I guess I'll write my first blog post about the recent Modern Warfare 2 controversy surrounding their viral video ad that ended with the "Fight Against Grenade Spam" tagline. Every gaming journalist and their mother has had something to say about this, and even Adam Sessler had a 'Sessler's Soapbox' surrounding the ordeal. I believe this was foolish of Infinity Ward to produce a video that promotes such a hateful term while haphazardly encouraging the continuation of bigoted remarks to flood the cesspools of voice chat on Xbox Live and PSN.
Maybe I'm being a bit radical here, and for the record I will be picking up Modern Warfare 2 at launch, but don't you think Infinity Ward should have realized that they are a big brother-esque figure to not only other developers, but as well as
kids(M-rated or not) that will play this game? Video games play a huge role in raising kids these days, as strange as that sounds. So shouldn't we as adults make an effort to teach teamwork and the spirit of competition rather than calling someone words that are fueled by nothing but hatred? It doesn't seem like it's such a far-fetched cause.
Sure you could use the arguments of "they're just words, you're the one that gives them power", or that you claim your First Amendment Freedom of Speech, but can't we just be considerate of other people?
As for the post title, I was reading through the comments on the 'Soapbox' , and it seemed every post was very positive, but every other post started with "I'm not gay, but".
I'll let that speak for itself.
(Anthony Burch's revrant earlier brought up many excellent points about homosexuality in gaming and really pointed to what's wrong with the image of sexual preference in gaming.) 
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eh... if I try the online this time I will likely try to play without a mic and with "mute all" on.
I disagree, however, that the companies have any moral obligation to be a big brother. What keeps a company 'a good role model' is whether or not we give them money when they're NOT. Don't think for a second that a company won't hesitate to 'teach people bad habits' if it means they make lots of money.
Hope that made sense, it wasn't nearly as eloquent as when Jim argued it on Podtoid a few episodes back.
I don't wanna sound queer or nothing, but unicorns kick ass!
Welcome to Dtoid.
And I'm sorry but IW is not a big brother esque figure to ANYONE, especially not kids, Call of Duty has been designed for adults, its not their fault some stupid parent isn't doing their job and I don't see why other companies should take any heat for what they did. I for one thought the video was funny.
And more importantly, one stupid little video will no have bearing on the words people will use online, as long as they can hind behind their gamertags they will continue to flood voice chat with racial slurs and other things, hell they don't need to be anonymous, I live behind a school, the things these little shits say will blow your mind, its no wonder they're 10 times worse online.
As for the "I'm not gay but" comments online, those should be ignored, for reasons I can't comprehend the internet is full of people who seem to think that someone is silently judging them based of things they like in private, its ridiculous.
I'd hate to use South Park as my defense just because it should never be taken seriously but they had a valid point last night when they argued how the word fag as gone through so many random and irrelevant evolutional changes and not it really doesn't constitute as a slur against LGBTs as it's kind of just a words against people who are douchebags.
I mean me and my lesbian friends have called each other fags many times and we've never once even thought it was an insult against each others sexual orientation. Ironic but that's all. One of them in fact I called a fag once jokingly before she even came out.
And it's not like we're a bunch of 12 year old morons or anything. We're all well to do kids ranging from college grads to high school seniors. The majority of us are very political and vocal and about half the group is really heavy into mathematics and physics. We live in a very rural area so we (the LGBT community) are all tightknit and very defensive.
I mean you can't argue the same for a word like n*gger (I'd type the full thing but I'm afraid just saying fag even in a positive context has me on banhammer watch) because it's never meant anything other than blacks. Fag is kind of different.
Infinity Ward should not be spreading hateful terms irregardless of who it offends. They are a company that represents the largest games company in the world.
And yeah, I actually watched South Park right after posting this, so I definitely saw all the irony of it. I definitely think they had some good points, and it's unfortunate that some words hold so much power, but then again like many of you said those words sometimes don't hold any to you personally.
Honestly when it comes down to it, this has nothing to do with sexuality, but the word is used for nothing but spite. Even for annoying biker gangs. haha.
lulz
But then again so are simple words like loser. Should we all go back to elementary school "If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all," rules?