And neither will 343 Industries or Xbox Live: They’re drawing the line in the sand, and if you step over it you can enjoy a lifetime ban from their services.
…I’m gonna enjoy reporting this~
So if you’re a member of the fairer sex, you’re probably familiar with the kinds of things you may have to endure being a gamer. In fact, there’s a whole website dedicated to documenting these disturbingly common cases.
Well, you’ll be happy to hear that if you hear any sexism or discrimination while playing Halo 4, you can bet you won’t hear it again from the same player: they’re implementing a one-strike system for this kind of harassment, and if you’re caught, you’re banned for life.
“There are always going to be jerks out there,” Kiki Wolfkill, head of the Halo IP, commented, “If you give them a way to express that side of their personality without being seen, you’re going to see this type of behaviour manifest itself.”
Bonnie Ross, head of 343 Industries, also acknowledged that it was the developer’s responsibility, too, to help keep this kind of discrimination at bay.
“As developers, we have a personal responsibility to think about how our games come across,” said Ross. “With Halo 4, we were very deliberate in thinking about who should be female and who should be male in the game, and if we came off stereotypical, we went back to question what we were doing and why.”
…anyway, this news just… really, it fills me with glee. I know that this is probably the wrong way to combat the problem and that it’s prone to abuse and rewarding good behavior proves to be pretty damn effective too, but let’s be honest, here: there’s absolutely no excuse for that kind of behavior online. None. Just because you’re in a bad mood, you don’t have a free pass to be racist/sexist for an evening.
I just hope Microsoft has the balls to go through with it, considering how many there appears to be.
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