Microsoft Xbox Live censors "the GAYERgamer"
Bigotry is never acceptable, whether it is against some ones gender, sexual orientation, race, religion or ethnicity. Tech fields have been predominately male for decades. Luckily, that is changing. Unfortunately, homophobia seems to be OK.
Xbox Live banned the name “the GAYERgamer”. When the player tried to log on to his account, he was told that he would need a new moniker since his had been banned. Pursuing the matter further, the player found that the supervisor a Xbox Live didn’t find the name offensive but apparently enough other gamers found it offensive for Xbox to ban it.
Gaming on line is a world in which people adopt different characters and in some sense personalities to play. Men adopt women avatars, women adopt male avatars, and no one knows or cares. Apparently, adopting a player name that implies or states this players sexual orientation is a no no.
Even in fantasy worlds where warriors, sorcerers, amazons, witches, warlocks, cartoon men, and demons exist, a “gay” character even if only by name, is not allowed. Even in fantasy land some forms of reality are still considered too extreme to be acceptable.
The fact that Microsoft bought into this homophobic pressure is outrageous. To let a vocal cabal of homophobes control the game is absurd. Unfortunately, that is what Microsoft bought into.
Now it appears that Richard Gaywood has had his moniker banned. Since Richard Gaywood happens to be his real name, Microsoft is continuing to carry forth censorship on what is perceived to be references to homosexual themes. The banning of Richard Gaywood only shows how absurd this whole thing is.
Who’s next?
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May 22nd, 2008
i made a gay (well…bisexual) male superhero in City of Heroes. he was never banned (his name was not in any way offensive) bit i did have to deal with some homophobia. i just laughed and egged on my assailants since A: i’m not gay and B: bigotry is stupid
May 24th, 2008
Yeah, bigotry is stupid. Luckily you were allowed to keep your superhero in City of Heroes without censorship although there was obviously negative vibes from some of the players. And the fact that you aren’t bisexual goes to show how stupid Microsoft was for censoring the “GAYERgamer”.