Halo 4 Sexism Earns You a Lifetime Ban

[Bashfluff]

Read the article, racism gets you the ban hammer as well. Also, as a woman, the sexism on XBL really needs to be reined in, I've had a lot of fun times absolutely ruined by people telling me to go get in the kitchen.

Are you really so sensitive that you allow random dicks on the internet to spoil your fun?

Its not one, or two, but dozens upon dozens, constantly messaging me for pics and to be friends and/or shouting at me to get back in the kitchen.

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.

They probably won't ever get it, because they aren't subject to it. They speak from the position of the outsider, if they were to walk a mile in our shoes...


On a side note: I love you avatar! What's it from?

Of course. The only reason we disagree is because we're not subjected to discrimination. As a bi male, I would love to hear your reasoning behind this. I can still understand what your position is without sharing it.

I'm not saying that's why people don't disagree. I'm saying that its because they don't understand the scope of it. And you know what? If it doesn't bother you? Fine, but I don't want to be harassed during my lesure time.

Here's what you said: "They probably won't ever get it, because they aren't subject to it. They speak from the position of the outsider, if they were to walk a mile in our shoes..."

You DID say that. How is that that we are somehow outsiders when we are subjected to the same thing on Xbox live, and more than that in real life? You complain about how "they don't understand the scope of it". How much more ignorant can you get when talking to someone who is part of one of the most hated and discriminated against minorities...ever? And it's worse than that. Gamers as a whole are subject to discrimination. The nerds/jock thing still holds as true today as yesterday. If you're going to disagree with me, then fine. But if you attribute that to, "Hey, this person hasn't endured the same level of discrimination as being called a ***** on Xbox live!"...

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

That's freedom of speech

I'm sorry, but not all of us live in 'merica [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS-FoXbjVI]. In Canada, we have laws the put exceptions for hate speech in our freedom of speech legislation.

True, not everybody is American but you know who is an American company? Microsoft and 343 Industries. So your comment about Canadian law is nothing more than a red herring about how American companies should regulate their products to Americans.

 

[Rainboq]

So basically "your rights end where my feelings begin"? Since when did game producers have a say in what people do on Xbox live.

Don't be obtuse. This isn't about my poor widdle fee-fees. This is about the fact that XBL has such a systemic culture of hate that folks like me literally don't want to go anywhere near it. It doesn't matter how much I love a game and want to be part of its online community-- I am not going to go into an environment that is unsafe and abusive. I don't need your sexist, homophobia, racist bullshit in my escapist past time.

To be honest, if most Halo 4 gamers end up permabanned for this, then good. It's a long time coming. If you cannot play a game and trash talk without coloring your language with hate speech, thereby breaching the terms of conduct, then you deserve to be banned.

This is a small step to making games more inclusive and I'm thrilled about it. Maybe my 360 will stop collecting dust on my shelf.

So it IS my poor little fee-fees. If you say something over the internet I find offensive while playing a video game with me, you don't deserve to play that video game online. I'm sorry, but I cannot view the freedom of speech as less important than your want to not be offended.
You are not "unsafe". It's an online video game. Someone telling you to get back in the kitchen is not abuse. This will not make games more inclusive, but turn people off, because if there is one thing that gamers love, it's people trying to control their speech. You may not like others' "sexist, homophobic, racist bullshit," but I don't like your overeactionary, thin-skinned, oppressive bullshit. Does that mean that you no longer get to play Halo online?

That's freedom of speech

I'm sorry, but not all of us live in 'merica [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS-FoXbjVI]. In Canada, we have laws the put exceptions for hate speech in our freedom of speech legislation. Also, it is harrasment.

Lets define our terms, shall we?

[HEADING=2]Psychological harassment[/HEADING]
This is humiliating, intimidating or abusive behaviour which is often difficult to detect leaving no evidence other than victim reports or complaints. This characteristically lowers a person?s self-esteem or causes them torment. This can take the form of verbal comments, engineered episodes of intimidation, aggressive actions or repeated gestures. Falling into this category is workplace harassment by individuals or groups mobbing.
Community-based Harassment ? stalking by a group against an individual using repeated distractions that the individual is sensitized to. Media reports of large numbers of coordinated groups stalking individual stalking victims, including a press interview given by an active duty police lieutenant, have described this community-based harassment as gang stalking.

[HEADING=2]Sexual harassment[/HEADING]
Harassment that can happen anywhere but is most common in the workplace, and schools. It involves unwanted and unwelcome words, deeds, actions, gestures, symbols, or behaviours of a sexual nature that make the target feel uncomfortable. Gender and sexual orientation harassment fall into this family. Involving children, "gay" or "homo" is a common insult falling into this category. The main focus of groups working against sexual harassment is protection for women, but protection for men is coming to light in recent years.

Source. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harassment]

Hon, I'm not talking about legislation. I didn't say, "That's freedom of speech," as in the first amendment to the American Constitution. I said, "I cannot view the freedom of speech as less important than your want to not be offended," as in I view the freedom people have to say what they want on an online game to be more important than others not wanting to be offended.

It's a pity you didn't define harassment using a legal dictionary.

harassment (either harris-meant or huh-rass-meant) n. the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one party or a group, including threats and demands. The purposes may vary, including racial prejudice, personal malice, an attempt to force someone to quit a job or grant sexual favors, apply illegal pressure to collect a bill, or merely gain sadistic pleasure from making someone fearful or anxious. Such activities may be the basis for a lawsuit if due to discrimination based on race or sex, a violation on the statutory limitations on collection agencies, involve revenge by an ex-spouse, or be shown to be a form of blackmail ("I'll stop bothering you, if you'll go to bed with me"). The victim may file a petition for a "stay away" (restraining) order, intended to prevent contact by the offensive party. A systematic pattern of harassment by an employee against another worker may subject the employer to a lawsuit for failure to protect the worker.

Saying a few words over an online match is not harassment. If they DO turn it into harassment (you do mention other people stalking you outside matches and other such things; those things would be characterized as harassment), then sure, ban them. But that's not what this is. They're not saying, "Let's ban everyone who harasses others!" It's, "Let's ban people who say "offensive" things."

I see you didn't read your definition.

harassment (either harris-meant or huh-rass-meant) n. the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one party or a group, including threats and demands. The purposes may vary, including racial prejudice, personal malice, an attempt to force someone to quit a job or grant sexual favors, apply illegal pressure to collect a bill, or merely gain sadistic pleasure from making someone fearful or anxious.Such activities may be the basis for a lawsuit if due to discrimination based on race or sex, a violation on the statutory limitations on collection agencies, involve revenge by an ex-spouse, or be shown to be a form of blackmail ("I'll stop bothering you, if you'll go to bed with me"). The victim may file a petition for a "stay away" (restraining) order, intended to prevent contact by the offensive party. A systematic pattern of harassment by an employee against another worker may subject the employer to a lawsuit for failure to protect the worker.

I'd say what goes on pretty much amounts to harassment, I have had people systematically harassment to get back in the kitchen or send them photos of myself, including making new accounts to get around blocks and bans. Its pretty much reduced my xBox to nothing but an expensive dust collector because the shit that goes on. I've had entire clans gather around harassing me (including sending photos of themselves naked to me) because I had the audacity to play online and not be a guy. The more tools I have at my disposal to deal with such fuckwits, the better.

 

[chadachada123]

Read the article, racism gets you the ban hammer as well. Also, as a woman, the sexism on XBL really needs to be reined in, I've had a lot of fun times absolutely ruined by people telling me to go get in the kitchen.

Have you ever had completely awesome times that directly related to you being a woman?

I know one girl that I played with who was really cool, and every time a sexist guy started talking shit, me and her and her other buddies would troll the shit out of him, having a grand ol' time.

I feel similar reserves as the quoted guy, though, about what words actually constitute rule breaking and what ones don't. I use ***** and **** in general usage as an all-around dehumanizer, and wouldn't want (nor would I deserve) a PERMANENT ban for something as stupid as calling some asshole a ***** when they turned out to be female.

I agree that the outright harassment needs to go, absolutely, and that in general many players are complete assholes (though this applies just as much, in my experience, to PC gamers). I just feel that we need to be careful about the line between sexism and trash-talking.

Plus, there's always the mute button for particularly problematic people.

 

[mitchell271]

Don't see a problem with this. If this nerfs trolls and twelve-year-olds who somehow learned the word, "****" then there's less idiots online for me to worry about.

Quick aside, is her name really Wolfkill? That's awesome!

Captcha: magical realism

 

[Bashfluff]

snip

I would think that the fact that it is a constant problem on Xbox Live, to the point where some women don't want to plug their mikes in out of fear of having to deal with it, it constitutes as continued and systematic. Pretty sure that the people that do this do it to just about every woman that they meet online, and in the process make said woman feel very uncomfortable. It's not expressing freedom of speech, it's not expressing your opinion, it's being malicious for no good reason. It's disgusting and as far as I'm concerned it deserves to be stamped out.

Just because it's disgusting doesn't mean it's not speech or someone's opinion. Harassment cannot be defined as such, because harassment is about one or more persons, well, harassing another person. If you're not actually being harassed personally, you can't say that you've been harassed, because you haven't. It's like if I said I'm being harassed when someone across the street calls the gay kid next door "******" because I'm not straight.

When it becomes harassment, deal with it, sure. But don't institute a zero tolerance policy for any discriminatory remarks, because that's not just fighting harassment. That's overkill, and it has real consequences.

 

[Bashfluff]

So basically "your rights end where my feelings begin"? Since when did game producers have a say in what people do on Xbox live.

Don't be obtuse. This isn't about my poor widdle fee-fees. This is about the fact that XBL has such a systemic culture of hate that folks like me literally don't want to go anywhere near it. It doesn't matter how much I love a game and want to be part of its online community-- I am not going to go into an environment that is unsafe and abusive. I don't need your sexist, homophobia, racist bullshit in my escapist past time.

To be honest, if most Halo 4 gamers end up permabanned for this, then good. It's a long time coming. If you cannot play a game and trash talk without coloring your language with hate speech, thereby breaching the terms of conduct, then you deserve to be banned.

This is a small step to making games more inclusive and I'm thrilled about it. Maybe my 360 will stop collecting dust on my shelf.

So it IS my poor little fee-fees. If you say something over the internet I find offensive while playing a video game with me, you don't deserve to play that video game online. I'm sorry, but I cannot view the freedom of speech as less important than your want to not be offended.
You are not "unsafe". It's an online video game. Someone telling you to get back in the kitchen is not abuse. This will not make games more inclusive, but turn people off, because if there is one thing that gamers love, it's people trying to control their speech. You may not like others' "sexist, homophobic, racist bullshit," but I don't like your overeactionary, thin-skinned, oppressive bullshit. Does that mean that you no longer get to play Halo online?

That's freedom of speech

I'm sorry, but not all of us live in 'merica [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS-FoXbjVI]. In Canada, we have laws the put exceptions for hate speech in our freedom of speech legislation. Also, it is harrasment.

Lets define our terms, shall we?

[HEADING=2]Psychological harassment[/HEADING]
This is humiliating, intimidating or abusive behaviour which is often difficult to detect leaving no evidence other than victim reports or complaints. This characteristically lowers a person?s self-esteem or causes them torment. This can take the form of verbal comments, engineered episodes of intimidation, aggressive actions or repeated gestures. Falling into this category is workplace harassment by individuals or groups mobbing.
Community-based Harassment ? stalking by a group against an individual using repeated distractions that the individual is sensitized to. Media reports of large numbers of coordinated groups stalking individual stalking victims, including a press interview given by an active duty police lieutenant, have described this community-based harassment as gang stalking.

[HEADING=2]Sexual harassment[/HEADING]
Harassment that can happen anywhere but is most common in the workplace, and schools. It involves unwanted and unwelcome words, deeds, actions, gestures, symbols, or behaviours of a sexual nature that make the target feel uncomfortable. Gender and sexual orientation harassment fall into this family. Involving children, "gay" or "homo" is a common insult falling into this category. The main focus of groups working against sexual harassment is protection for women, but protection for men is coming to light in recent years.

Source. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harassment]

Hon, I'm not talking about legislation. I didn't say, "That's freedom of speech," as in the first amendment to the American Constitution. I said, "I cannot view the freedom of speech as less important than your want to not be offended," as in I view the freedom people have to say what they want on an online game to be more important than others not wanting to be offended.

It's a pity you didn't define harassment using a legal dictionary.

harassment (either harris-meant or huh-rass-meant) n. the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one party or a group, including threats and demands. The purposes may vary, including racial prejudice, personal malice, an attempt to force someone to quit a job or grant sexual favors, apply illegal pressure to collect a bill, or merely gain sadistic pleasure from making someone fearful or anxious. Such activities may be the basis for a lawsuit if due to discrimination based on race or sex, a violation on the statutory limitations on collection agencies, involve revenge by an ex-spouse, or be shown to be a form of blackmail ("I'll stop bothering you, if you'll go to bed with me"). The victim may file a petition for a "stay away" (restraining) order, intended to prevent contact by the offensive party. A systematic pattern of harassment by an employee against another worker may subject the employer to a lawsuit for failure to protect the worker.

Saying a few words over an online match is not harassment. If they DO turn it into harassment (you do mention other people stalking you outside matches and other such things; those things would be characterized as harassment), then sure, ban them. But that's not what this is. They're not saying, "Let's ban everyone who harasses others!" It's, "Let's ban people who say "offensive" things."

I see you didn't read your definition.

harassment (either harris-meant or huh-rass-meant) n. the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one party or a group, including threats and demands. The purposes may vary, including racial prejudice, personal malice, an attempt to force someone to quit a job or grant sexual favors, apply illegal pressure to collect a bill, or merely gain sadistic pleasure from making someone fearful or anxious.Such activities may be the basis for a lawsuit if due to discrimination based on race or sex, a violation on the statutory limitations on collection agencies, involve revenge by an ex-spouse, or be shown to be a form of blackmail ("I'll stop bothering you, if you'll go to bed with me"). The victim may file a petition for a "stay away" (restraining) order, intended to prevent contact by the offensive party. A systematic pattern of harassment by an employee against another worker may subject the employer to a lawsuit for failure to protect the worker.

I'd say what goes on pretty much amounts to harassment, I have had people systematically harassment to get back in the kitchen or send them photos of myself, including making new accounts to get around blocks and bans. Its pretty much reduced my xBox to nothing but an expensive dust collector because the shit that goes on. I've had entire clans gather around harassing me (including sending photos of themselves naked to me) because I had the audacity to play online and not be a guy. The more tools I have at my disposal to deal with such fuckwits, the better.

As a matter of fact, I did. That's why I posted it. You seem to be equating someone telling you to get back in the kitchen with systematic harassment. I'm arguing that trivializes ACTUAL harassment. Yes, by all means, ban people who harass others in that way. But this is more than that. This isn't banning people who harass others, but banning people who make remarks that others view as offensive. They're different things.

 

[White_Lama]

Sounds good to me, I don't really talk to anyone else but my friends on XBL anyways. Occasionly say "good game" or such to the enemy team.

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.

That's one of the best embedded videos I've seen on here with the perfect circumstance

 

[Erttheking]

snip

I would think that the fact that it is a constant problem on Xbox Live, to the point where some women don't want to plug their mikes in out of fear of having to deal with it, it constitutes as continued and systematic. Pretty sure that the people that do this do it to just about every woman that they meet online, and in the process make said woman feel very uncomfortable. It's not expressing freedom of speech, it's not expressing your opinion, it's being malicious for no good reason. It's disgusting and as far as I'm concerned it deserves to be stamped out.

Just because it's disgusting doesn't mean it's not speech or someone's opinion. Harassment cannot be defined as such, because harassment is about one or more persons, well, harassing another person. If you're not actually being harassed personally, you can't say that you've been harassed, because you haven't. It's like if I said I'm being harassed when someone across the street calls the gay kid next door "******" because I'm not straight.

When it becomes harassment, deal with it, sure. But don't institute a zero tolerance policy for any discriminatory remarks, because that's not just fighting harassment. That's overkill, and it has real consequences.

No offense, but I don't buy that "it's not harassment if it wasn't personal" argument. Like many women on this thread have pointed out, they've been put off playing on XBL or plugging in their mikes because of the crap that's been going on. And the thing is that is still harassment. It's not you that's getting harassed, but the thing is it's still harassment and shouldn't be allowed. If one woman on XBL plays a game where another woman gets told to head back to the kitchen, then she should still report the guy because he IS still being sexist, not to mention harassing another woman.

 

[Rainboq]

That's freedom of speech

I'm sorry, but not all of us live in 'merica [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS-FoXbjVI]. In Canada, we have laws the put exceptions for hate speech in our freedom of speech legislation.

True, not everybody is American but you know who is an American company? Microsoft and 343 Industries. So your comment about Canadian law is nothing more than a red herring about how American companies should regulate their products to Americans.

If you want to sell a product or service in a country, that product or service must comply with that countries laws.

 

[klaynexas3]

Read the article, racism gets you the ban hammer as well. Also, as a woman, the sexism on XBL really needs to be reined in, I've had a lot of fun times absolutely ruined by people telling me to go get in the kitchen.

Are you really so sensitive that you allow random dicks on the internet to spoil your fun?

Its not one, or two, but dozens upon dozens, constantly messaging me for pics and to be friends and/or shouting at me to get back in the kitchen.

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.

They probably won't ever get it, because they aren't subject to it. They speak from the position of the outsider, if they were to walk a mile in our shoes...


On a side note: I love you avatar! What's it from?

Of course. The only reason we disagree is because we're not subjected to discrimination. As a bi male, I would love to hear your reasoning behind this. I can still understand what your position is without sharing it.

As another bisexual male, I will say their talk about how men can't get it is a little egotistical, as any person in a minority can experience discrimination. And while I do agree that the zero tolerance permaban is a bit much, there definitely should be some sort of repercussions for straight up harassment. A warning system for when someone is actually harassing people, and even then not just those that say something as simple as "get back in the kitchen," but if it's actual slurs or perpetual harassment of other players by constantly verbally abusing them or sexually harassing them. If someone's going around shouting "******" I could care less, but if someone starts talking just completely bashing gays or bis, I feel something a little more than just getting muted should happen. Again, permaban is a bit much, but at least a warning.

 

[Meight08]

I once called someone on a tribes ascend custom server a **** for locking the vehicle station, turns out she was a girl and i got banned from the server for sexism.

 

[Erttheking]

I once called someone on a tribes ascend custom server a **** for locking the vehicle station, turns out she was a girl and i got banned from the server for sexism.

Hey, it was a custom server. Different standards from what a professional company would have.

 

[Heaven's Guardian]

Permabans are pretty much universally a terrible idea, though. It's the harshest punishment possible for game publishers to give to their players, and contrary to what seems intuitive, mild punishments are really the only functional way to change behaviour. Since sexism/racism/anything you say on a video game aren't going to be serious crimes that require us to lock away the offenders to protect the public safety, it seems reasonable to conclude that we want to change behaviour rather than punish. As psychological research consistently shows, harsh punishments create a harsh reaction from whoever receives them. Instead of influencing a behavioural change, it will simply make the recipients view the punishers as cruel and unfair. This will make any message that is being sent ignored, because why would someone care what a cruel and unfair person has to say? Even if they stop the behaviour, they will only stop it in presence of a potential punishment, and as soon as they leave that situation, the behaviour will begin again.

However, if you use mild punishments, it creates a moral conflict in the recipient. They dislike the mild punishment and want to avoid it, but even if they don't initially react well, the initial anger will fade away. Then, the question becomes, "Why am I doing this?" The punishment itself is mild enough that the person can't really justify it as a reason in and of itself to change behaviour, so they end up deciding that they didn't really like the behaviour all that much anyway, and convince themselves to stop acting in that way. (The explanation is somewhat more complex, but I don't want to write a full paper here, so it's enough to say that it works).

Therefore, if you want to reduce sexism or racism or anything else, you should only use mild punishments like a 24-hour ban for anything that doesn't massively impinge the ability of anyone to play the game (like hacking; that needs to be eliminated right away for credibility purposes). Maybe take away some earned weapons or stats, but nothing that will be permanently damaging to the player. You can't kick all the sexist and racist players off all the games with bans, but you can start influencing a behavioural change, and permabans are exactly the wrong way to do it.

 

[Rainboq]

Read the article, racism gets you the ban hammer as well. Also, as a woman, the sexism on XBL really needs to be reined in, I've had a lot of fun times absolutely ruined by people telling me to go get in the kitchen.

Have you ever had completely awesome times that directly related to you being a woman?

I know one girl that I played with who was really cool, and every time a sexist guy started talking shit, me and her and her other buddies would troll the shit out of him, having a grand ol' time.

I feel similar reserves as the quoted guy, though, about what words actually constitute rule breaking and what ones don't. I use ***** and **** in general usage as an all-around dehumanizer, and wouldn't want (nor would I deserve) a PERMANENT ban for something as stupid as calling some asshole a ***** when they turned out to be female.

I agree that the outright harassment needs to go, absolutely, and that in general many players are complete assholes (though this applies just as much, in my experience, to PC gamers). I just feel that we need to be careful about the line between sexism and trash-talking.

Plus, there's always the mute button for particularly problematic people.

What's wrong with raising the level of discourse? Sure the method is draconian, but the casual misogyny that exists is so entrenched that it requires drastic measures. [http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy130/Rainboq/motivatoreb381a5bdc00f15b70194cbc852985b0f48660e3.jpg]

 

[AnarchistAbe]

...I've had a lot of fun times absolutely ruined by people telling me to go get in the kitchen.

Why? Why do you let some dumbass on XBL ruin YOUR good time? People say stupid shit sometimes. They're going to say stuff that offends you. But if your good time is lost because they say something to hurt you, then their job is complete. YOU give them power. YOU allow them to ruin your good time. If I got offended and stopped having fun every time somebody insulted me, I'd be a shut-in with no friends and little-to-no human interaction...

TL;DR: Screw them. Have fun, and don't let a little prick on the internet ruin your fun time.

Its not one, two or even three, but scores and scores of the morons that ruin my time. The constant messages asking me for (often naked) pics, random friend requests, and/or telling me to get back into the kitchen. Because its never one. Its often pairs, trios or even teams of the morons.

That is unfortunate. I really wish that MS took more stock in banning people who abuse the messaging functionality for things like that, because it is uncalled for, immature, and annoying. Do I feel that those people should be banned? Yes, I do. Do I feel that someone who says something that could be interpreted as sexism by some individuals during a match should be banned? No, I do not.

My argument is solely based around in-game chat during HALO matches. These same sentiments don't apply to out-of-game communications features inside XBox live.

 

[Art Salmons]

Dear Microsoft: The name "Kiki Wolfkill" is very offensive to me because it makes me think of killing noble, innocent wolves. Please ban this woman from Xbox Live as per your anti-harrassment rules.

 

[Erttheking]

Dear Microsoft: The name "Kiki Wolfkill" is very offensive to me because it makes me think of killing noble, innocent wolves. Please ban this woman from Xbox Live as per your anti-harrassment rules.

You do know that that is a major straw man argument right? Not to mention I'm pretty sure that isn't what they're talking about at all.

 

[Rainboq]

So basically "your rights end where my feelings begin"? Since when did game producers have a say in what people do on Xbox live.

Don't be obtuse. This isn't about my poor widdle fee-fees. This is about the fact that XBL has such a systemic culture of hate that folks like me literally don't want to go anywhere near it. It doesn't matter how much I love a game and want to be part of its online community-- I am not going to go into an environment that is unsafe and abusive. I don't need your sexist, homophobia, racist bullshit in my escapist past time.

To be honest, if most Halo 4 gamers end up permabanned for this, then good. It's a long time coming. If you cannot play a game and trash talk without coloring your language with hate speech, thereby breaching the terms of conduct, then you deserve to be banned.

This is a small step to making games more inclusive and I'm thrilled about it. Maybe my 360 will stop collecting dust on my shelf.

So it IS my poor little fee-fees. If you say something over the internet I find offensive while playing a video game with me, you don't deserve to play that video game online. I'm sorry, but I cannot view the freedom of speech as less important than your want to not be offended.
You are not "unsafe". It's an online video game. Someone telling you to get back in the kitchen is not abuse. This will not make games more inclusive, but turn people off, because if there is one thing that gamers love, it's people trying to control their speech. You may not like others' "sexist, homophobic, racist bullshit," but I don't like your overeactionary, thin-skinned, oppressive bullshit. Does that mean that you no longer get to play Halo online?

That's freedom of speech

I'm sorry, but not all of us live in 'merica [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS-FoXbjVI]. In Canada, we have laws the put exceptions for hate speech in our freedom of speech legislation. Also, it is harrasment.

Lets define our terms, shall we?

[HEADING=2]Psychological harassment[/HEADING]
This is humiliating, intimidating or abusive behaviour which is often difficult to detect leaving no evidence other than victim reports or complaints. This characteristically lowers a person?s self-esteem or causes them torment. This can take the form of verbal comments, engineered episodes of intimidation, aggressive actions or repeated gestures. Falling into this category is workplace harassment by individuals or groups mobbing.
Community-based Harassment ? stalking by a group against an individual using repeated distractions that the individual is sensitized to. Media reports of large numbers of coordinated groups stalking individual stalking victims, including a press interview given by an active duty police lieutenant, have described this community-based harassment as gang stalking.

[HEADING=2]Sexual harassment[/HEADING]
Harassment that can happen anywhere but is most common in the workplace, and schools. It involves unwanted and unwelcome words, deeds, actions, gestures, symbols, or behaviours of a sexual nature that make the target feel uncomfortable. Gender and sexual orientation harassment fall into this family. Involving children, "gay" or "homo" is a common insult falling into this category. The main focus of groups working against sexual harassment is protection for women, but protection for men is coming to light in recent years.

Source. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harassment]

Hon, I'm not talking about legislation. I didn't say, "That's freedom of speech," as in the first amendment to the American Constitution. I said, "I cannot view the freedom of speech as less important than your want to not be offended," as in I view the freedom people have to say what they want on an online game to be more important than others not wanting to be offended.

It's a pity you didn't define harassment using a legal dictionary.

harassment (either harris-meant or huh-rass-meant) n. the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one party or a group, including threats and demands. The purposes may vary, including racial prejudice, personal malice, an attempt to force someone to quit a job or grant sexual favors, apply illegal pressure to collect a bill, or merely gain sadistic pleasure from making someone fearful or anxious. Such activities may be the basis for a lawsuit if due to discrimination based on race or sex, a violation on the statutory limitations on collection agencies, involve revenge by an ex-spouse, or be shown to be a form of blackmail ("I'll stop bothering you, if you'll go to bed with me"). The victim may file a petition for a "stay away" (restraining) order, intended to prevent contact by the offensive party. A systematic pattern of harassment by an employee against another worker may subject the employer to a lawsuit for failure to protect the worker.

Saying a few words over an online match is not harassment. If they DO turn it into harassment (you do mention other people stalking you outside matches and other such things; those things would be characterized as harassment), then sure, ban them. But that's not what this is. They're not saying, "Let's ban everyone who harasses others!" It's, "Let's ban people who say "offensive" things."

I see you didn't read your definition.

harassment (either harris-meant or huh-rass-meant) n. the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one party or a group, including threats and demands. The purposes may vary, including racial prejudice, personal malice, an attempt to force someone to quit a job or grant sexual favors, apply illegal pressure to collect a bill, or merely gain sadistic pleasure from making someone fearful or anxious.Such activities may be the basis for a lawsuit if due to discrimination based on race or sex, a violation on the statutory limitations on collection agencies, involve revenge by an ex-spouse, or be shown to be a form of blackmail ("I'll stop bothering you, if you'll go to bed with me"). The victim may file a petition for a "stay away" (restraining) order, intended to prevent contact by the offensive party. A systematic pattern of harassment by an employee against another worker may subject the employer to a lawsuit for failure to protect the worker.

I'd say what goes on pretty much amounts to harassment, I have had people systematically harassment to get back in the kitchen or send them photos of myself, including making new accounts to get around blocks and bans. Its pretty much reduced my xBox to nothing but an expensive dust collector because the shit that goes on. I've had entire clans gather around harassing me (including sending photos of themselves naked to me) because I had the audacity to play online and not be a guy. The more tools I have at my disposal to deal with such fuckwits, the better.

As a matter of fact, I did. That's why I posted it. You seem to be equating someone telling you to get back in the kitchen with systematic harassment. I'm arguing that trivializes ACTUAL harassment. Yes, by all means, ban people who harass others in that way. But this is more than that. This isn't banning people who harass others, but banning people who make remarks that others view as offensive. They're different things.

And 343 studios should tollerate those kinds of remarks? Also, what's wrong with raising the level of discourse, even if the method is draconian. The level of casual sexism and misogyny is so wide spread and entrenched that it will take some drastic measures to change it.

 

[Meight08]

I once called someone on a tribes ascend custom server a **** for locking the vehicle station, turns out she was a girl and i got banned from the server for sexism.

Hey, it was a custom server. Different standards from what a professional company would have.

Yes but still it could just as easily have happened on an official server.