Support NeoGAF

[CyberPanda]

Stephen Totilo, Kotaku: You published a blog post about “games as a unifying force,” and you talked about the responsibility of gaming being a safe environment. You talked about toxicity as well and efforts to battle that. Why did you write that?

Phil Spencer, Xbox: It really represents, I think, a point of view that the team has. And obviously as the head of the business and the head of the team, I think it’s important for me to be public about the things that are important to us. And I believe it at a fundamental level.

It’s funny, here at E3 there’s some guy I’ve been playing games with for almost three years online. He lives in Arkansas, I’ve never met him face to face, I play two or three nights a week with him, and we tend to play with an African-American guy who lives in New Jersey and the three of us. And I think about what social construct on our planet today brings a guy who runs a funeral home in Arkansas, a video game guy in Seattle, and a construction worker in New Jersey together in one fireteam to go run Destiny strikes together. When I feel that connective capability—I’ve been in this industry for a long time—I think about both being at Microsoft and using the platform that we have as one of the largest global companies. What does it mean for Microsoft to be in gaming? What should we stand for? And then being deliberate about that.

The only reason we published it now is, just as we’re making progress in Gaming For Everyone, as we’re going to do more things in our services, as we’re beefing up parental controls, there’s going to be a fringe segment that doesn’t like the direction we go. I’ve been public before: Xbox Live is not a free speech platform. It is not a place where anybody can come and say anything. And as we’re working to ensure it’s a safe and inclusive environment for everybody, I don’t want to be opaque about it. I want to be out there front and center so that you understand our motivation.

'Xbox Live Is Not A Free Speech Platform': Xbox Boss Promises New Features To Make Online Gaming Less Hostile

Xbox Live is becoming a safe space. Nice. :| I remember the good old days of Halo 2 and everyone talked so much shit online plus had fun. Good times. The future of gaming with SJW nonsense, safe spaces, and censorship is getting tiresome imo.

 

[DynamiteCop!]

They run a closed platform, they have to set standards and 'protect' people under their umbrella. It's a moral responsibility.

 

[Pejo]

I honestly don't think anyone expected any otherwise in this, the year of our lord, 2019. It's about Twitter image these days, can't upset the tweeters.

 

[bitbydeath]

They should allow it between friends.
No need to cut banter altogether.

 

[desertdroog]

They sell/publish mature rated games. Why is there no mature rated private channel you can opt in/out of?

 

[CyberPanda]

They should allow it between friends.
No need to cut banter altogether.

Agreed.

 

[mcz117chief]

They should allow it between friends.
No need to cut banter altogether.

Pretty much this. Just like in school you can't go to your teacher and tell her to fuck off. There should be standards applied and if you can't abide by them then you should go elsewhere. But yes, among friends or other small groups there should be no spying on other people's speech, that is not only immoral but dangerous as well.

 

[GreatnessRD]

The reign of terror bestowed upon us from the Snowflakes makes me angry. If you're scared, go to church!

 

[Alx]

Some of you guys are really obsessed with labeling everything "SJW". There's nothing new about all of that, Xbox Live never was a free speech platform, it's in the terms of use (that nobody read). No you're not supposed to insult random people or spout racist stuff, it's a place where people come to be entertained, not annoyed by people being dicks. It's just like any private place like restaurants or night clubs : you can come with your friends and tell them whatever you want. But if you're consistently annoying other customers, you get kicked out.

 

[ZeroGravity]

Pick your battles better, people.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

 

[ancelotti]

Bring back something like the Gamer Zones and let people decide what kind of environment they want to experience. Yeah, they had to do something about the racist trolls, unfortunately they also killed so much about what made XBL special during the 360 era. Now no one says anything and it's boring as hell.

 

[Silent Viper]

Good. Ban all foul mouth assholes

 

[ph33rknot]

Isn't this precisely why they had zones underground forever

 

[TeamGhobad]

only a sjw mongrel commie celebrates censorship

 

[jakinov]

Neither is NeoGaf or many other gaming services or even many specific online games. You'll get banned for saying things that most government wouldn't punish you for saying.

 

[somerset]

Now this is a *clear* reference to MS banning far more than annoying and offensive stuff we all hate. This is a plain statement of war against *any* voice the weaponised SJW horrors wish to tear apart.

Team Peter Bright will turn up to tell us to leave the SJWs alone, because they are "god's chosen", put on Earth to save the sinners from themselves. Which is just what the original leaders of the communists preached in the 20th century. Ah, scrolling upwards, i see they have already arrived.

The actions of Facebook, twitter, youtube etc will be replicated on every other platform where large numbers of people can interact with one another. The eugenicist, Bill Gates, was the first in this game. And Windows is the buggy vulnerable POS that it is thanks to Gates' long standing partnership with the NSA- and the backdoors Gates has always insisted be placed in Windows for NSA acts of terror against the American people and others.

Xbox was only a laissez faire platform while it was desperate to approach Sony's level of success- but now...

 

[Kagey K]

Agreed.

They do as long as you don’t report each other, my friend and I swear at each other all day over text messages and neither of us have been communication banned.

It’s randoms and in game chat you need to worry about.

 

[CyberPanda]

They do as long as you don’t report each other, my friend and I swear at each other all day over text messages and neither of us have been communication banned.

It’s randoms and in game chat you need to worry about.

They just can keep all the ones that get annoyed in one group chat, and let the rest have their fun.

 

[polybius80]

as we’re beefing up parental controls

why MS let an IP rated mature in toys for kids?

I want a GTA san andreas: hot coffee lego play set

 

[GreyHorace]

If that means no conservative opinions allowed while lefties are free to insult and belittle people, then no thank you Phil.

 

[Kagey K]

They just can keep all the ones that get annoyed in one group chat, and let the rest have their fun.

If only it were that easy.

Everyone could have better lives if that was the case.

 

[rrice64]

it sucks for sure. this is why me and my brothers/friends hang out in party chat. we all survived the fires of original xbox and 360 xbox live. it's shocking how bad words hurt people nowadays lol.

 

[CyberPanda]

it sucks for sure. this is why me and my brothers/friends hang out in party chat. we all survived the fires of original xbox and 360 xbox live. it's shocking how bad words hurt people nowadays lol.

Party chat is always a good option for sure. I forgot about that feature lol.

 

[Kagey K]

Party chat is always a good option for sure. I forgot about that feature lol.

If I’m not in party chat, my mic is muted. I don’t deal well with people I know and like, how do you think I’d deal with randoms?

Answer: Not well at all.

 

[rrice64]

also, i think it's funny that they want to lock down speech like that, while it's still super easy to ddos someone by joining their party and seeing their ip lol. all that on top of banning people for speech on games that are rated mature. i get it's part of the terms of services and all, but still. weird priorities.

 

[Kagey K]

also, i think it's funny that they want to lock down speech like that, while it's still super easy to ddos someone by joining their party and seeing their ip lol. all that on top of banning people for speech on games that are rated mature. i get it's part of the terms of services and all, but still. weird priorities.

How would you suggest they fix the DDos problem? They can fix the communication problem way easier.

 

[Ma-Yuan]

To be honest voice chat in videogames was always awful. I never used it unless it was with known friends. This doesn't need to have anything to do with SJW folks. Also the immature kids who yell shit all the time are for me the biggest Problem why I don't like to play online.

 

[rrice64]

To be honest voice chat in videogames was always awful. I never used it unless it was with known friends. This doesn't need to have anything to do with SJW folks. Also the immature kids who yell shit all the time are for me the biggest Problem why I don't like to play online.

yeah, that i can do without. playing black ops 4 the other day, some 12 year old singing old town road but yelling FUCK in between every 'ain't nobody tell me nothin' lmao. get that outta here.

 

[Virex]

Dad Spencer can't handle the banter?

 

[Kagey K]

Dad Spencer can't handle the banter?

You can do better then that.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

NM posted from my phone which cocked up

 

[Krappadizzle]

If only we had some ability to silence an individual without having to censor them. Like the ability to not hear them speak. Some of the Eggheads over their need to come up with like a super quiety no more listen option. Might ultimately take everyone's brilliance, but there could be a button to push that fixes this problem.

 

[betrayal]

Am i the only one who love random stupid banter in voice chat?

When playing online with some random guys we always get good laughs out of it when it happens and people talking trash or even say offensive things to us. Of course talking shit to people because i.e. they're a woman, young kid etc. is not acceptable and you should confront or ignore/mute those people, but everything else...yes, please! Even if you don't like it, there's almost always an ignore function.

The problem with creating safe spaces is, that it only fights the symptoms when in reality in 9 out of 10 cases the problem are unconfident people who can't get shit done in their life...and i'm not talking about the people who are talking shit online.

If people feel offended in an online video game, they will feel offended by many things in their life and chances are that these people need to work on themselves.

 

[Radical Dreamer]

Russians flaming you or you them is part of the charm playing cs:go

 

[Farawayfromhell]

It's true, this is why me and my friends are always in party chat... to avoid howler monkeys. xD

 

[Night.Ninja]

They way most of you interpret things is crazy, always wanting to feeling victimised lol

But i get it

 

[CyberPanda]

They way most of you interpret things is crazy, always wanting to feeling victimised lol

But i get it

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Doensn't bother me. I haven't used in game chat since Gears 1, back when it was friendly banter between Brits.

I assume it's still like it was a few years ago; full of yanks playing rap, young kids calling everyone n*ggers, some fat young kid shouting at his family and general useless noise.

Basically an audiobook version of modern day social media.

Fuck. That.

 

[lukilladog]

They have known for a while that governments are coming for the loot boxes, online transactions, and kids spending waaay too many hours online... they just wanna look to be very concerned and proactive, but it´s a farce.

 

[ZywyPL]

It always amazes me how after over two decades of online gameplay it's still so damn hard/impossible for most of the people out there to simply click that mute button...

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

It always amazes me how after over two decades of online gameplay it's still so damn hard/impossible for most of the people out there to simply click that mute button...

This,


I rarely do online but it's my understanding that you can mute other users or the whole thing, right? So, what's the problem, then?

 

[Allandor]

Free speech ends if you harm others. Simple as that.
Free speech doesn't mean you can say anything in public (game-chat is public). That is what spencer meant.

Some gamers should really grow a bit up and start respecting others.

This has nothing to do with censorship just with respect for others.

 

[thelastword]

So recently, MS has been on this marketing campaign of their games being everywhere, crossplay with all, no console wars......but now, they've shown a sign of inclusivity. People not being able to say what they want online....It's their platform and they can do that for sure....but it seems against the grain of their recent liberated, non-confined speech....

 

[bonchooski]

So recently, MS has been on this marketing campaign of their games being everywhere, crossplay with all, no console wars......but now, they've shown a sign of inclusivity. People not being able to say what they want online....It's their platform and they can do that for sure....but it seems against the grain of their recent liberated, non-confined speech....

seriously you’re going to compare them wanting to provide the ability for people to play games with others in every way imaginable, to them wanting less toxicity with what people say to others when playing online?

 

[Spukc]

DON'T BE A DICK®

 

[DanielsM]

I would think this would be common sense, however...
If my Xbox 360 is blocked at the firewall level from ever touching Xbox Live again, does Xbox Live even exist as a platform. (stopped paying for XBL in January, first time not paying for it in like 16 years - tell that to the services engineers over there)

Its not that he is completely wrong, but why is he talking about everything but games?

 

[Noboru Wataya]

So they’re not a free speech platform, this makes them a publisher, right? Does this mean they will be held responsible and liable for all speech/content produced by users using XBOX Live?

 

[Tesseract]

so wait, can you no longer talk shit like you could in halo 2 and 3 ?

even among friends?

 

[mejin]

imagine if this was coming from sony lmao