Xbox F*!$#ing Live

Games
1

From a post at Evil Avatar’s forums…

RANT ON: There is this guy with the gamertag of “MAN” who plays MechAssault who is the loudest most obnoxious person in the WORLD. He sounds like and inner city gang member who spouts an OBSCENE amout of “Mother Fuckers” and threats/taunts. I counted once and he said “MOTHER FUCKER” 17 times in less than a minute. For this I hope his MIC breaks.RANT OFF:

This is exactly the kind of thing that is a big problem for parents and means that responsible parents aren’t going to buy Xbox Live. In fact, it’s likely that there will be some parents who will discover after the fact that this kind of language is used when their children start using it after playing a game. You just can’t put that kind of thing back in the box once it’s out.

Anyway, this post, from a confirmed Xbox fan, has some good info on the service for those interested. There do seem to be other problems and of course some good stuff, but that part jumped out at me. Note that MechAssault apparently doesn’t have the Muting feature so this language would have been unavoidable.

http://www.evilavatar.com/EA/News/Reviews/M41795/#discussion

–Dave

2

“doesn’t have the Muting feature”

Is this true? IF so,

haha

3

Finding good opponents is the true challenge of online play.

I’m no pollyanna on language, but I really don’t want my son gaming with rude idiots. Losing with grace is hard enough for a 9 year old; he doesn’t need some social reject screaming in his ear.

That said, I think you can mitigate the problem by hooking up with people you know, and those who frequent certain sites. Like this one.

4

muting is built into the Live API that is required by ALL games to implement.

finding the option in games is different per game, in my experience.

5

I very much doubt your 9 year old, while playing at home at 4 PM while Mom is making dinner is going to be seeking out buddies from a nice newgroup to play with. I am not a paranoid parent but this is a serious issue that would prevent me from wanting my child to be playing on XBOX live.

6

Aside from the fact that you communicate with voice instead of text, it’s no more or less of a problem than you already have with online PC games. Is it really that much more of a problem to have your kid exposed to people calling them a motherfucker via filtered voice software than it is to have them read it? It seems like an odd hair to split. I’m not saying that it isn’t a legitimate issue–I’m just saying that it’s not an issue limited to (or created by) the Xbox Live service.

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I think sales of games like GTA have shown most developers it’s not much of an issue to alienate the “responsible parent” gaming sector.

8

At least there is a muting feature, even if it is hard to find. Playing on public CS servers will give you an earful, but you can’t do anything about it except leave. I demand voicecom for multiplayer games, but you have to be ready to deal with the drunken sailors.

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I realize 9 year olds do play PC online shooters and the like, but not in the numbers they play games on their consoles. I think some parents have considered consoles a more kid-friendly safe zone. It should be a definite factor when deciding on the X-box Live games or not, IMO.

10

Or, you could unplug the headset from the controller. Easy enough.

11

First of all: certainly you can mute other players.

Second, If you have children, why wouldn’t they be playing the GameCube, which is the official kiddie console? I don’t see the Xbox as a big seller among people under the age of ~12 anyway.

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MechAssault is rated Teen. Teens tend to hear enough foul language at school… I don’t see how this is any different.

13

Tom, just because parents don’t have direct control over what their kids hear at school doesn’t mean they should give up trying to raise their children well in the areas they do have control over.

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Not true in the least. It’s very easy to mute people in CS. Show scores, press the mouse button, mouse to the person you want to mute, click.

You don’t even have to read the manual to figure that out.

Makes me wonder about these claims of no muting feature in other games - maybe you’re just not looking hard enough. Sheesh.

15

Aside from the fact that you communicate with voice instead of text, it’s no more or less of a problem than you already have with online PC games. Is it really that much more of a problem to have your kid exposed to people calling them a motherfucker via filtered voice software than it is to have them read it? It seems like an odd hair to split. I’m not saying that it isn’t a legitimate issue–I’m just saying that it’s not an issue limited to (or created by) the Xbox Live service.

It’s far easier to use the spoken word to coerce or intimidate than it is with text. I wonder what Microsoft will do when the first Xbox Live! online stalking case comes up? With all that goes on in chat rooms, having the ability to speak to someone makes for a much larger problem. Fundamentally, their intention of allowing the same anonymity of the internet and very little responsibility for the goings on that occur there, but doing it with voice instead of text, will create a nice environment for pedophiles and the like. Especially since they know for a fact that the audience will most likely be teens or possibly younger.

Maybe they’ll be lucky and nothing will happen an no one will get hurt and the parents won’t complain (or won’t know). I can just see so much more possibility for abuse in this system than the text based Internet world. Words are so much more powerful when someone’s saying them than they are written on a computer screen.

I think the main point is that I would never buy Xbox Live! based on the above things so Microsoft isn’t getting my money. Apparently, there are those that agree with me even here on these boards. I’m not sure there’s a large market for this kind of product yet and maybe not for a long, long time. This is all provided average people can figure out how to get the thing online in the first place which I think is an even bigger issue.

Second, If you have children, why wouldn’t they be playing the GameCube, which is the official kiddie console? I don’t see the Xbox as a big seller among people under the age of ~12 anyway.

sigh

I think sales of games like GTA have shown most developers it’s not much of an issue to alienate the “responsible parent” gaming sector.

GTA is rated M. The parents are shirking their own responsibililty if they don’t know that and allow their kid to play it anyway. You can’t hope to stop that nor is there an issue with alienation. I’m a responsible parent, therefore I don’t have GTA in the house.

Xbox Live! on the other hand has no rating. There may be a warning in the box of what may be heard from other players in an online environment and if there isn’t, I’ll be very surprised. But you could have an E rated Xbox Live! game like say NFL2K3 where the rating is not taking into account the “colorful” language you might hear from the other person you’re playing in an online game. How can you rate a game like say… MechAssault with T if the guy you’re playing with says motherfucker 17 times in one minute? That would get a movie an R rating right there.

I don’t have all the answers, only suggestions, opinions and problems with the service.

–Dave

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I don’t have all the answers, only suggestions, opinions and problems with the service.

Unless it was a service provided by Nintendo, in which case you’d be telling us how great it all is. You’re not exactly objective, Dave.

17

Ah, I forgot that. Of course, the reason I forgot is that it has never worked for me. I hit tab to bring up the score list, but regardless of what I do with the mouse the highlight/focus just rapidly and randomly jumps around. Eh, not worth the hassle to figure out the problem.

The solution I do use is to play on moderated servers. Is there such a thing on XBL? Can you create a public game that anyone can join, but then retain the power to toss out the idiots?

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Unless it was a service provided by Nintendo, in which case you’d be telling us how great it all is. You’re not exactly objective, Dave.

No I wouldn’t because I’ve said countless times on these boards that the world is not ready for broadband console gaming. You didn’t see me trumpeting the release of the broadband adapter for the Gamecube did you? I haven’t been on here raving about Phantasy Star Online on the Gamecube.

Doesn’t matter if it’s Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft. I think there’s a problem with voice communication when kids get involved. Try answering the points in my post next time instead of taking potshots at me.

–Dave

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How 'bout all the anonymous folks that want to whine about Mr. Long’s posts just start a dedicated thread if you are going to simply bitch about things and not counter or refute them.

It can be titled Chickenshit Potshots at Dave Long or something because frankly it is pretty tired.

20

Here’s my answer. Know what your kids are doing. Period. I point out who the vast majority of owners of the new generation of PS2 and Xbox’s are…17-18 or over. I don’t know if MechAssault has some problem with a muting feature or none at all. I do know for a fact that its there. I’ve have played on a Xbox live! system before. Again it comes down to the parents. Xbox Live! isn’t Disnyland online. Its going to be geared towords teenagers and young adults. If parents want their little kids online then they better look into it some(i.e. be a parent) get info on it. Then make their decision wether to allow their 10 yr olds online with it.