If you missed last week's "Sessler's Soapbox," you missed Sess calling out the legions of Xbox Live racists, bigots, homo-phobes and other mouth-breathers that make gaming crappier for all the normal people.
Check it out:
Sessler challenged the loudmouths to contact us to provide an explanation for their actions. While his post elicited a lot of responses--nearly unanimously in the "right on, Sess!" camp--a few posters identified themselves as people who fling sexists and racist language around on Live.
We emailed each Xbox Live jerk to try and set up an interview. Only one person responded to our emails, and he didn't have the sack to talk to us. So, in a piece of hardly surprising news, it turns out that players who hurl the N-Word and slur people's sexuality are actually cowards.
"It doesn't surprise me," Sessler said. "They know what they're doing is inappropriate, and may not even reflect how they feel in real life. Real-life racists usually keep that kind of talk to their own kind, so what's shocking about this isn't what's being said, but the fact that it's put out there in public the way it is. You'd be pretty surprised to find a KKK rally, but racists on Xbox are an every day thing."
So apparently, the prospect of speaking to another human being on the phone is too scary for the tough guys who grief Xbox Live. But we get why. We understand that a discussion with a semi-intelligent person who disagrees with you will likely make you look like idiot (after all, if you had any other way of making people listen to you, you wouldn't be spamming the N-Word over Xbox, right?), so we'll meet you on your turf. Make it nice and easy on you.
G4 would like to propose a Bigots Vs. G4 Halo 3 match. Send us an email if you use racist and/or sexist language on Live, and we'll put you on a team, then, we'll pit you against G4's group. You can call us any names you want.
If you're down, shoot an email, and we'll hook it up and settle the matter like geeks, eh?
Comment(s)
But if this happens please record it.
I've gotten into arguments on Xbox live forums with some true neo-cons.
Why do you say crude things to strictly the British and Mexicans?
I totally agree with you Adam. I'm very happy to see a sesslers soapbox about this matter.
That aside, while I agree with Adam that its just gotten sad, thats all it is. Words are just that, and I for one am sick of the PC police. Herein America we have this first amendment thing that ALLOWS people to be racist aholes and douchebags. It's a fact of life.
That being said, its what the mute option is for pure and simple. Also its what the report function exsists for and I use mine constantly.
Amen!
"If that is the way people act in this society then I want no part of it."
Then its as easy as that ... turn the f#$%ing video game off if it causes that much unrest in your life.
I am not racist, but I am getting sick of 2% of the population makeing 99% of the decisions in this country. The whole damn country bends to will of all minorities ... Pretty soon they'll just take away the headsets, and Grand Theft Auto, and we'll be playing Mario for the next 20 years.
(Don't take this seriously, just a joke to lighten the tension)
lol, you end comment was genuinely funny. Yes minorities make most of the decisions in this country (minorities of the rich white top 1% type)
ok I'm over that but good post nonetheless.
Yeah, there are some first amendment issues here but there are human decency issues that are part of our unwritten laws. There are people in this country that want to change people's minds about prejudice and tolerance so this is a good issue to tackle. As far as politics, as Americans we have to ask ourselves, "what kind of America do I want to live in?" Do we want a free America where we have the liberty to be decent to one another or do we want problems lie this to eventually become noticed by the government and then they take away our freedoms. Lets just settle this as civil people who are mature enough to think for ourselves.
The gaming community is now made up of almost every demographic. Also many gamers who are adults just want to have fun (we grew up with this stuff). So why piss off people who can vote, or protest and effect a simple social, recreational activity?
-sigh-
So anybody under the age of 18 and read all of this post. Please think about those things. You live in this country too.
People abusing internet anonymity is really sad. Worst of it is a lot of adults (18+) still get on xbox just to talk crap for no reason, its like they are just mad at themselves irl and cant admit it so it makes them feel better. People need to grow up and start acting their age and respecting other people. Parents need to learn to watch and discipline their kids a lot more. We dont need to hear all this racist crap, adam is right, its disgusting.
no worries though MS doesn't have the balls to do this.... might hurt their hardcore cred...
Either way, no, the results don't surprise me either. People who slam others in such inappropriate ways are usually people who are very insecure with themselves for some reason or another.
BTW Sessler i will do an interview with you if you do contact me so i can futher explained myslef and some of the other as**oles on xbox live.
and the voice is coming of the speakers, and someone starts saying anything off the top of their heads. This is a perfect statement for some politician to start up the saying that videogames are evil. I would just like to thanks to the dick wads that made xbox live a crappy place. Also doesn't that mean if nasty language is used in the game it has to have an M rating, so wouldn't that mean all online games are M rated?
Ohhhh snaps!!! Beat them down guys! Beat those bastards down! I gotta say, G4 is snappin!!!
Ohhh and by the way guys, I told you these people just play around, LOL!!!
im black wen they call me by the n word i dont get mad and my friends are black white chinese arab
etc i even tease one of my friends that is from the middle east when im messin with him dont blow me up and ish so yall need to chill out
So all white middle class whites are now neo-cons? Choose your style of writing carefully.
FLYmeatwad is my gamertag, by the by.
are you for real?
ok. games are not meant to be all uptight and polite, they were made for fun.
When I go in to play, I want to have fun. Im not gona go there and be all "nice"
if I kill you Im gona make a big deal out of it.
its not like -"oh I killed you there budy"
-"oh geez, you did kill me... im bad..."
-"you ok? wana talk about it?"
NO! WTF!?!
Its more like -"yeah, Bitch, I owned your ass!"
-"aahhh SHIET! Ima get your ass man! whatch yourself."
-"try dumbass, you suck more then the girl on the corner!"
if anybody has a problem, its probably because your a freaking noob and cant win shiet.
I can guarantee that the bigots on live are compensating for something they lack, Be it a brain or an essential piece of equipment for reproduction.
If pepole gave them self 4 seconds to think before they speak, the whole planet would be in better condition.
And to the pepole out there who think that what I just said/typed was a attempted at sounding smart, its not. This is how normal pepole talk.
LIKE WITH BIG WORDS LIKE ESSENTIAL AND DEGENERATION!!1!11
"I think... not killed"
Don't get me wrong, I'd like to play. However, I only play Call of Duty 4 over XBL.
I don't find that offensive. I find racist and idiotic comments offensive. I still don't like you using curse words, though
Immaturity does ruins a good game session.
I can remember a time when team leaders and clan leaders kicked off people that said crap like that and I'm 25. Gotta fire that up again i say!.
Having said that, eliminating the problem might be out of the question. Tough skin or a mute button maybe the only solution. But lets face it...they mouth off because they suck!.
My talking got philosophical on halo 2 with my boomstick. no slurs, no bigotry, no jive.
Just Dead Bodies.
Just have fun, don't need to be too serious, it's not life and death and if you want to be shocking then be nice for once. People won't expect it.
Common sense, decency and courtesy are going out the window faster and faster every day. You've put your foot down on the part you influence to challenge the degeneration where you can. For that I applaud you.
Perhaps if there were more Sesslers in the media and less Lohans and Hiltons the USA would get back to a state of respectability that we used to have.
What really intrigues me is that this phenomenon is almost exclusive to XBL. As a primarily PC gamer I almost never run across bigots with the maturity of a 10 year old. Rather we can frag each other for days on end on COD4 or TF2 or BF2142 and mostly we just gain respect for the skill of our opponents rather than talking trash at them.
Just because its a common practice doesn't make it any more acceptable. Burning jews was a common practice for the nazi party does that justify it?
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