Rant Central #4: Racism and Xbox Live

By thewilleffect
for thexboxdomain.com

Published: February 12, 2008

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I’ve written about this before, and not to my surprise, I continue to receive responses about this epidemic issue to this day. It was talked about briefly on the first Major Nelson podcast of ‘08, but obviously it hasn’t gone away or worse yet, it won’t ever go away.

Xbox Live, your so great (when you work properly). Connecting gamers all over the world. So, what could go wrong? Racist of course. Not held to the world of “reality” anymore, the virtual world is under attack from mass racism as well. Tell yourself all you like that it isn’t an issue. I know it’s of epidemic proportions and so do many others.

Games like Halo 2 and/or 3 have a reputation for being filled with loudmouth bratty kids who don’t have any rhyme or reason to care whether or not they need to be civilized while playing on Xbox Live. Unfortunately for those in the know, this myth of it being a Halo specific problem are greatly exaggerated. Pick any game you like and your bound to run into racism of some sort or another.

No matter what race or creed someone is associated with, why does it give you a right to call me or anyone else whatever you like. Sure, we could mute these idiots, but why should that have to be the temporary solution? Everyone acting as they should would make that irrelevant.

I could go on with speculative talk about the issue’s at hand, but that won’t solve a thing, so I I’ll do this instead. Here’s a message to all of those out there who feel that they can say whatever they like just because of the false sense of anonymity.

Look here you asshats. If you must be an idiot with or without your friends on Xbox Live do it in a private lobby for the sake of all things civil. Microsoft isn’t going to convince you that we are all equal and neither am I. Until then, if you can’t figure out how to censor yourself or just plain act like you have some sense, F-OFF! Xbox Live doesn’t need you. I don’t care if it messes with Microsoft’s numbers. If half of the Live membership is being racist, then so be it. Good Bye! I shouldn’t have to get on Live with the fear of hearing every racist statement in the book. I’ll continue to have fun, play fair, leave feedback, or file a complaint. To bad that have fun part isn’t always applicable to some of you.

Level 4 done…..Level 5 loading…….

Rant Central #1

Rant Central #2

Rant Central #3

-William “thewilleffect” Bell-

Tagged with: Rant Central

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3648Comments2008-02-12+20%3A30%3A59thewilleffect on "Rant Central #4: Racism and Xbox Live"

D3stiny_Sm4sher on Tue, 12th Feb 2008 5:33 pm

Thanks for reading my BioShock review.
Glad you liked it.

Geo on Tue, 12th Feb 2008 5:34 pm

Cinderblock, skull. Skull F. I’ll let you figure out what the F means, and to explain it more, take cinderblock, force it into said skull.

Anyways… hate racist/homophobic kids. Its annoying as hell. Especially the high-pitched squeaky voiced ones. Half the reason you never see me on Live, as Microsoft doesn’t ban them anywhere near fast enough for me to be think its worth *paying* to play with these inbred twits.

Thrills Killa on Tue, 12th Feb 2008 5:35 pm

I know what you mean Will….

Thrills Killa on Tue, 12th Feb 2008 5:35 pm

Also: no problem D3stiny.

Tony on Tue, 12th Feb 2008 5:52 pm

I’ve been lucky in that I’ve not run into this yet… whether directly or indirectly.

My impression has been that a lot of people don’t report these things, they instead leave the game and then don’t bother to continue playing it. Unfortunately that’s not going to help fix this issue… of course, I could be wrong about that, but it seems like what usually happens.

Thrills Killa on Tue, 12th Feb 2008 5:58 pm

One of the funniest things is these big mouths have 5 star Reps. Maybe, people don’t believe in the feedback system? Maybe, people figure ” I won’t probably play with that person again anyway,so what’s the point in taking 1 minute to send some feedback.”

Geo on Tue, 12th Feb 2008 6:06 pm

I *ALWAYS* report people. I wait til the end of the match since I don’t like abandoning matches for the negative, then I mass-report anyone causing problems.

DeaconBlade on Tue, 12th Feb 2008 7:00 pm

i play with friends only. i don’t have this problem but yes it does suck the big one that it exists as prominently as it does.

Geo on Tue, 12th Feb 2008 7:16 pm

Deacon isn’t my friend

bs angel on Tue, 12th Feb 2008 7:26 pm

This is the exact reason why I want the ability to forward unaltered voice and video messages.

http://hawtymcbloggy.com/2007/12/05/two-desperately-needed-features-for-xbox-live/,
(if you want to read more about it)

hoosierdaddy812 on Tue, 12th Feb 2008 7:38 pm

I know it only happens in the majority of shooters but it is the most rampant in Halo. That is why I always mute the other team and if someone on my team is the one spewing all the hatred I simply give him feedback at the end of the game. There are plenty measures you can take to keep from hearing others if it offends you that much.

I’m not saying that it doesn’t offend me I guess I have learned to tune it out. The idiots will eventually take care of themselves or eventually end up playing in a room all by themselves. That is why I think its critical to have a large base of friends so you don’t have to worry about this type of person. Surely someone you know online can host a match and easily boot the disruptive people.

Geo on Tue, 12th Feb 2008 8:19 pm

Well, ranked Team Slayer you can only hear your own team, so if the other team is doing it, I won’t know. Its when my own team does it that bugs the hell out of me.

Paustinj on Tue, 12th Feb 2008 9:07 pm

I’ve been either ignoring it or laughing at it for the past 5 years. It will never go away, I just find humor in it. Killing them with kindness is always fun. Also I can’t think of how many times people have said they’re reporting me for cheating because of my skill in FPS.

thewilleffect on Wed, 13th Feb 2008 9:01 am

I would love to ignore it, but I feel that won’t change anything. Letting the entire community know that it won’t be stood for is at least something to try. Even for those out of the loop who are the culprits. A blurb by Major Nelson on Inside Xbox won’t hurt.

To take a cue from the guys at X3F, what we need to do is put the “Shock and Awe” in the fears of those offending. I think I’ll start saying “Do you know who I am”. Of course that doesn’t mean anything, yet (dare I dream), but no one should have to lock them self in a virtual closet with only their friends to protect them from this.

Paustinj on Wed, 13th Feb 2008 5:43 pm

Aww, you’re someone one to me Will. XD

I say that line all the time btw.

cory on Wed, 13th Feb 2008 10:20 pm

i didnt read any of this, but i actually just happened to get some stupid fucking nigger on my team, and he had 5 kills and 20 deaths. stupid monkey made me lost 23-25, what a fucking retard.

Paustinj on Wed, 13th Feb 2008 11:06 pm

^ What is this? I don’t even

thewilleffect on Thu, 14th Feb 2008 1:01 am

Alright cory, you don’t seem to realize that your one of the people we’re talking about. I’d delete your comment, but it should stay for now to show how ignorant and pitiful it is. I guess you’ve never heard of a bad game every once and a while. So how do you know what race this gamer is you speak of? Like it should matter.

Ruining Xbox Live one step at a time « The Xbox Domain on Sat, 16th Feb 2008 10:40 am

[...] your friends is one thing, but killing the experience for everyone else is down right despicable. Rant Central #4 couldn’t have been more timely as I have now ran into the above video. While, yes, it’s [...]

Rant Central #4: Racism and Xbox Live

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