dabronc7 said:
So we all know the stereotype: Xbox Live is composed of entirely of ignorant ass hats who spout nothing but racist, sexist, homophobic and generally bigoted statements. With all the recent stories of swastikas on COD and the legions of youtube videos documenting it...My question to you, the enlightened escapist members, is how do we solve this i.e. prevent it? (This can be applied to PSN but I don't have a PS3 so can't speak to that)
How can a community balance open communication with deceny? Do we censor those who communicate their beliefs however ignorant they may be? (This disincludes trolls/flamers/10 yr olds)Or do we keep the system static as of now, leaning more towards open communication than anythine else?
So what do you think? Should something be done and how would you go about it?
(Note the term "free speech" is never used in this post because both XBL and PSN are private forums and therefore control their content)
Honestly, unless we do away with anonymity online, it will never be controlled. As long as someone can jump on their PS3 or Xbox and say whatever they want without having their real life name attached to it, there's nothing stopping them.
I can get upset about whatever iTz pwnAge1337 says to me online, but reporting him only sets him back slightly. And he doesn't get a talking to by parents or some higher authority. He just gets the message he's been banned, goes and creates a new account, and the cycle starts again.
But the big problem is, we glorify the trash talk. We just accept it as something we do to other players. Instead of having a conversation, or having teamwork, we have the nasty comments and racist slurs. Nowhere else in life is this acceptable (or at least it SHOULDN'T be). Some people have gone so far as to encourage those who don't trash talk to take up the reins and do so. And some people take it to a point where they even brag about how could they are at talking trash.
I had a former friend who once told me that trash talking is just part of the online world and if you can't deal with it then your shouldn't even bother playing because your such a wuss.
When other people are more interested in insulting each other and spewing racist comments and disgusting remarks it's kind of hard to say anything decent in return.
It's not that I don't like the open communication, but I honestly never use my headset when gaming by myself. So rare is it that I find other players who just want to chat and have some fun, that I just assume everyone in the lobby is talking trash or being annoying. And that is not good. I've seen people ask before "why doesn't anyone talk to me when I play online?"
This is why.
Most of us who don't talk trash, and don't appreciate having it tossed our way have just accepted the fact that this is not something that can be fixed easily.
The only friends I have online are people I already knew, or the rare few that I met online that were great people.
People have just decided this is how "gamers" are. And the people that act like this cause the community at large to be identified as a bunch of brats and jerks who can't have a normal conversation. And that most certainly doesn't help those who don't know much about online gaming.
As I said at the start, the only real way to deal with this problem is to do away with anonymity on the internet. You could impose stricter rules, or slam the banhammer a little harder, but that might only make it worse.
The best we can do is hope that the more we discus this, the more people that do it take a look at what they do and shape up.
And to those of you who DO act like this, I have something to say to you:
Do you honestly act like this in real life? Why is that you have to be such jerks online? Why can't we just say "good game" or " good luck" instead of "fuck you" or "racist comment here"?
What is so bad about showing respect to other people? Why do you feel the need to egg others on and be a general disturbance? Don;t you realize that your keeping people away from the games, and your causing the lack of team work in the online gaming world?
What if your parents saw that little swastika in your Black Ops Playercard? What about your other friends? Do you honestly think thats hilarious? Why do you waste your time drawing dicks, boobs? Do you honestly lack the creativity or maturity to draw something else?
We have a long way to go in cleaning up online gaming, and many feel that we don;t need to do anything. But the fact is, that if we want or online communities to be taken seriously, we need to act much more mature than we do, and we need to show the world that we can use the anonymity to make friends, and have fun, instead of make enemies and cause trouble.
