Homophobia and other discrimination on live?

[greenmedic88]

r505Matt said:

greenmedic88 said:
Pretty sure online in-game chat (and definitely not any specific online service) isn't to blame for racist, sexist, homophobic, whatever rants. Anything online basically guarantees anonymity and the ability to say just about anything without fear of reprisal, and everyone knows this. And there's just something about FPS games that get players riled up the worst when they're getting schooled, so naturally the response is to just yell out the first thing that comes to mind without any sort of imagination or originality whatsoever.

But you know what they say about the biggest homophobes.

The funniest reply I've heard on XBL to someone screaming "FAG!"
"That's right, I am a fag, and I'm about to f*ck you up the @ss!"

But there's an important difference to note. It's one thing to be racist/sexist/homophobic/etc. It's something different to stupidly and somewhat ignorantly joke about it (even if they aren't serious). Someone calling someone a fag doesn't mean they have a hatred for gays (though it's surely possible). There is correlation yes, but that correlation isn't necessarily 1.

Some people don't understand that joking like that with your friends (which is acceptable if you know your friends well enough) is completely different to joking like that online with strangers.

I don't necessarily think all THAT many people are just joking when they say things like that, but I felt it needed to be mentioned.

It's pretty easy to tell who's joking and who isn't, especially when you're playing with people you know in real life. And when it's kept within a close circle of friends, it can be pretty funny, but when you throw people who aren't a part of your group's little in-jokes, then the humor can be lost pretty quick.

And there are definitely a lot of players out there with an irrational fear of certain races, or homosexuality, but that's their issue.