CyberPanda
Banned
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.