Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Seeks Patent On Shaming Fat Gamers
theodp writes "A newly disclosed Microsoft patent application — Avatar Individualized by Physical Characteristic — takes aim at fat people, proposing to generate fat avatars in gaming environments for individuals whose health records indicate they're overweight, limiting their game play, and even banning them. From the patent application: 'An undesirable body weight could be reflected in an overweight or underweight appearance for the avatar. Only requisite health levels are allowed to compete in a certain competition level. A dedicated gamer could exercise for a period of time until his health indicator gadget shows a sufficiently high health/health credit in order to allow reentering the avatar environment.' Linking one's gaming avatar to one's physique, explains Microsoft, will produce healthy and virtuous behaviors in individuals. Microsoft also proposes shaping gaming experiences by using 'psychological and demographic information such as education level, geographic location, age, sex, intelligence quotient, socioeconomic class, occupation, marital/relationship status, religious belief, political affiliation, etc.'"
So THAT's why we're going to have digital medical records...
if Microsoft does this, then the Playstation becomes the console for the large.
prior art exists, now Ballmer has to grow a stupid mustasche, chew carpets, and march on Poland.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I wouldn't piss off this fat kid... he has a power glove AND a Max controller. TURBO'S, FTW!
Ah, the NES zapper. That thing was awesome. Is it sad that I can still burn an entire afternoon playing duck hunt when the mood strikes?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Big government wasn't enough, now the corporations step in.
...on a fantastically lean, mean & slim Microsoft Windows OS?
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Brilliant idea. Take people who don't measure up to everyone's expectations, and heap shame on them in the one place where they can take a break from it all. Microsoft should also file for a patent on a method to lose money.
Ha! I have been shaming and banning fat people for years now. Where is my patent?
So soon, if this trend keeps gaining wind under its wings, WoW will be flooded with millions of fatass female elfs and midgets... Well, they get whats coming to them.
Does this mean I won't be able to play as a 36-24-26 blonde woman anymore? If Microsoft starts actually checking players appearance and gender, I predict there will be absolutely no "hot chick" avatars in the Microsoft MMORPGs! Is this "sausage fest" environment really the result they are looking for?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
So, Wii makes you swing the controller and get exercise or nags you to load up wii fit and exercise. Xbox (presumably) will now force you to exercise in order to play. Does this mean that the Playstation will become the system of the obese? I'll bet some marketing company is already working on the ads...
Never underestimate the potential of Human stupidity. -Heinlein
I'm glad the patent office is spending time on this rather that working on useless things like new life saving drugs...
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
...How appalling
I often thought they should invent a Wii Fit for the mind. It would be like a helmet that you wear and it would scan your brainwave looking for thoughts that society disapproves of. When you go way off the reservation it would say "that's obtuse!".
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
A game would have to be pretty compelling otherwise to make the risk of being banned for poor health do anything other than dissuade larger gamers from playing all together.
Most likely it will reduce the number of people playing any game with this technology in favor of competitor's games and as such is pretty much doomed to fail.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
"The physiological data can be gleaned from a third party health data collection repository"
As someone who worked in the healthcare industry for a number of years, this seems like a HIPAA violation lawsuit waiting to happen.
In Soviet Russia jokes are formulaic and decidedly non-humorous.
Where, exactly, does Microsoft think it's going to get this stuff from? The summary actually makes reference to health records.
Heck, I'm not sure most government agencies should have access to most of that information. Microsoft sure as fsck has no business with it.
Welcome to the dystopian future, fat boy. This is actually kind of scary.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I though one of the main point of gaming was to take you out of reality and become someone or something differant. I doubt this would ever be used in game, and if is i don't think it will sell very well. Maybe they just wan't to patent it to keep other from doing it? I don't the employess of MS are any more fit than your average gamer anyway...
Eating the brains of your enemies does not make you smarter. But it's still fun.
The precise point of video games is to be some other than yourself for awhile. If they start restricting people based on their physical appearance, how long until we start using other biometric data? The major appeal of video games is shattered when we lose that... who wants to play a video game as themselves?
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
well, you may, but you probably can't
So I want to play games, so I have to exercise. Exercise releases chemicals causing pleasure in my brain.
Eventually, I enjoy the exercise more than video games. I stop buying new games, and EA/Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo go out of business, and thousands of people lose their jobs.
Thanks a LOT, Microsoft!!
I drive through the Microsoft's campus almost daily. One of the funniest things I've seen (I have a rather twisted sense of humor) is all the Microsoft employees trying to waddle across the too short and too frequent pedestrian crosswalk signals that Redmond configured.
Have gnu, will travel.
Sometimes patents like this one can serve the public interest merely by reducing the likelihood of bad ideas like this one from being put into general use through fines and legal action.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
I really had to stop for a minute and double-check the posting date. I thought that I certainly would see an April 1 designation somewhere. This is just too sad. Now we not only have nanny states, but we also will have nanny softare companies.
Logon Process
1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del
2. Enter Logon ID and password
3. Step on the scale
4. If weigh is a healthy value, process logon; if not, recommend a gym membership (all in the name of keeping employer-paid health insurance costs down).
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
First this is the kind of patent that makes our patent system worthless. Patenting a Light Bulb = Good, Patenting a You're Fat Neener Neener Neener = Bad Second, they have no real capability of using their patent unless they want to violate someone personal privacy. It would be like facebook posting my weight to the world without my consent, or forbidding me from removing it when I no longer want to expose myself. Shame only works if the user can't opt out and if the users cant opt out then it's a violation of privacy without exception.
NO SMOKING NEAR MY XBOX 720! You will void the warranty with their built in smoke detector!
~Mekkah
Can I be the first to heap scorn on the fat kid in the photo.
You fat bastard, you fat bastard, you ate all the pie !
(And a bucket of chicken too by the look of it).
Why do people allow their kids to turn into such bloaters ? And don't give me any of that "oh it's genetic crap". There is no DNA strand that codes for "being a fat little piggy who Mommy overfeeds in the hope you'll amount to something more than your Father when you grow up".
I blame Mario ... come on, he eats pizza all day and has a right paunch on him too ... what kind of a roll model is that ? (Note the deliberate misspelling of roll, thats a pune or play on words, that is). And Sonic too, I mean he was so fat, after 5 seconds of running he starting rolling head over heels.
Why don’t you send out cease-and-desist letters to all the other websites that are using it?
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Imagine how this will work.
Overweight people will be banned from a game if they don't 'get fit'. Those who really want to play will then 'get to it' and get in shape.
Of course with all that exercise and new activity they are participating in will slowly bring them to realize there is something else to life then online avatar based games (with very shallow user access requirements). Slowly they will turn away from such games and begin doing things that are more active and fit in with their new health conscious life style.
Profits in gaming start to fall off because they banned all the people who pay to play and be someone else. When they got to the point they would qualify to play the game, they no longer had the mindset to want to play the game.
And there go my Microsoft stocks.
This seems like a rather interesting concept. From the summary, it's probably illegal to implement due to medical privacy (and if not, it should be) but it's still interesting.
MSFT probably realizes that they are right behind fast food chains in being targeted for law suits claiming they are liable for making people fat. By making such a feature available to say, parents for example, they may make themselves less susceptible to suit. I highly doubt MSFT is just looking to shame people.
Because if they don't, they may not have any players at all.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
What an intriguing way to wipe out virtually all computer/console gaming by your own company!
I had never thought that anyone would patent business suicide.
Way to go Microsoft!
Can't wait to see Balmers avatar running around with his head stuck up his backside, that's going to be a total roflmao moment.
I promise to take screenshots.
Come on people, are you dense? The idea is to create a game where success in the game is linked to personal health improvement in real life. If you don't like that sort of concept, don't play that particular game. I have no idea where you get the idea that this would be applied to all online environments.
At first I thought that this was an article from the Onion, but after reading the TFA, I'm having a hard time believing this would pass a patent exam.
You have to insure that the fitness measurements of an individual actually belong to the individual. Haven't read their patent, but I can't see how a game can reasonably do this without some sort of biometric keys.
And what are they going to do about people with medical conditions that might preclude exercise or normal weight? Are they really going to kick people off off the game with cancer because they have no control over their water retention?
All in all, this is a remarkably dumb idea.
It might be better suited for a dating site, using some mechanism to insure that the Avatar for an individual accurately represented basic physical aspects of an individual while preserving mostly their anonymity. Maybe use a Video camera plus some other hardware to scan the individual both to identify them upon logging in and updating their avatar to reflect any changes to their weight/height/BMI/hairline etc.?
Please consider this *publishing* of this idea, and as a result *invalidating any patent* that might build off this stupid Microsoft idea.
Kid probably shouldn't have set his Facebook profile settings to Everyone.
Isn't that what the Scientologists do? ;-)
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
They are making quite a leap by stating that by shaming someone online will motivate them to loose weight. I wonder if they can back this up from published research? This strikes me as extremely ironic, as MS is probably responsible for a great deal of the extra heft that is now plaguing our society. How many people do you know that now sit in front of a machine that is created and/or run by MS products that would have otherwise been out biking/walking/exercising in some way. Guilty conscience?
Also, there are a number of different reasons a person could be overweight - perhaps they are unable to exercise? Are they going to measure MBI? Or will they just assume that anyone who xxx lb is overweight? Don't get me started - this strikes me as cut and dried discrimination.
MS is doing a great job with their patents - I wonder if this will fall in to the same category as their recently slashdotted sparklines?
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish"
Albert Einstein
Not only for the workplace anymore! Now standard on all MS games. If Microsoft seriously gets this 'patent' approved for the US gaming market.... how will it actually hold up against the constitution? If it's illegal to discriminate against people for the above reasons (sex, socioeconomic class, marital/relationship status, religious belief, political affiliation, etc) for things like a job, a loan, housing; then what makes it alright for MS to use those for 'shaping gaming experiences' ?
I think the idea is to publish stupid patents to shame the idiot who filed it.
Society doesn't need to punish you for having wayward thoughts. They just bring you up to feel guilt and you punish yourself.
Anyway, yeah - fat people. For some reason society has decided its okay to mock them. Even better, a normal healthy weight is "fat" and only absurdly low fat percentages are "normal", meaning that's even more people that you're allowed to tell them what they should be doing with their diets / bodies.
Now admittedly the USA has some fat, fucking people, but that doesn't mean the air-brushed media people aren't some irritating smug cunts.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
the evilness of this corporation. my evil quota is full. now, we have seen a lot of horrible moves by microsoft, but i mean this ?!?!
they could just go all out from their seattle hq wearing postals and start kicking fat individuals in the face, saving a lot of effort and budget in the process and patent office's time.
Read radical news here
Great Thanks micro$oft for making my life suck more. Oh, wait. I can't afford your game hardware anyway. You fail.
If the government did this, it would be called "Socialism". I guess its ok for Corporations to do this sort of thing.
_In this great People's Republic of China,we seek to control games in order to keep our youth healthy mentally and physically) Oh yeah, China is definitely gonna want this for their youth
Microsoft also proposes shaping gaming experiences by using 'psychological and demographic information such as education level, geographic location, age, sex, intelligence quotient, socioeconomic class, occupation, marital/relationship status, religious belief, political affiliation, etc
Even if they could somehow get all that information from players, what difference would it make?
Maybe when they said "gaming experiences" what they actually meant was "ridiculous chat systems that have nothing to do with games".
If they start with this, then whats next? If you're a smoker you can't play wii tennis?
Besides, they'd lose too much money if fat people couldn't play video games anymore.
Ave Molech Setting
you and your obsessions. fat people are not discriminated against or humiliated in any way in my country. the country is turkey. and i have never yet seen any other country nearby, leave aside any european countries in which overweight people were ridiculed, belittled, bullied or discriminated against in any respect.
i very much have the idea that you people are so obsessed with your own socioeconomical circumstances, and so many bullshit propaganda being fed into you that you fail to see a world outside yours with different ideas and inclinations exist.
Read radical news here
Another way to make life suck even more. I bet this is a deal with the new health care system to make more people kill themselves.
-- A computer without Windoze is like a choclate cake without mustard
the perfect avatar for the pictured child; its called the BSOD. Seriously though, so when does a software company think it should replace parenting?
If you shame them in their one place to escape, they'll turn to another place to escape such as reading sci-fi.
The horror! Not sci-fi! (btw... it's spelled syfy now).
Won't somebody think of the children?!?! The rotund, wheezing, waddling children.
I'm surprised they can manage to turn somewhere at all. At least in the olden days kids had to walk to the library or bookstore, so sci-fi reading had an exercise component.
How many people can find pleasure only in gaming? It just doesn't seem plausible. At least when puberty comes along there's another thing they can do by themselves that's a lot more fun.
Putting moderation advice in your
Oh, I am pretty sure those two things are universally exclusive.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Yeah, thanks, Mr. A. Coward. I'm slightly overweight but not much. I did however have a very close friend whose life was made very miserable because of the abuse she got about her weight. I don't like this obsession with judging people for their weight, and I'm fine with not liking that.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
One of the most touching things I ever had on Xbox Live was when I received a message I from a friend who always seemed to be on, but not in the previous 2 weeks. The message was from his mother thanking me, and everyone on his friends list for being his friend and telling us he had passed away. She continued to tell us he had Downs Syndrome, and at 21 years of age had passed away from complications of it. She told us that we, his virtual friends were the only friends he really seemed to have, because we didn't know about, or judge him because of his condition.
Would this system have deprived him of the one joy he had in his life because he couldn't run the hundred meter dash, or didn't match up with some other physical standard?
Introducing Microsoft Vacuum 1.0 The first Microsoft product that doesn't suck.
"You are no longer an optimum energy producing unit. You are being ejected from the Matrix. Goodbye!"
<schlorp, spitooie!>
36-24-36? Only if she is 5'3".
Virtuous behavior? Avatars? Next thing you know Microsoft will be disabling the In Nami Ylem routines. I'm taking my Ankh and heading through the next moongate.
Oh, I am pretty sure those two things are universally exclusive.
Not really. Fat people just fuck other fat people producing many small fat people. If fat people didn't fuck that'd solve the whole problem, wouldn't it?
mmmm...forbidden donut
Yet I want this "No fat chicks" edition of the 360.
I want avatars that show me how old everyone is, so I know who to mute before I am hit with an avalanche of "Ur a gay fag!" and "Fucking Hacker!"
Name...That...Autocomplete!
Who wants to be online and see the ladies sporting a c-section scar?
...because the Internet is all about honesty, and they never entered anything false in all those bazillion registration forms on the net. ^^
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Or one could say her life was made miserable because of her weight. The grotesquely obese (of which i am a member) are such by choice. There may be genetic traits that can lead one to being overweight, but so what. There are also genetic traits that make certain people's breath smell like death, or make people gravitate toward alcoholism. We are not animals. We are not slaves to every wisp of DNA-inspired urge or weakness. I, for one, am still fat because I have not yet chosen to make the lifestyle changes needed to lose weight. I am not a victim.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Sorry, but you forgot the other 'A'. I hate it when that happens.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I know a guy who's been a quadriplegic, with limited upper body function, since a stupid motorcycle accident. Playing games using a special controller is one way he passes the time. Will he get a pass? Or will he be put in a motorized wheelchair in the game too? What about people getting chemo? Amputees? Will kids be made short? Will the elderly be given bad knees? Etc.?
Anyway, yeah - fat people. For some reason society has decided its okay to mock them. Even better, a normal healthy weight is "fat" and only absurdly low fat percentages are "normal", meaning that's even more people that you're allowed to tell them what they should be doing with their diets / bodies.
According to random numbers found here, acceptable body fat percentages for men are between 18%-26% and between 25%-31% for women. These numbers aren't even vaguely "absurdly low". Now, if you are talking about the media's version of what is "healthy" I agree. I really dislike that women (and to a lesser extent men) are pressured into being overly thin and often develop eating disorders.
I don't see a problem with this type of game though. As you said there are many overweight people and I think this could serve to motivate some of them. Anyone that might be discouraged by it doesn't need to play. As someone else mentioned the wii fit already does this.
You computer will now display the Blueberry Ice Cream of Death.....
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
There goes Microsoft's gaming market. What next? "Sorry, this console doesn't turn on for smokers."
Quick, tell me! Where do I sign up to pay for the privilege of being discriminated against for my views or appearance!
for the online community longer than I can remember, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let my reputation be squandered by the likes of Microsoft--especially in this case.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. At least you didnt spell it with two "p"'s. That's the worst.
Anyway, I am very cynical of HIPAA. It has never protected me from health care providers making disclosures to third parties when I wanted (and was entitled to) privacy, and it just adds inconvenience when I want to do simple things like having a family member pick up one of my prescriptions ("Oh my god! We could never allow that, even if we had written authorization on file! Think of your privacy!").
So... what did HIPAA accomplish? Well, now when I go to a pharmacy, they force me to sign a HIPAA disclosure/waiver before they will fulfill my prescriptions. What does this disclosure say? Stuff along the lines of "here is our policy on how we will violate your privacy when we feel like it. Don't you feel better knowing?". Of course, I could choose not to sign, but then they won't fill my prescriptions. Ah, being presented with a Hobson's choice over medical necessities always warms my heart about the human spirit.
"Blessed are the coercers, for surely they will fuck you over while smiling at you."
Anyway, to my point: yes, you are protected by HIPAA. However, my expectation is that they will just circumvent it by a click-through EULA waiver. No waiver, no play. There you go. Hobson would be proud.
So, what ? I get to play as a Paladin of the Invisible Pink Unicorn ?
I get improved resistances vs Purple Oysters (of Doom) and extra HP from pineapple pizza or something ?
Oooh, can we start in-game jihads against the Pastafarian guys ? Or do only mainstream religion followers get to do that ?
This
. . . PCs and consoles will come equipped with a robot arm that feels you up to determine your real gender.
Or course, some users would pay extra for that.
Maybe the guy has a good sense of humor about it. Think of how famous the Star Wars kid could have been. Probably not very, but he might have gotten some good interviews and an extra 15 minutes. Sometimes the only difference between having people laugh with you and at you is whether or not you decide to join in. Having said that, I'm not sure why you got modded flamebait, you have a valid point, maybe it was the anonymouscoward part. Personally, I wish I knew that guy. What a bad ass.
Only if you're morbidly obtuse.
Well said - personal responsibility is seemingly lacking everywhere these days. People's perceptions are never going to change and that's just how it is. The only variable you can change in life is you.
I was, hence the quotes around "fat" and "normal". What medical science and what popular media consider healthy and normal are widely divergent.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
So... will Microsoft be making a big donation to Child's Play any time soon?
"This new X Box won't let me play today because it thinks I should get out of bed and do more exercise. It suggests half an hour of jogging. How many weeks did you say it be before I can walk again?"
I love it when people can only talk in extremes.
Microsoft wants to patent this technology. So CLEARLY they will immediately use it for every application.
CLEARLY they are just going to randomly access hospital records without getting any authorization.
Come on folks. Get a clue.
Someone at Microsoft (or one of their competitors withi a leak) has an idea for some sort of socially interactive physical fitness gaming network to compete with the Wii Fit. They dont want 450 lb Slashdoters having hearattacks while they try to "get in shape" by doing 3 situps, so they want to allow for sensors to see what sort of shape someone is in. (That gets them out of the lawsuit.) Someone says "While we are doing that we should allow for other means of in getting baseline data like medical records, cause they might do this fomrally in a retirement home or something."
Welcome to the Internet. I can see that this is your first time here.
There is so much for you to see and wish to unsee.
If shaming fat gamers is wrong, then why tack on the picture of The Greatest Nintendo Warrior? Hasn't this poor slob suffered enough?
I can't quite express the shock and bile that this article literally provoked with me. I have a reason or two to be invested in this, though I'd love to think that I would be anyways. I'm both a fat chick, and disabled. The one easily has been associated with the other. Among some of my medical issues, I have several neuromuscular diseases that have resulted in partial paralysis with repetitive motion(such as walking, or any other 'continued' type motion, including brushing my own hair). My legs and arms routinely gimp out. I'm in a wheelchair if it's more than a very few steps. I need lots of help with my routine life. I'm also in severe neuropathic and musculoskeletal pain, due to nerve damage, chronic muscle spasms, spinal degeneration, et al. I only preface my rant with all of this in order to prove a point relevant to this topic:
I have spent copious amounts of time online in various MMORPGs, from the very inception of Everquest, to the beginning of WoW, and have tried most of them in between, including the mostly 'social' ones. I have learned the game mechanics, as much as I'm able, and have participated socially, as much as I've been so inclined, at various times in my life (It's funny how that's decreased drastically in increments from EQ to WoW), and I have paid into the economy with the subscription fee associated with each. I have not, at any time, been an MMO addict, in that a pixelated game could ever interfere with my perception of 'real life', and its priorities.
I have, however, used these games as a form of escapism from my pain and discomfort. To say otherwise would be a blatant understatement of the facts, and why? I don't see using an MMO, either one of the more strategic 'hack 'n slash' fantasy or sci-fi types (WoW, AO, Runescape, Eve Online) or a social (Sims Online, There, or Second Life) venue as being an unhealthy coping mechanism for a disabled person. We often spend so much of our time in a house, trapped inside of bodies that don't work, or are screaming silently with pain. To be able to thrive, leap, dance, run, and maybe kick some butt in a pixelated body is liberating. Never mind the opportunity to interact socially, unhindered, in the aesthetic form of our choosing, because isn't that what we -all- like to do?
What this all essentially means is: Microsoft wants to nerf handicapped people.
I'm barely going to get into the fact that Microsoft has alluded to the fact that they want to dig into my socioeconomic and medical data, because that both defies belief and insults my intelligence on a level to a degree that I truly believe they'll be reamed by people much bigger and badder than I am. (And I mean that on a less than literal level to any smart asses out there. =P )
I'm going to imagine, for a moment, that I actually had the motor skills to play CoD6 with my best guy friend and his cool crew, Team Drunky. *Team Drunky moves in to engage the enemy with a tactical strike, having decided against the comedic, but less effective death-via-precision-supply-drop. A skirmish begins. Ferret likewise is out the gate, sniping at the opposing clan, but glances over his shoulder, unfortunately, at Nixon, who is slovenly shuffling in his general direction, in a cold sweat, upper body graced with an ill fitting flak jacket, an M16, that she cannot lift, sparking as it drags along the pavement. Ferret groans inwardly as he faces the dilemma of whether to join Team Drunky, and live, or whether to try and save his soon-to-be and as-good-as-dead friend, whose right leg has now completely ceased to work. "Save yourself, you idiot! This is completely fruitless!" Nixon yells, right before catching one dead between the eyes. Sadly, Ferret was relieved. Team Drunky was relieved. The opposing team was sorta relieved.
Apparently Microsoft and America were relieved, because another fat person was kept off the net... back into the obscurity of their dark living rooms, in front of the television... where they belong... or something.
I've often
My human form is simply the earthy representation of my plump soul in heaven and you can't prove otherwise.
Nullius in verba
Set him on Texas instead?
I can throw myself at the ground, and miss.
Seriously, did I time warp?
This is Microsoft Covering Their Ass - this patent combined with project NATAL is about making sure Fatty Mcfatterson doesn't have a heart attack while punching the monkey. They will gracefully make the game easier so it doesn't stress out the player.
One has to wonder how one differentiates an unhealthy user from an unfortunate one.
There'll be gaming fat farms and self improvement gaming; You're looking at it wrong.
Friend, my logic is not flawed. Both ones race and ones religion are federally protected in all democratic societies an the planet (at least on paper). People are not born fat (as black people are born black). And are no forms of worship that I know of that demand (or even encourage) obesity. There is no Constitutional protection for being fat. It's easy to point at the fat guy and laugh, sure. But it's also easy to point at the stumbling drunk or the teenager with raging BO. People are mean to other people sometimes. That is not a discrimination; that is life.
Maya Anjelou once gave a great statement on this concept. She said (among other things) "The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself."
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Can anyone, anywhere, point out ONE time HIPAA was actually enforced beyond just a symbolic wrist-slap? Show me the company that was forced out of business, show me the CEO whose career was ended for HIPAA violations.
Every single one of my "health providers" -- doctors, dentists and optometrists -- make me sign paperwork saying they can share my information with anyone they want. I tried to decline signing that paperwork once at an optometrist for an eye exam I was paying for out of my pocket.
They kicked me out of the office.
HIPAA works a lot like the TSA. It's just done for show.
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
The grotesquely obese (of which i am a member) are such by choice.
The same can be said of the abusive cunts.
Although the "weight" method of stratifying gamers is absurd, what's wrong with separating people by age group or other metrics? For once we could have servers the way we have threads here: If you don't royally piss people off and you actively contribute to the gaming experience, you get "karma" and get to play with other people who have the same goals of enjoying the game, instead of fragbagging and teamkilling or whatever they do these days.
I'm all for it. If you want to behave like an ass and ruin people's fun and stats, then you can play on an unregulated server with all the other cockwhirlers.
-
1. "Everyone" "knows" that video games are unhealthy and are the reason why kids are fat nowadays.
2. Tell the politicians that you've developed a way for video games to help prevent kids from getting fat.
3. Tell the parents that you've developed a way for their computer/video games to *automatically" help prevent their kids from getting fat.
4. Get a "Save the children!" law passed requiring that this Anti-Fat-Kid-Rights-Management software be mandatory.
5. You have a patent on the Anti-Fat-Kids-Rights-Management idea.
6. Profit from the monopoly.
Have you seen a new-born child? I would bet that their body-fat percentage is very high.
Cory Doctorow talking about cloud computing makes as much sense as George W Bush talking about electrical engineering.
What the hell? The Microsoft Vista license states "Where allowed by your local laws, the manufacturer or installer and Microsoft exclude implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement."
If Microsoft cannot attest to the fitness of their own software, why do they think they can attest to my fitness!?!
to see Stephen Hawking's avatar. I wonder if he gets a free mount.
Maybe I'm confused, but aren't the real-world benefits of exercise and fitness way better than any a game could offer? I mean, if you can't entice someone with feeling great, longer life, and getting laid a lot, do you really think you can entice them with pixels on a screen? Really? I mean, I love me some video games, but... really?
I think there is an aversion of activity that exceeds the rewards of it. Adding more rewards isn't really going to help, because the current rewards are, well, just amazing. I mean, it doesn't get much better than being hot, being healthier, and long life.
"That which does not kill us makes us stranger." -Trevor Goodchild
I have a better idea. Have everybody wear a yellow star and call them JUDE! A lame ass corporation that dictates appearance has no business being in business.
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
This is so patently stupid (pun intended) that it should have never even seen the light of a Slashdot day.
It will NEVER become a reality, for so many reasons(medical privacy rights would be a good place to start), so why are we even discussing this shit?
Oh, right. Because it is funny.
Please continue...
Sizeism is one of several prejudices that seem currently acceptable by society. Imagine if the M$ news release said that game experience would change if the player were black; levels inaccessible because you were the wrong colour. Or female. Or gay. Or disabled.
25-30% of Americans are obese, but much of society (including the obese) seem to buy-in to the view that skinny is good and obese is obscene - and so nothing changes. Look at the comments here. Similar comments against gays or blacks would be dismissed as troll, but here we're having a good laugh. Anyway, with so many people being targeted by M$ I doubt that M$ is doing itself much of a favour.
Slashdotters who are quite happy to say: "fuck you, go on a diet ha ha" might do better by standing up for minorities that don't include themselves. In today's world we all have a job to protect our rights from the fucked-up ambitions of government, interest groups, and business, and divide-and-conquer is one of their ways of eroding rights.
"Lets have DRM, filtering, and inspection because some people are pirates", "Let's have biometric responses and limitations because some people are fat", "lets limit others because of IQ", "lets fuck with them because they are a minority, and the majority will let it pass". Well its possible to make up distinctions that catch all of us - we all belong to one minority or another depending on how creatively you cut the cake - and if we go down this path we all get fucked. So we have to stick up for others as if it were ourselves.
OK, help me get down off my soap box. Anyway, I'm a fat bastard and always have been. Nothing I can do about it. But I'll be alright so long as besides having fat avatars you can have avatars with 10" dicks :-)
Just a other way to get on the pre existing condition list.
This is the same M$ that used to hire temps as full time to get out of paying for there health care.
Then, I'm sorry, but I'll just explain again, then.
This does not pertain to your argument. You're saying that legality has bearing on morality? Reality says otherwise. A lack of legislation about insulting people does not make insulting them acceptable to me.
You have deliberately selected the one element I listed that is not a choice, in order to imply that the case of obesity is different to all my cases on the grounds that you consider it a choice. In fact, I listed a number of items which are choices (such as religion) where it remains publicly unacceptable to mock people for these attributes. There is also something insidious in your above statement which you appear unaware of. The direct inference of the above is that it is incorrect to insult people because of their skin colour because this is not a choice. Whereas personally I believe it is incorrect to insult people about their skin colour because it is not a reason to treat people badly in and of itself.
The same principle ought to apply to people's weight, yes? Yet you seem to think that it is acceptable to insult people about their weight for some reason, even though it is similarly not of concern to other people in most circumstances. Apparently this reason has to do with people's ability to influence their weight to some degree. Apparently your logic is that it is okay to insult people for something if you believe that it was their choice. Apparently you believe that the insult is deserved if one chooses to do something that some of society doesn't like irrespective of whether that choice has anything to do with them. Unless of course you're arguing that people are cruel to people with weight problems because of it does do harm to them, but I'm certain that is not what you were arguing.
You are implying that the basis of my argument was that some religion did, or that obesity being part of a religion is a requirement for it to be tolerated? Eh?
Again, law != morality. There's no constitutional protection against someone coming up to your partner in the street and insulting them, but I'm confident you'll agree it's wrong. And I would hope that you would leap to your partners defense. So I don't know why when I express dislike at people being judgemental about someone I cared about that you start telling me there's no constitutional protection for them, with the implication that they should expect and accept that abuse.
Trust me - not if they're a friend of mine and I'm with them. I might be 230lb, but most of it is muscle in my case. Not that its really important - I'll merely take them apart verbally.
Most people who are drunk are going to be sober in the morning and their being drunk is a source of humour even to them. If someone's a real alcoholic, then no, that's not particularly funny either. If a teenager has raging body odor, then they probably would be happier knowing and doing something about it. In any case, pointing out something else unpleasant doesn't make the first thing pleasant. Unless you're going to make the argument that cruelty is common that it should just be accepted.
Ah, I see yo
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
So it sounds like they're going to do it on the body mass index scale. Dumb. That penalizes athletes who are in excellent physical condition. I'm 30 to 40 lbs over weight by those charts. But I'm not. I work hard physically, I farm, so I have a lot of muscle and dense bones. I have little body fat. My physical activity makes for a heavy body that puts my body mass way over for my height yet I am very healthy. Even life insurance companies have started to admit those charts are dumb. They fail to take in to account real health. Once again Microsoft is behind the times and simply wrong.
What will they patent next? Racism?
This is irritating. I certainly won't be playing any games that implement this. I'm forced to be male despite being a woman IRL, and they want me to pay for the privelege in-game?! They'd at least better have shemale avatars. I pay good money for my meds.
Join the Slashcott! Stay away entirely Feb 10 thru Feb 17! Close all tabs to prevent autorefresh!
Microsoft also proposes shaping gaming experiences by using 'psychological and demographic information such as education level, geographic location, age, sex, intelligence quotient, socioeconomic class, occupation, marital/relationship status, religious belief, political affiliation, etc.
was OOH! I want to play Splinter Cell starring Niles & Frasier Crane!!!
how is babby formed?
Detecting the FBI agent pretending to be a 13 year old girl could be useful, for many reasons. But despite the stupidity of such an easily fooled system for general use, there is a legitimate use: physical therapy with Wii-like or Dance-Dance Revolution like components, designed to measure progress in a genuine fitness program.
And for related entertainment, there is the video "Do You Want To Date My Avatar?" at http://www.watchtheguild.com/the-guild/the-guild-music-video/.
I'll take out a patent on Avatar with underdeveloped genitalia so whenever someone from microsoft uses an avatar they'll have to pay me.
This will double in cost for any three letter executives who will have dickless avatars.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
To be fair, you are the one who is logically incorrect. Im tired of retards trying to pull the race card like it affects anyone, anywhere, for any reason by giving ridiculous examples that are not, never have been, and never will be true.
People do make a choice to be christian or computer programmers. Like being fat, this is known as a lifestyle choice.
On the other hand, no one is going to claim that personal responsibility is required for being black. That is preposterous.
I don't see how you can confuse something that can be made fun of because the person doing so is responsible (putting mayo on fries) with something that you can't control (having your parked car hit in a parking lot).
Parent is not a victim because parent recognizes that fat is a chosen lifestyle. Like a crack addict that sucks dick in a bad part of town to get their next fix, they may realize that what they are doing is viewed badly by society, and that it makes them a whore, and that they can change, even though they havent yet. Calm down and realize that while cake may be cheaper, less addictive, and (slightly) less than harmful than crack, no one has ever stopped doing crack because people are calling them whores, blacks, or computer programmers. If people can be shamed into eating less cake, I say shaming them is valid societal pressure.
Ask any mother why she, at some point, has told her daughter that she is gaining too much weight, and let me know if the answer is ever because her daughter is black. Im guessing that even outside of the US, this wont be true.
Getting on the actual article, this was about fat avatars. If someone chooses to have a fat avatar, they can also choose to lie about it and get a skinny avatar. I'm guessing that most people will get a pokemon avatar, or a game character specific avatar, or an actual photo of themselves avatar,or a default xbox avatar long, long, long before they bother to put their weight information into a video game console. Who the hell is going to release their medical history to microsoft?
All your HIPAA rights are waived in the TOS. Did you click 'I agree'?
"That's obese!"
exactly: doesn't the Wii Fit do this already? If you're obese according to BMI it makes your avatar obese, if you're underweight it makes your avatar very skinny. Since the Wii Fit came out in 2007 and Microsoft didn't file until June 2008 I'd say that's enough prior air.
Is Microsoft going to sue Nintendo for Wii Fit?
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
Careful calling people a retard. Do you want me to point out the obvious problem in your post?
The OP stated that it was her fault people insulted her for being overweight. I merely showed other examples of exactly the same principle: someone being insulted because of an attribute about them. His argument includes all of the things I listed - yes, including race. Yet you treat obesity differently. Why? Because you say it is a choice? Here is the the very obvious problem in your post: You are making the argument that it is acceptable to mock people about their weight because you think they have control over it, and you illustrate this with a comparison to how it is not okay to insult someone about being black... because they don't have a choice.
Wow! Now *that* is racist. The non-racist would immediately identify that the reason it is not okay to insult someone about being black is because there's nothing fucking wrong with being black. And the point of correlation is that just as its no relevance to anyone else what skin colour you have, is it is likewise nobody's business judging people about your weight.
Why did you bring choice into it? Because your mental process is that the reason to hold back from judging someone is if they can't help it for some reason. How about the reason for not judging someone being that it's not your place to judge them?
Don't like what I'm saying? Take a long look at your post before you reply and ask yourself if you honestly weren't just following the reasoning I've stated.
Your reasoning, flawed though it is, is based on obesity being just a choice as if the matter is simple. Given how much better you usually feel if you're fit and active than if you're overweight and sedentary, then if it's just "a choice" then why are people choosing to be fat and if it's just a choice uninfluenced by external factors, then why is obesity more prevalent in some countries than in others, why does it run in families, why are poorer people in the USA more prone to obesity than more affluent people? It is demonstrable that external factors are a major factor in obesity by these observable facts. So even if you did feel that it is your place to judge others for being fat (and again, what puts you in that position?), then how do you reconcile that with "the choice" clearly being easy for some and very hard for others?
Do you want to go back and take a look at my original post? I said that I didn't like the way my friend got a lot of abuse because she was overweight. I didn't like the way society discriminated against people for their weight. That was my post. I take it that you condone those things because, well, you're arguing with me. Or do you simply object on some principle to another person getting angry about discrimination? Which is it? Neither sounds like something I'd want to admit to but they're the only explanations for your post seeing as there were no factual corrections to be made.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
You've got to be kidding. So why stop with heath? Let's include sexual preferences and orientation, religious and social affiliations, and stereotypes based on where you live.
But Ballmer is damn fat as well. Why stop at games? They should deny access to all services for fat people, starting with HIM.
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
This could be a new Turing Test?
prior art exists, now Ballmer has to chew carpets.
Hitler was a lesbian?
I have to wonder what stake Microsoft has in teen suicide and school shootings that they'd think this is a good idea. A bit of a leap you say? Let me lay it out for you.
Fat kid gets home from school, decides to play some games to put the bullshit he had to deal with at school behind him... Too bad his avatar is fat too! No escape from the ridicule and stupid crap! Or even worse, the same people who harass him at school start harassing him online, and then start harassing him at school ABOUT his fat avatar! BONUS POINTS!
So, depending on the kid's psychological makeup there are three possible outcomes:
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
As the San Antonio Chapter President of the Entertainment Consumer Association, I will VOTE AGAINST this proposal because I believe Medical Records is like your Social Security Number, PRIVATE INFORMATION! If Microsoft did such thing, I will stop using my Xbox360 and sell it immediately, because I WONT use XboxLive if they will reveal my private Medical Records. MICROSOFT CAN YOU GO ANY LOWER!?
I'm quite certain that I am correct. I'm also certain that your parents raised you improperly, you retard (by which I mean that you are foolish and socially inept...there is no reason to be careful with such meaning, which should be obvious from the context, unless you are a retard) since you assume that someone is a racist with no basis for it other than that you wish it were true. You don't like what I have to say so you look for a character flaw that gives you the ability to overlook common sense.
OP stated it was fat person's fault that people called fat person fat. Since being fat is a choice (as was acknowledged by fat person), there is nothing wrong with people who are not fat that point out that fat person has chosen to be fat.
I don't see where you find racism, but my first sentence should have pointed out that race is not a factor of anything. To quote myself, "On the other hand, no one is going to claim that personal responsibility is required for being black. That is preposterous." There is nothing racist here, and if you see anything racist, I suggest you see a psychiatrist for your mental health issues with looking racism in situations where it just does not exist. You seem to be kind of person that would go masturbate and then claim that you raped yourself because you weren't really in the mood.
Quit looking for things that aren't there.
I do object to people getting angry about the concept of discrimination. Just because your mother is fat doesn't mean you have to be. You don't have to have fat friends if you worry that having fat friends will make you fat. Its called discrimination, and believe it or not, discrimination is not a bad word. After all, you discriminate by not hanging out with drug addicts, or axe murderers, people who don't take showers, you get the idea.
If you don't want society to call your fat friend fat, then change society. Move to a location in which being fat isn't a social stigma. Don't call people racist over it, because you will just be wrong.
The Microsoft Windows OS's avatar would then take up the whole screen.
Table-ized A.I.
Just change the aspect ratio of your screen such that your avatar is now normal and everybody else is a bean pole.
Table-ized A.I.
Except that you'd be wrong. If she was miserable because couldn't her backside into a standard chair, or because she couldn't walk more than a couple of steps without getting out of breath, or because she had to have reconstructive surgery on her knees due to excessive weight, these are all due to her weight.
Copping abuse from other people due to her weight is entirely due to the presence of assholes in society, and nothing to do with weight at all.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
I'll say one thing: I'm obese, and if someone came up to me on the street and heckled me about it, they'd be visiting the emergency room shortly thereafter to have their head removed from their posterior. people being a**holes may be a fact of life, but so are the potential consequences. You heckle a fat guy, you'd better be sure that's all fat under there.
They're going to integrate Facebook Connect with XBox live so they can grab all your details.
Seriously, Facebook has everything but IQ. Everything else you can put in there.
Work Safe Porn
Sounds like a lose, lose situation... I seems like the market strategists would see that this could really go all bad... Who are the majority that actually play video games? Most the people that I know that are big gamers really aren't in the best shape or they are our youth...
I hope that the photo of the overweight dressed with Nintendo garb is from someone you know, and that they gave permission for you to humiliate them in front of thousands of other people.
What makes you think the picture is humiliating?
If you think the picture is humiliating, aren't you the problem?
If we all thought there was nothing wrong with the picture, then there wouldn't be anything humiliating about it, would there?
paintball
I kind of like the idea of having an avatar that's similar to me. Weight, muscle, general appearance, and how the world could affect the avatar are all interesting idea.
The patent also mentions pedometers and similar tools. Wii Fit was a start, but a system such as this one could encourage real-world exercising in order to see changes in your avatar and even to receive certain Achievements. Now those would be some achievements to show off. :) The game could theoretically guide the person toward a healthy amount of weight loss, which is monitored by the tools (eg; a Wii Fit board rip off, a pedometer, and so on). This is an ideal situation that assumes that no cheating is taking place.
I could see such a game asking about asthma (or the like), but it clearly goes too far when talking about pulling in medical records. There are some obvious reasons for considerable concern, but there is also some interesting potential here.
... and they lag irl
The poster I was replying to said that it was her fault if someone mocked her or treated her badly because of an attribute of herself. I responded by showing other cases where someone could abuse you because of an attribute, intended to illustrate that (assuming you didn't approve of these other cases), the principle of abusing someone and saying its their fault is a bad one. Considering that these two posters are so vocal on the subject of choice and personal responsibility, its ironic how insistent they are that if someone insults another person about their weight, it's the fault of the person being insulted.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Well, may be gamers must expose also sexual orientation, religion, size of penis, and other important for computer game information.
A physical characteristic is accessed that has been nonvolitionally obtained from a user, avoiding the inconvenience or unaccountability of voluntarily supplied information.
This is so ... wrong .. that it is hard to know where to start criticizing it. At first I thought it was an April Fool's joke a little too early, but then I clicked through to the patent itself. As a work of brilliant satire poking fun at the whole patenting process, it succeeds -- too bad it's for real! Anyway, here I go:
1) M$ will obtain your data nonvolitionally -- to wit, without your consent! Leaving aside the obvious Constitutional implications of this (5th Amendment violation, for those keeping score), it raises the interesting question: where is this data going to come from? (And: can the source be spoofed?)
2) More ominously, note the following claims:
[0024]It should be appreciated with the benefit of the present disclosure that the physical characteristics that can be conveyed include can include health information pertinent to performance such as blood pressure, heart rate, pulmonary flow rate, weight, body fat index, strength, blood glucose level. These physical characteristics can be chronic conditions such as allergies, disabilities, diseases, etc., that facilitate locating people of similar sensitivities, lifestyle and background.
[0025]In addition, the physical characteristics can include psychological and demographic information such as education level, geographic location, age, sex, intelligence quotient, socioeconomic class, occupation, marital/relationship status, religious belief, political affiliation, etc. Such information can be useful in enhancing social interaction as well as adjusting how an avatar performs in a competitive virtual environment.
Needless to say, such 'physical characteristics' provide a fertile ground for discrimination. For example, imagine the following:
You have been denied access to Fourth Reich because you are a Jewish scum. Your internet address has been logged; your home address has been located; a squad of Storm Troopers will be by shortly to teach you a lesson in respect.
3) No more anonymity. Under this system, Publius -- the collective identity of the Founding Fathers when they were attempting to convince their fellow citizens of the necessity of a new form of government -- would have been ferreted out and they would all have been tossed into British gaols to await their trials for treason.
And let's not forget M$s ultimate goal:
NON-WINDOWS SYSTEM DETECTED.
DNA is a Turing machine. You, however, being dynamic and emergent, are not.
Maybe the folk at Microsoft feel that they're not getting enough licensing revenue of their existing FAT patents...
http://www.microsoft.com/iplicensing/productDetail.aspx?productTitle=FAT%20File%20System
Yeah, straight to personal insults about my family and name calling in the first line. That really supports a reasoned argument. *roll eyes*
Accusations of ad hominem from someone who opens both posts with insults? I didn't go looking for character flaws to invalidate your argument. Your argument itself was racist. Your argument was (and apparently still is), that it's okay to insult people because 'they choose to be fat' but its not okay to insult people for being black because 'they have no choice'. Any reasonable person would say its not okay to insult people for being black because there is nothing wrong with being black. But the sole basis of your argument is that insulting people about weight and insulting people about race (both attributes of a person's body) is that the former 'is a choice' therefore its okay. It is the inevitable flip-side of that argument that were it possible to choose a race, it would then be acceptable to insult people for being of a particular race. And that's a racist argument because it requires that one thinks there is a basis for insulting people based on race. Do you follow this reasoning? I'm sure most do, but this is the second time it has been explained to you. Start at the beginning of this paragraph and follow it through and see if you can find any part that does not follow on logically from the former. What I am saying is obviously not me "going looking for character flaws". I've written out a reasoned deduction based on exactly what you're saying. Your sole argument is that its okay to insult people about their weight because they may have some control over it unlike race, so were skin colour a choice, discrimination against colours that 'society' didn't like would similarly be okay. It can't be made any simpler than that. Either you understand where you have fallen prey to racism or you, for a second time, ignore the evidence and say its just a personal attack. It isn't - it's a direct analysis of your argument.
Do you have any conception of the thread of this conversation, or are you just using it as a launching pad for making statements that don't quite connect. The original post of mine that has launched all your comments about my being "a retard" and "being raised improperly" was that I didn't like people finding it acceptable to come up and insult someone I cared about because she was overweight and I extended that to anyone else who was in a similar situation. Your rebuttal to that is "there is nothing wrong with pointing out someone has chosen to be fat." Now how the Hell do those two things connect? You're shifting ground like a landslide here. And you keep coming back to the issue of "choice". Even if it is allowed that being overweight is a choice, you think its okay to walk up to someone and shout abuse at them because of their lifestyle choices? Perhaps instead of race, I should have picked sexuality to make it clearer to you. Just as with body type, people are biologically disposed to prefer one gender over another. But whether they act upon that biological instinct is a choice, so by your logic it is okay to abuse and discriminate against people because of which gender they have sex with, because it is a choice that you have judged wrong. Are you not getting this? You want to judge someone for being overweight and you say this is acceptable because it is a ch
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Hurray, you are mentally retarded. Your mother may love you, but the rest of us realize that you are illiterate and proud of it. Fuck off. At this point, I just feel sorry for your.
:D
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Not that I have any plans to become a Microsoft customer, but still. The idea of having exercise advice shoved down my throat by a company run by that tub of goo, Steve Ballmer, is beyond asinine.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I want to do you a favour. You seem like a well-intentioned and friendly sort. Now clearly you see being overweight as a negative as you are arguing people are not wrong for insulting the overweight (my original point where you said the blame wasn't theirs). You also said that people are not slaves to a whisp of DNA. So I put the two together and ask you to lose weight and become slim this year. Either you will achieve this and reach a state you think is more desirable, or you will fail and concede the powerful effect of your circumstances and your genetics on your weight, both gaining self-insight and becoming less mistakenly judgemental. It's a win-win either way and all you have to do is post a reply to this saying "yes." I'll even be your training buddy as I could lose a few pounds myself. What do you say? Is my logic sound? I hope you will accept.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
In related news, Microsoft patented the act of inhaling oxygen and exhaling co2. A judge has issued an injunction against breathing for everyone until the case is resolved.
Actually, the kid in the picture is my younger brother. The picture was taken 15 to 17 years ago. One of his friends must have scanned it and put it online somewhere.
He doesn't look like that today. He started a weight lifting regimen about 10 years ago and he is probably in much better shape than most of the people making fun of this picture online.
Just be sure to wear the gold uniform when you beam down -- you know what happens when you wear the red one.
I've been looking into my crystal ball, and I predict that the number of hot girls on the internet is going to drop to near-zero.
What a depressingly stupid machine.
Finally, a use for my PhD!
This post once again made me feel extremely nauseated about Microsoft and it got me thinking.
People are people all around the world, we are taught different things but there is some kind of psychological DNA if you will, maybe it's based on brain structures or the lack of them, but I have a feeling you will find similar types of personalities in different places.
It is why art and stories written centuries ago still strike a chord, why movies from other countries can be endearing.
I imagine the Microsoft attracts more pathologies than most companies, and I wonder what positions in society those types of personalities would occupy.
I imagine Microsoft execs would feel quite at home sitting on the ruling council of a religious fanatic society in the Middle East.
I wonder where in Africa you will find similar personalities.. and where in the U.S. you will find those of the criminal exec-types found in those countries?
We should try and recognize a pathology and do something about it, instead of just turning our eyes away. It is gross, nauseating, yes it might make you want to kill yourself if you have to actually have a conversation with these horrible individuals at Microsoft, but maybe we should actually try to remove them from their posts and give them intensive professional counseling before they get taken seriously and have stupid ideas actually implemented.
On the other hand, doing nothing is perhaps safest. At least they aren't being handed live weapons.
Although I don't think this is a completely bad idea, I have to wonder - when will the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL be limited to people with an IQ > 120?... exercising the mind would do some of these guys well either, don't you think?...
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
This is Microsoft's way of showing they care about their gamers health. Something like saying, "we want you to be healthy so we are going to limit you from playing the game." Basically, this is combating the idea that games are the reason for people being fat. For instance, if you are addicted to a game too much, you may not exercise like you normally would. They want you to be addicted, so they just found another way to make sure you still exercise. They decided to limit or block you from playing until you have exercised. They are talking about more than just checking your medical records here. They are talking about checking your health instantly before you try to play. Or maybe somehow linking in to even more record keeping, that isn't used yet, by places like gyms. They also want to find ways to make sure your not slacking on other aspects of your life because of their games. That or they just don't want you to be able to blame them anymore. They want to be able to tell if you are socializing, getting along with people, and just about anything else people blame games for. What it amounts to is, "Have you been a good boy today? Well then, you can play." Otherwise, get out there and fix what your not doing. Fighting with your girlfriend? Go make up, then you can play. *ring ring*, real life is calling. If you don't want to answer, we'll glue the phone to your ear!
People can go from thin to morbidly obese in very little time due to things like known, documented side effects of certain psychiatric drugs (mostly antipsychotics, also some alleged treatments for ADHD and depression) that frack up the liver. (You are supposed to have monthly liver function monitoring when on those drugs, but that rarely happens, and without it, you can suffer permanent damage to liver, pancreas, and kidneys.) Obesity can result from other problems that affect these organs, as can diabetes, hypertension and the other aspects of "metabolic syndrome." In some cases it is a cause, in others an effect. It is not possible to generalize without knowing a person's medical history. There appears to be a large correlation between certain additives like HFCS and obesity even when other factors are held constant, and some good reasons to believe this is a causative relationship (for instance the tendency of fructose metabolism to take place in the liver rather than throughout the entire body, and to not produce proper levels of leptin to regulate subsequent hunger). It is simply more complex then "fat people lack self-control." Even if that were true we do not have sufficient data to conclude that the poor self-control led to the obesity, rather than perhaps the other way around. And, finally, there is the idea that people are people, and are entitled to a certain amount of respect and dignity regardless of whether we agree with the choices they make (even presuming that their obesity is a choice).
Nonaggression works!
it doesnt happen. neither publicly, nor privately. the most overweight people suffer from is constantly being reminded/scolded about diabetics and heart attack possibilities. occasionally they may get nicknames. but depending on their character, they happen to be endearing nicknames from prominent overweight figures from comedies in movie/literature, or generic nicknames. then again, any person who has a noticeable character gets a nickname, not just overweight.
I very much have the idea that you're a bit of a well-meaning naif who can only imagine the world as you've experienced it ... but that you are nonetheless wrong. It's nice that you have never seen discrimination, and can't imagine it. That doesn't change that it does, in fact, exist. I have never personally seen a platypus ... and since I've had this rock, I've not been mauled by tigers. Neither of these statements change the existence of the platypus, or the fact that there aren't tigers nearby anyway.
there. this was the kind of shitty attitude i was talking about. just out of your ass, you were able to just evaluate who was i, and what i know and what i dont, with just from a posting that contradicts your perceptions and experience. its as if the world revolves around you, and yours is the 'real' world, whereas others' are always some 'exceptions'. this is the shitty attitude thats dominant in america, regardless of you are an american or not.
im not going to even justify that kind of half assed uninformed generalization with a reply. i will just repeat that this is a 7 billion crowded world, and 250 million populated america is but a tiny part of it.
Read radical news here
let me wake you up to a fact - something being public does NOT mean that anyone is entitled to become jerks about it. just because you see an ass naked in public does NOT mean that you can go screw it.
didnt know that ? tough. someday someone will teach it to you with a kick in the face eventually. and you really seem to be deserving it, by judging from your extremely antisocial mindset. this was what i meant.
Read radical news here
you made conclusions out of your ass, and some morons modded you insightful.
show me ANYthing in what i said from which you can create a correlation in between the number of overweight people in a country, and the behavior towards overweight people in that country.
Read radical news here
I'd love to see what the response to disabled folks will be on this one.
My wife's cousin is confined to a wheelchair. Does that mean his avatar will be required to be in one as well?
Actually, the whole idea of "shaping" the gamer's experience by:
psychological and demographic information such as education level, geographic location, age, sex, intelligence quotient, socioeconomic class, occupation, marital/relationship status, religious belief, political affiliation, etc.
is screaming "discrimination lawsuit"
In Ultima 7, hacking his way through the Forge of Virtue.
I think Wii Fit constitutes prior art -- within the context of the program, your avatar's appearance changes in response to your body weight.
www.wavefront-av.com
Actually, we can make fun of religions all we want and do so often. Particularly horrible religions like Scientology. Why do they get picked on? Because of the awful things they do. We do it in hopes other people not be lured in to something that stupid.
I am not a person who would ever make fun of somebody about their weight. On the other hand, I don't really feel sorry for them. They choose to be that way and face that ridicule. It would be a lot better for them to change their lifestyle based purely on health. If obesity is viewed as acceptable, that doesn't give a person any reason to improve their life. So I think at a certain level, it should be looked down upon.
What you are talking about is not using logic. You have an opinion. But because you used some logic to form that opinion does not mean that others can't use logic to come up with another one. My logic is that being obese is bad for your health and has a negative impact on me since you will have more health problems and be more of a burden on the health care system driving up my insurance costs. I am not advocating cruelty. But I am not advocating allowing obesity to be viewed as something that is positive or neutral. It is bad. We all know it. People have the choice to change it.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
My original post said that I object to it being socially acceptable to mock people for their weight. I also said that I didn't like how my friend was made miserable because people threw abuse for her about her weight. That's pretty much the extent of what I said. I got a response telling me that she was at fault for other people coming up to her and insulting her. My logic is not an opinion, it was explaining the falsity of that statement. As both respondents were so loud on the subject of personal responsibility you'd think they'd expect responsibility for verbal abuse to lie with the person shouting it, but apparently not. I dislike all variants on "she was asking for it" which is what these two posters came up with.
You want obesity to be looked on as unhealthy - fine. It is. But if someone came up to a good friend of yours in the street and yelled insults at her, I'm sure you'd view that behaviour as unacceptable as well. That obesity is a short-hand way of showing someone is stupid or corrupt in mainstream Hollywood movies, we can also file away as nasty, I think. I don't know, but I expect you'd agree with me on that too - "we need more laughs in this movie, lets add a fat friend." If nothing else, making people depressed and self-conscious about their weight more often leads to further weight game (eat to compensate, ashamed to go to the gym or go for a run or ask someone out) than it does to sudden slimming. If you're unhealthy because you're overweight, you know that. Mockery is not a positive motivation for most people and the people mocking certainly aren't doing it out of the goodness of their heart - they're doing it because they find it fun to pick on someone. And that attitude is something I see as destructive so I'm sure you don't object to it being discouraged either.
Regards,
H.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
What if I am playing DDR or some game where I actually stay active. I can actually gain a sweat from Tony Hawk Ride (and a good sweat at that as well).
So Microsoft will turn off or ban my X-Box when I am playing a game that keeps me active? That sounds pretty dumb if you ask me.
I have actually lost over 50 pounds. I used to weigh right around 315 and got down to 250. My motivation to get even more active with working out was playing video games that kept me active like Benami dancing games.
There are alot of games that keep up on our feet now. Microsoft would need to check and ensure I am not playing one of those games.
This will also open the door for a buttload of shovelware that keeps you active as well.
The world is how you make it