Sessler's Soapbox: Attention, Bigots!

In this week's Sessler's Soapbox, Adam addresses the issue of racist and homophobic comments that are seemingly running rampant on Xbox Live. The Sess is asking anyone who feels this behavior to be appropriate to write in and let him know why he or she thinks so. What do you think?

Head over to www.g4tv.com/thefeed to leave your comments for Adam.

[Maverick_]

I agree with him.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

WOW seriously I couldn't agree with him more.

[gamesR4fun]

yep open chat on live is a waste unless your playing with friends only...

[solidt12]

Great Soap Box. I hope the people that he is speaking about really do take a look at themselves and stopping saying these nasty thing online. Some children who are growing up watching us adults and hearing this stuff online think it is acceptable and how they should talk to people.

[Superfragilistic]

I think Adam Sessler just became my hero! lol

[PoSTedUP]

seriously all jokes aside.

that is disgusting yo. that makes me not want to go on XBL at all.

i rarely, almost never here any kids on PSN. id rather engage in an adult conversation than curse out a lil punk ass 13 yr old any day.

[ps360fella]

it get the point across i mainly curse, i dont care if your gay i'm more of a " Hey F*ck u azzhole" kinda guy

[Silogon]

I don't care about any of this. Racial slurs are only hurtful or spiteful if the person on the other end wants them to be. Get a thicker skin before you go online to game. simple as that.

Words don't offend me more so on message boards and online. Actions in real life are what matter. Games don't.

[iamtehpwn]

There are more mature people on PSN.

And no headset for wii :D
haha.

[OOG]

PSN has nothing to do with it.....every online community has A holes....so dont try to act like PSN is any different....we already dealt with this argument last week in an article specifically about this topic

[iamtehpwn]

PS3, from my experience, tends to have more adults/Older teenagers on it, than little kids with a microphone.

[Bnet343]

That's because more people have Xbox Live which equals to higher chance of a$$h0les being on, plus 90% of people on Xbox Live have a mics, which allows for sh*ttalking. On a side note, this has nothing to do with PSN. So one, you're are off topic and two, it's flamebait, which doesn't belong in the gamer zone. REPORTED.

[iamtehpwn]

I'm just stating whats happened in my experience.
I like XBL more than PSN.
However, PSN users have been more mature.

[rosebowl23]

iamtehpwn is correct. there are more little kids on xbox, this was even reported in an article recently: http://www.gamepro.com/news...

little kids play xbox, older people use ps3. i can tell you from experience that there are way more little kids on xbox than psn.

[Jinxstar]

I try to be unbiased as possible but I do agree with Iam. Still though in saying this all you will get is a fight. Should have been expected.

[Dareaver1]

here's another article

http://n4g.com/NewsCom-1538...

what he said was unnecessary. Live is the bigger offender because every 360 comes with headsets (why are you all trying to make it seem like that is a bad thing?). Live is not responsible for the people that abuse it. I can guarantee that if all PS3's came with headset and 360s didn't he and you would probably be singing a different tune. Not only that, but you would be defending PSN, and not holding it accountable for the ignorance of others.

Some of you people are really childish and can not hold a decent conversation without resorting to such childish retorts. How are you going to say that one which does not come with headsets and has less subscribers is better than the one that comes with headsets and has an insane amount of subscribers. That's like seeing racial charged or homophobically charged material on the internet and blaming the whole internet for the few accounts of ignorance. Really,.... grow up.

Everyone knows that ignorant people use anonymity as a do what ever you want card, and it's sad, but that's why you have the option of reporting those gamers, muting those gamers and booting those gamers. It's an unwanted occurrence but would you really rather the latter of not having a great online component. You can't moderate everything in an instant.

[Superfragilistic]

I think Dareaver1 has already notified you of the mistakes in that initial report. Nielsen screwed up and clarified that the PS3 gets the less use in all demographics, including the oldies. See here:

http://n4g.com/NewsCom-1538...

I'd say this goes a long way to explaining the higher occurrence of such behaviour on XBL, which is also a reflection of the much higher population of gamers on XBL compared to PSN. Also most subscribers to XBL (beyond the first month) are given microphones as opposed to PSN.

In addition "name's" argument below that there are a lot more Americans (and by function English speaking) players on XBL means that such language is more immediately obvious to English speaking gamers. I'd also dare to suggest that the European continent has a much more culturally sophisticated attitude towards race and homosexuality.

[InMyOpinion]

Yeah, people on PSN are better humans than everyone else. The übermensch of gaming.

[name]

There's alot of this on PSN as well. Not as much of it obviously, but I'm gonna guess that it's more so because the 360's popularity in America. Not to say that America's the only place that has these kind of values, but Americans are far more vocal about their feelings against races or gays. PSN has the occasional random utter of the n word, but you won't see people go on an hour long rant about how much they hate a certain race like you'd see on xbox live. Even so though, XBL shouldn't take the whole wrap for racism and homophobia, there's plenty of it on PSN, trust me.

[Jerkstore81]

Couldn't agree more. Thank you, Adam!

[SmokingMonkey]

im online a lot but mostly on the ps3 and have never been on LIVE on the 360. i wonder is this mostly a 360 problem, obviously i have heard some major idiots while playing resistance and CoD4 a lot (PSN has its share of biggots). My question is for anyone who has the luxury of playing both LIVE and PSN online gaming glory.
Is LIVE worst/more racist/younger? more americans play online on the 360, so do younger kids who can't afford the "overly expensive" PS3.
?

[Cherchez La Ghost]

Whoooaa!!! I with him 110% to the fullest extent!! I love XBL, but due to the ignorance, I only play Gears of War because online with people on my friends list. MS needs to do something about this. I hope when I jump on Metal Gear and SOCOM I won't have to deal with that sheit!!

[Exile__]

Adam didn't seem like a complete moron this time around. Kudos Adam.

& to the more mature people on PS3.. I play PS3 a lot.. there are some ignorant bastards as Sessler described.. just you hear less of it because the PS3 doesn't have a headset bundled with the console as the 360 does. However some of the 12 year old pricks do have nice enough mommies that they buy them headsets (and sadly ones with good quality) so we have to endure their bs.

I'm done.

[Trek5200]

I am a PS3 owner and I have to admit the same crap goes on in the PSN network. I can't compare 1 to the other as I have never played on LIVE. It seems to be very minor on PSN, mostly just cursing back and forth at each other and talking sh!t which I have to admit I have been drawn into more than 1 or 2 thousand times.

I have actually deleted people from my friends list because of racist comments and while deleting sent them a message explaining why I deleted them.

I am white and I still can't stand racist comments even though 99% of the time they are not directed at me. 1% of the time I will get called a cracker or something equally stupid.

I don't believe the N word belongs in any persons vocabulary and belongs in the history books only as a very sad reminder at how ignorant and stupid our humans can be.

Kudos to Adam Sessler for taking such a vocal stand and putting his comments out there. He speaks intelligently and finished with comments that should reach even the most base and callous of gamers and people alike.

[Armyless]

Anonymity is great, I wouldn't play online with strangers if I had to reveal any personal information. But many of these "idiots" are noodle-spined whimps that live such miserable, empty lives that they feel like they have to abuse people to feel any kind of empowerment.

I'm one of the most crass people you're likely to come across in a match online, but I'm an adult gamer and I refrain from saying stupid sh!t because it just makes me look stupid in the end.

[project76dodo]

yea seriously i know i get "your a ps3 fanboy"
but seriously racist talk drove me too psn
from xboxlive
no little kids on there
mostly are adults who can have a good time
just calling eachother "aszHoles" and "you F*ck!"
simple yet effective and fun

seriously M is for mature
not snotty little sh*ts who dont have any discipline

[The Lazy One]

He's gonna get so many emails that might as well be tutorials on how to spam profanity.

[matchgrade]

I'm a current PSN gamer and a former Xbox Live gamer. Remembering back to playing Halo 2 on XBL in the past generation back before Live went popular and mainstream, I encountered swarms of the stereotypical "little kids" who scream and shout hatred over their mics. I imagine it's only gotten worse since Live became a staple of 360 gaming. When I switched over to PSN, I encountered much, much less. It's probably because 1) no one has ps3, or 2) most of us who do don't bother to get mics :P Anyway, not taking sides here, just something I noticed.

[Oner]

I could go on and on as to the many reasons why and for what reasons but the easy answer is those who do this are uneducated, racist, close minded, immature, easily influenced, anonymous cry babies who, when can't get their way throw a tantrum to try and get their way.

I am absolutely sick and tired of these little piece of $@#!$ that think they are tough when they have no idea of what tough is. Bottom line to my point is I blame the parents who have no control nor responsibility to properly raise their children with good values.

It is utterly disheartening to see what has become of things over the last 20 years in general life. It really is appalling and unacceptable.

[Guitarded]

The idiots who spew this crap or the morons who can't figure out how to use the simple mute function in EVERY game on Live.

[Statix]

What if you want to make conversation with amicable people, talk to your friends, or don't want to have to individually single out and mute each and every random hateful bigot that happens to come your way?

It's also easier said than done to have the clarity of mind to "just ignore them" when someone really pisses you off or upsets you. Many people wouldn't have that kind of Ghandi-like perspective when a heated exchange is taking place.

[matchgrade]

This is what we call missing the point. The problem isn't the well-being of those precious little ears of yours. It's the proof we're seeing of the degradation in morals (especially among younger kids) of our Internet generation. Sessler's taking a psychological approach here, trying to get these guys to control their anger and outbursts, because shouting obscenities over XBL is a lot worse for the people doing it than it is for you guys hearing it. It chews away at their character, until they get so accustomed to being pricks that you'll start hearing it in daily conversations and social interactions.

[Aclay]

It seems as though a lot people on Xbox Live are immature young kids. I'm just glad that gamers on the PSN behave in a much better manner.

But when you've got the PS3 that's selling at $400/$500 dollars on the market right now, the majority of people that have the PS3 are much older teens (15+ years old) and older gamers because they can afford to buy more expensive items.

[Bnet343]

Have you ever thought of the fact that maybe just maybe, an adult, the age of 30, may have kids and he lets them play on his account? Maybe an 18 year old college student has a little brother that plays on his account as well. I'm glad people like you don't touch Xbox Live. You seem worst then a little kid to be honest, maybe you are, I'm not sure.

[Statix]

I think Sessler rules for taking such an angry, vehement, and unadulterated stance against racial and homophobic idiot bigots out there in the online gaming community, and calling/cursing them out like that. Bravo.

I do find it a little curious that Sessler's the one making these statements, because I always personally thought he had a slight gayish lisp to his voice when you speaks. Is it just me, or does anyone else get that from him?

[Enigma_2099]

he also does a pretty decent JJ Jameson...

[Enigma_2099]

... and this pretty much sums up why I don't play online.But obviously the bigger concern on XBox Live was offensive usernames...

[Mcrmarcher]

This guy in the vid speaks the truth, well said good sir! well said indeed.

If you were one of these douche bags who can't seem to keep there mouth's shut on xbl or psn would you not feel ashamed of your self watching this video? i know i would.

[Reibooi]

This is easily the best Soapbox ever. I can't agree with Adam more. I hate playing on XBL now because people are just horrible most of the time I just go into private chat with a friend and then people start saying I'm gay and what not for being in a private chat. It's sad really and it makes us look bad as gamers and as people and it needs to stop. It didn't use to be like this when Xbl first launched it was a fun place to play some games and now you can play without being offended in some way. And for those who say use the mute feature that's all fine and dandy but we shouldn't have to Mute entire teams almost every game we go into. It's supposed to be a community not a place to ignore everyone with the Mute feature.

[TheD_R_E]

I agree wholeheartedly. First of all most of the people using these slurs, like Sessler said, are not much older than 10-15. They shouldn't be playing most of these games in the first place due to the M ratings and most of the outlandish s**t they say over their headsets (XBL or PSN no difference) they wouldn't dare say in public or especially in any inner city environments. If the little kids I hear throwing around all the N words or discriminatory words towards Hispanics on Call Of Duty said that S**t in my city, they'd get stomped out or shot on the spot. There are no damn respawns in real life...

[KingKirchner]

This is a problem on PSN too, but not nearly as much. In all my experience on PSN I've only run into it twice.

I think part of the reason is, yes, more older people buy PS3 due to the price, and also, there's no headset included. And I think it's less likely for a parent to buy their child a headset so they can talk to strangers than it is for and adult/older teen to buy themselves a headset.

[Bathyj]

People who talk tough online remind me of little dogs behind tall fences that bark and bark until you go open the gate. Then they tuck their tail in and run to the house looking over their shoulder to see if theres enough room between you and them for them to bark once more.

[joeynox]

u fanboys live in a fantasy world. This is everywhere and it will never stop . live,steam,psn,irc,myspace etc. Deal with it,every medium has aholes and everyone of us are aholes because we all b!tch and moan on the networks. We all curse and yell. its part of competition.I do agree the racist talk is bad no matter what but deal with it ,freedom of speech . Also if it reallyt bothers u that much than mute them . I do . If your going to let some lil dooooche bags ruin your fun online than ur the ahole

[LeShin]

You gotta be kidding me! "Freedom of speech"?!! Even Sessler recognised that anyone who spouted that was talking BS! If the people spoke that s**t really believed that "Freedom of speech" crap, they would go to the minority groups area and say that s**t. Would be fun to see how long they last.

As a poster above me said, in real life there ain't no respawns to bring you back from an ass whooping.....extra lives or f'n continues!

Internet thugs/gangsters/(insert other wannabee tough guy word) make me sick as they don't have the balls to say those things in the streets.

I don't care if someone curse or yell, but there are things that you have to draw the line at and if you condone them sort of things, then your a f'n a'hole as well!

[IzKyD1331]

it sucks, i usually end up taking my mic off after like 5 minutes, im tired of hearing verbal assaults on different races and homophobic comments made by teenagers because they think they're "cool"
this all goes back to parents letting their kids by M rated games, a big reason why i love M rated games is because theres less likely a chance of kids getting the game, but that isnt the case......i mean look how many 10 year olds have GTA IV and COD4?

[LeShin]

Yeah, it's a pity man, ratings don't mean sh*t!

[TheD_R_E]

That's what alot of it boils down to. Sure a parent may say that they're child is "mature" enough to handle a M rated game but then their child is the first one throwing around racist slurs that they don't know the weight of showing their true level of maturity.
To go along with that, there are still alot of adult gamers who also throw around racist and homophobe slurs as well. Sometimes you hear it from them more than you hear it from the kids whihc is just shameful.

[zapass]

june 2008 and G4TV acknowledges that XBL is a giant racist-homophobic-right-wing chat room for retards:

we're making progress, after all, it's only been going on for 3 years!

"oh but we have achievements dude..."

so the hardcore gamer microsoft style is a dork who plays for status and puts up with a constant gibberish remix of rush limbaugh and bill o'reilly in his headset while trying to forget that he's paying for it and that his console might fry again within the next minute: HA!

Progressives who 'jumped in' are an intriguing group there...
it's kinda like gay republicans who voted for bush... disgustingly dumb!

[ps360fella]

Feel better now? Come, come, heres a nice big hug JUST 4 YOU.

[PoSTedUP]

^ ^ha hahahh^ ^

[zapass]

Feels better everyday in ps3 land buddy. It's the exact opposite of 360 land as we all know... Just like in politics, the pendulum is swinging hard these days.

Let me guess...
Gay republican?

[ps360fella]

lol ur such a dumbazz ur basically labeling every 360 owner and fan a republican, so i own a ps3 also does that even me out and make me an independent, U FAIL

[rosebowl23]

I find it funny that Adam Sessler expects everyone to accomidate to his idea of where trash talking should draw the line. He admits to being a trash talker himself but OHH you shouldn't say this or that word because that particular one offends ME and my BOYFRIEND.

What a cry baby.

[dinkeldinkse]

Sessler is trying to helped these people be a douche that is socially acceptable like him. Sarcasm

He is probably just mad that they called him a f#g in front of his boyfriend.

[The BS Police]

Theres a big diffirence in telling somebody to Shut the f#ck up and spouting off racist and homophobic phrases.

[TheD_R_E]

Seriously though. Total lack of maturity. Trash talking IS where the line should be drawn. We all now trash talking is normal from sports competition down to video games but like I said earlier, alot of the racially insensitive and homophobe s**t that's said by these kids hiding behind a username miles away online could get them killed in real life.

[N2NOther]

I find that about 60-70% of the people online to be obnoxious bags of douche.

[Bladestar]

let me guess.. microsoft should ban the use of microphones because someone can start saying racial stuff?

how about some people here that say racists stuff... should someone ban the keyboard?

The fact is that the only reason why xbox live may have more of this is a) because every xbox 360 comes with a mic and b) xbox live has more members..

simple as that... xbox live already comes with enough features to block people that have this behaviour... mute the person, give negative feedback, avoid player or simply host the game so you can ban who ever you don't like...

With million of people using a service it's impossible to have it 100% clean... and to be honest I am not sure anyone would want it that way...

[Lord Vader]

Wish they'd ban all the freakin racists & jerkoffs & 5 year olds playing mature games like Gears of War (good job Mom & Dad!).

Lol, but any social network featuring ananimity like the internet & xbl brings out the atrocities of man.

[The BS Police]

I don't have a problem with people freaking out one me because I screwed things up, but when they use racist and homophobic words over just dropping the f bomb that crosses the line.

If I get frustrated at somebody I will at most drop the F bomb at them, buut I won't resort to being a racist prick.

[Agent VX]

Oh, boo hoo, people use racist comments on XBL. Simple, mute them, report them and move on.

Society has become a turd of whimpy whinners. Wow, somebody called me a racist name, and now I am damaged irrepairablly. If your that so emotionally unfit that a name is gonna ruin your life, then I don't feel the slightest for you. Racist name calling is now worse than B @ E's, carjacking and DUI's. Give me a freaken break!!!

I personally don't use racist comments, but it don't bother me.

[PJF_Josh]

and he's absolutely right.

As to "Simple, mute them, report them and move on." you spend more time muting people then playing the game and reporting them never seems to do anything so i think something more is needed here.

[Tetsuryu]

That pretty much explains the lack of supervision from their parents; those foul-mouthed kids were all accidents to begin with.

[FreedomReign]

This is a valid commentary, and PSN I know is extremely pleasant in comparison, for the moment, but flashback to Live just 4 years ago, and the environment was very much the same.

Lets hear less whining, and some more suggestions.

1. Give us proper private chat, one-on-one just isn't enough, I need at least 4 slots, and would prefer 25 just like TeamSpeak.

2. Instead of advertising the latest XBLA game non stop, when I login to Live, how about providing instruction to the masses on how to mute/avoid any player in any game, by using the handy dashboard features. Sure I know how to use these, but how many people just don't know?

3. Finally LET EVERYONE be on auto-mute, unless invited to speak. I would much prefer walking into any online game, if everyone in the space who isn't on my team, was already muted. Then I could invite people to speak, one at a time, to manage the amount of crap I'm exposed to at any given time. Its easy enough to do, Xbox Live has this capability if coded correctly. What advantage is there in letting everyone be heard?

[sovietsoldier]

i think other then the language the core problem is just how people act. people are just 80% more rude online then in real life, why? because they know if they called you a n*gger or f@g in real life they would get shot or the sh*t kicked out of them. people should be lucky they have the internet to hide behind because if they pulled the sh*t they do online sitting next to me, i would get a murder rap every day!

[N4g_null]

The main problem is the games are hosted with no admins to kick people. Most PC online games have mods that run their own server and they love kicking guys like this. How are you going to have gamer tags and all this other stuff and not have user based mutes and rating systems?

This has been fixed in PC online gaming for a while because it's not a closed system. Open your system fools!

I think sessler is just scared because he thinks you guys really do think this way. If you are ten you might just think that way hello young hitler!