# Black and Gay gamers, does the Halo lobby piss you off? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 27, 2008, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178 "2008-01-27T07:44:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/1 "2008-01-27T07:44:59Z")
I’ve been playing a lot of Halo 3. The lobby before the game has a lot of nigger this, nigger that comments, and fag, fag, fag, . It’s got lots of other annoying crap but the amount of blantant horrible racism and homophobic is quite surprising. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/2 "2008-01-27T08:39:39Z")
What do you mean by Lobby? (I haven’t played the game.) ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/3 "2008-01-27T08:54:04Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] What do you mean by Lobby? (I haven’t played the game.) [/QUOTE] The pre-game room where people are grouped until the game begins. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/4 "2008-01-27T11:03:16Z")
Pretty standard in internet gaming. 13 year olds discover that they can be crude without consequence, so they try their best to get attention. > **[Green Blackboards (And Other Anomalies) - Penny Arcade](https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/green-blackboards-and-other-anomalies)** > > Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/5 "2008-01-27T11:08:26Z")
It’s not just 13 year olds. The real bile seems to come from a lot of near the end of high school/college kids. I can see where the 13 year olds get it from. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/6 "2008-01-27T13:29:47Z")
I’m a bit surprised that HALO doesn’t have a language filter, especially for racist language. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/7 "2008-01-27T14:44:46Z")
It’s just as bad on Call of Duty 4. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/8 "2008-01-27T16:13:12Z")
You know, it does seem like it’s relatively simple to program it to block certain strings. It’d be hilarious if it replaced certain keywords with random benign text. ```auto Hey, what's up TRANSLUCENT LOLLIPOPs? You're all FRAGRANT BLENDERs! ``` And they could come up with clever ways to replace expressions so people can’t get around it by repeating letters, inserting spaces, or adding shift characters. But then it’d be weird iFLOWERainst all odds, certain words would suddenly appear in normal text. ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/9 "2008-01-27T16:24:53Z")
It’s not just blacks and gays that should be offended. My 12 year old son and I play Halo 3 all the time and I hate him having to hear that language. I usually mute the all the players until we get into the actual game. It seems to stop once the game is in progress but not always. ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/10 "2008-01-27T16:26:18Z")
You’re all a bunch of SPIDER EXPERTS and you should all go to NEW JERSEY. (7chan and 4chan have made word-substitution a way of life… why can’t Halo and SEATTLE\_COMPANY?) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/11 "2008-01-27T16:35:28Z")
There was a [Dr. Phil](http://www.ripten.com/2008/01/09/dr-phil-combats-racists-on-xbox-live-not-physically-that-would-be-too-awesome/) a few weeks back about this, though the racist trash talk escalated into threats of violence (lynching, mostly). ---
**Author:** ![Charger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@Charger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charger)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/12 "2008-01-27T16:38:03Z")
Just so people know, the communication isn’t through text, it is verbal. I have encountered a lot of nastiness in online gaming. I once played a racing game where two guys were debating about racism. One guy kept blurting racist remarks (about blacks) and the other guy was putting him in his place. They do have ways of muting individuals, and you can also give players bad reviews (or good reviews, like the guy who was putting racist guy in his place). If there are enough bad reviews, and they are all under the same category, like “abusive language,” their account will be banned.There are five stars worth of reputation that each player has. I’m proud to say that I have five stars filled. I try to do my part to put the gay bashers and racists into the bad reputation pile. ---
**Author:** ![A\_Priori\_Tea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3bc359/32.png) [@A\_Priori\_Tea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Priori_Tea)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/13 "2008-01-27T17:15:26Z")
Yeah, it can get pretty damned irksome, particularly when you have two or three who think that “fag” is the ultimate insult and should be thrown around at any opportunity. Muting, filing player complaints, and (if necessary) saying “You guys are idiotic assholes. I don’t play with idiotic assholes,” and dropping out of the game seems to work reasonably well. That, and at least on Live, there’s a handy “Avoid Player” feature, so you can steer clear of the egregious offenders. ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/14 "2008-01-27T17:25:07Z")
Black and gay? I’m white and straight and that talk pisses me off (I don’t play Halo, but it seems to be common across all MMOs to some extent) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/15 "2008-01-27T18:24:25Z")
Civility is anchored in the threat of receiving a punch in the snoot. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/16 "2008-01-27T18:42:36Z")
I’m agreeing with **Jayn\_Newell** - that kind of thing is a big part of why I dislike online gaming. Some games are better than others, though, because some companies enforce rules in different ways. Westwood games I remember as being pretty tame because nearly anything offensive was blocked, Diablo II was tame on the homophobia and anti-black sentiments, I think purely based on the people playing and not censorship, but appalling in the way people hated Koreans. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/17 "2008-01-27T20:40:11Z")
My feelings are mixed. On the one hand, the racist and anti-gay slurs are certainly disturbing. On the other hand, it’s comforting to see that there are still a few words that kids know how to spell properly. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/18 "2008-01-27T20:44:14Z")
[QUOTE=Vinyl Turnip] My feelings are mixed. On the one hand, the racist and anti-gay slurs are certainly disturbing. On the other hand, it’s comforting to see that there are still a few words that kids know how to spell properly. [/QUOTE] There’s nothing sadder than “niger” (what, the country?) or “faggit”, however. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/19 "2008-01-27T23:17:08Z")
Don’t get me wrong. It is totally right and proper for any right thinking person to be offended about this shit. I only mentioned the people in the OP because they are being picked on in particular. I spend quite a bit of time laughing at and ridiculing the people who are spouting this shit. It would probably mean more to me if I was actually black or gay howvever. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178/20 "2008-01-27T23:21:36Z")
[QUOTE=Amp] It’s not just blacks and gays that should be offended. My 12 year old son and I play Halo 3 all the time and I hate him having to hear that language. I usually mute the all the players until we get into the actual game. It seems to stop once the game is in progress but not always. [/QUOTE] Amp if you ever see a player called yoji102 in the play list then unmute. Coz you son will hear a Irishman fighting the good fight 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-gay-gamers-does-the-halo-lobby-piss-you-off/435178.md?page=2)