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Halo 3 To Have 'Mute the Jerk' Button

Posted by Zonk on from the new-age-in-online-gaming dept.

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?

4 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. Bout time by Itchyeyes · · Score: 4, Interesting

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

    1. Re:Bout time by Cancer_Cures · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

  2. Other needed buttons by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  3. Re:Just one more step by Excelsior · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.