Xbox is coming down hard on gamertags these days. (For the uninitiated, gamertags are basically aliases gamers use to identify themselves online). Take “theGAYERgamer,” for example. This poor chap sent a letter to the Consumerist complaining that Microsoft bonked him with the banhammer because his name was a gay reference. Here’s the letter (more gamertag360 comment after the note from “theGAYERgamer”):
Consumerist,
I have had a bad morning. Last night when i tried to sign into my xbox live account “thegayergamer” I was told that it had to be changed. I figured that it was just from people reporting it as an offensive name being that the greater Xbox live community isn’t exactly welcome to gay people, i spend a lot of time muting people on Halo3. 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. I hope I’m not the only person who finds this don’t ask, don’t tell policy disgusting… eek
From Grant, thegayergamer
Now Microsoft may have gone off the deep end a bit here.
The Xbox Live community isn’t always know for its politeness – I had to mute one lady recently after she began calling me unhappy names, mostly f—face. And the mainly 13-year-old boys who run around teabagging people after they’ve killed them play loose and fast with anti-gay comment: Follow the link and be prepared to plug your ears if you want some examples. So it’s understandable that Xbox would want to limit chances of a repeat of the xxxGayBoyxxx montage.
However, completely limiting any use of the word “gay” in a gamertag seems a bit… discriminatory. I’d imagine xxxStraightBoyxxx would pass the gamertag litmus test. Like it or not, the gay community games. Otherwise, there’d be no need for sites such as Gay Gamer. And if you’re living under the rock that says gays don’t got game, then you probably still think girls don’t game. (If you do, go splash some water on your face, wake up from your stupor and click here.)
Back to the issue at hand. It’s way too easy for Xbox to overreact and start banning every name that may offend. But they need to take a deep breath, swallow their pride and do this on a case-by-case basis. Otherwise, you run into situations such as the latest controversy, in which Richard Gaywood definitely got the short end of the stick.
What do you think?
