Microsoft Taking “Gay” Issue Too Far
By Stephany on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 10:47 AM PST In Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Related Laws, Gamer Life, Games Industry, Microsoft, Microsoft
Last week, the internet was abuzz with the news of Microsoft banning an XBL GamerTag with the work “gay” in it. The gamer, who admitted to being gay and therefore proud of his choice in life, had his GamerTag “thegaygamer” banned because other Xbox LIVE users found it offensive and also because it violated Xbox policy regarding GamerTags that had any sexual or harassing connotations.
Today, according to Kotaku, they were contacted by a UK gamer who recently has his GamerTag deleted due to the same reasoning. But this time, it was because of his last name, which just happens to be Gaywood. The offensive tag was “RichardGaywood” and while I understand MS not wanting vulgar filled names floating about on LIVE, this is just outright silliness. I actually went to school with a Richard Gaywood so it is not like this guy just made this up.
In conclusion, people with the following last names will most likely have their GamerTag removed if they use it as their online monkier: Gayhart, Gayheart, Gay ( In know three people with this last name), Gaye, Gaymar, Gaysmith, Gayton, Gaylor, Gaylord, Gayley, etc, etc, etc.
I realize that this policy is probably to prevent homophobic people from creating obscene and offending profiles on XBL, but this has just entered the realm of ridiculous rather quickly.
Thanks: Videogaming247, Kotaku
That is so gay….seriously..
Go Marlins!!!!
Why Gay people feel the need to shout about thier sexual preference is beyond me, it would be intresting to see how many user names on XBox Live feature the word “Hetro” or “Hetrosexual” Just get over yourself, I don’t care if youre gay I’m not intrested. Being Gay is not supposed to be a shield for attention seeking.
Oh hmm, as for using your actual name on a public gaming account…not particuarily smart. MS probably doing those people a favour although I doubt they are deliberately singling them out, its more likely a quick name filter addition which is simply tracking G A Y lettering in sequence.
Microsoft is gay.
FrostPaw is gay and in denial.
I hope microsoft bans christian and catholic from live. They probably banned jew.
Antisemite, homophobic software giant!