The San Francisco Chronicle has a nice little article about PlayStation Home, discussing the problems that have hit the "service" since launch. Aside from the bugs and glitches, the main focus of the article is on direct user impact and the censorship of words that some feel has gone too far.
Michael Marsh is a 38-year-old straight man and an active supporter of gay rights. He tried to set up a gay/straight alliance club in Home, only to find that words like "gay" and "bisexual" were taboo in Sony's virtual world. Marsh says he had already raised this issue during the private beta phase, but that nothing was done.
"I can understand if they're filtering out profanity, but if feel like it's discrimination," claims Marsh. "By blocking a word like 'gay,' which is a preferred term by the gay community, you're encouraging it as a bad word."
According to the report, that's not the half of it. Even the word "Hello" has been flagged because it contains the word "Hell" within it. You can't say "Christ" or "Jew" either. The article also touches upon the launch problems with suspended voice chat, the user harassment (well there's not much else to do) and the fact that Sony is already charging money for everything.
Sony argues that Home is in beta, and that would almost be a fair reason, were it not for the fact that Sony has been working on this for years, is charging money for items already and swore up and down that Home wouldn't be released until it was almost perfect. I don't think saying "it's a beta" is a good enough excuse here. That, and Sony should just let the dude have his gay club. Hell Christ Jew.
[Thanks Adam]
Contest:
9:00 AM on 12.28.2008
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Bad home bad bad sony !
Why oh why do Sony keep screwing themselves over?
I still don't see what you're actually supposed to do in Home.
Okay, words like "Hello" probably need to be fixed. But I wouldn't have a problem at all if all religious and homosexual discussions were left out of Home.
Personally I'm hoping "Taffer" from the Thief series will get some use. Can anyone think of video game created obscenities that we as hardcore gamers should be bringing into use in Home.
You're an ignorant prat. Why should anyone be banned from saying "I'm gay/bisexual"?
I'd understand that argument in any online game that has a point (WoW, other MMO's) and has nothing to do with real life, but Home is just a social tool-- people should be allowed to discuss aspects of their personal life with each other. It's not offensive _at all_ to say "I'm a 25 year old straight male", so why should it be offensive to say "I'm a 25 year old gay male"? Just because it makes people uneasy or confused doesn't mean it should be completely blocked out.
Oh, and my take on the word gay. It has been my experience that the word gay, at least in the gaming community, is used 99% of the time in an improper form as an insult. Just ask anyone who has played on xbox live - same thing. 1% may suffer, but in comparison to the 99% who will not be using it as an insult, you would think the dude would understand that they're just trying to do good. Do I agree with censorship, no, but in this case I can at least understand that Sony isn't in a war against the word gay. They just understand that many gamers are homophobic assholes.
I stick by the idea that it may upset some gay folks, but in the end, removing the word from a community that uses it 99% of the time as an insult is doing a service. It probably gets old hearing it used as an insult all the time, if you're gay.
also,
On your Tombstone Jimmles
Nah. If 9 out of 10 times you hear the word gay in home, it is being used as an insult by clueless douches, then it should be banned, until people realize that they shouldn't use it in that way. If I were gay, id rather it be totally banned than hearing it as an insult all the time.
And I'm not even sure, are we supposed to call black people black or African American?
My point is, this isn't Sony's fault at all. It's the fault of all the PC douche bags who are constantly telling us what we can and can't call people, and can't even make up there minds on what they say. Sony was probably just banning the word gay to be ready for a few years from now when gay people decide that they want to be called "sexually challenged" or something stupid like that.
self moderation people, why be a dick?
They'll probably work the censorship thing out eventually...hopefully. Censoring "gay" is kind of stupid, its functionality as an insult are limited. Now fag/homo/queer THOSE are how you say "hello" on xbox live.
Was that Daytona or Rush?
People and Sony need to fuck off hard. Censorship is ridiculous. If you can't take it, it's because you're uptight. LOOSEN UP. And if you want to start something like gay rights in home... YOU'RE UPTIGHT!!! LOOSEN UP!!!
Jeez...get over yourselves. You aren't important and you never will be. You're as expendable as the rest of us assholes.
This explains why they called it a "holiday tree" though, lol.
And I mean real homophobes here, not the general idiots who just think saying "you're gay" is really, really funny. So, not people like Quest.
your right i don't think it's funny at all Jim ... but you make me laugh :)
Modern colloquialisms aside, "gay" is also a completely viable word that goes back to the 12th century to mean "happy" or "joyful". It's still in several Christmas songs as well -- sorry -- ******mas songs.
And banning "hell" in "hello"? Would they also flag when people are talking about military weaponry, such as the AGM-114 Hellfire?
Home is bad enough as it is. Are the guys at Sony intentionally trying to be stupid? Maybe one of those reverse-psychology things? Perhaps they're going under the notion that "even bad press is still press"?
IMO, Home's "city planners" need to worry less about censoring every little potentially naughty thing we type and more about getting some actual new content into Home [I'm speaking for the US version]. More actual female gamers in Home would be nice, also. Just sayin'.
Now it just plain doesn't work.
Personally I think the profanity filter have an optout option.
Oh, and for all the people above who are asking why 'gay' needs to be mentioned at all in home, it's twofold; 1) Home is supposed to be a social netwoking/gaming hybrid and gay gamers want to be able to game together just because (and also to avoid the idiots) and 2) visibility - the said idiots aren't going to go away and things are never going to get better by simply pretending that gay people do not exist, it would be better to expose them to gay people, it might open their tiny minds.
Finally, to say that Home is an underwhelming experience is an understatement; there's not much to do or see at the present time. If Sony really are concerned about bad language/hate speech etc then maybe they could pop up a couple of billboards in the central square from any of the myriad of anti-racism/homophobia/bullying organisations just to remind people not to be dicks and to give people something to look at that isn't an advert.
Quest is still here? Wow.
why shouln't i be here ? loll
I mean, yeah, the stuff with 'gay' being censored is ridiculous, but at this point I EXPECT everything related to homosexuality to be a giant political cluster****. It's lamentable, but par for the course.
But I can't even say that I'm Jewish, which is not a deraugatory(sp?) term at all, but I can't say it because it could CONCEIVABLY be used in an offensive manner? If that's their criteria for censoring, then logically they have to censor every. single. word. There's no word that isn't potentially offensive in the right hands.
I don't care whether this was initiated within Sony, or by their sponsors, or whatever, they are just plain out of their minds. Censoring curse words is understandable, if not in my view necessary, but this is just...I don't even know what to call this. It's insanity.