Microsoft sides with homophobes who report "offensive" Xbox live screen name "TheGAYERgamer"

[Ian David]

XBox Players Not Down With Gay Gamer

XBox’s online game community showed a homophobic hand last week.

Gay player Ryan Grant received a not-so-nice missive from Microsoft saying he had to change his screen name, “theGayergamer,” because other XBox Live members found it offensive.

From a note sent to The Consumerist:

I assumed that once i called Microsoft they would straighten things out. I talked to a supervisor there, Roxy, who told me that she didn’t personally find the fact that my gamer tag had gay in the name offensive, but that the greater Xbox community did, so I would have to change it.

This should earn Microsoft some points in arch nemesis activist Ken Hutcherson’s book, huh?



More:
http://www.queerty.com/xbox-players-not-down-with-gay-g... /

[DS1]

1. Not suprising

many gamers are stupid little fuckwad kids talking shit

[Ian David]

2. You can get gay married in Star Wars Galaxies, but not Lord of The Rings Online. n/t

[Siyahamba]

3. Now, if only Microsoft would ban all the gamers who use "gay" as an insult.

[Creideiki]

5. That would never happen.

Although we did get the moderators at WoW to change the name of a character that was mocking people with HIV with his character name. Took 3 times for him to get it changed to something that wasn't an issue.

[DarkTirade]

8. They'd lose most of their customer base.

[hulklogan]

4. I'm sorry I bought an XBOX 360 now.

I'm never going to buy XBOX Live points or whatever it takes to get your gamertag banned.

[WillBowden]

6. Is there a contact information so I can thank Microsoft?

They're going to save me some big bucks by NOT having to buy one.

[Sandaasu]

7. Not a big deal.

This could just have easily been used by someone as a mockery of homosexuals. They're not doing anything homophobic, just safe. Many other large communities do the same kind of thing.

[WillBowden]

11. Right...

Let's take a look at some of the other players names, shall we? I'm sure we'll find nothing offensive in there at all.

(Sadly I don't have those names, but playing City of Heroes I see plenty of names that range from risque to fairly gross.)

[Sandaasu]

12. Have you tried reporting such things?

Whatever you're seeing probably violates the rules there too. Just because it doesn't get done right away doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

[WillBowden]

13. Are there standards? What you might find offensive I may not

That's pretty much my point.

[Sandaasu]

14. Right, so they typically set such standards to be pretty broad.

They assume things like the name in question to be offensive, as anything about human sexuality or any other contovertial subject might be. I'm pretty sure that this is just a result of a wide net, not targetting things that relate to homosexuality.

[DarkTirade]

9. Ah, nothing like giving in to the lowest common denominator.

[and-justice-for-all]

10. Thats not offensive....

what a bounce of fucking whiners.

[Solon]

15. I didn't know Skinner is Admin of Xbox Live too...