Homophobia and Harassment in Online Gaming Article Up On IGN
A few months ago, a fellow by the name of Nathan Meunier contacted me regarding an article he was writing regarding homophobia in online gaming. I of course agreed to giving him some quotes seeing as this is one of my biggest pet peeves with the industry right now and have spoken about it on numerous occasions including sitting on a panel put on by GLAAD last year.
Much to my surprise, Nathan's well put together article appeared on IGN and of course caused quite a stir and garnering over 1100 comments. As can be expected, the comments range from supportive to vicious, so unless you want to upset yourself, I wouldn't bother reading the comments. However Nathan's article is nicely done and deserves a look-see even if, for our readers, it's preaching to the choir. I applaud Nathan for keeping the subject in the forefront of people's minds and to IGN for deciding to publish it. The more visibility on these subjects, the better chance we have of actually being heard and taken seriously.
Homophobia and Harassment in the Online Gaming Age [IGN]
Fruit Brute
Posted to Hot Stuff, Site News on 15 January 2010
· Comments (14)
Other stuff like this: homophobia, ign, online gaming
Today all thing are homophic, if you have a different opinion or dont think that homo love is the most beautiful and normal thing of the world, YOU ARE A HOMOPHIC! Theres a mistake on it at all, just pay attention. Im Mateus Prado Sousa, games journalist from Brazil, the article by Nathan Meunier, i have a question to you: If a straight gamer say on online gaming that he want a woman, the others gamers will do harassment with him too, because the games are to play not for make love! What's the purpose in a gay gamer tell to the others gamers about his sexuality? When you say "Im gay" is like you say "I want make love with another man", Im gay has a sexual content, and sexual content in the middle of a game is insane! What's the purpose?? Get a boyfriend? This things only help the concept that gay people are different indeed.
Xbox Live has much more homophobia flying around than PSN, but I still prefer Xbox Live for one reason: reporting. Some PS3 games have a way to set an "avoid player" list, but it doesn't carry from game to game and doesn't send an alert to Sony that a player is disrupting the community. Xbox Live has an excellent reporting tool for everything from player skill level and cheating to bad language, all of which is tied to a player's gamertag allowing all other players to see that gamer's reputation. That feature alone is worth the Xbox Live subscription fee to me.
Mateus, I assure you that if a straight gamer said he wanted to have sex with a woman in the middle of an online game, it would not be the same harassment a gay gamer would receive for outing himself. The straight gamer would likely be harassed, but the harassment would come in the form of other people saying that he is himself homosexual and that he will never actually have sex with a woman. They will then go on to brag about their own sexual experiences with women, regardless of whether it is true or not.
People don't turn off their sexual identity when they turn on their consoles.
I don't know why the world continues to expect its GLBT-identified gamers to do so.
to Mateus Prado Sousa-
You, of course are entitled to your own opinion.
You don't like gays? Fine. Don't spread the hate. (I'm not implying you are.)
That's a big issue. There's just so much hate.
Any btw, saying "I'm gay" does not equal "I WANT to make love to another man." It just indicates a sexual preference. Saying "I'm straight" is also just a way to state you preference.
Heh, so sad. I play online with plenty of straight gamers (our TF2 comm is open to all). We will ban ppl for being inherent bigots. You're breaking rule #1 (and really, our only rule): "Don't be a dick." I didn't read the article TBH, but because I'd read it before in many ways. We just need everyone to drop a lot of what we say online. Just because it's worked its way into the cultural vernacular does not make it acceptable. And honestly, our comm probably doesn't really do its part. We'll go after non-members for using derogatory language, but if we use it (it's in jest) we let it fly. Which probably legitimizes it to an extent. Also, I read some of the comments on there. Seems the users on the whole are doing a good job of going after the asshats.
@NaviFairy: Sony has a way of reporting someone, but it sounds like Xbox Live has a much more thorough system:
http://np.us.playstation.com/complaint/pc/ComplaintForm.aspx
Sup! I've asked to join your club on ps home. See you there.
I read the article a few days ago and thought it was brief, but brilliant. And knowing the responses we get around here on some issues, the typical:
"Gee. Why does it matter what your sexual orientation is online?" comment is the height of sub-moronic obliviousness. Playing an online game while being any minority group member that tends to get slurred at either knowingly or unknowingly is not fun or cool. How much fun would it be if you admitted you were Brazilian (a nationality is a status people can't help either) and were razzed constantly for it. "Why bring it up?" The one thing I hate about online gaming is that its made me realise 99% of the gaming population are smucky intolerant children. Why pay money to be called names?
The article was a little brief for my taste and ultimately made me wonder why they bothered publising it at all. Then again, IGN isn't somewhere I would expect to find anything though-provoking.
@SZK
I didn't know about that for Sony, thanks for the link. It's not quite as convenient as Xbox Live since there you can submit the complaint right from the game (which is good since I have a terrible memory for names to submit the complaint later) but I'll be keeping it in mind.
Also, I can spell occasionally.
Shit, even I don't think about gay people as much as some homophobes. Does it affect their lives in any way? The odds are low. And are guys (plural, even!) hitting on them? Like Hell they are. Xbox Live members aren't known for their sparkling personalities and awesome bods.
And if gay people aren't up for talking about their sexual orientation during a game of Halo, who can blame them? We're busy shooting things, I doubt any men are going to gab about gay during a skirmish. Are these people serious? Usually, I don't even care what anyone on Xbox Live has to say about the game I'm in while I'm playing it with them. Screw their personal beliefs.
My sexuality isn't up for debate. I will still love man ass tomorrow, so either help me crack some skulls, suck my dick, or fuck off. Nothing else matters while I'm gaming.
Yeah, yeah... Homosexuals are sick and we need something to cure them. Very good arguments in the comments :D
Anyways, I do wonder why a sh*** load of hetero-guys do watch those "tiny girls being *** by a giant dick" movies and why there are a lot of these things around. C'mon, they do watch dicks as well, so every guy is addicted to certain male parts!
I for one was very excited about online gaming when the next gen systems came out. I play a lot of fighting games among others andthe thought of a endless supply of opponets had me very happy. So soon after I get my PS3 I start playing games like Street fighter 4, Dragonball z, Resident evil 5 and I get hit with a lot of hateful language. The most I get is racsist comments but I've also exsperinenced guys calling me homophobic slurs. Now they may not know if I am gay. They may know cause I belong to atleast one gay gamer group on PSN. It doesn't matter if I'm on a shooter or a fight. And let's not start about when I am on the PSN Home (which my avatar is a muscular african american male) it get depressing and turns me off to play online. My little brother plays online a lot he has fun and is straight and has to deal with homophobic and racial slurs. I am very disappointed that I don't get the full use out of my system because people are hateful and small minded. I see no end to this because everyone is blaming the other and saying "don't ask don't tell" and othe anti-gay phrases. I have back away from playing online as a whole because it seems that the fun is not there and it to much bull&*&t to put up with. I just wanna close and say the other day I was playing DBZ onilne and had the mic on and a guy called me a " stupid nigger". I looked at his profile and he himself was a gay gamer. So how can we complain about being singled out or trageted if we are selves are living in glass houses and throwing stones?
-C.J. a.k.a. blksaiyan01 on PSN
POKETHUG001@YAHOO.COM