Halo 4 devs speak out against sexism - OG Myth-Weavers

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Halo 4 devs speak out against sexism

 
Halo 4 devs speak out against sexism

http://www.gamespot.com/news/halo-4-...sexism-6399205

Quote:
Speaking to GameSpot, Ross and Wolfkill said there is zero tolerance for Xbox Live players who are found to be making sexist or discriminatory comments against others, with a lifetime ban from the network as penalty.
I think this is awesome. A lifetime ban might be a bit excessive, but I'm glad developers are starting to speak out vehemently against the sexism and discrimination found in many gaming communities, and I hope more things like this happen. I was already pleased when Halo: Reach implemented an auto-mute policy for players who were muted too many times, and it's really cool to see them speaking out even more again sexism and discrimination.

Edit: I posted this in WT, but if a Mod thinks this fits better in General Discussion, feel free to move it.

I'm not generally a big fan of the things that tend to be labelled 'zero-tolerance'. I am a supporter of reasonable action being taken against transgressors, which certainly can include such things as 'lifetime bans' or their counterparts in other venues, but reasonable action can also include things such as warnings and lesser punishments for edge cases, whereas 'zero-tolerance' policies promote a binary perception of the situation.

I think they are upping the game, Tedronai. Case by case was how things went before, and it has never worked. What you get is a community that allows it to happen because 'well he wasn't being serious' and 'well that is just how the community is' or whatever other excuse. In this case it may be time to enforce the 'law' so that possible future offenders realize that the 'law' will be enforced, and give a second thought to their actions.

I don't agree with it, but I want to see how it works out. I'm not a huge fan of the 100% trash-talk culture in gaming communities.

I just think there's room between 'he wasn't being serious, so we won't take any action' and 'he said something that could be interpreted as offensive, so, whether that was the intent or not, he's banned for life'.

I think allowing players to mute other players seem fine enough. If a player complains about offensive language, the GM can just tell them how to use the mute feature. That doesn't seem to require case by case analysis, and it gets rid of the banhammering.

How was the original battle.net run? I think all that really happened was that players were allowed to mute/block other players.

It just makes sense. Why enforce a policy of zero tolerance if players can already block/mute at their own discretion? Unless their mute/block list becomes too large, it just seems like devs need to hold their hands, because supposedly hearing something offensive would scar them for life. And if they're young, I've seen ESRB messages that say 'online content not rated', implying the need for some level of parental intervention.

I've seen too many cases where subjective approaches are used to judge such things, and what one person perceives as racist or sexist is not so perceived by another person. It really does vary from person to person, and for the big banhammer to be used requires objective rather than subjective interpretation. The idea of getting rid of sexism and racism is good, the implementation varies between too lax and too restrictive due to subjective interpretation. Who decides if something is offensive? Can you get a person banned because you take offense at a comment, or only if the administrators agree that the comment is offensive?

Then there is the single comment vs pattern of behavior argument. There is already the block/mute function. If a sufficiently large number of people block or mute a person, that should flag them for the administrators to check. If the administrators view it the same way, then warn them that their comments are in violation of the rules. If they continue, ban them, by all means. But to have them banned because of a single comment rather than a pattern of behavior is too harsh, in my book.

Quote:
Originally Posted by impfireball View Post
I think allowing players to mute other players seem fine enough. If a player complains about offensive language, the GM can just tell them how to use the mute feature. That doesn't seem to require case by case analysis, and it gets rid of the banhammering.

How was the original battle.net run? I think all that really happened was that players were allowed to mute/block other players.

It just makes sense. Why enforce a policy of zero tolerance if players can already block/mute at their own discretion? Unless their mute/block list becomes too large, it just seems like devs need to hold their hands, because supposedly hearing something offensive would scar them for life. And if they're young, I've seen ESRB messages that say 'online content not rated', implying the need for some level of parental intervention.
The problem with muting is that games with vocal teamwork end up with stunted teams because half the team cannot hear the other half.

"This is behaviour that is offensive and completely unacceptable." - from the quoted article.

If this is the belief of the developer, than mute buttons aren't sufficient. One does not change the climate of a culture with a mute button.

It's fairly simple to identify specific words and forms of speech that are bannable offenses. If people want to play that game, they aren't allowed to use those words and phrases. It seems pretty straightforward to me.




 

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