Halo 4 creators threaten permabans for sexist comments

[crasx]

I wish more games were like this

 

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/11/good-riddance-halo-4-creators-threaten-permabans-for-sexist-comments/

 

"Sexism is a well-established issue within the gaming community—particularly in online games. But even as it's been widely acknowledged and condemned, it persists. Plenty of gamers continue to express troglodytic sentiments against women while playing, seemingly without the slightest inkling of how glaringly offensive they are."

[mookie]

Always a bad sign when the people who are supposed to be making sure a game is good are focused on political correctness instead.

[crasx]

Well this was an effort by two of the women working on halo 4. I think it says a lot about how big of an issue sexism in online gaming is if the developers are the ones addressing it

[VooDooPC]

Always a bad sign when the people who are supposed to be making sure a game is good are focused on political correctness instead.

What does sexism have to do with political correctness? Sexim is a huge issue on the internet and something should be done about it, especially in male dominated places of the internet like video games.

 

But from your comment, if you think it's a, "bad sign", that they are trying to eliminate sexism in their game the only conclusion I can come to is you're either sexist or think sexism is a good thing. Maybe you're into harassing women on the internet?

Edited November 2, 2012 by VooDooPC

[Biggs]

I think he was saying it's a bad sign for the quality of the game. I'm not really sure why this effort should stem from 343 Industries, since it's Xbox Live that has to implement and enforce it.

[mookie]

What does sexism have to do with political correctness?

Censoring speech that is supposed to be offensive to some people based on their identity is the definition of political correctness.

 

Sexim is a huge issue on the internet and something should be done about it, especially in male dominated places of the internet like video games.

Some people use the Internet to transmit all kinds of verbal abuse indiscriminately. Sexism is substantially less of an issue on the Internet than homophobia or racism.

 

But from your comment, if you think it's a, "bad sign", that they are trying to eliminate sexism in their game the only conclusion I can come to is you're either sexist or think sexism is a good thing. Maybe you're into harassing women on the internet?

My point is that the fact that the executive producer of the game is focused on something other than the game itself is likely to predict that the game will not be as good as it could be. Your lack of reasoning, whether disingenuous or not, is not persuasive. Your suggestion that, because I disagree with someone's efforts to censor speech on the Internet, I am some kind of pervert is frankly rhetorical terrorism designed to suppress dissent.

[VooDooPC]

I've always seen political correctness as saying things like "African-American" instead of "Black" or "Native American" instead of "Indian" to not offend groups of people, not harassing women online. Saying, "Hey, you sound hot, send me nudes" isn't the same as saying, "Look at that black guy... I mean, African-American"

 

I don't believe sexism is less of an issue than homophobia or racism. I rarely see racism online and most homophobic comments come from 12 year olds on XBOX live. The big difference I see between those two and sexism is a person on the internet can call anyone racist names, they can call anyone homophobic names but 90% of the time that person isn't going to be of that race or homosexual, they won't take offense, it might upset them, but they probably aren't offended. But as soon as people know it's a female on the other end it gets much more personal.

 

As for the executive producer spending time worrying about sexism, It's Halo 4, the executive producer could spend all day talking about how much they love walking on the beach with their dog, it's going to sell 10 million copies. Even if it wasn't Halo 4, if the executive producer feels sexism is an issue that affects their game, who is anyone to say otherwise?

 

I have no problem with censorship on the internet. Someone owns everything. XBOX live is owned and ran by Microsoft, if they want to ban people for saying the word banana they can do as they please. It's something that's always bothered me on forums, people all up in arms thinking they have the right to say whatever they want on the internet, but they don't. We see it all the times on the "Got Banned?" section of the forum. "I have freedom of speech, I can say whatever I want! I LOOVE swearing! Dur dur dur". If someone wants to go make a topic about how much they hate GC, they're more than welcome, it will probably get locked and they will think we're taking away their freedom of speech. If someone wants to make a website about how much they hate GC, I feel they are more than welcome to do that too....until libel comes into play.

 

Also, I apologize for eluding to you being sexist, that was rude of me and am sure it's not true.

[boiler]

Referring back to the game itself:

 

It's done. Halo 4 has already shipped, and it probably went gold over a month ago. That executive producer's main job of working to ensure a good product is finished. Yes, there is more stuff they will be doing for MP and such, but the heavy lifting is done. If she wants to focus attention on affecting the multiplayer experience, go for it.

 

Side note: if "executive producer" in gaming means the same thing as "executive producer" in the movie business, then it's possible she contributed very little to the actual development of the game. Ever wonder why movies have one or two producers and a hundred "executive producers"? The cousin of the director could suggest they change the color of the hero's outfit, contribute nothing else to the project, and get awarded with an executive producer credit. Obviously this isn't always the case, but it often is something minor that can turn into that credit.

[ValenAlvern]

I've always seen political correctness as saying things like "African-American" instead of "Black"

Is it PC? I dont recall everyone in Africa being Black. Personally I see PC as "Ignorant and proud."

 

or "Native American" instead of "Indian" to not offend groups of people, not harassing women online. Saying, "Hey, you sound hot, send me nudes" isn't the same as saying, "Look at that black guy... I mean, African-American"

Funny how people get offended by the observation of color of skin.

 

I don't believe sexism is less of an issue than homophobia or racism. I rarely see racism online and most homophobic comments come from 12 year olds on XBOX live. The big difference I see between those two and sexism is a person on the internet can call anyone racist names, they can call anyone homophobic names but 90% of the time that person isn't going to be of that race or homosexual, they won't take offense, it might upset them, but they probably aren't offended. But as soon as people know it's a female on the other end it gets much more personal.

 

As for the executive producer spending time worrying about sexism, It's Halo 4, the executive producer could spend all day talking about how much they love walking on the beach with their dog, it's going to sell 10 million copies. Even if it wasn't Halo 4, if the executive producer feels sexism is an issue that affects their game, who is anyone to say otherwise?

 

I have no problem with censorship on the internet. Someone owns everything. XBOX live is owned and ran by Microsoft, if they want to ban people for saying the word banana they can do as they please. It's something that's always bothered me on forums, people all up in arms thinking they have the right to say whatever they want on the internet, but they don't. We see it all the times on the "Got Banned?" section of the forum. "I have freedom of speech, I can say whatever I want! I LOOVE swearing! Dur dur dur". If someone wants to go make a topic about how much they hate GC, they're more than welcome, it will probably get locked and they will think we're taking away their freedom of speech. If someone wants to make a website about how much they hate GC, I feel they are more than welcome to do that too....until libel comes into play.

 

Also, I apologize for eluding to you being sexist, that was rude of me and am sure it's not true.

This is subjective, its like saying "This is fun, why dont you like it." everyone is gonna to experience things differently, this why its hard/impossible (and immoral) to censor the internet. If we also start censoring the internet, what can we say outside, sure the workplace is different. If we draw parallels to the real world, communities like GC are a work place, thus allowed to enforce their own rules. While the Internet is like the General Public. Go into Baby Gap and start swearing youre gonna get kicked out, no different than GC.

 

So censoring the Internet = Censoring the Public. We'd be as bad as China, who brings you to jail for going on a forum or making a Yahoo account. The Internet for China is just a electronic newspaper, do anything else and its jail.

[VooDooPC]

Valen, your last paragraph is identical to what I said. If a private group like GC or Microsoft want to ban people from their forums or service I support it 100%. They are private groups and can set whatever rules they want. If people don't want to or can't follow those rules, they get banned.

 

Nowhere did I mention anything about the government censoring the internet like China does. Censoring ON the internet and censoring THE internet are two completely separate things. I never mentioned censoring the internet in my post.

[ValenAlvern]

Didnt know Microsoft was a privately owned company. Microsoft is more like a Megaphone or a Cellphone company, with their devices we're able to form a larger more broaden way of communicating with people (PC/Xbox) while GC is allowed to remove you from the premise for going into their Baby Gap dropping f-bombs, Microsoft is not (or should not be) allowed for dropping f-bombs with their megaphones/cellphones.

 

 

Nor did I mention the government, but the government is allowing more and more companies in creation of new laws in censoring the internet, if Microsoft does do this, it would keep on escalating.

Edited November 4, 2012 by ValenAlvern

[VooDooPC]

Didnt know Microsoft was a privately owned company. Microsoft is more like a Megaphone or a Cellphone company, with their devices we're able to form a larger more broaden way of communicating with people (PC/Xbox) while GC is allowed to remove you from the premise for going into their Baby Gap dropping f-bombs, Microsoft is not (or should not be) allowed for dropping f-bombs with their megaphones/cellphones.

 

 

Nor did I mention the government, but the government is allowing more and more companies in creation of new laws in censoring the internet, if Microsoft does do this, it would keep on escalating.

Microsoft is a private company in the private sector, not owned by the government. They can do whatever they please and set whatever rules they want. The Xbox might be a device, but Xbox Live still has a Terms of Use you must abide by. If you don't like it, don't use their service. The Xbox itself also has Terms of Use which includes things like not modding your Xbox, which they ban for. If you actually sat down and read the Xbox Live Terms of Use you would be fuming by the end of all the things they can do without your permission.

 

When you mentioned China I assumed you were talking about the Chinese Government limiting their internet access.

[JackieChan]

[amertrash]

 

GIF'ed for simplicity

[onyxdragoon]

Off topic but I loved that episode.