Microsoft has faced intense criticism after banning a lady gamer for mentioning her sexual orientation in her profile on Xbox Live.
Previously, Microsoft has attempted to purge Xbox Live of any content potentially offensive by way of some stringent terms of service, which resulted in blanket bans on words like “gay”, even in one case where it was part of a surname, in the case of “Richard Gaywood”.
In this case, a lady who insisted on revealing her sexual interests in her profile was banned for her trouble, as well as being harassed by other players, prompting much criticism of Microsoft’s controversy shy approach to managing the service.
The clause in question is thorough in eliminating any possible source of controversy:
You agree that we may also discontinue your access to the Service if you do any of the following while connected to the Service: create a Gamertag , avatar or use text in other profile fields that may offend other members.
This includes comments that look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate or relate to any of the following: profane words/phrases, topics or content of a sexual nature, hate speech (including but not limited to racial, ethnic, or religious slurs), illegal drugs/controlled substances, or illegal activities.
Foremost in Microsoft’s mind is probably the prospect of having their US marketing efforts stymied by accusations of harbouring perverts and atheists intent on poisoning the minds of the children.
According to the accounts of most, the children generally also poison the minds of those forced into contact with them, with profanity and juvenile antics, though of course the adult players are hardly any better. Others doubt whether Xbox Live is even a “safe” place for children in any case.
Profanity and worse being rife, Microsoft understandably does nothing about it.
Of course, some are mystified as to why some people feel the need to share the details of their sexual preferences with complete strangers at every opportunity…
Via Netharuka.
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I have yet to be banned for my gamertag having 420 on the end. the date of april 20th is earth day so thats prolly how i get away with it. Also i have a list of over 50 friends now all with 420 on the end of the name. Go ahead ban us all. LOL like i give a damn. #1 system link is where its at anyway. Like i wana piss away my 50 dollar a month broadband connection on some dick sucker 3 worlds away. Paying 50 bucks a year for some asshole to host a game with an IDSL connection. Guess who wins? Host every damn time. I got sick of it and went back to pc games, where servers r hosted at a central location..... and host advantage isnt the factor of what team/guy wins. not to mention. Xbox 360 is good and a good price for what it is, but its not a quad phenom II, it doesnt have 8gb of ram, it does have over 1TB of storage space. Hell it doesnt even have a Blu Ray drive. I do how ever owe it thanks to being able to use the 360 controller on the pc. Its the best controller ever, plus the racing wheel usb camera and wireless mic work with it too.
I recommend free for all style on Xbox live or any online gaming, and give everyone a gun too. The gaming population will just self moderate.
I guess Yuri Grishenko isn't welcome.
This is utterly ridiculous.
So you can't express your sexual interest. Okay, fine, like, how many of the fundamental laws of free speech and expression is Microsoft trying to break?
Also, about "some are mystified as to why some people feel the need to share the details of their sexual preferences with complete strangers at every opportunity…". Well, if you state that clearly, you won't have any trouble getting unwanted attention from the people (or entire gender) you do not like. Easy, right?
My name is Dick Van Dyke and I oppose this!!
LOL! Thanks for that!
I would give my Pennies to you!
Huh? Wha waz that again?
I was trying to mean penny...
That's some punservice again. LOL!
"Foremost in Microsoft’s mind is probably the prospect of having their US marketing efforts stymied by accusations of harbouring perverts and atheists intent on poisoning the minds of the children"
Its fuckin xbox! Safe for children? how many child friendly games are available on the 360? I don't know... zip!
Protect a child, buy a Wii!
Agreed. Don't they have a disclaimer that says something along the lines of online play being unrated?
As far as I'm concerned online play that includes communication with other people would be rated Teen (at best). It's NOT for kids with uptight parents (who Microsoft seems to be catering for).
Great. Xbox Live wants everyone to be "straight".
I think they should censor anything indicating gender or sex. 'Guy' or 'girl' for example. Someone might say they like them in their profile.
"This includes comments that look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate or relate to any of the following: profane words/phrases, topics or content of a sexual nature"
Funny, I have a sexual comment in my motto. It's a good thing they don't understand japanese. To keep my anonymity, I won't disclose my gt or motto.
No use in bickering about this, humans are dirty, hopefully a new iceage is imminent
xbox live closed due to AIDS
lol and this from the monopol publishers of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beachvolley Ball
roflmao xD
Parents ought to know, that there is no such thing as a “safe” place for children.
Seriously, we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas-covered planet going around a nuclear fireball ninety million miles away, spinning around in an outer spiral arm of a galaxie set to collide with another one of its kind.
And now, please, tell me, were does the “safe” place part come in?
The safe part only comes in for those believing in god and disbelieving in physics. Prejudice will have it, that the generalization oft that statement will pretty much narrow it down to the USA, hence Microsoft.
But who in the world would believe that the internet or something related could possibly be a good place for children to be?
Apart from this: Microsoft suckz. And I did never consider the xbox a console at all. Just a nuisance to the gaystation.
don't forget iran, malaysia, singapore, indonesia, etc. (and i didn't even name the BAD ones): they do everything they can to fight off anything of a sexual nature. while showing respect to people's beliefs is noble, this is seriously over the top.
grow up, boys. homosexuality is neither a crime, nor something to be ashamed of.
on the other hand, screw her. :P
Dont forget about the super massive black hole in the center of said galaxy.
And most likely the super massive black hole in the center of the galaxy that this one will smash in to...
i'm imagining so many people who find this page through the ages (providing it never gets deleted) who will instantly start questioning their respective gods if it is true, and why they would "create" such a dire situation for the earth...
>>Of course, some are mystified as to why some people feel the need to share the details of their sexual preferences with complete strangers at every opportunity…
Attention whores. Probably aren't even gay either.
I think it can be necessary in some instances.
Gay people try to stand out because it gets the attention of other gays instead of girls.
Shouldn't women try to do the same?
Not that I like the ways they decided to stand out though. XD
They could work on that a little bit.
Not attention whores. They're trying to get LAID!!! Heheh...there's SORT of a difference. Kinda.
*pssst~, not really*
What if you put "I like girls"? Is that offensive? And did anyone even report this player or did MS see the profile and deem it bad themselves? What's worse is the language used daily, as any COD4 player knows.
Oh, and "Richard Gaywood" must really hate the nicname "Dick".
i was gonna say, that man's name could be "dick gaywood" so im kind of skeptical as to how real that is =/
I was about the same thing.
ever heard of the Woodcock Johnson test?
My name's Durr Tee Knee Grow from Brazzaville.
I guess that's too obscure for Mircosoft
Reminds me of Al Kaider and Terry Wrist trying to check in on the airport..
Actually its "Smell E Knee Grow", I use "Durr Tee Knee Grow" on Steam.
My bad.
What the hell is wrong with her leg in that picture?
What the hell is wrong with your eye?
It's called foreshortening, as in: you should fore-SHORTEN your life and AN HERO.
What the hell is wrong with you?
Stop being offtopic damnit
Look closer... See her white-coloured panties above the controller there? It's kinda hard to see but once you do, you can see that it's a perfect leg...
Yeah, it just happens to be detached from her hip
ASPECT RATIO FTW!!!!
Nothing actually, it's just that unfortunately the controller is in the way of one of the more interesting parts of the image, and confuses the vision of individuals with lesser spatial perception ability while at it.
And this comment was supposed to be directed at first anonymous...
holy shit! the leg! the leg! >.>;
The right leg is bent toward the "camera." I can't think of another word other than camera.
Point of view?
Intresting fact.
In COD5, you can set your clan tag to YOAI, but not to YURI.
Yoai? Don't you mean Yaoi?
Bah sorry to late to see the edit!
Edit.
You can set to YURI, but not YAOI, "due to prohibited text"
In both COD games.
maybe its just how people interact or maybe its just some conspiracy thingy that let MS tell us how to do things in THEIR way... hmmmmmm....
THE HUMANITY!
THE CONSPIRACY!
heck with it all!
lolz
Lesbian and proud of it! Now there's something that'll get you banned if you don't read the agreement carefully.
Well, it's her user profile, she can put what she feels is good in it.
Though if part of the TOS states that any mention of sexuality is bad, anyone who states they are straight, bi, asexual, pansexual, treesexual, whatever should also be banned for the same reasons. It says just sexuality in the TOS, not homosexuality, so if they don't follow through, they're jackasses who don't even follow their own TOS, making them as bad as every other violator ever.
All this is going to do is encourage homophobes to track down gay users, harass them (which is against TOS. I wonder why the people bugging her didn't get banned as well?), and get them banned. Eliminating the victim is not going to stop the gay bashing that goes on in such gaming environments. In fact, it just makes the place look that much more hostile.
I'm a lesbian and this just made me never want to get a LIVE account of any kind ever. I don't care what I'd be missing out on; skipping out on this bullshit is worth any sacrifice.
awe come on. i drank some really bad beer a while ago. really shitty stuff, the kind of stuff you find in puddles after a stormy night. happened a few times recently too. but that's beside the point. i won't give up drinking beer cause i had a few really shitty tasting ones recently, more over i would find it strange if somebody gave up beer because of a bad experience on my account.
You too huh? I need to learn to -not- drink at random pubs I've never been to before...
i think she should keep her privacy private.Anyway,i always get kicked out by multiplayer online games because of my codename A$$,but that's life.
^
Whatever the arguments you put forward M$ is always right. Signing up to the Live service you agree to their terms, therefore M$ can do what they want.
Also serves her right, this is a gaming community not some shitty facebook crap.
so she had to pay money for Xbawks live and then gets banned. Sony looks better and better all the time
Can't agree more.
PSN > XBL
Well... Got busted in Xbucks stating herself a lesbian in her profile huh...
Well we sure get a lot of punservices here eh...
But poor gal...
"sony" and "better" don't go well in a sentence. "Nintendo", now THERE's something..
POKEMON RANCH FTW!!!
She wasn't banned because she was gay. She was banned because she violated the Terms of Use that every Live user has to agree to before they can use the service.
It specifically states that you can't put any content or even insinuate anything sexual with your avatar, profile, or gamertag.
She did and got banned for it.
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/legal/liveTOU.htm
"Create a Gamertag , avatar or use text in other profile fields that may offend other members. This includes comments that look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate or relate to any of the following: profane words/phrases, topics or content of a sexual nature, hate speech (including but not limited to racial, ethnic, or religious slurs), illegal drugs/controlled substances, or illegal activities;"
"content of a sexual nature"
.. so you can't say stuff like 'I'm in love' or 'I have childrens' or 'I have a girlfriend.' or 'I'm female and I have a female girlfriend.'
I knew that the guys behind Microsoft are basically intolerant, so it does not come as a surprise, but it proves once again, why I dislike microsoft and everything that has to do with it. Even the key next to ctrl with the shitty graphic.
god your an idiot its to stop myspace drama bullshit did you not read what i said you fucktard
PROTIP: Users are making use of Microsoft's services.
PROTIP: If you want free speech, go setup your own multiplayer network.
So if someone said they had a girlfriend or boyfriend, that would be considered something of sexual nature and they get banned for it?
no anon its more towards the "i fucked this chick last nice she had such a great pussy" kind of shit
fuck M$
Oh thanks dear MS for trying to save pure children's minds from corruption. You probably dont care that an ordinary kid often gets offended 10 times harder just by going to school and on the streets.
Oh fuck, I'm so offended by MS's stupid behavior.
just because they get offended on the school, doen't mean they have to get offended on video games too. Just because you're so jaded doesn't mean everyone else should too.