damn owned

nothing like paying money to be censored. the whole point of having a mic is to talk trash.

damn. microsoft is now enforcing improper pronunciation of curse words.

prepare for an even more annoying onslaught of "fizucking hizomo" on XBL.

Hopefully you'll be able to turn it off for people on your friends list or something. There are plenty of times when cursing is appropriate and very necessary among friends.

Dual edged sword........ although I like the idea of blotting out foul mouthed idiots, I can only see this adding another layer of annoyance in it's place.

As anyone who has played on Live knows, the voice chat sound quality is one shade shy of abysmal, so who wants to bet that this real time censoring will frequently misinterpret your perfectly acceptable conversation as profanity? I imagine everyone sounding like they're cutting in and out constantly.

Not only that, but adding another layer between the voice being spoken and played back could make for some pretty annoying speech lag. Not as big a deal as actual game lag, but if you communicate with a team frequently it could get annoying.

I suppose in the unlikely event that they sidestep these issues with something like this, it might be okay. Honestly though, I think the mute buttons work pretty good.

****ing fantastic idea.

@fetusmilk

Yeah except 95% of people can't just talk trash...they throw in all kinds of highly inappropriate slurs. Then there are also the idiots who thinks it's so funny to play annoying music into the mic for the whole game. If they can filter that stuff out, then please bring it on.

Yay carnie talk!!!!

You can't be offending the casuals once they all decide to buy a 360 this holiday season. How can they look family-friendly and convince them and their friends to spend all their money on Live content when they'll be assaulted by prepubescent teens screaming at the top of their lungs??

Honestly I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm against censorship but many people do and say things that I feel voids their right to free speech.

My guess is this will be some sort of parental control. Or at least it should be.

I was wondering the same thing as char, I'm always in a private chat with the people in my friends list, and there's a lot of language being thrown around. I have the mute all option cut on anyway, except friends, so I never have to listen to that stuff anyway.

Sounds awesome.

I still have absolutely no interest in talking to anyone, online or off line, while I'm playing a videogame. However, if I ever did, I now could do so without getting cussed out by strangers.

Bull shit, fuck this. I have fun by trolling kids and people who deserve it. I don't mind it when people do it back to me because it's always fun to have some banter on a team and if people don't like it Microsoft already has a mute option.

Again, FUCK THIS SHIT.

Definitely agree with Reaprar on this one. If MS scans for curse words, they can scan for anything. I wouldnt't be surprised if a simple joke between friends, or a bit of trash-talking could end up in a lawsuit now somewhere down the road.

Microsoft using speech recognition?

I hope it's a damn sight better than that which comes with windows, because that couldn't tell a "fuck" from a "I've got your back, friend"

I'm going to wait to pass judgment until I see how it works. I am hopeful however.

They'll make up new vulgarities to sneak past the censors. Because the Internet has absolutely nothing better to do with its time.

On the plus side, if it works in practice, maybe Nintendo will take notes and put some effort into beefing up their next console with an online experience that's more than a punchline.

Personally, i have a weird appreciation for the trash talk, it's kind of a way to let you know who the dicks are. I started playing R6: vegas 2 and actually found myself playing with friendly people who worked as a team and i really appreciated it, but that politeness would be meaningless if everyone had to be polite all the time.

It's not really a freedom-of-speech thing for me, its more that now i'll have no point of reference to define the people who i'd actually like on my friends list.

As stated, there is a mute button, so this isn't completely necessary. But it's also good. Maybe now I'll start playing Halo 3 again.
But on CoD4, I hardly ever hear trash talking and vulgar language. Unless I'm playing with my friends, who start the trash talking.

I'm not thrilled about this, but I think it's good for people with families that want to play online. It's good and bad.

what is this FUCK you speak of?

i wonder if they'll censor GAY next?

what is this FUCK you speak of?

i wonder if they'll censor GAY next?

Wow, despite how much I hate Micro$oft . . . if they do this right, this could be the greatest thing ever! I don't see what everyone is complaining about, since this saves the hassle of muting and dealing with the 808734387 retards on Call of Duty 4, etc.

People can be stupid sometimes, but if I'm playing with friends, I want the option to call one of them a dick in good fun. And what if it screws up and censors me if I say something is a-dick-tive? I'm not completely sold on this.

This better be a parental control, not enforced. Otherwise, the shit is going to hit the fan.

why just "fuck?"

THE SKY IS FALLING!!

I'm sure this will be something implemented under the parental controls as Danmartigan had mentioned. My only question is will this be something you can restrict to people not listed in your friends list?

If anything it'll force people to follow Sterling's example and invent new and exciting ways to curse or at the very least give way to a whole slew of obscene amalgams.

My new misogynistic insult is Twat-Rocket!™

Personally I am wondering how well this system will work. How many not so bad words will it accidentally catch? How many farily bad words will it miss? Will it be enough to make it seem like its doing what it is supposed to? How much longer will I keep asking no one in particular these questions?

We're sorry the comment you're trying to read was censored by Microsoft. Microsoft- We're Everywhere -

but I can still molest little boys via mic, right?

This is great news. One of the reasons I don't like playing online is all the racist and sexually bigoted verbage by a bunch of teenagers and repressed 20 somethings. Hopefully this helps to teach these kids some class, and to "trash talk" without having to rely on hate speak.

God dammit Microsoft. God dammit.

will this delay the speech as you say it, to when ppl hear it?

LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!

oh nevermind. it's too late.

It could be good, depending on how Microsoft implements this. I'll have to wait and see before I pass judgment, but if it gets rid of the annoying cocks on XBL, I'm for it.

While this sounds like it may be something that works only 50% of the time, at least it's something. I don't have a problem with the fucks and shits, it's the racial and sexuality slurs that make the chatter unlistenable.

As long at it doesn't pull false positives and block words like luck, sit, flag, bunt then I am okay with it.

Also this could introduce a significant delay... Think how long it takes to say motherfucker slowly - the system might need to crunch words one at a time or have a buffer set to the longest phrase it can handle

As long as I have the ability to turn the censor option on/off then I think it's great. I would probably use it.

I have no problem with this at all. My question is, can Microsoft figure out a way to censor all those people who feel like singing over voice chat. Those are the bastards I want to censor.

I could do with less N-bombs, but I don't want Microsoft telling me I can't call my friends "fucktards"

Ehh it is only fun to be a dick with text anyway something xbox live lacks.

So does not apply to me i got a 5 star appoveal rating.

This'll never work. With the colourful insults the more imaginitive mind can conjure up, the quality of microphone feeds and massive variety of accents and speech patterns I can't see it censoring much/correctly.

It's always delivered as an convenience. Thanks for helping the broader acceptance because a few immature assholes can't lay off dirty cookies just to be cool. Thanks for laying down perhaps the foundation of something bigger. Good job tools..

I think this is a horrible idea and that it really sets a scary precedent for the future of online gaming. Now, I hate getting into a room with a bunch of idiots yelling and throwing around racial slurs as much as the next guy, but I have to agree with previous posters when they say that a little trash talking adds to the fun of playing certain games. When I was freshman in college, my roommate and I would play Gears of War against two guys that lived down the hall from us, and the barrage of curse words that flew out of our mouths was absolutely insane. After we played, which ever team won would rush to the other team's room and continue the trash talking on a personal level. Trash talking in good spirit is fun. Mute someone if they are being an idiot, I know I do all of the time. Also, isn't this what the gamer zone thing (whatever it's called) is for on XBL? If you want to stay away from that kind of thing don't pick Underground! Just thought I'd add my .02

You can talk trash without dropping an N-bomb or calling somebody a shitcock.

I have no issues with this.

Worst/Best idea ever

What the ****? This is ******** ********. No ******* way do I want my ******* chat censored. ****!

But seriously. Will this include chatting to friends? Because thats nonsense, I would want to be able to swear with/at my friends. Reeks of invasion of privacy.

Thankfully it'd be unlikely to happen in Britain, listening in on chat would likely break the law here. The easy solution is to 1/2/3/4/perma week ban anyone who think it's ok to run around swearing their heads off for no apparent reason, after they've been confirmed as knobs. They'll soon learn, or just bugger off. (Possible by reporting players then have MS Admins check them out?)

Good idea, but there should be an option to turn this on/off. You know, what with freedom of speech and whatnot.

Does your mother still hang out at dockside bars?

"You piece of mother licking pie I'm to to stuff you with turkey stuffing, I'm Old Greg"

it could work....

Does this mean they add another second or so delay to what you say and censor it before everyone else hears it?

If it's possible to choose not to have things censored, this is going to be absolutely awesome.

CelicaCrazed: Very little cancels out the right to free speech, especially on xbox live where the mute button is right there in front of anyone who doesn't want to hear what someone's saying.