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[Xbox-Scene]

Dr. Phil Tackles Xbox Live Racism Posted by XanTium | January 11 13:33 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From eurogamer.net: US telly therapist Dr. Phil has heard how Microsoft is not doing enough to combat racist bullies on Live. On the show this week, concerned and irate father Terry told viewers he had been called a "monkey" and been threatened with lynching when playing on the service. Worse for Terry is having to prevent his children from using the console online in an effort to shield them from the abuse. But despite the atrocious comments made by spotty boys in their underpants, Microsoft needs at least 10 complaints about a particular customer before it does anything about it, says Terry. And Terry is not happy. As a result of the show, Terry had a Microsoft investigator assigned to him to check it all out and Dr. Phil called the anonymous abusers bullies. Full Story: eurogamer.net

[JBmtk]

kinda funny how Dr. Phil is now brought into this...but I see his point. Little annoying screaming kids or immature teens/adults really do ruin your experience...espically if your younger or insecure. But if your Microsoft, I think what they are handling it is fine.

[ILLusions0fGrander]

its been a while, but ive heard some racial attacks in my days of xbox live. usually the person cursing sounds more like a moron than anything really.

but xbox live is all about a friends list, get a group of guys who play similar games and you never have to worry about it.

[Ddude723]

Yes insults are a problem on XBL, but there's little that MS can do about it. If you hear someone talk smack about you, just smack talk back. No biggie.

[gronned]

Father Terry? Does he need videogames when he has so much imagination to believe there's a bloody douche in the sky?

Let's kill God... Moahahahaha!  

[SomeDudeWhack]

the guy complaining is a pussy... grow up and quit being a big baby.... i don't complain when people say im a red neck, or a honkey, or white trash... u know why? cuz i really don't care what some random person thinks across the internet. You are paying for a service, if you are offended, THEN STOP PAYING AND QUIT OR MUTE EVERYONE AND QUIT COMPLAINING. Microsoft inst the elementary school principle who u can go tattle to. Hes complaining about racism and people talking about lynching ! Are you kidding me, I bet the poor people who were lynched in the early 1900s would laugh at him. Those people actually had something done to them, and your going to cry about someone talking about it. grow up. And for the kids, they dont really need to be talking on live anyways, they are annoying....

[BoNg420]

dont the damn parents know that little message that appears:
Warning game play might change with online play.

If they dont want their kids hearing racist comments on there, and the kids cant handle it, they shouldnt be on there in the first place.  Trash talking is part of playing online games and sometimes it might be racial, but every race is racist against another.  Even though mostly black people seem to complain the most of racial slurs and such, its pretty much hypocrites complaining about racism.  They complain someone drops the n-bomb, then next thing you know they say what a stupid cracker, altough i dont think white people care about racist insults anyway.  Its just words and if you get upset about a little word, then you are insecure and should seek help.  

Come on people its the year 2008, get over it already.  Theres more to worry about these days then a few racial insults.

This post has been edited by BoNg420: Jan 11 2008, 08:57 PM

[loki232323]

Dr Phil needs to hook himself up Live for a good 2-4 hours a day before he can have an opinion on this. Racism is an issue online? Yeah and it comes from every direction.

I don't get into the name calling and usually will joke around with people but nothing too serious.

On the other hand I hear young kids dropping the N-Bomb because they like to show off, people from other parts of the world that sit and rag on Americans ( I mean please 14 yr olds do NOT represent all Americans), oh and then you have some groups/clans where a majority of the members are black....and have to sit thru N this, N that, N what. Oh and of course the female gamers that come in and have to listen guys that probably never get laid making lude comments.

Anyway M$ already has a fix for this and it's called MUTE!

[mlapaglia]

isn't this why they made the option to mute people..

more specifically the "mute all" option in the dashboard?

[Awes0me Dude]

QUOTE(mlapaglia @ Jan 11 2008, 02:03 PM)

isn't this why they made the option to mute people..

more specifically the "mute all" option in the dashboard?

There's a difference between cursing and lewdness, and hatefulness.  If you were black would you let your kid get online knowing that chances are he will be called a monkey or something worse?  It may be all in good fun for these kids who say shit like that, but it's no excuse, they should be held accountable for what they say.

[MrFish]

Ten complaints is bugger all, if we all do our bit.

Next time you hear someone call someone a nigger, report it.

Next time you see someone called n1ggk1l3rKKK, report it.

It takes thirty seconds to file a complaint, and you can do it without having to leave the game.

[Landlocked]

The "n*****" word has lost all of its social implications with today's youth. I hate hearing some 8-year-old using the word...but I know ignorance, not hate, is behind it. I hear it used against black and whites by blacks and whites.

[spinjunky]

My wife called me in to watch this guy.  I felt bad for him because he felt genuinely scared by the things that were said to him.  The racist on live was telling him that he was going to google him, find him and kill his kids.
I felt bad for him because he understood so little of what was going on.  He really thought someone could find him through his gamertag.  He, like many web/computer illiterate people, have seen so many lifetime specials and news reports about sexual predators and evil hackers that he thought that guy would be at his house that night.
I showed my wife this:
http://www.pennyarcademerch.com/pat070381.html
and this:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/live/ti-obnoxious.htm

This guy didn't know how to use the mute button or even the off button.  He jumped from crappy support at MS to calling Dr. Phil.  why not Police, lawyer, MS supervisor???

He is basically saying that he worries about the safety of his children using a product that he bought and let's them use but he wont stop them from using it.  Why?

Don't you just love it when TV blows things out of proportion.

Oh and gronned, your reading comprehension sucks.

[HotKnife420]

QUOTE(BoNg420 @ Jan 11 2008, 08:56 PM)

dont the damn parents know that little message that appears:
Warning game play might change with online play.

If they dont want their kids hearing racist comments on there, and the kids cant handle it, they shouldnt be on there in the first place.  Trash talking is part of playing online games and sometimes it might be racial, but every race is racist against another.  Even though mostly black people seem to complain the most of racial slurs and such, its pretty much hypocrites complaining about racism.  They complain someone drops the n-bomb, then next thing you know they say what a stupid cracker, altough i dont think white people care about racist insults anyway.  Its just words and if you get upset about a little word, then you are insecure and should seek help.  

Come on people its the year 2008, get over it already.  Theres more to worry about these days then a few racial insults.

 I'm with you about trash talking being 'part of the game'. I'm also with the guy complaining (well, only a bit), cause it seems like every night *somebody* is calling me a n----r, or some variation of it, etc. I've dealt with racism in real life, so on the internet it doesn't bother me as much, because I know they're not gonna jump outta my screen with guns or anything (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

 I think you're assuming there's more hypocrites that complain about it than non-hypos, but that's kinda trivial, here. Still, I do know plenty to be that way, as well.

 I suppose the best way to deal with it is to remind everyone that there are a lot of people who are only assholes when they know the person they're being an asshole to can't retaliate with anything but words (ie: they're not scared of insulting someone who could physically hurt them, because it's the internet). It helps me to remember that most of the people who act this way would probably *never* do it to my face. Hell, racism on the internet in 2008 is way better than getting lynched in real life in 1908.

 Funny about the article: I had trouble with the first couple words... Telly? That's awfully British of you (not that that's a bad thing; just couldn't figure it out for a min (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif))...

[bucko]

I hear the N word all the time on Live, kind of hard to tell if the registrant is black or not, I still think blacks shouldn't get away with the N word in songs and stuff..It's easy to interpret the wrong way. I go to University in probably one of the most multicultural cities in the world, and you just have to get along, sure there are some idiots about but I don't see the police arresting them for racism or anything so I can't really see MS doing much about this. I just ignore them on Live or tell them to tone it down a bit (as if you would with swearing).

This post has been edited by bucko: Jan 11 2008, 09:51 PM