If you identify yourself as a lesbian on your profile in Microsoft's X-Box, you are banned from the game. Why? Because your sexual orientation is offensive to others. Yeah, you heard it right.
UPDATE: X-Box bans anyone that writes anything about orientation, they made a statement here. And one of our commenters explains how exactly someone gets banned.
OK, whoops, my fellow blogger ninja Miriam already covered this. I got a little too ambitious today. Or, not ambitious enough to, er, search my own site to see if we had written about it. Carry on if you want, just thought I would update.
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Wow. And here I thought that other gamesters would take particular pleasure in racing, maiming, beating or killing lesbians.
Okay, that's so not okay I can't even form a coherent way to express my disgust.
Seriously people, WTF??
Don't worry, Dia. They did. Before she was banned, she was harassed, verbally abused, and "chased" off of one server after another.
Although in the interests of accuracy, I'd like to point out it's not like Xbox Live has a policy of banning LGBT gamers or something, which is what this snippet makes it sound like. Actually, the banning took place because of an unmonitored "rating" system, where gamers rate other gamers. Enough negative ratings, and you get banned. The system was designed to allow people to report gamers who cheat, team-kill, and other poor game behavior. Unfortunately, because the rating system isn't monitored, you don't have to provide documentation for why you're adding negative ratings to a particular person. So a lot of people can get together and get someone they don't like banned with a concerted effort, whether there's a justifiable reason to do so or not. At least that's my understanding of the system; I don't use Live, but my boyfriend does.
So this isn't just Xbox Live being homophobic; it's more a problem of the players. Of course, Live isn't exactly innocent, given that they've refused to reinstate the gamer who got banned this way, and have refused to even look into the harassment she suffered on the servers. Live is very much an "inmates running the asylum" sort of community.
Not saying that's a good thing at all, just...this isn't a corporate policy, and it sounded like it was being represented that way.
Oh, yeah thanks for the clarification Jadelyn. I will make an update.
Just to clarify:
There are two different systems on Xbox live to respond to member behavior. The player review allows you to either 'prefer' or 'avoid' someone based on game behavior. This system is how you respond to people for team-killing, being annoying on voice communication, or quitting early. Reviewing someone with 'avoid player' makes you less likely to be matched with that player in future matchmaking and it lowers their player reputation. However, it will not lead to anyone getting banned.
For violations of code of conduct, players can file a complaint. These relate to more serious issues such as the use of slurs, threats, or game tampering. The user filing the complaint must specify how the violation occurred by choosing one of four categories: 1) Profile and Content 2) Text and Communications 3) Video Communications and 4) Tampering. Xbox live isn't completely open about how the banning process works, but I suspect there is usually some sort of verification that a violation has occurred. In the case of this woman, technically stating that she is a lesbian is a violation of the Xbox Live code of conduct, so she was banned. (The reason that this is a code of conduct violation is discussed further down in the comments)
(I know that the person who I'm responding to doesn't play xbox live so I wanted to expand a little bit for those who are curious about how the system works)
You're right about the way the system works, you can leave negative reputation points attributed to someone's account very easily.
You simply have to bring up a player list and you can negatively affect someone's reputation based on any reason, from cheating to offensive language, with no evidence being required to corroborate your rating, and if you get enough you do get banned.
Negative rep doesn't lead to banning, filing complaints for violations of code of conducts does. After enough code of conduct complaints are filed, Xbox live staff verifies the conduct violation and bans the member. I'm not sure if they verify communication complaints (they may have the ability to listen in on games, I'm not sure) but those usually lead to voice-bans, not full bans.
Which is weird; considering the main demographic of gamers, you'd think they'd vote in favor of lesbians!
Xbox has a blanket banning policy for all sexualities. Someone who stated they were heterosexual would also get banned.
Microsoft has stated they are looking into ways for people to post their sexuality and still prevent others from being offensive, but its a difficult slope to navigate.
I looked into this quite a bit last time it was posted, including speaking to a friend who works for Microsoft. As a feminist gamer, I was completely pissed when I read the story; after research, though, Microsoft is doing everything they can do keep Xbox live neutral and minimize abuse. Of course, there are always ways to slip though that, and jackasses always will; but part of their measure of protection is banning ALL sexualities from being stated.
This is an old story and Microsoft has since responded and clarified their stance, and are looking into ways to change it. There is an update to the story you link on the Consumerist site and other sites have reported and commented on this story. Read the update and Microsoft's response on Joystiq:
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/26/consumerist-self-identified-lesbian-banned-from-xbox-live/
"Why? Because your sexual orientation is offensive to others."
That's not really true. The reason they don't allow expression of sexual orientation (hetero or otherwise) in profiles and gamer tags is because the vast majority of users who would include the word "gay" or "lesbian" in their profile/tag would use it in a derogatory/homophobic way. They're filtering words related to sexual orientation like they'd filter curse words. I'm guessing microsoft rationalizes it by saying it's better to cut down on massive amounts of gay bashing at the cost of preventing some legitimate expressions of sexuality. Obviously this is a bad solution because it's important for those who want to proudly identify themselves as gay to be able to do so. But with millions of members, it's impossible to monitor all profiles, all the time. I'm curious if anyone here has any ideas for a solution. I think it's really distressing that people can't self-identify as gay or lesbian but having spent time on xbox live, I know how viciously homophobic or just plain immature many of the members are.
However, I think it's a little disingenuous of feministing to present this as a case of "Microsoft just hates the homos, hur hur" (immediately refuted by the fact that it's perfectly acceptable to identify your sexual orientation over voice communication). Really it's a complicated situation that arises in a culture of homophobia, when the very word that's a self-identifying expression also becomes an insult.
I looked into this quite a bit last time it was posted, including speaking to a friend who works for Microsoft. As a feminist gamer, I was completely pissed when I read the story; after research, though, Microsoft is doing everything they can do keep Xbox live neutral and minimize abuse. Of course, there are always ways to slip though that, and jackasses always will; but part of their measure of protection is banning ALL sexualities from being stated.
Like Jadelyn said, the real problem are the people. Gaming culture is steeped in asshats and bigots; its a really difficult community to police. The anonymity seems to provide 12 year olds and idiots license to spew everything they learned without seeing any real consequences. The trick is how to fix it.
Guys, if you're not going to properly research it the first time, could you at least refrain from jumping to conclusions and claiming them as fact?
Microsoft is very supporting of their homosexual customers. Never have they said that being homosexual is offensive, they have said that that policy is an unfortunate necessity to cut down on homophobic expression. The man in charge of policing the community has even said that they're trying to find a safe way for homosexual customers to express their sexuality, but obviously this isn't easy.
While I'm at it, Microsoft has a handful of games that depict homosexuality positively. I'm playing through Fable II right now and vastly enjoying being a fake lesbian in addition to a real one.
Deja vu http://www.feministing.com/archives/013914.html
So since this has been rebuffed do you think you should take down that headline? Pretty shocking.
I work for a children's website where you can not talk about ANY sexual orientation or romantic relationship. Thats a very standard thing and WE certainly don't discriminate one way or another -- none of it is allowed because it's just not appropriate or necessary for that kind of environment.
As an LGBT rights advocate, I humbly ask for this headline to be changed to more accurately reflect the situation here. Our cause is not helped by our allies sensationalizing things, and it sounds like Microsoft is doing the best they can in a tough situation.
And I can also speak as an LGBT gamer; I've been out in gaming communities and it is HARD. Testosterone runs high and homophobia is rampant. From this perspective, Microsoft is at once to be commended for doing what they can to level the playing field (so to speak) and ridiculed for doing it in a way that does not allow its LGBT users to be out and proud. IMO, we need a bigger, more visible presence in gaming communities, so that the bigots learn that we're everywhere and we're just like them (except not bigots).
It's not a big deal covering something that another member of feministing already wrote about, easy mistake, but when it's a story that's been out there for a while and you're still presenting false information about it, that's not cool. The title and everything above the link highly misleading, to the point of irresponsibility. Please change it.
Yeck.
They don't allow anyone to talk about sexual orientation? Will they be banning any guy who talks about his girlfriend? Will they be banning any girl because she talks about her boyfriend?
Likely not because heterosexual orientation is the "default" and thus is assumed.
Way to go Microsoft. Thanks a heap.
Even though the comments here say that this isn't about banning lesbian gamers, I still wonder if they'd ban heterosexual comments pertaining to their significant other.
There's no word of them banning people over the mention of a homosexual partnership, either. Just specifically going gay/straight/lesbian/homo/etc. In fact, they specifically mentioned "Hi my name is Jane and I love my partner Laura" as something acceptable, it's just that the words are banned.
Plus, they don't seek out people to ban, it's on a report basis, as it is with most video games.
I agree with above posts that the headline is misleading and should be changed. Also, there is a lack of context for the information contained in the post.
another reason why playstation 3 is better.
Better? The PS3 was a clusterfuck from day 1, and did so badly for so long that the PS2's still around...
Seriously? You're going to start the Xbox vs. Playstation argument on a feminist blog? While we're at, perhaps we can discuss whether PCs or Macs are superior! (This is sarcasm, please don't start that either)
this is depressing on so many levels.