The banter on Xbox Live has gotten so out of control and counterproductive, that Shadowrun designer Bill Fulton has declared “Rochambeau” on the world’s largest multiplayer service. He was a leader on matchmaking at Microsoft, so he knows what he is talking about. My argument is that, well, no shit. Did they actually expect to drop people in a world on anonymous competition and expect them all to play nice? I do not wear my headset unless I am in a game with people I know and/or have played with and demonstrated some adult like qualities.
Talking trash after a game is fine. You don’t have to stay in the lobby. Yet when a gamer thinks its funny to shout racial obscenities that would make Eddie Murphy blush just for the hell of it renders the service basically unusable. Here is Fulton’s main point:
Non-gamers simply don’t love games enough to put up with the crap they get online. The reason they would consider playing online is to have fun with other people - and right now, playing games online with strangers rarely delivers that for anyone outside the hardcore demographic.”
Herein lies the problem. How do you plan on fixing this? If you outlaw cursing, people will claim censorship. Start taking away memberships and you will have a mass revolt on your hands. Leave it alone and nothing happens. I sure hope he has a plan because I see no reasonable solution to this ongoing problem.
[via Gamasutra]
