• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Original Xbox designer Seamus Blackley on online abuse: ‘This isn’t the future of Xbox Live we envisioned’

Putonahappyface

Gold Member
I experienced this childish nonsense only a handful of times on BF4, so I muted chat and disabled messages from everyone except friends and problem solved.

Thug Life Guiri GIF by Lowi
 

K2D

Banned
A story as old as time. Trespassing on the male tribe members' safe space. This will only persist - if you want to make a better player environment, that is a valient sentiment, but you'll have to spend effort on it continuously..
 

Drewpee

Banned
Or use the tools available to make sure they don't play with random strangers online. So difficult right?
Not difficult in the slightest, but also not the point. Any sensible parent already knows to do that. It doesn't solve the bigger problem.

Noone should have to deal with abuse just because they decide to play a game online. To defend it as "well people are mean so suck it up" is just stupid imo. I think we can do better but it takes people moving beyond just accepting this type.of behavior. Not only do we accept it, we encourage it and defend it as a society. This thread is a fantastic example of that.
 
To defend it as "well people are mean so suck it up" is just stupid imo. I think we can do better but it takes people moving beyond just accepting this type.of behavior.
What you are wishing for is completely reconstructing human nature. Can I have some of what you are having? This is the sort of delusional shit I expect from Twitter. Use the tools given to you, they work.
 

treemk

Banned
Not difficult in the slightest, but also not the point. Any sensible parent already knows to do that. It doesn't solve the bigger problem.

Noone should have to deal with abuse just because they decide to play a game online. To defend it as "well people are mean so suck it up" is just stupid imo. I think we can do better but it takes people moving beyond just accepting this type.of behavior. Not only do we accept it, we encourage it and defend it as a society. This thread is a fantastic example of that.
Yes, people disagree on things as people do. When you play a competitive game with random people, you might hear some shit talk. Doesn't matter if you're playing online or going to a pickup game of basketball at your local park. The solution is not to police speech, especially as making mistakes and learning from them along with adversity is intrinsically necessary for people to grow.

As a dad raising girls, a situation like this mainly falls in to different areas:

-too young to be playing online with voice chat
-too old to let what some random kid says bother you

In between those two is a healthy learning experience. Acting like only girls have this issue is an agenda based problem seeking narrative. Is the point supposed to be that boys don't go through this, or because they're boys they can handle it?
 

JackSparr0w

Banned
I saw that after I made the first post and the shit she says is equally as hateful and unnecessary. My children will never speak that way online, guaranteed. If they do they will not be online for long.

We are not a hateful family and I expect the same behavior from them regardless of how they interact with other people.
Bro your daughters will most likely torment and manipulate teenage boys the moment they realize the kind of power they possess. You can try to do your best but when your children turn into teenagers it's out of your hands.

Try to restrict them too much and the next thing you know they start an onlyfans at 18. I just wish you good luck my man.
 

treemk

Banned
Bro your daughters will most likely torment and manipulate teenage boys the moment they realize the kind of power they possess. You can try to do your best but when your children turn into teenagers it's out of your hands.

Try to restrict them too much and the next thing you know they start an onlyfans at 18. I just wish you good luck my man.
Not going to happen most girls on only fans probably don't even have dads
 
Last edited:

Drewpee

Banned
Bro your daughters will most likely torment and manipulate teenage boys the moment they realize the kind of power they possess. You can try to do your best but when your children turn into teenagers it's out of your hands.

Try to restrict them too much and the next thing you know they start an onlyfans at 18. I just wish you good luck my man.

I appreciate the parenting advice, the teenager I have now seems to be doing ok but if she starts being mean and manipulative I'll be sure to remember this post.

Sorry your experience as a teenager was so rough man, it must have been really bad to have you sereotyping an entire age group.
 
What you are wishing for is completely reconstructing human nature. Can I have some of what you are having? This is the sort of delusional shit I expect from Twitter. Use the tools given to you, they work.

Is it part of human nature? People don't have to be assholes and there's no natural benefit to being one online, it sounds a little more conformist than natural... Which yes is part of human nature, but being an asshole itself is not an inherent trait.
 
Last edited:

NickFire

Member
I don't understand how these kinds of stories / tweets / whatever still generates clicks. Reporting on jerks being jerks online is like reporting that the sun came up every morning.
 

Drewpee

Banned
Yes, people disagree on things as people do. When you play a competitive game with random people, you might hear some shit talk. Doesn't matter if you're playing online or going to a pickup game of basketball at your local park. The solution is not to police speech, especially as making mistakes and learning from them along with adversity is intrinsically necessary for people to grow.

As a dad raising girls, a situation like this mainly falls in to different areas:

-too young to be playing online with voice chat
-too old to let what some random kid says bother you

In between those two is a healthy learning experience. Acting like only girls have this issue is an agenda based problem seeking narrative. Is the point supposed to be that boys don't go through this, or because they're boys they can handle it?
Of course boys go through this, I would know as a boy that went through this. I mentioned daughters because I am the father of girls and this was a post related to a woman that received hateful feedback, obviously it is going to hit a little closer to home. The fact that I mentioned being the father of daughters seems to be all people can focus on, which is an interesting observation itself I think.

It is not about coddling girls, its not about what type of tools we have, its not about what type of parent a child has, its not about some ignorant idea of "healthy learning experience" by being abused online.

That line of thinking is flawed, its not human nature to be so hateful to eachother. It is a culture that has been created and defended for so long that we just accept it as the norm. If you walked into an arcade right now you would almost certainly not have to worry about receiving insults based on your gender, death threats and other extremely hateful remarks that go far beyond just trash talk. If someone tried they'd be kicked out. Online behavior does not match real world behavior.
 
It was so good the first time that I had to double post it.

But seriously, trash talking was always about half the fun in online play... Not sure why they would want to sanitize that... Oh wait my kids are growing up! People should definitely be banned for ANY bad word, or word that could be understood as bad.
 
Last edited:

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
Totes right bro, people just need to suck it up and learn to be ok with being verbally assaulted online, its human nature right? That's why when you walk the street people are hurling hateful insults at you constantly, right?

Just to be clear, I came here with 0 demands about anything. I saw a post and thought I'd share my perspective as a parent of young daughters that will be dealing with this shit. I was curious to see others perspective. The responses are basically "be a better parent, suck it up, people are mean, they need to deal with it, MALADJUSTED human" (guarantee you have never used that word a day in your life outside of this conversation lol).

It was a mistake on my part for thinking this is the place for that type of discussion so I apologize for offending your eyes with the thought that maybe we can be better and not so hateful toward eachother.

Maybe ResetEra is more your speed, kiddo. They tend to be better suited for overly sensitive folk who lack personal responsibility.
 

DaGwaphics

Member
Legend. That's how you adapt. Either you ignore it or participate, there is no way to eradicate this. If you can't eradicate real life bullying, how the fuck are you gonna solve this. Everyone's options are the same, play with friends or mute chat. Guys or girls, everyone gets shit.

Simple truth. I don't do much online gaming, but you can always just hit mute.

Hardest thing about it is the foulest players often sound really young, makes it hard to return in kind, LOL.
 

Drewpee

Banned
Maybe ResetEra is more your speed, kiddo. They tend to be better suited for overly sensitive folk who lack personal responsibility.

On no, you called me kiddo and sensitive. The devastation on display here is insane. I better run right over to reset era, whatever the hell that is lol thank you for keeping me in line, tiger.
 

VN1X

Banned
"yOu NotIce HOW mASTErcHiEF wAs neVEr A wOMAn?"

Jesus, what kind of weaksauce toxicity is this?! I would've totally loved to jump in this lobby to school these kids lol. If you're going to call out anyone at least do so on the basis of their performance or some shit. It's better even when it's funny. That abuse seen in that twitter clip was absolutely pathetic and cringeworthy.

Also disclaimer: I'm 34 and I love to partake in some (good spirited) banter in multiplayer games. I'm ashamed to admit but I've yelled out the "go back to Fornite" in Hunt Showdown proximity chat plenty of times just after killing someone lol. :lollipop_grinning_sweat:
 

Pejo

Member
I haven't played Multiplayer on xbox since the 360. Do they not have mute/block features for individual players yet? That seems like the easy answer here.
 
Is it part of human nature? People don't have to be assholes and there's no natural benefit to being one online, it sounds a little more conformist than natural... Which yes is part of human nature, but being an asshole itself is not an inherent trait.
Of course, think of the mental state of the average person on the street. Now think of the mental state of every person worse off than that average person. People are not a monolith, it's human nature (especially in competitive settings) to be aggressive.
 
Of course, think of the mental state of the average person on the street. Now think of the mental state of every person worse off than that average person. People are not a monolith, it's human nature (especially in competitive settings) to be aggressive.
People can be aggressive when nature requires them to be, and aggressively approaching competitive situations is a genetic misinterpretation of that albeit within acceptable limits (there are exceptions of course). But I think this goes beyond that, this is a situation where people think its ok to be a nasty twat for no reason, which broadly/offtopically is symptomatic of social media (which in a way this is an extension of). Maybe it is representative of a certain type of human nature in this day and ag but communities can exist and play competitively without the need for it. *steps off soapbox*

 
People can be aggressive when nature requires them to be, and aggressively approaching competitive situations is a genetic misinterpretation of that albeit within acceptable limits (there are exceptions of course). But I think this goes beyond that, this is a situation where people think its ok to be a nasty twat for no reason, which broadly/offtopically is symptomatic of social media (which in a way this is an extension of). Maybe it is representative of a certain type of human nature in this day and ag but communities can exist and play competitively without the need for it. *steps off soapbox*


I get you, but you have to take into consideration humour, personality type, anger, emotion, jealousy etc etc. all human traits that would need a full reprogramming across the world. People have different tolerances of what’s acceptable before you even get into mental health issues. It will never be a simple matter of telling people to do better. The only people who listen to that are usually the people who don’t have issues playing games with people online. This utopia will never exist, thats why they give users tools to customise their online experiences.
 
Every person online experienced some form of abuse. Not a big deal.

Your totes right bro, people just need to grow thicker skin and ignore all the hatred and venom spewed their way for having the fuckin audacity to play a game online. Who do they think they are?
Just mute the chat. Problem is solved.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
Same. The problem is exacerbated by the inclusion of a mic in every ps5 controller. They are enabled by default too. Muting everyone is virtually impossible because cod lobbies are split up after every game and you need to manually mute them every game.

I thought the ps4 era with party chats becoming the norm fixed online abuse since you only played with people you knew but I’m starting to see random chats making a comeback because now everyone has a mic.

I played the Vanguard freebie over the past week and I muted the voice chat in options. It stays muted forever, never heard anyone talking I think.
 

treemk

Banned
That line of thinking is flawed, its not human nature to be so hateful to eachother. It is a culture that has been created and defended for so long that we just accept it as the norm. If you walked into an arcade right now you would almost certainly not have to worry about receiving insults based on your gender, death threats and other extremely hateful remarks that go far beyond just trash talk. If someone tried they'd be kicked out. Online behavior does not match real world behavior.
Where did the culture come from if not human nature? An arcade is a friendly place generally filled with weak/harmless people. Other places I could go would result in me getting beaten, robbed, murdered, human trafficked, etc. That sounds extreme but just going to the wrong neighborhood in the city I live in can have a VERY bad outcome. You have to take a very narrow and generous view of society if you think the real world is better/safer than the virtual world. People online are mean, crude, rude, angry, etc. but other than the rare circumstances where it bleeds into the real world they are also completely harmless.
 
Last edited:

treemk

Banned
She should have responded with little penis jokes. Retaliation is important.
Girls I used to play online with would always cut these fools down and it was hilarious. It's weak minding to play the victim especially when its just trash talk.
 
Noone should have to deal with abuse just because they decide to play a game online.

Halo Infinite allows you to mute everyone with one button press. It's the first thing I do whenever I start a game with random.

When I first read this story, my gut reaction was to say something like "ah she just needs to suck it up and grow some thicker skin". But then I started thinking about my own young daughters and how pissed off I'd be if someone treated them like this, and I realized what the actual problem is.
The worst part of all of this is how the Woke purple-hairs have so successfully infiltrated all aspects of gaming and pop culture, and so thoroughly infested these game studios with this idea that everyone deserves a safe space everywhere they choose to go in life, virtually or otherwise, that I have to even second guess this.

YES, those guys are jerks. YES, no one should be forced to listen to insults. But, YES, also, people should have the right to express their frustrations and we shouldn't allow gaming companies to trample on the rights of people to speak their mind, ban them from games, etc because someone's feelings got hurt. FFS, just turn off the chat if you aren't playing with people you know.
Trash talking has been a part of competitive activity since the beginning of humanity. Ancient indigenous peoples would behead the losers, or sometimes the winners. Grow up and act like an adult.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned

Quote retweeting Australian streamer Grenade Queen, the developer said that “This wasn’t the future for @xbox live we envisioned.”

The original clip, which has been viewed over 400 thousand times, shows Grenade Queen playing a match of Halo Infinite while two unnamed teammates hurl abuse towards her, saying that the game “isn’t for her” and that she should “go play Valorant or something and get two kills”.

He goes on to say: “I know this isn’t new. I know you’re angry because nothing has been done for a long time. You’re right. It only motivates me more. It’s possible to clean these environments up. Let’s do it.”



5yxx1j.jpg
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Trash talking has been a part of competitive activity since the beginning of humanity. Ancient indigenous peoples would behead the losers, or sometimes the winners. Grow up and act like an adult.
Trash talking has been part of pro sports since the beginning. Only difference is the cameramen and sound crew purposely dont feed players cussing and slinging insults at other players for viewers to hear. Not sure how they do it, but the crowd, squeaky shoes and slapshots are clear. But when players cuss and yell, that part of the audio on the court or field isn't picked up.

Sports would be cancelled 1000 years ago if everyone heard the trashtalking they do.

But the big difference is real athletes can take it. It's part of the game. Gamers at home thinking they are Rambo or Ronaldo are actually deep down total crybabies, especially the social media whores.

 

Hari Seldon

Member
The last thing I want to do is talk to a bunch of nerds on voice chat. I sat in on my buddies wow raid once and it was all I could do to avoid drowning myself in draino. I just use discord or nothing.
 

Unk Adams

Banned
Snowflakes really shouldn't be playing online games. Trash talk used to be part of the culture. If you can't handle it then get another hobby. The real world is far worse but these people are so sheltered that they need to have a story written about them when some basement dwelling jerk says something mean about them.
 
Top Bottom