Comments on: Visiting the Village: Episode 1

By: Xeno

Xeno — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 19:21:48 +0000

Well it can do whatever it wants but it needs to appease the public.

By: Ian

Ian — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:38:05 +0000

Sounds about right to me – although I don’t necessarily agree that MS can do /whatever/ it wants with it’s own service – it can’t encourage racism for instance. And I don’t think this is encouraging anti-gay sentiment.

By: Xeno

Xeno — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:34:17 +0000

I think that it was pointless for her to say she was a lesbian. It is Microsoft’s right to do whatever they want with their service. I don’t agree with the ban but it was fair. This is exactly why the ESBR will not rate online play. If any of this is wrong please tell me cause I don’t have an xbox

By: Ian

Ian — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 10:58:02 +0000

But it was clearly unsubtle enough to be noticed. And it’s not all violent games on XBL is it – you’ve got plenty of racers on there.

By: alex malakian hayes

alex malakian hayes — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 09:40:35 +0000

Come on, I don’t want to make too many conjectures, but one i WILL venture is that if kids are old enough to play violent games, which I expect they were, they are old enough to understand what a sexuality is. And, in this case, seen as the ‘I’m a lesbian’ was on her profile and not her gamer tag, it’s less of a wearing it on her t shirt and more having it on a note in her pocket. In a meat suit.

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:17:56 +0000

That’s what he calls it when he takes human form.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:36:58 +0000

Also nobody picked up that Malakian used the phrase “wearing a meat suit” as part of his argument a little earlier.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:31:00 +0000

I’m not sure “goats” is a valid orientation.

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:17:22 +0000

Yeah, I basically don’t think it’s your right to talk about your sexual orientation in front of kids – be it straight, gay, or goats or whatever. I just don’t think it’s appropriate – there are a billion places on the internet where you can do that.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:06:15 +0000

@Malakian I think Shivoa’s point about various things “adding up” to a ban is important here, and again I think Ian’s point that it’s just not appropriate to have a comment about your sexuality in that kind of area ANYWAY is still valid.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:28:39 +0000

Hey – yep we will definitely have a dedicated podcast feed set up soon, hopefully in time for next week.

I think you definitely make a couple good points: one about the hidden complexity of what the user in question actually did; and one about the E rating of profiles. That second one supports Ian’s point – it’s not content that’s appropriate for that particular area of Live and so an immature, potentially offensive response should almost be expected.

By: Shivoa

Shivoa — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:54:32 +0000

Was just going to jump in and ask for an RSS feed of just the podcasts (that way I can keep reading the blog on Google Reader but subscribe to the podcast only feed on my phone/mp3 player for direct downloads), but as there’s a discussion going on…

I think the important thing to consider is that the dashboard/Live profiles are in an age unrestricted area of the 360. That area is policed to maintain the (theoretical) E of Everyone rating and all content on there should be filtered under that assumption. Obviously very few mottos are ever seen by anyone at MS who moderates the area but you can’t exactly complain about some unsuitable for young kids content leading to problems. Personally I would have thought wiping of the motto and message sent explaining why would be a better response but it is MS’s sandbox and they can police it how they like. I get the feeling there is a lot more concerning grief/complaints/counter-griefing etc going on here that probably gave the moderator a simple response of ‘ban/go away’ without really thinking about the possibly negative connotations that the action could take when taken out of the context of moderation a child friendly area. The press coverage seems to exploit this for sensationalism.

By: alex malakian hayes

alex malakian hayes — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:20:13 +0000

My problem with the attitude of ‘well you wouldn’t walk into a lion enclosure wearing a meat suit’ is simply this – one million douchebags CAN be wrong. Just because these kids pick on people who are different doesn’t mean you should take the extreme action of banning the different ones for convenience…The kids picking on them are in the wrong! I personally see that as a very slippery slope. Also, as a law student, I’ve seen MANY less worthy cases held as human rights violations – though I guess the Americas aren’t bound to human rights commitments legally like the UK currently is, luckily for MS.

Also, Gow2 is super fun with pals online. I got to level 49 of horde on hardcore over weeks of lazy days on xbl with my best pal. Haven’t triumphed over 50 yet as he gave up in a blaze of frustration…

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:50:25 +0000

Hmm, I guess I’ve never really played online co-op…should try it. AND Gears of War. I fail. Yes, the podcast is going to be weekly.

By: Wrongfire

Wrongfire — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:48:28 +0000

Well it works either way, but there is a reason why I dont use my mic for a majority of the games I play. Because I just want to be competitive without getting into a pointless argument or stupid conversation while playing.
But its needed for games like Gears 2, where teamwork is key, and I havent run into that much, since so far, the community is (usually) pretty mature.

Is this podcast weekly?

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:13:05 +0000

But is that a reason to ban “I’M GAY” t-shirts? Ban them from the playground, maybe, but the point is that Microsoft were always trying to say that Live *wasn’t* just the playground.

By: Ian

Ian — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:46:40 +0000

In that rehearsal podcast, I basically said what Wrongfire said. It’s like going into a playground wearing an “I’M GAY” tshirt and expecting all the thirteen year olds to accept you.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:30:51 +0000

The problem is that, as soon as you attach something ostensibly negative (“BANNING”) to someone’s sexuality people are going to get angry.

Additionally, Microsoft have a slightly blurred vision about what they expect Live to be: it’s either a sensible meeting place for mature adult gamers or a ludicrous fairyland populated by angry teens. I think everyone knows which camp will win out in the end. Anyway, like I said, if the story goes anywhere from here we’ll be talking about it again!

By: Wrongfire

Wrongfire — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 02:32:31 +0000

Meh I dunno man, the XBL lesbian thing actually makes sense..

Xbox live is supposed to be a place where gamers can game, its not myspace or facebook.
It was a bit extreme to ban that person, but it IS their service, and being openly gay will almost always warrant crude comments, and “Spam” so.. meh..
I can see why they did it, even if it was a bit over the top.

Good show though, I would one day like to, at least, write a long blog about various ideas I have for gaming.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:58:40 +0000

We actually covered that one in a rehearsal podcast! Kind of old hat now, I guess. If it rears its head again (I’m not going to even…) then we might do something on it.

Yeah WALL-E is stylistically amazing – I just didn’t feel it lived up to it narratively.

By: alex malakian hayes, apparently

alex malakian hayes, apparently — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:31:48 +0000

This is great! Cool issues raised and razed. You guys should wax lyrical on the CONTROVERSIAL issue of the XBL lesbian banning recently next week, I’d like to hear your views on that hot potato.

I dug wall-e a lot. I felt very emotionally tugged by the fantastic score and incredible expressions from what were essentially 2 cgi cameras standing in for eyes. I think the weakest aspect was the humans like Ian mentioned, but as far as visuals, sound and atmosphere go, wall-e is one of my top films of 08. Loved the throwback to HAL9000 in the form of Auto, too.