This is my take on many of the issues inherent to and facing gamers at this time. This will explore my incredible neuroses at all new levels. Trust me, you have been warned.

As People Go...

Normally, I consider myself a secular humanist in the mold of Kurt Vonnegut, always wanting what is best for people in the abstract. However, there are certain times when I abandon this philosophy: driving, playing sports, watching Fox News, etc. But the principle reason for my crisis of conscience in this area is Xbox Live.

The positive aspects of Xbox Live cannot be understated. It allows me to waste copious amounts of time playing games with my friends and is worth every penny paid for it. It has also been a boon for the Xbox 360 and most games on the system. Hell, Halo 2 was downright revolutionary to me at the time.

However, the great many users of Xbox Live suddenly turn into a brood of ignorant bigots. Seriously, it's like the worst parts of American History X, mob mentality, and a Chuck Palahniuk novel combined. Like some hideous racist, homophobic beast hell-bent on ruining every experience on Xbox Live.

I realize a good bit of this can be attributed to the nature of anonymity on the Internet, and that forests have been slain writing anthropological studies on the role that anonymity plays in our actions. Allowing a person to remain unseen, hidden behind an avatar is usually a surefire way to end up with exchanges like this:

*anonymous peon: "man, that guy is a f*g, why'd he have to act like such a nig*er"

*lukeisamazing: "I did not know that ending your kill streak caused someone to be a bigoted term for a homosexual or an African American"

*anonymous peon: "why is it that every time I call someone a nig*er, people always say it is racist? nig*er is not a racist thing to say."

*lukeisamazing ::beating self to death with a wooden cooking spoon::

Now, no doubt this statement is something of a product of anonymity, but it also, I feel, shows a more systematic problem present here. 

The Industry at Fault?

The use of racial and ethnic slurs is an all too common occurrence on XBL and PSN that in many ways reflects on the personal views of racist and xenophobic gamers who hear an accent and immediately recoil in fear, anger, hatred, and ignorance. This seems to be more of an ingrained action on the part of gamers than anything.

Games, gamers, developers, and the like are usually not quick to point out anything in a racial or ethnically harsh light, at least not in intentional forms. Hopefully with Modern Warfare 2's inclusion of a Russian group as the evil doers we have finally moved away from the "random Arab group of bad guys" motif that has haunted most war games like the "all Russians are evil and awful communists" theme from all 1980s movies.

However, there need to be more stringent actions taken to these gamers in order to punish these actions. Some sort of online stocks and pillory system or tar and feathering may be in order to combat such actions.

On the other hand, the gay gamer is one that is certainly a burgeoning market, but it is not all together well represented in games, or well received by gamers. F*g is probably the most used pejorative term in online gaming and is usually met with the flippant yawn or little care from the gaming community and the moderators who deal with it. Obviously the gay gamer is not well received in video gaming circles on the whole. Witness Infinity Ward's "FAGS" viral video against grenade spamming as it not only endorses the term in, but uses it to promote the game itself.

Other examples are of course present. Microsoft's actions against an Xbox Live gamer who outed herself on the service (implying that everyone is either assumed straight or asexual and that outing oneself would lead to abuse) is a textbook form of "don't ask, don't tell" in the gaming field. MS basically admits that allowing sexuality to be known will be a cause for concern and scorn and that it's policies regarding such actions are useless at best. This coincided with Bioware's own issues with the use of terms like "homosexual, gay, or lesbian" on their forums and regarding Star Wars characters. Eventually Bioware and EA sorted the situation out, but the taste still lingers in one's mouth.

The sentiment is all too clear unfortunately. Gamers do not see a problem with using hurtful terms against gays to describe conduct, and certainly do not see problems pandering to their baser idiotic instincts when the subject of homosexuality is broached. Much of this blame can fall into the same realm as xenophobia and racism discussed above, but the gaming community as a whole has done little to bring tolerance into the fold. Homosexual gamers are a growing and necessary section of the gaming community, and just like African American, Hispanic, Arab, or Russian gamers, they should not be subjected to needless bigotry and ignorance catered to by unconcerned developers.

Conclusions

The point of this overbroad diatribe is that the gaming community should do more to reach out to fringe and underrepresented groups and seek to stop and further police hateful speech aimed at all individuals. This starts with the companies (MS, Sony, and Nintendo) and works its way down to the communities and gamers themselves. Unfortunately it will never go away, but hopefully it can be negated by the collective action on the part of gamers.