As many of you may know Home had an interesting update for users on Thursday (12/18). The good news is that they expanded the facial hair category offering up a bevy of beards! The bad news (or good depending on your experience) is that the voice chat has been indefinitely removed presumably because of the more colorful language used by some of its users. I think this points to a bigger problem with these online gaming communities/experiences... the lack of respect. More after the jump.
I´ve seen this in almost every form of online interaction (involving my game console) that I´ve had. Just play a little Halo and Im willing to bet you´ll hear a whole lot of the ¨n¨ word among other racial slurs. When I first tried out the online play for Soul Caliber, I was matched up against a bright young fellow with the creative gamertag ¨SniperAddict666.¨ I whooped his monkey ass, which prompted him to send me a message in which he referred to me as a ¨dirty cheatin´ jew wetback n*****.¨ I was surprised at how I reacted to this. Mainly because I wasn't offended, rather disappointed. Maybe I´m reading to much into this, but I just don´t like where this mentality is headed. ¨Since you cant actually get to me, I can say whatever I want w/o consequence.¨And No, I don´t consider getting banned as a proper form of punishment because it doesnt change the fact that these gamers lack respect. What say you?
