So, I don’t have an Xbox 360…nor do I really want one…but this is one of the reasons why Nintendo has been so slow to get voice chat features in its games: the company wants to protect children from hearing the other idiots that frequently populate these games.
I’ve only listened in on some of these chats on the Xbox a few times, but I do remember specifically playing the Halo 3 Beta at Josh’s place and hearing what these kids are saying. Not to say that I was any different at the age of 13 (although I hope I was!), but seriously, there are a lot of kids out there playing games (chatting online, posting on Facebook, etc.) that really don’t think about what they’re saying and thinking they’re “cool” for using language (“colorful metaphors,” for the “Star Trek” fans out there) that is somewhat unbecoming. Personally, I find the language part to be more of an annoyance than anything else, but making fun of people and uttering racist and homophobic comments online or while gaming because you are an anonymous person on the internet is pretty unacceptable.
Arguably, were I a parent with a 13-year-old, I’d be more likely to let them play violent video games than to actually talk to these other kids while they play them. I know a few people that don’t even turn their chat feature on so they don’t have to listen to some of these people.
Anyway, this video is from Current TV (w00t, Al Gore!) and is discussing gays and video gaming, and more specifically the “new frontier” of bigotry when a person can be even more anonymous than they used to be (wearing a KKK hood, for example).
I found it interesting, at least…