EA to Host GLAAD Panel on Homophobia in Gaming

I can't help but be jaded when I see EA trying to have a social conscience. This is the same company that still works people into the ground.

What? Online Gaming Culture homophobic? Meatspin sprays all over 2fort beg to differ!

Do you guys even know what empathy is? Have you ever read a story and your teacher asked you how you thought the main character felt? I swear to god people talk about gays and their troubles like they actually know what the fuck they're talking about.


You will NEVER truly know what it feels to be oppressed or a "victim" of societal bigotry if you are not on the other side. If you're white you can't know the extent to how bad racism is. If you're Christian you will never know how bad you're made to feel if you're a Muslim. If you're male you will never know the stigma attached to being a female (in the workplace, or gaming). You can go on and on...


I wanted to make a few things clear. Nearly every situation around us screams out heterosexuality. This whole "I'm free to think it's wrong/bad/disgusting" reminds me a lot of the way people in the south think about white women dating black men. Sure people have the right to think what they want about any given situation but it's wrong to breed hate and that is exactly what this type of thinking does.

Can someone's hate hurt you over the computer? Ask Ryan Halligan's dad. Ryan, a 13 yr old boy, committed suicide in 2003 over cyberbullying that included his classmates and peers accusing him of being a homosexual. I know most of you believe that children shouldn't be playing these video games in the first place but THEY DO. Hell, I did when I was 13 and I'm sure most of you did too.

All in all I'm glad *pun intended* that they're opening up the subject of homosexuality in ANY medium. The way gays are treated in this society is abominable and the fact that people think they have the right to treat them that way just blows my mind.

As somebody who is not American, and who plays in various language communities I have to admit that I was stunned by the amount of bulling and the amount of offense you hear from American teenagers in games (unlike other language communities).

It's wrong to have a panel on just homophobia. The problem is MUCH MUCH MUCH bigger. Xenophobia of all sorts: bulling of girls, bulling of blacks, stupid religious comments, etc, etc, etc.

I think game companies need to start tracking those offenses and bring offenders to public display. They need to track IPs, and then introduce an option of recording conversations and reporting them to proper authorities. This is very easy to implement. Then offenders could be punished by law, and their parents and teachers in school will be ashamed.

Gaming introduced the whole new social world. It is time to make it civilized.

I hear all these stories about people being unreasonable by advertising their homosexuality in gaming. I hear people saying the same in real life.

I have never ever actually seen anyone non-ironically doing this.

I have seen footage where the gaming community has bashed a player for being gay but in the majority of cases, it would seem that it is because that person made it an issue i.e. their name has gay/lesbian undertones or otherwise identifies themselves sexually or because they themselves made it an issue via chat or VoIP. IMHO, too many homosexuals want to be 'special' and so they chalk up how they are different (be it their clothing, they demeanor, their interests, who/what they identify with or the name they give themselves in-game) to the fact that they are in fact a homosexual. IMHO, that is abusing your identity and is otherwise WRONG. I drink beer. I am of Irish ancestry. I drink beer but it is not because I'm Irish. While that may be a funny stereotype, that's just it: Typifying me as a drunkard because I have Irish ancestry is just as wrong as attributing my like of beer to my ancestry.

Just the same, it bothers me to no end when a homosexual tries to explain that the night-life they lead or the music that they listen to or the fact that they do this or that is because they're gay. I love who I love because I love them and anything after that, be it sex, be it how I dress or who I hang out with or what I do with my spare time is my choice and is not a reflection of the sex of someone I prefer to love. Being a homosexual isn't a disease or something in your genes and until the homosexual community acknowledges that at some point they made the decision (conscious or not) to love a person of the same sex, we're going to continue to see groups like GLAAD, who it would appear don't get it either, making an issue with this.

There are very devout and religious homosexuals out there and they look and dress and talk just like many heterosexuals. Aside from the fact that they can love someone of the same sex (and don't confuse intercourse with love as they are _NOT_ the same) they're just people playing a game trying to have a good time. That is not to say that having sex and being in love with some of the same sex are mutually exclusive, just that one does not imply the other.

9news.com recently ran a story about how GLAAD is upset with the movie BRUNO because the studio did not remove some scenes in the movie. GLAAD felt that those scenes made people more uncomfortable about homosexuals. If you ask me, GLAAD missed the boat when they watched a satirical depiction of a homosexual who preyed on the fears and irrational misconceptions that some people hold today. What really blew me away was that they were more worried about certain scenes and not the fact that Bruno waked around the whole movie, scantly clad with a lisp and an obnoxiously boisterous demeanor.

Last time I checked we (humans) had a brain and we are different from our surroundings in that we can make conscious decisions and rationalize things and for that I'm really surprised to see so many people being so irrational about this.

SO: Shut up and play the game. If you don't like the gay bashing, you can report someone in many cases, kick them from the server in many situations, or even find a different place to go. Someday maybe people will stop being so irrational with their hate but in the mean time I guess the best we can do is walk away from it and keep the people who make gaming fun close.

Both sides of this argument are being silly. Time for a bit of sensible neutrality.

Yes, Onling Gaming is not a place for talking about how super-fabulously gay you are. It isn't a place for advertising anything about yourself. But it still happens. If you -talk- with other people, and it happens to come up, it comes up. And most of the time it isn't "HAI GUYS I AM LIKE GAY HOW ARE YUUUU DOINGGGG?" it"s "Hey, what's going on?" and the return being "HAHA YOU SOUND LIKE A FAGGOT ARE YOU A FAGGOT?"

So, straight people, get the hell over it. Stop being whiny little children. You are empowering their persecution complex by making a big deal out of them being gay. If you don't want them to make a scene about it, then don't MAKE it a scene by grilling them over it.

And, faggots (I can say that, because I am bi...that half-counts, right?), get the hell over it. Stop being whiny little children. When you let meatheads and closeted bro-lovers get on your ass in all the wrong ways over your sexuality, you are just feeding them what they want. So stop it. Tell them exactly what they tell you "This game isn't about my sexuality, shut up." And stop crying. No one cares.

Now both of you go sit in the corner or I swear I'll call your father at work and he will give you such a spanking.

I suck dicks. I game. Deal with it.

After seeing Bruno that MMA picture with the words homophobia above it is even more ironic.

Why do they call it "homophobia" ? Wouldn't that be fear of humans? Is it like OK to call them homos now and that's why that word is thrown around so much? Does anyone truly fear the queer population, or is it more a gross distaste for their behavior and lifestyle? They are truly doing themselves a disservice by throwing this all into the limelight so much I would think. I don't like being called a fuckin fag in a game either but I don't get all butthurt over it. It's just an expression that I grew up with and I would think that as a straight person I deserve to be more offended by it than a gay person does. I think some of them just like to wear the victim tag like a badge of honor.

I don't know why there's so much hate in the world. We are all the same. We should unite together as one and figure out a final solution to the furry problem.

I'm all for this panel, as long as we can still discriminate against furries. Fucking faggot furries.

I'm sorry, but this is the internet. Who doesn't get made fun of? People can be dicks, and I personally try to be nice to everyone, but in the end, the internet will be the internet.

Wow. I definitely did not see this one coming. This is kind of like having a panel on kids photoshopping each others pictures internet, but as a straight person I do kind of get annoyed by a bunch of whiney 12 year old kids obsessively talking about how everything is gay.

Many people on the internet, especially those who play online games simply seem to be very socially isolated. I think it all comes from not every talking to real girls and thus not really ever developing that confidence in yourself..

To be honest, I think heterophobia is pretty prevalent too. I think a lot of the internet has a very immature, sophomoric attitude towards girls... More than that.. I think the the internet has a very cynical attitude towards healthy social lives in general. Most internet memes reflect social inferiority complexes.

For example, the "A/S/L lolo" thing is a sarcastic gesture towards dating.. Something that someone who spends his whole day in front of his computer playing wow and going "lollz look teh LFG lol" doesn't have much experience with.

I agree with those who've said that this is reflective of a much bigger problem.. Many people on the internet are douchebags, and I think it 's because they are projecting their own frustrations with their own social shortcomings..

Intriguing. I wonder if they'll ever have a panel on "religophobia" in gaming. I can tell you from experience those who dare to admit being religious in any way get harassed at least as much as if you were openly gay.

I'm glad that someone is at least making the appearance of caring. I'd be pretty embarrassed to introduce a gay friend to online gaming.

What we need is a group to make a stand against Robophobia.

I am sick and tired of being attacked for expressing my sexual desire of robots. Loving robots defines me and it's important to me that everybody knows WHO I AM, especially if I have no investment in them whatsoever.

It's time that we educate the masses and enlighten them about how uncool it is to hate me for the way I was born. Nobody chooses to be a robo. Believe me. Pleasure bots don't even exist yet. It's torture.

anything that raises the level of discourse in online gaming is fine by me, but how much can you really expect from a bunch of 12 year olds

Gay.

And clearly nobody at the panel has played COH. More openly flaming players there than straights, IMO. And it's FABULOUS!

Excellent picture choice there.

there's a lot of ignorance up in this bitch

blah blah blah, 14yr olds will always call each other fagts. BIG FUCKING DEAL. if you guys are going to get together, talk about how to make better games or how to stop nickel and diming your fucking customers.

Homophobia in gaming is a problem? I never knew this problem existed. Boy I'm glad they warned me about how gays are threatened by homophobic culture in videogames. God this world is full of butt hurt babies.

Oh no, its a gay person. Because I am so much better than everyone else I will be an asshole for no apparent reason!

But seriously, I don't care if somebody is straight, gay, purple or green.

wow, there are much more important things to be holding panels about. what a buncha fgts.

Enchanted Arms. End of discussion.

it's about time. for years i've been amazed at how frequently i see "faggot", "homo", and "queer" used as insults on the shack and in online game chat, yet almost never hear those words used in the real world. i mean, jesus, we have a meme called "ILTC".

This panel seems like a waste of time. The atmosphere of homophobia in games is mostly caused by the overuse of "fag/dyke/etc". PSAs aren't going to change "faggot" or "you're so gay" from being used as insults by 12 year old kids. GMs are not going to ban every single immature kid/adult who uses homophobic language as a general insult because they would lose too much money. Unless video games hit kids on the head with a dictionary and tell them to look up a more intelligent insult, or pop culture finds another easy target, I don't reasonably expect video games to have a community like west hollywood or San Francisco.


You know how you find a safe space for LGBT people online? COMMON SENSE. If your normal gaming crew of random strangers tosses "fag" around way too much, maybe you shouldn't bring up your bf/gf in random conversation. Being out online isn't the same as being out IRL.

the only homophobia i see in gaming is the gay publishers pushing out games before they're done. as well as the gay trend to make games as short as possible and yet charge a full price.

EA should put their money where their mouth is and make a game with a homosexual protagonist that isn't a women, as that is far too marketable. As far as this panel goes, what does it accomplish? <-- no really I'm sure it gets something done, i'll check back for an explanation.

As long as they don't do the same thing with PETA people I'm cool. I just don't want this to open a door for PETA to rush right in.

WHat about HETEROPHOBIA?

This is so not fair - I'm not gay, but I want to be a victim too!

THIS IS SO GAY

Interesting. I wonder if Microsoft will have anything to say about their policy of not allowing X-Box Live members to post their sexual preference in their profile.

And while this doesn't interest the vast majority of gamers, there's no reason to be hostile about it occurring. It's a voluntary panel for game company representatives to attend and hopefully learn something about an aspect of their business practices. Nobody is making gamers go to sensitivity training, here.

Was I the only one who saw/imagined it as GLADoS?

WHAT MORE COULD I DO?!?

Or people could you know keep that kind of information to themselves. I don't need to know if someone is gay, religious, or anything else. Just shut up and play the damn game. And sure there are always those obnoxious little shits that go around calling everyone fags but get over it, they call everyone that regardless of sexual preference and no piss ant panel is going to change that.

Will EA introduce anti-teabagging code in their new games? It would prevent you from teabagging same-sex players!

GLAAD is an excellent representation of people being far too sensitive. While I am well aware that their are plenty of people who hate/discriminate against homo/bi/transsexuals, this is just stupid. I must admit, I have never played on Xbox Live, and perhaps their is an extreme homophobia problem on it, but GLAAD is always doing the retarded, fagish, queer, gay, nigga-ish things imaginable

In case you miss it, their is special meaning in the last line. O, sorry for any bad grammar.

What no EA hosting gay panel jokes?