I totally apreciate this technology, if its optional. It really starts to annoy me when in games like Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 when, if I kill somebody in a way the don't like or maybe if I kill them too much in multiplayer I'm immediately subjected to screams of abuse and racist/homophobic remarks. Its just not necessary, I doubt any of these guys would say it straight to my face so why should it be ok over Xbox LIVE? Its shouldn't and its not quite simply. I'm not somebody who is offended by swear words and I use them regularly in everyday life, but they're never directed at people in a hostile manor.
If I had the option to blank out people like this automatically then I would use it. I would use it constantly and I don't think that I'm in the minority here, I know I can mute people and I do, all the time. I know I can give them bad rep, and I do even though I'm pretty sure it just goes straight to a gigantic MS Recycle Bin on Major Nelson's PC.
I agree with the majority of you though, this technology should be completely optional and if you ask my opinion its geared more toward kids profiles than the average Xbox LIVE gamer. I'm almost certain that nobody here will be affected by it unless they want to be.
Reply: I think you'll find it will be fine within your "Friends List" but not in the Public domain. Which is fair enough. You can't just have open slather simply because "you want it" . . there needs to be limits on such things, ortherwise we end up with a situation we are in now.
MS, Sony and Nintedno want to push their online service to "Families" and they can not do that if they are not "seen to be doing something" to combat abuse. Not just swearing, but terrible racial, sexual and religious slurs which are rampant on XboxLIVE> Many parents won't let their kids play simply because of that, which is counter to what MS, Sony and Nintendo would like.
Unfortunately, the actions of such idiots affect the rights of others. It's always been that way, and there's is no easy fix to suit all.
Also, sticking your head in the sand (not saying you are btw) and hoping it goes away is just as bad. Rules are there at the beginninng when you sign up, if you are not prepared to follow them, and they are there, read them, then the ompany must be seen to have measures to counter that and enforse those rules. Otherwise they are meaningless and basically of no value at all.
I understand what you are saying, and I am not advocating behavior that involves spouting racial slurs and personal threats over XBOX live. What I am saying is having a system designed to fuck up my communication is a bad idea. If Microsoft really wanted to stop the people that are screwing up XBOX live they'd do a better job of promoting the in game complaint system and enforcing their own rules using the system in place. The problem is that very few people use the mute,avoid player, and complaint fuctions in XBOX live.
To be honest, this could work, but probably won't. I rarely speak into my mic for this reason, because it is absolutely nettling to hear some kids or just people in general excessively cursing or shouting out racial slurs...yeah...I'm aware there is a mute button.
This could work. Not in the current form, though. If you could customize the option to have it filter people outside your friend's list, then, yeah, that might work. If somebody doesn't end up bothering you much you can hit a button for that person only to be uncensored. If more people don't get on your nerves (who are not on your friends list), you can manually have them uncensored manually, one at a time. I know that the people on my friend's list slip curses every now and then, but it isn't extremely excessive, and I'm pretty sure I don't hear any racial slurs.
It could work. In the present state that is being proposed, I have a feeling it will fail, and I would end up staying on the uncensored side. Which is unfortunate, because the problem is growing day by day. Customizing it to your liking would be nice.
I understand this whole censorship to a point and it would only make sense to censor T rated games. Allowing trash talk on M rated games only, and if people still are offended by the language being thrown out there, that's when you use the mute button.
Sometimes it isn't that easy, because almost every game I join (in any game), this situation occurs. Going into the dashboard and waiting to mute somebody (literally), is annoying. If they had a button on the outside, that would be much, much, better.
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