doing something to try and clean up the online community. Permamuting still does nothing to deter the asshole in the first place and gives them no reason to shape up when running into another girl. To a lot of those sexists and sometimes to the victim themselves the mute means the asshole's won and they can continue on to harassing the next person.

There will undoubtedly be some attempts at abuse of the system and likely some wrongful bans but that's a price we need to pay to clean this shit up. Fear of missing a step is no excuse to not go forward.

 

[Awexsome]

As much as I would love to see trolls and general ass holes to get what's coming to them, free speech goes both ways. But this is getting pretty ridicules. Every time I hear someone praise KiKi Wolfkill for this "Zero-tolerance" perma-ban system, I imagine people thanking the glorious Big Brother for their poor harvest and reduced chocolate rations. If you want to see how this system works, go take a vacation to the DPRK.

Don't like what someone is saying? Mute them.

Don't like the messages they're sending you? Block them.

Don't like that you actually have to mute and block people and everyone should like you unconditionally? May the real world have mercy on you.

So I won't be buying this iteration of Halo. Because I don't want to get banned for calling someone "a fucking whore" that use the sword to camp.

Good. The Halo community had developed a bad reputation in the first place from people like you. More worried about their "free speech" than anything about how that speech effected others. Good riddance.

And by the way, your free speech doesn't exist on Xbox Live. They have full rights to remove assholes as they see fit. Don't like it? Please by all means go elsewhere, you save them the time weeding you out.

 

[conmag9]

While it's a nice sentiment, I'm almost universally wary of measures this extreme. It can be abused. Don't like someone? Report them for sexist behavior. Unless they keep audio records of every match (which, forgive me if I'm wrong, sounds incredibly infeasible), it's your word against theirs. So either it's a ban on someone else's word or it doesn't do anything at all (with some middle ground, of course. But even something like multiple complaints needn't wouldn't be enough to stop anyone whose persistent and has a few friends).

 

[Paradoxrifts]

As much as I think Xbox live badly needs to reigned in, I hope they're not ovary vindictive with the enforcement.

Don't you think that it's well past time for the good, honest ordinary people took the Xbox Live trolls head on, and delivered an ultimatum; that it is either Uterus.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

As much as I would love to see trolls and general ass holes to get what's coming to them, free speech goes both ways. But this is getting pretty ridicules. Every time I hear someone praise KiKi Wolfkill for this "Zero-tolerance" perma-ban system, I imagine people thanking the glorious Big Brother for their poor harvest and reduced chocolate rations. If you want to see how this system works, go take a vacation to the DPRK.

Don't like what someone is saying? Mute them.

Don't like the messages they're sending you? Block them.

Don't like that you actually have to mute and block people and everyone should like you unconditionally? May the real world have mercy on you.

So I won't be buying this iteration of Halo. Because I don't want to get banned for calling someone "a fucking whore" that use the sword to camp.

Male gamers as a whole don't get it. It is not one or two instances of people "being dicks." It's every single time you open you mouth in a gaming environment while in possession of a feminine username or voice. It's constant abuse. it's people remembering your username and following you out of the match and telling all their buddies. It's never, ever about the game, it's about the fact that you are a lady and you don't belong here, so we will harass you until you leave.

It is not about sensitivity, it's about abuse.

And it needs to stop.

Debunked.

The problem with this is that by allowing them to continue, you're not helping anyone. You're just allowing that asshat to continue being an asshat to another individual and that not only affects the individual being called a **** or a slut, it also affects the image of the community as a whole. Its for that reason why a twelve year old shouting racist slurs has become the posterchild for most CoD players. So...ya....excuse the 343 studio team for wanting to keep the game friendly to all and, god forbid, free of assholes.

 

[SecondPrize]

There are dark alleyways in port cities where I'd much rather spend time than on Xbox live, because the company in those alleys is far more polite.
I didn't actually read anything that suggest microsoft will be actively enforcing their policies any harder once halo drops, the 343 people just stated what is current live policy, you can get permabanned for being a jerkass. However, I wouldn't mind if they started a big push because it would provide more content for that whywasibanned website.

 

[hazabaza1]

snip]

I really don't get how people find the new Cortana the least bit attractive. She's got saggy granny boobies and stuff.

 

[Fijiman]

then again I can't remember the last time I actually met a girl on xbox live, place is a total sausage fest

Sausage fest? Like 60% of the people that actually use their mics are squeakers from my experience. Although I can't remember the last time I heard a girl on XBL. I think I may have heard one yesterday but then again I'm not sure.

OT: I imagine that there will be plenty of people who will end up getting banned without actually doing anything, but that's always been the case on XBL. I just hope that they try their best to only weed out those who actually need to be banned and not those who might just be having a bad day.

 

[A Satanic Panda]

As much as I would love to see trolls and general ass holes to get what's coming to them, free speech goes both ways. But this is getting pretty ridicules. Every time I hear someone praise KiKi Wolfkill for this "Zero-tolerance" perma-ban system, I imagine people thanking the glorious Big Brother for their poor harvest and reduced chocolate rations. If you want to see how this system works, go take a vacation to the DPRK.

Don't like what someone is saying? Mute them.

Don't like the messages they're sending you? Block them.

Don't like that you actually have to mute and block people and everyone should like you unconditionally? May the real world have mercy on you.

So I won't be buying this iteration of Halo. Because I don't want to get banned for calling someone "a fucking whore" that use the sword to camp.

Good. The Halo community had developed a bad reputation in the first place from people like you. More worried about their "free speech" than anything about how that speech effected others. Good riddance.

And by the way, your free speech doesn't exist on Xbox Live. They have full rights to remove assholes as they see fit. Don't like it? Please by all means go elsewhere, you save them the time weeding you out.

Well you didn't have to slam the door as I walked out. I'm just saying there's already systems in place for dealing with trolls and assholes. Permbaning everyone that said something that might have been offensive is complete overkill and unjust to consumers. Remember when EA banned people from Origin and revoked all their games for being even suspect to breaking Terms and Conditions on forums? What makes getting banned because you called someone a **** or fag out of frustration any less okay?

And yes, as part of the privet sector they can enforce punishment against free speech. However, I'm going to keep protesting this because I feel it is unjust. And there's not a thing anyone can do to stop me. Other than provide a convincing argument otherwise.

 

[viranimus]

Yet again the march of a politically correct world makes a bold and gigantic leap forward.... that ends in full on face plant.

I swear, the sheer idiocy.

One mans tolerance is another mans hate speech.

Its always best to cure the disease by killing the patient, amirite? huh? huh?

 

[OtherSideofSky]

Fine, just as long as there's a set of clear guidelines for what constitutes a ban-able remark and a system in place to actually review what happened before issuing bans instead of just basing it on user reports.

Also, I really hope they apply this in a gender-neutral way. I've had plenty of online matches spoiled by gender-specific insults without being a woman and it would really improve my experience as a player if those people went away too.

 

[A Satanic Panda]

Debunked.

The problem with this is that by allowing them to continue, you're not helping anyone. You're just allowing that asshat to continue being an asshat to another individual and that not only affects the individual being called a **** or a slut, it also affects the image of the community as a whole. Its for that reason why a twelve year old shouting racist slurs has become the posterchild for most CoD players. So...ya....excuse the 343 studio team for wanting to keep the game friendly to all and, god forbid, free of assholes.

Everyone can mute and block people. You can't complain that you got harassed when there is a very straight forward way of stopping it. So what that they can go and be an asshat someone else. They can block him too.

 

[m19]

So who is going to be the judge of what's sexist or not?