Halo 4 studio calls Xbox Live sexism 'completely unacceptable'
The head of 343 Industries and Halo 4's executive producer have spoken out about the pervasive sexism found on Xbox Live, as we prepare for the game's launch.
Halo 4 is due out in less than a week, and you'll be able to hop onto a game on Xbox Live and hear insults you didn't even know were still in use. Gendered insults are among the popular past times on the service, and developer 343 wants users to know that is not cool. In fact, you guys shaming ladies are flat-out "jerks."
"I've seen many of the sites that have documented some of the more gender-specific slanderous comments," 343 Industries head Bonnie Ross told GameSpot. "This is behavior that is offensive and completely unacceptable. I'd like to think most of our Xbox Live players don't support this kind of behavior."
Executive producer Kiki Wolfkill took it a step further. "It can be dangerous to give adolescents a broadcast mechanism," Wolfkill added. "There are always going to be jerks out there, and if you give them a way to express that side of their personality without being seen, you're going to see this type of behaviour manifest itself."
She added that developers have a "personal responsibility to think about how our games come across," which came up during the development of Halo 4. "We were very deliberate in thinking about who should be female and who should be male in the game, and if we came off stereotypical, we went back to the question what we were doing and why."
Obviously, the game heads calling out sexism isn't likely to curb sexism, but good on them for making the attempt to get through to jerks. Halo 4 is due November 6.
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Steve Watts posted a new article, Halo 4 studio calls Xbox Live sexism 'completely unacceptable'.
The head of 343 Industries and Halo 4's executive producer have spoken out about the pervasive sexism found on Xbox Live, as we prepare for the game's launch.-
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"I'd like to think most of our Xbox Live players don't support this kind of behavior."
http://i.minus.com/iklbPZR3VMzR6.png -
They seriously don't play outside of their immediate social group much. Sexist, racist and general ass-hattery is pretty much normal for online/public play. Whilst it'd be nice to have that in general the best way to avoid it currently is to either not play or only play with folks you know in the real world. Also we'd have to (re)-define "adolescents" to be inclusive of a much larger age range than is commonly accepted.
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Bad for the long-term health of the industry, bad for profits. If it isn't (self) policed the government will get involved eventually and that''s never good for anyone. Also whilst I don't have the numbers I believe that Female gamers are an under represented market which means they're going to drive growth, but not if they're constantly having to deal with a hostile environment.
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Its bigger than that. I mean girlfriend mode wring any bells? Maybe girls can't game for shit? Maybe the games are targeted at a specific demographic that might have a problem interacting with girls in a more appropriate or sensative manner? Maybe the games themselves reinforce behavior which normalizes sexism? Maybe all the developers are guys that might have a problem interacting with girls? Maybe sexism sells? Maybe its math?
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its a shame that whitely has so perverted indigenous cultural identity that they use such a derogatory term affectionately. Next you will be telling me that womyn adore the attention and crave being objectified and explore fulfilling careers in porn, stripping and waitressing whilst paying their way through law school as charity work amongst the virginal males going through Pon farr.
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Next you'll tell us that Men wholeheartedly enjoy being disposable, losing their children in custody battles, being expected by default to have a career and provide for their family, and then also having to placate the expectations most poignantly summarized by Eddie Murphy in the statement 'but what have you done for me lately'.
Innocent and Victimized. Equality. Pure Bullshit.-
You have constructed is meritless strawhorse. "Being disposable" what does that even mean? Losing their children? Well, yes more onus is on the father, and sometimes the results are more tragic, but given women literally issue forth the children from their bodies, I can see how society is taking time to change that. (and they are. It's easier now than it was 20, 40, 60 years ago for a dad to get custody). "Being expected by default" what the eff? Who fucking cares? Why are you orchestrating these mystery expectations. Just get a partner who wants to share that fiscal duty. It's 2012, get a woman who is a breadwinner. Or dude. Placate the expectations??
WHO IS THIS MYSTERIOUS PERSON YOU ARE PLACATING
Treating a woman with respect is just something you do, and it doesn't happen on XBL. I mean, I expect women to treat men and women with respect, but just because a black dude says nigger, doesn't give you the right. Noooope it just doesn't. And yes, as a dude you have to assume the onus of uhhhhgggg being respectful. Ugh.
I totally want to know this mystery person you are placating. Are they your significant other, or parents?-
'who fucking cares' case in point.
Disposable. I guess you aren't familiar with this topic. The disposable male. The ideal of women and children first. The idea that men get drafted into war or go into burning buildings to save the children instead of the wife. There are compelling arguments for these actions, yet does it justify such expectations to be culturally placed upon males to view themselves as disposable?
If you haven't seen Eddie Murphy RAW maybe you should. It's funny, and you might learn something about society in the past and how it pertains to the present and future.
Respect isn't something people deserve. It's earned. The idea that women deserve more respect than men isn't something I hold to. I'm about equality in the more unbiased truest sense of the word. People go on about wanting, expecting respect, equality, but it's just BS. Men get drafted to war to die. Men are expected to have careers which provide for their family, and are looked down upon as failures if they cannot do so. Men are expected to die on boats, not women. There's a gross inequality between all of these, and to suppose women deserve greater respect on top of this is frankly offensive to me as I want a world of equality between all races and sexes. Not this half-assed BS people get all indignant about.
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You are telling people to study sociology by listening to Eddie Murphy. Just wondering if you realize what you're saying.
Men get drafted to war to die.
- The United States discontinued the draft in 1973
- In other countrires, such as Israel, men and women are both conscripted
- Maybe if we want more women in the military, this should stop happening: http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/21/opinion/speier-military-rape/index.html
Men are expected to have careers which provide for their family
- There are lots of expectations for women too. That's life.
Men are expected to die on boats, not women
- What?
- If you're talking about the navy, you realize women weren't allowed to be on submarines? It was only 2 years ago that changed.
to suppose women deserve greater respect
- No one has suggested that.-
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Ya...No. You don't get it, at all. I mean, sociology, seriously man. Think about this. Eddie Murphy is a black comic and RAW was done in the late 80s. Comedy details a way of thought, the way people view the world and the peculiarities within. Comedy deals directly with social issues, behaviors, and then makes jokes out of them through either insight or parody. They even have the habit of being social commentaries altering and shaping society as a hole. They are a part of culture that influences and changes it while also evolving alongside it. One of the easiest ways to understand people is to know what makes them laugh.
I've said a lot of thing, and you most certainly did not understand them and I don't think this the place to explain in depth all of what I've said. If you're interesting in actually understanding this topic feel free to use Google. Actually, that youtube channell..what was it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOIhFgTO-Cw&feature=plcp
Plenty of well-reasoned arguments on that channel.-
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And? You acted as if I proposed his standup would give a complete overview of society at that point in time when all I meant by it was that it could offer some insight into understanding some aspects of this topic. Sociology is broad all-compassing field of study so no, I wouldn't recommend standup comedy as a source to study Sociology. I would recommend it to help further understand some subjects encompassed in it's study as it offers a unique perspective for each time period and the different classes of people within those periods.
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Seriously, http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/6325/cortanacomp.png
Look how she started in Halo, semi-abstracted. And now? Yeaaah.-
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New focus on facial features with prominently colored lips, more curves, weight to her breasts, which... I mean, were basically not there in Halo between the geometry and abstraction. Not to mention she's considerably more solid looking, and I don't mean to say fat, I mean, she doesn't look much like a projection, but like a naked woman in makeup and costume.
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Well, for one that's concept art, not IG, but ya, it's different and I think the reason is because she's eol and it's done to give a sense of how old she really is. There being less abstraction is also a way of doing so. It a visual cue saying she's not as capable as she was before, as she's meant to be, as an AI. Also must be in an effort to engage the player more by having her appear more human.
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Perhaps, I just don't see it that way. Never considered it that way before. When I see the Halo 4 Cortana I see the body of a mature women, late 40s, to mid 50s. Those extra curves, the larger breats, the fuller cheeks, that increased body fat altogether say she's aged quite a bit since Halo 3, aged well, but aged nonetheless.
The changes between Halo 1, 2, & 3, some dude to growing up, but most due to changes in tech. With each iteration the ability to increase texture detail and poly count grew as well. Making her more personable, ya I think that's a little pandering and detracts from the fiction that she's an AI. At the same time I can recognize that perhaps the changes are just as much to illustrate the personal growth Cortana's had. She's become more human, more personable, and reflects that within her avatar. I mean, AI's choose their avatar to reflect who they are and how they wish to interact with others in the Halo universe.-
In 2, they gave her lingerie sleeves and thigh high pantyhose, of which the sleeves were kept for 3 and 4. In 3 they also gave her nipples, or at least nipple-esque points where nipples would likely be, on her now very well defined breasts.
Starting with Halo 2 she also has much more pronounced hourglass figure in comparison to Halo 1, and don't even tell me that was a tech limitation in Halo. You can do fairly decent hourglass figures at around 500 polygons, just ask artists who worked with the Quake 2 engine.
I get making her more personable, but I don't think you need accentuated lips, pointy nipples (it seems they dropped those in 4), large breasts, a super-model like figure (regardless of implied age), nor a catsuit that borders on effective nudity, to achieve that particular goal.
I mean seriously: http://halofanforlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Screen-shot-2012-09-21-at-4.12.39-PM.png-
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For quick reference: http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=29130685#item_29130685
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Most women, humans, don't age gracefully. It's not commonplace but it's not rare either. I met a women just the other day, a complete stranger, who looked in her 30s, but was, in fact, in her upper 40s. That fullness in the breats, how they seem unsupported as opposed to Halo 3, that's aging, an increase in body fat due to a metabolism slowed by age
In Halo 3 those perky breasts and overtly sexual appearance represented an AI at the height of her prime, in her youth, capable in every way possible. Using sex to sell, sure, pandering perhaps, but there's reason and fiction to support it all and the further you look into it the more engrossing it can be.
The books by Eric Nylund dive into why AIs choose their appearance and offers some reasoning for it. For Cortana one of those was that it gave her an edge in communication with other humans enabling actions and changes in behavior which benefited her ability to perform certain tasks. It was also an aside to Cortana's relationship to Dr Hallsey and how it influences her.
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psst!
Forty-seven percent of all players are women, and women over 18 years of age are one of the industry's fastest growing demographics.
Today, adult women represent a greater portion of the game-playing population (30 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (18 percent).
http://www.theesa.com/facts/gameplayer.asp -
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I get where 343 are coming from and the Halo universe isn't a sexist one, who's the Spartan that's the best shot? Linda, which Spartan is the fastest and best at close range combat? Kelly, who's the head of ONI? Parangovsky (I can't remember how to spell her name and she'd have me murdered for it :/) to name a few. There are tons of powerful women in the Halo universe and I think we'll see more of that in Halo 4 than in previous Halo games and I'd be glad to see 343 take it seriously in multiplayer too.
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Isn't sexist my ass. Females are grossly overrepresented in fiction like this due to the naive belief that women have to fulfill every role and occupation equally or the employer is sexist. How many women are Green Berets again? Oh, yeah, NONE. Because it's a biological fact that men tend to be physically superior to women. It's no surprise the studio would support reverse-sexist beliefs like this too.
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You're poisoning the well by implying I don't think women are "good enough" in general if I disagree with you. Just because most women aren't fit for combat doesn't mean they can't be better than men in other ways. Females in a realistic Halo universe would likely tend to take on non-combat roles like logistics and intelligence. You can think up all the crazy high tech inventions you want when you're writing sci-fi, but unless one of those inventions is changing the biology of the human female, having this many women in combat roles doesn't make sense.
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I've always heard that one of the reasons women aren't involved in frontline combat is because their physical strength prevents them from, e.g., carrying wounded soldiers away from combat. But if your universe puts the protagonists of your games into suits of armor that seem to eliminate almost all physical differences between men and women, what does biology really have to do with it? Should they not wear Spartan armor because they "get infections"?
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Actually that's entirely false. I'm not sure if the it 50/50 but a great deal of Spartans were female. The Spartan programs goal was the take the very best of humanity and train them for warfare to make the most elite group of soliders in the history of mankind. You can't have that in an all-male group.
In addition Spartans aren't just suits of armor, they're cyberneticlaly enhanced. On top of this they're trained from childhood for combat. Military training. That kind of training will place any women above your average active male in terms of physical prowess. Combing cybernetic enhancement with power armor and the disparity between men and women is only felt between Spartans. I mean, sersiously, Spartans can't flip a warthog because they're male, they can do it because they're cyborgs wearing power armor.
One of the main characters was a female Spartan named Kelly. She was the fastest of all the Spartans and the best shot and a key member within the Master Chiefs primary assault squad.-
I was still speaking in theoretical terms, if the Halo universe was realistic. Those great deal of spartan females you're talking about wouldn't even get past evaluation in this realistic Halo universe because they AREN'T cybernetically enhanced at that point, and thus all their male competitors would outpace them.
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Ya, you didn't read the books did you? The purpose of the program and everything that followed stemmed from the standpoint of cybernetic enhancement. As such this allows them select females with no degradation in combat performance as well as males given the intent of the program was to fight insurrectionists, humans. By using both genders they can then have access to MORE applicants as the bar of entry into the Spartan program is so high that it's difficult to find those suitable. From the enhancement alone a female Spartan so greatly outclasses any male of any discipline and training to where any consideration of combat performance due to sex is pointless and the advantages of that sex far outweigh any changes in combat tactics needed to compensate for the difference in prowess between the Spartans themselves.
Even so, in SF, hell in Hard SF it's very common for both male and female to serve in order to gain the benefits each sex has to offer and to access the best and brightest. The fact of the matter is that future warfare is going to involve technologies that make any difference in physical strength a pointless consideration. Power armor alone is enough, let alone the biological, cybernetic, and nanotech typical of warfare in SF and our future.
I mean, have you really not read much SF and are trying to speak about realism in future tech? Read The Diamond Age. It's very realistic in it's application of nanotech. Essentially power armor will be so powerful that if you're not careful while drinking a cup of tea you might accidentally decapitate yourself.
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There are these people called gamers, many of them guys, many of them girls, who talk smack about each other mercilessly and laugh at those too uptight to to weather a few derogatory terms every so often.
Understand something, just because some are too uptight to deal with it doesn't mean you have to get all hostile. Half the chicks I meet will purposely say 'fuck me' when something happens in the full knowledge that it's going to throw off the focus of every male that can hear it. You call THEM a bitch after that and they'll be 'oh, whats that, huh, you mad? Umah brah? go cry more'.
Grow a pair 343.-
Yeah... bottom line is, people need to stop thinking about this so much, stop trying to "nanny" everyone. Punks will be punks, there will always be punks. It's a game. Do not censor the games.
When you play public multiplayer, everyone has the right to be themselves, just like when you step outside your front door... you know, into society, you have no right to tell people how to behave. You will just go insane... trust me. Now if it's personal attacks etc... well I think most people (should) have enough common sense to know what is worth being concerned about.
Since when did movies have to be PC to be accepted and enjoyed?
How boring would it be if all movies and games had to be PC... or better still, is this even possible?
Stop killing entertainment.
Bah... had enough reading about this shit... driving me insane.
Don't tell others how to behave. Leave it to their upbringing, parenting and genetics to define them.
Be a good person yourself and you will be fine, punks will always get their due.. and just maybe, if we stop giving them the spotlight, they may even change before then. DON"t FEED THE TROLLS.. as they say.
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Yeah, I love how everyone assumes that female gamers as a whole are totally civil on XBL. They throw out their own sexist shit at male gamers, though obviously not as much. Dick and castration jokes are among my favorites.
But, how DARE a guy make such jokes about female gamers. It's offensive when they do it.
Note: None of it is ok.
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Yeah, female gamers must be sheltered and protected from all the meanness in online gaming! It's okay if males are verbally abused because they're men and can take it, but the wimmin are weak minded and can't handle such harsh language. This problem is definitely about gender, and not the greater internet fuckwad theory being applied to females. Yep, those Halo 4 devs sure are progressive.
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