Halo 3 To Have 'Mute the Jerk' Button

Eurogamer is reporting on comments from the Bungie website. A feature for the upcoming Halo 3, that they've just announced, will be most welcomed by aging FPS players tired of hearing high-pitched squeals through their headsets. When playing an online match, players will be able to hit a button and then choose one of the gamertags playing the game. The result: a total mute on that player for the remainder of the game. They don't mention it on the site, but one would hope the Xbox Live servers are taking metrics on this activity, to be used in calculating the player's reputation. The more you mouth off, the worse you look to future players. Anyone have some other feature they think might make online gaming better?

Comments

Is this really new?

[hal2814]

I'm not a very active online gamer so please believe me when I tell you this question is genuine. Is this really a new feature? There's always the mute button on the TV/computer but I would think the ability to shut off voice contact with other players was already taken care of. Do other on-line games that allow voice contact offer this off button feature of is Halo breaking mainstream ground here? I don't know in practice how big a deal it is. I'm just surprised it's taken this long.

Bout time

[Itchyeyes]

A feature like this is long overdue for dealing with the assholes who seemingly dominate Xbox Live.

Re:Bout time

[Cancer_Cures]

I look forward to this feature in the new Halo. I used to play with a friend with a black reference in his name. People can say that online, color is indifferent, but it would really pain me when we would play together, and people would insult him racially over the headsets. People keep their mouths closed in person, but online people can criticize based on race in near-complete anonymity (sp). Halo showed me there are a lot of assholes out there, who love to attack race if they get the chance. Hell, they'll attack anything, but I'd always imagine race to be one topic gamers would leave untouched. People can say 'fuck you fag' after the kill, but it's different when you hear the barages of 'fuck you nigger' jarring from your television set. The best solution, I guess, it to get a new handle. Next solution is to block out the intolerable with this feature.

Other needed buttons

[CastrTroy]

We used to joke that there should be a skip-the-shit button on most of the games. There's a lot of games where they make you sit through videos or storyline that doesn't really have anything to do with the game. A lot of time they are just trying to push a story into a game that doesn't really need a story, or the story is so bad, that nobody wants to listen.

XBL is perfect for a close-knit group of friends

[necro2607]

The thing is, when you get on there with a group of friends you really enjoy playing the game with, trust me, it's the most fun multiplayer experience you could have online. It's about as close as you can get to actually having a bigass split-screen LAN with all your buddies, without actually being in the same room with them. Considering the group of people I play Halo 2 online with live all over North America (and UK), we've only been able to get together once a year or so (usually for E3), but playing online on Xbox Live is the next-closest alternative.

Honestly the yearly fee for an Xbox Live "Gold" account is 100% worth it simply for the purpose of being able to play Halo 2 and other XBL games online with these friends of mine.

When you're on a team with the most kickass teammates, it doesn't matter how rude/disrespectful/immature the opponent players are - not only can they be muted easily, it just doesn't matter because we can all just laugh and keep having a lot of fun knowing we had a great time (usually winning, too) while the other guys are just wasting their time screwing around.

How about a 'Mute the Neighbor Button'

[SomeoneGotMyNick]

It's not Halo 3, but it's just as annoying.

My neighbor (I live in a duplex) can be heard loud and clear while playing Call of Duty. He must get fragged a lot because what comes through the wall is:

"You F****** jerk, f****** gay, f****** f***, f****** bastard, F***, I shot you f****** first, f****** d***" .....and I'm not exaggerating. My kids are now picking up on the language and we've addressed the issue with him many times. I have some recorded clips of him (picked up from the living room) on poor quality consumer equipment as evidence. Then there's the rumble and explosions coming from the surround sound equipment he bolted to the basement rafters. Rafters which happen to connect through to my basement rafters (i.e. living room floor). My recording equipment can't pick those sounds up all that well, but it's loud to humans and there's enough gunfire and explosions to give me Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and I've never been on the front line before. As soon as I get enough suitable recording, I'm calling the police over one last time before I file a civil complaint.

This isn't a kid or anything playing the game. It's the 45 year old head of household acting this way.

Re:Just one more step

[Excelsior]

I totally agree. I've been gaming for a long time, but just started using a headset for the first time two weeks ago. I've never heard more offensive, foul, cruel language in my life. I'm no prude, and cussing doesn't bother me that much. But when it's all I hear, it's sad.

And the racist comments! I can't believe how much offensive racist crap I've heard in the past two weeks. Today's gaming youth in America is an embarrassment.

My headset experience only lasted two weeks, because I'm back to playing without it.