You know that tab you flip by every week on your Xbox Dashboard? The one where they spotlight a different gamer once a week? You've seen it and possibly thought, "Hey, it would be kind of cool to be featured." Hold on there, hot shot. Not so fast. According to a few of the spotlighted gamers it is not cool, not cool at all. Recently our good friend Wombat from Cheap Ass Gamer was featured on the show and during a Podcast with Xboxist revealed that it was not very much fun to be featured.
He said that he started to receive some pretty terrible recorded audio and plenty of hate through written words. Wombat reported that a good chunk of those who sent him messages "berated him on his weight, ethnicity, and Spotlight worthiness -- some comments bordered on extremely offensive (homophobic and racial insults) and even threatening. Imagine one of those f*bomb filled multiplayer gaming sessions with 12 year old boys, but multiplied a thousand-fold with no mute button in sight." Ouch, bad news for those who are remotely well known, but it can't happen to everyone.
Slow down again. a member of CAG got in touch with five other "winners." One had had to change his Gamertag after he was in the spotlight and one, who was a female, had an even more unpleasant experience. "I did receive a lot of negative comments after my spotlight. A lot of them were because I am a girl. Also there were a lot of inappropriate sexual comments," she said, also noting that people took advantage of their Xbox LIVE Vision camera to send "naked crotch shots." Seriously, guys?
So if you're ever offered a chance to be spotlighted for the entire Xbox LIVE community to see, just remember what the Xbox LIVE community is actually like.
Contest:
1:00 PM on 08.16.2009
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I'm too busy laughing my ass off. This is both hilarious and slightly embarassing.
...ok. Very embarassing.
It seems it's even worse than I thought
So many crotches.
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HAHA DISREGARD THAT DTOID FTW. ^_^'
You get shit like this. If you do good in an online match, you can expect a few messages filled with some pretty harsh stuff. I have no idea why everyone on there is so angry all the time.
Because they forget at the end it's only a GAME.
They act like you kicked in their front door and fucked their sister or something.
I'm sending all of the winners a nice message right now.
Big props to E*Master for his bit of investigative reporting, contacting those other spotlight winners.
I wonder how or even if Microsoft is going to deal with this. They certainly can't change the community as it's already established itself as the 'bathroom wall' where people can leave their inhibitions at the login screen. My guess, goodbye Gamer Spotlight feature.
Sorry, I know is wrong but I just found it very funny to imagine the girl turning on the xbox and funding a lot of crotches on the screen.
@ViciousBoston: Don't act like the people on PSN are any better than those on XBL. There are just fewer of them.
Some mught remember TheSeventhJedi had been featured around TFU's release.
What did he get in return?
All the mean messages and such (Ending having to set his account where he receives nothing but from friends. And the hate actually spread to peopl on his friends list.
Some of the other people he know as well were harrassed do to the spotlight on Xbox.
God Damn Internet Anonymity makes people dumb.
@ Nitex
They attack them not because they're jealous, but because they have anonymity. If people don't know who you are, then it gives them all they need to be assholes for no other reason than to be assholes. If Microsoft made it so that people knew who you were, it would solve 99% of these problems. Of course, certain rights would be infringed, but since when have companies been afraid to do that (Jokes)?
This is why I'm always in a party chat in every game I play, or mute the remainder of my team. Sure, we may play worse, but maybe if they weren't such douches I could leave my mic on.
ENJOY YOUR STAY.
FUCKER.
People really know how to take the fun out of the games/services they claim to "love" so much.
Thank you XBL, you made world little worse to be.