The Richard Gaywood saga has gathered some press in recent days, as Microsoft's Xbox Live service followed up its recent ban of user name TheGayerGamer by zapping the Gaywood monicker as well.
Aside from the obvious question of discrimination, it turns out that "Richard Gaywood" is actually the XBL user's name, and not some type of sophomoric screen name (gamertag in Xbox Live parlance).
Lesbian Gamers had some harsh words for Xbox Live:
I’ve taken a few deep breathes, run this story over in my mind again and again and yet still return to the same annoying factor: Why does ‘gay’ automatically equate to sex or “of a sexual nature” and carry with it such negative and deviant overtones...
I can understand Microsoft are trying to protect users, but perhaps there needs to be some tabled debate as to what they’re protecting whom from and what they’re perpetuating in the process. Linking ‘gay’ to some negative or sexually explicit content merely fans the fires of homophobia.
Meanwhile, GayGamer offers this take:
I'm somewhat on the fence with the issue, having played many MMORPGs and seeing the many annoying and disturbing names that can come from idle minds on the internets, and it seems as if Microsoft is putting up the normal "we can't make exceptions" defense...
All of this, however, is greatly outweighed by the fact that it is his given name, and despite the connotations it may carry with it, he lives with that name everyday...
Comments
Re: Gay & Lesbian Gaming Sites React to Xbox Live's Gay Screen
Microsoft did answer this already, of course: They don't actively police things that users can turn off. You can block an individual player's voice chat, or turn everybody off entirely, but their gamertag is still there.
That said, I still doubt this is his real name, until he's prepared to prove it. I played WoW for two years, Everquest for three before that, and then just the internet in general - I have seen dozens of people claim "But it's my REAL NAME!" when they get banned or their name is changed. I'm not convinced there are enough Gaywoods, Guyberrys, Manwoods, and Gayloves in the world to account for them all.
Doesn't Xbox Live have something about using identifiable information, anyway? In most of the cases I've seen on other services, the defense fails because it'd be a violation anyway.
Re: Gay & Lesbian Gaming Sites React to Xbox Live's Gay Screen
It is his real name. If you read the article here:
http://kotaku.com/392304/xbox-live-gay-crackdown-might-be-getting-a-litt...
It clearly shows his license and his name is indeed Richard Gaywood.
Re: Gay & Lesbian Gaming Sites React to Xbox Live's Gay Screen
I did six years in the navy, and some of those kids make our conversations pale in comparison to the amount of vitrol produced. I'd venture closer to twenty, to really build up some spite and complete lack of social decorum.
Re: Gay & Lesbian Gaming Sites React to Xbox Live's Gay Screen
I'll second that
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Papa Midnight
http://www.otakutimes.com
http://www.thesupersoldiers.com
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Papa Midnight
Re: Gay & Lesbian Gaming Sites React to Xbox Live's Gay Screen
I'm still somewhat surprised that someone would use their real name as their gamertag.
As for the automatic equating of gay to homosexual, gay stopped meaning "Happy & carefree" sometime in the 70s, its a bit late to be complaining now. Like it or not, when you say 'gay' to someone born after 1980, it means same sex relationship.
It does smell of corporate cowardice to ban anything remotely related to sex & controversy from gamer tags (Hmm, wonder if "MyanmarCyclone" would be banned?) but think of it from a risk analysis point of view, a lawsuit or consumer backlash based on a gamertag is a low probability/High impact event, its highly unlikely but then Microsoft is situated in america, land of the "I spilled my coffee, mcdonalds owes me millions!!" legal victory so it's not impossible. The filtering of the words is the most cost effective way around it by removing the problem whilst inconveniencing the minimal number of users. This is the kind of crap that bored risk analysts do to justify their weekly paycheck.
Except that in the Liebeck
Except that in the Liebeck case, there was actual damage. "She spilled coffee on her lap" is all that entered the popular consciousness, but the parts that usually get left out are things like the third degree burns that required skin grafts, the initial request for coverage of said grafts was met with a hearty "piss off," and McDonald's knew this was a risk because they'd averaged seventy similar burnings a year for the past ten years.
A barely related tangent, I know, but still.
Re: Except that in the Liebeck
It's coffee. Coffee is hot. If she didn't know spilling coffee on herself would burn her, she doesn't belong in a McDonald's, she belongs in a mental institution, or kindergarden.
Re: Except that in the Liebeck
Sorry, anon. McDonald's was awfully negligent there.
http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm
Re: Except that in the Liebeck
Yes, because taking the lid off your coffee whilst it is between your legs and you're driving is a brilliant idea.
Re: Except that in the Liebeck
Except she wasn't driving. The car was at a complete stop. And the point is not "oops, I spilled coffee," it's "this coffee melted my flesh." Check the link, coffee is normally in the 130 degree range, this was at 180. You're not supposed to require skin grafts from a coffee spill.
Re: Except that in the Liebeck
You want a company to stop serving a dangerous product just because it's seriously injuring people and they've been told not to? Why would they do that, when they can just take advantage of ingnoramouses who think that fining the company some small fraction of the amount of money they save by seriously injuring people is way too much. Welcome to America.