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]
Published: Dec 28, 2008 09:00 am