Slashdot Mirror
Cleaning up Thunder Bluff
An anonymous reader writes "Colleen Hannon at Gamers With Jobs is mad as hell, and she's not going to take it anymore. 'Unless you're playing Neopets, online servers are full of foul-mouthed, racist junk-monkeys. The hate-filled miasma they spatter around them has reached the point where many people who could be on those services won't go, and those who do brave it won't go without a posse and riot gear.' She plays out every side of the argument: why things have gotten as bad as they've become, what publishers have and haven't done about it, and why she thinks things are now at unacceptable levels of incivility. She's calling on us gamers to get together and figure this out, because: 'If we wait for the new sheriff in town to fight this battle for us we might not like the town we're left with.' Is it as bad as she says?"
<tsk, tsk, tsk> Watch the blood pressure there... you seem to be overheating.
I would respectfully submit that, as a parent, the original poster is doing no less than a parental duty in trying to prevent the kids from being exposed to some of the shrecklichkeit that is out there until the parent (as opposed to some bozo who wants to be the first one who tells the kids that there is no Santa) determines that the children are ready.
However, I don't see any suggestions that the game providers be sued, or that a law be passed forcing the providers to screen such nastiness. The only suggestion is that of voting with one's wallet. Is that so wrong?
Strike while the irony is hot! -- The Freethinker
freedom of speech. don't like it? move to north korea you red. i think its insulting to anyones intelligence to even begin to think that there should be some mass filtering of chat just because a couple of moms couldnt take their kids saying a couple of explicits. just because you can't tolerate it doesn't mean the rest of us want to cover our ears. i hate the average twelve year old on counterstrike as much as the next guy, but just because they have a vocabulary that covers all three and four letter words doesn't have an impact on me as a person or for that matter my gaming expierence. As its all a part of being a gamer. i am more than positive i was as annoying if not more annoying online. i had that freedom, so should they. its a part of culture to be rude just as its a part of our culture to be polite. without one you don't have the other. there are just as many rude, racist, sexist, homophobic biggots as there are online as there are in the real world and censoring either of them wont solve any problems. although i havent played wow in years now, theres always /report if you want to cry and have someone hold your hand.
The fact that niggers, homosexuals and females are inferior is pretty much universally accepted. Everybody seems to living in a fantasy world where everyone is accepting and tolerant of everyone no matter how disgusting, or inferior their lifestyle is.
Surprise asshole, just because the government has legislated the bullshit that is tolerance doesn't mean that is an accurate depiction of society. Just because your neighbor won't admit in polite society that he hates niggers doesn't mean that he would welcome a black family moving in down the street.
To all those whiners that bitch about the use of "gay" in online multiplayer games, get off your high horse. Nobody finds the free expression of ideas intolerable except for you.