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Xbox Live Gamer Spotlight Exposed: Part 1
By E*Master 08-05-2009 10:01 AM
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I much like most CAGs was extremely shocked by the responses Wombat got in his inbox regarding being in the Gamer Spotlight on XBLA. Sure, some of them were funny at first but they got right down scary and shocking. I then decided with the help of CAG yukine, who was so kind to provide me with a link of all the people who were in the Gamer Spotlight, to message 5 random users who were featured. I simply told them who I was and that I was interested in knowing what their post spotlight feature experience was like.
Why am I doing this? Because I want to know, like some CAGs if other featured members on XBL were treated the same way after being featured. Why should I care? Simple. In order to send and receive messages to ppl who are not on your friends list on XBL you have to be a gold member. You also have to be a gold member of XBL in order to be featured in the Gamer Spotlight. The impression I am getting is that when you are in the Gamer Spotlight it creates a target on your head for assholes and trolls which XBL is unfortunately full of, allowing them to barrage you with homophobic insults and ethnic slangs. All this for the measley price of $59.99 CDN (or $49.99 US I believe). As a person who is paying a premium, I believe you should be getting a premium and to me that includes not having trolls and assholes messaging you, specifically if you are "privileged" enough to be featured in the Gamer Spotlight. I know XBL has policies and procedures to go through as well as a pretty good process of reporting such incidents. But when you have over 50+ messages from trolls and assholes who are saying the kind of things to you that Wombat was the recipient of, it would take a very long time to report each and every one of them. Specifically of you are a person who works for a living and has a family who doesn't have time to go through all this. Sure it is a solution to the problem. But Trolls and assholes are like bees & wasps: you get rid of one and their buddies will sting you. Plus for every one that gets banned more will follow. I believe XBL should give it's users some sort of an IQ test before joining and depending on how you score in that test along with your age group, those are going to be the kind of ppl you will be allowed to play with/talk to if you have a featured turned on in your dashboard that goes somewhere amongst the lines of "Allow people of other IQ groups to play with you/communicate with you? Yes/No". Sure you can mute them but that does not stop them from sending you messages or leaving obscene messages or even pictures in your inbox. Anyhow back on track. Before I get to the first person that responded to me I found out while going through each person that at least one of them had changed therir gamertag like i 1337loe i . Now why it was changed I don't know but I have a hunch it was because she got harassed like Wombat did. However, I can't back that up. So this morning on the bus on my way to work I checked my Message inbox from XBL on my iphone and saw that one person had replied which was kittypryde87 who was featured in May in the Gamer Spotlight. This is what her response was:
 Wow. Now this is just one person out of 5 that got back to me. I am hoping to hear from more. Trixie does a great job in the XBL community and I do applaud her efforts and success. But they should at least warn members who are featured on the spotlight that they may potentially be exposed to this kind of crap. Once I hear from more I will post them here. For now, discuss  I'll be discussing this with Hbomb on the Cross border gaming podcast this week. |
 Comments (Total Comments: 21) |
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Mindboggle
- 08-05-2009, 11:19 AM
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Why dont Microsoft just implement a feature that only allows messages from people in your freinds list ? Or do they already have it ? This would solve a lot of problems as its just unacceptable what these people have to go through when being a features 360 gamer..
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SlimJim0725
- 08-05-2009, 11:29 AM
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@Mindboggle, there is a setting on the 360 to where you can have everyone send messages or friends only. They also have an option to where you can online hear friends in voice chat if you prefer (I used to do this).
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Mindboggle
- 08-05-2009, 11:44 AM
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RadikalJin
- 08-05-2009, 12:54 PM
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I'm a gamer from the UK and the inside xbox over here has a weekly "Monday Musing" segment where someone from the community writes a paragraph or two about anything game related, and their gamertag is linked to in much the same way as Wombat's was. I wrote one about a month ago about buying used games (which can be found in my 2nd blog) and I have to say, I got pretty much the same response as Wombat did, showing that angry videogame nerds are just as viscious on this side of the pond too.
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RadikalJin
- 08-05-2009, 12:55 PM
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Oh, and the IQ test idea is in itself a massive failure of logic.
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E*Master
- 08-05-2009, 01:07 PM
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@RadikalJin How the bloody hell so? I should have a right to know if I am playing a game online with a homophobic & racist ignoramus who only talks in 3-4 letter expletives or if I'm talking to a normal human being.
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oscargrouch
- 08-05-2009, 02:44 PM
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X-Box live is just proving the internet dickwad theory. That's why I hardly use it.
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wune
- 08-05-2009, 02:54 PM
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@E*Master
Just because they are homophobic and racist and talks in 3-4 letter expletives does not mean they will fail an IQ test. I understand where you're coming from though. |
ZombieJeebus
- 08-05-2009, 03:02 PM
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E*Master, nice followup. I'm sure I'm not the only person who listened to the CAGcast and figured these a$$hats did this to every Featured Gamer.
I'm sure Trixie/MajorNelson etc are aware of this. They should ask Featured Gamers if they would like a moderator to monitor their incoming messages for a short time so that offensive messages from strangers can get filtered out. And so those jerks can get a nice perma-ban. |
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Hbomb5
- 08-05-2009, 03:03 PM
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I was in gifted and honors classes going through school, and I know that assholes come in all IQ levels. In fact, it gets worse as you go up.
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E*Master
- 08-05-2009, 04:14 PM
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@ wune & hbomb5
Ur probably right. But what if we created a "Social IQ" test. I remember waaaay back in 2001, eharmony (yes the company used to be a non dating website and had a different name but I remember getting an email saying they were changing their name and stuff and a year after it became what it is today. Anyhow) had various IQ tests, both traditional and social. Social meaning what kind of "crowd" you belong in. I remember reading a question like "If you see a classmate who appears to be a social outcast do you a.)try to become his friend b.)laugh at him c.) ridicule him etc etc etc". Something like that. Again this was 8 years ago. Hbomb, We're debating this on this week's show  @ ZombieJeebus I am not sure if this is a good idea. There are some conversations that I don't want someone to hear on XBL that I have with my GF or friends that have questionable subject matter ie 420, getting laid etc. I see that kind of as an invasion of privacy. I believe in screening XBL members we will not only be able to round up all the trolls and put them into the same category but also discourage them to join cause there is NOTHING more trolls and assholes hate than answering a whole lot of questions, especially truthfully. So naturally they will answer with the worst things possible because they are annoyed by the tests. I am very much liking the debate here guys keep it up as I do see there are flaws with my original IQ statement. |
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ZombieJeebus
- 08-05-2009, 04:54 PM
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E*Master,
The monitoring would be at the user's discretion. I personally do not use the messaging much other than for invites. So I would chose to have a moderator check my msgs for trolls. Anyone not wanting people to go through their messages such as yourself could say "no thanks". (like I could ever be a featured gamer, who do I think I am...Wombat?) |
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E*Master
- 08-05-2009, 05:02 PM
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That sounds fine and dandy but doesn't that mean that if you want trolls to stay away you have to let big brother crash on your couch basically?
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RadikalJin
- 08-05-2009, 06:00 PM
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I think Hbomb5 summarised my statement nicely. Realistically though, as many policy makers have said, providing a platform of communication for use almost guarantees some people will misuse it, and this kind of trolling is very difficult to control in the online world. Personally, I wasn't too bothered by anyting anyone said. Only my gamertag and avatar were shown, and most of the "insults" were either calling me fat or gay, (I am neither), and neither can be deduced from such information, so the idiocy was made spectacularly clear.
The only thing that somewhat irritated me was people asking for MS points. If I had them, (which I don't), I would want them myself! |
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ZombieJeebus
- 08-05-2009, 07:00 PM
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Let's not get carried away...a mod checking my msgs for a week or two with my permission =/= big brother.
My intention is not to get into a security vs liberty argument. I was simply proposing one way M$ could pro-actively attempt to make being a Featured Gamer something to feel good about, instead of it instead being the Flame Target of the Week. Your point is well taken that right to privacy is a pretty sensitive matter to a lot of people. My idea would not work because it is not worth the hassle it could potentially cause. |
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dv8mad
- 08-05-2009, 09:10 PM
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Oscar's Internet Dickwad Theory.
I like it! |
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Chronis
- 08-05-2009, 11:48 PM
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You know what I'd be interested in finding out? If the picture of the person has anything to do with the comments they get. If you're Wombat.... he's a dough, Jewy target. If you're a girl, you're a vagina having target. But what if you are a gangsta ass mother
 er? Obviously, if the meanies (for lack of a better word) are going to try and prey on people who they believe they are better than for whatever reason. If you get someone who just spews "I'll you up if you even look at me wrong," i wonder how the comments would be effected. |
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E*Master
- 08-06-2009, 02:38 AM
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ZombieJeebus: Ok I am going a bit far with my comment on privacy and yes, perhaps having someone monitor ur chats for a limited time to check for trends does sound reasonable. I also agree with you that MS sshould find a way to ensure the featured gamer feels good about him/herself instead of becoming a flame target. But then again, when you are featured, no matter where, heck even on CAG, you can become a target. It's just that to me I really would like to see a solution because of the fact we are paying money to be premium (I have gone on many tantrums on the CBG podcast about this) and thus I should receive premium services. For instance, offtopic.com used to be a free forum FULL of trolls... but now u gotta pay if u want to enjoy the full expereince (not saying that u should pay to be on a forum. This is just an example of getting your money's worth). Trolls are not going to pay money to troll. OR at least so I have seen, however, thus ppl who pay a premium need not worry about trolls and trolls that do pay to troll are easier to eliminate and ban because there are so much less of them.
Chronis: that would make no difference. Like RadikalJin said,there was no pic of him but they called him fat despite the fact he isn't. The whole point of trolling is you are protected by the fact that you are hiding behind a computer monitor and are safe in ur own home cause the ppl they troll do not know what his/her shortcomings are so they isntead create a tough persona online by trolling and bullying ppl. I got another response tonight from another person I contacted who was very kind to offer an email interview with me. Stay tuned! |
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darth007
- 08-06-2009, 02:53 AM
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@chronis:
I'm sure the "gansta ass mother er" character would be called the n-word many, many times if he is black. LOL sorry if i'm wrong in my assumption that the persona is a black person. I just don't ever see any hard asian/white/latino motheras. lol. They're behind the keyboard, nothing will stop the jerks, no matter who the victim is.I am so disgusted with how people act online, yet in person they are totally different. The internet shows a more "real" world than the world itself. Think of sportsmanship. One person gets a kill, instant teabag. A high school basketball game ends, everyone shakes hands. Do you think everyone that shook hands in that basketball game wanted to? Probably, probably not. My point is, in the presence of others, people act according to what is socially appropriate because there would be consequences otherwise. On the internet, there no really no consequences. A ban on Xbox Live? Yeah right, 49 more complaints to go before the person you're trying to ban finally leaves. A ban on a forum? Make a new account. Consequences on the internet are practically non-existant, thus the rampant griefing. My only solution to all this? Don't support Xbox Live. It may be an extreme measure but hey, what is Microsoft really doing to make the community better? Nothing. |
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E*Master
- 08-07-2009, 02:06 AM
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Darth007 might have the only solution here. It's harsh and extreme but unfortunately, the only way... sigh.... BTW.... kittyprde87 got back to me with some of the things precisely they told her along with more shocking details.... I am truly sickened now.... like in an "OMFG" kinda way.... I would love to interview Major Nelson and Trixie regarding this but there is no way that is happening... I don't think I can get that close to these ppl to see if they can answer the questions I now have from info I have gathered from 3 ppl I have gathered who were in the gamer spotlight... u guys think the shit Wombat had to go through was bad.... It's nothing compaired to what kittypryd87 had to deal with.... all I can say is FUCK!!!
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