Wanna be called a "fag" over and over again by 12 year old boys from around the world? Well, that's what X-Box live was designed to deliver - the young male gamer in all his puerility. I mean sure, there's a kick-ass shooter or three in there too, but the name-calling can be hard to ignore. Unless you just turn off the voice chat like me, then you can revel in pure blasty goodness without the middle-school machismo. There's no doubting it though - X-Box Live has a civility problem.
Microsoft has decided on a zero-tolerance policy as their last, best hope, and like all zero tolerance policies, it sucks and is offensive and makes stupid mistakes. In this instance, a woman who identified herself as a lesbian (presumably because she's, you know, gay), was first hounded by Live idiots who harassed her because sex is scary when you've never had it. How did Microsoft respond to her plight? The booted her off X-Box Live because she's identified herself as a lesbian, and in the wonderful world of Live, sex is verboten. Even having the letters "g-a-y" in your name is against the rules, sorry Mr. Gaywood.
I have some sympathy for Micorsoft's position, I really do, and maybe there's no good answer to this problem. As it is, they end up coming off as total assholes for banning a woman for no good reason. Then again, we're talking Microsoft, so they're probably used to it.
