The development team behind the Halo games, including tomorrow’s Halo 4, are making sure you can’t tell a woman to make you a sandwhich as you shoot at her avatar on Xbox Live.
In a recent interview with GameSpot’s Laura Parker, Bonnie Ross, the head of 343 Industries and the woman in charge of Halo 4, said there will be no tolerence for sexist remarks. Ross said if players were found using sexist remarks, they would be given a permanent ban on Xbox Live.
“This is behaviour that is offensive and completely unacceptable. I’d like to think most of our Xbox Live players don’t support this kind of behaviour,” Ross told Parker.
While a permanent Xbox Live ban sounds like fair enough punishment for the men and women involved in making slanderous comments, it’s not a sure fire technique. Many members of the Xbox Live community boast about being banned from Xbox Live, and then simply going out and purchasing a new Xbox with a new Live account.
In fact, a quick Google search for, “how to get around an Xbox Live ban,” brings up a variety of YouTube videos, detailing the steps involved to ensure you can continue playing even with a ban.
While it may seem like a difficult task, Ross said 343 Industries is pretty adament in making sure the sexism and sexual harassment ceases to exist.
“With Halo 4, we were very deliberate in thinking about who should be female and who should be male in the game, and if we came off stereotypical, we went back to the question what we were doing and why,” Ross said.
Microsoft has teamed up with 343 Industries to ensure these measures are met. As of right now, the Xbox Live community probably has some of the worst racist and sexist comments being said throughout the duration of a variety of games. Games like Activision’s Call of Duty have been written about time and time again in regards to the sexist, homophobic, racist comments users like to use.
With Halo 4 launching across North America at midnight tonight, it’ll be interesting to see how the community reacts to the warning 343 Industries has officially issued.
