I don’t really know where I stand on this:
The Consumerist printed a letter from a reader, Grant, who claims his Xbox Live gamertag, "theGAYERgamer," was banned from Xbox Live. When he called Microsoft customer support, a rep reportedly told him that while she wasn’t offended by his gamertag, "the greater Xbox community" had found his it offensive, thereby warranting a ban.
Personally, it doesn’t really bother me. thegayergamer didn’t pick that name with anything in mind but to stand out. Whether they are gay or not, the point of the name is to rile other people up. I’m not saying other people are stupid for getting miffed about it, but the reality of the internet is that people will respond…and not well. So whatever.
This leads me to a larger question though. Who’s complaining about this? Should the small subset of people that whine to microsoft directly decide who is allowed to have what name? Much like the hundreds of thousands of complaints the FCC gets about random things on tv, it’s not the general population, it’s whiners targeting things that bother them. Here’s the kick though…they don’t speak for me. They don’t even speak for a majority of the population (as studies have shown).
Like usual, the whiners are deciding things for the rest of us. Lovely.
What Would Matt Do: Sigh. A lot. Maybe I’ll pout too.
4 Comments
Sigh all you want.
That “greater Xbox community” the CSR refers to is simply democracy in action. The internet is/has been slowly morphing into an entity that mimics our own “mainstream” social values and mechanics. People on the internet(like this gayergamer) have come to -expect- that the “shield of intarweb anonymity” is somehow supposed to protect them from ridicule or prejudice, and in turn Microsoft is somehow supposed to take the high road of “Political Correctness” and protect this individual from his/her own stupidity?
Riiight.
So you think the FCC is also democracy in action? It’s been proven it’s not only that, it’s a very small subset of motivated whiners in action.
I’m not saying that’s what’s happening here, I’m saying, where will it stop. If I get enough complaints about not having vowels in my username, will I be required to change my name? Seems very arbitrary at this point.
Well, I didnt mention the FCC in my previous comment. But, I will say that with the advent of how MS, Sony and other online gaming providers are using “social networking” with their games, that they have an obligation of keeping the atmosphere “mainstream” so to speak.
What needs to be addressed here is the anonymity aspect of what internet users, and more importantly “gamers”, have come to expect as the “norm” of relative protection that anonymity has come to provide as an -expectation- by everyone using the internet. That, would be an interesting discussion in its own right, and is the core issue at work here I believe.
I mention the FCC only to show an example of a minority deciding for the majority. I’m not really defending this guy. I didn’t above and I won’t now. I’m just wondering where the line will be drawn.
I have no idea what internet “anonymity” has to do with it. You’re not really anonymous on the internet. The sooner people get that, the better.