Yahoo! Games has an article up today about the offensive language that many online gamers use when shooting one another and generally causing death and destruction.  Lest you think that I’m going to tear the article apart, I will say up front that it actually presents opposing viewpoints and gives them proper weight, and seems to have an appreciation for some of the history of online gaming.  That being said, there were a few points in the article that I’m going to analyze a bit.

The comments would shock parents who may not realize their children are constantly exposed to language that might make a sailor blush. Most parental concerns have focused on violence, not language.

Here’s the problem I have with this.  The example that the article chooses is Call of Duty.  Now, as I’m sure you’re all aware, we’re not huge fans of MW2 for business model reasons, and I have not played the game at all, but there are a few facts I’m aware of and a few assumptions I can make.  First off, the game has a Mature rating.  The ESRB definition of this is as follows:

Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.

Similar stamps are on EVERY GAME

So basically, it’s an R-rated movie that you interact with.  I sure as hell would not allow my child play this game (if I had one) until I felt they were emotionally mature enough to deal with it.  Now, I worked as a seasonal employee during the holidays in 2004 at Circuit City, as a cashier.  I was instructed, in no uncertain terms, that minors trying to buy or exchange for M-rated titles were to be carded.  If they were not 17, they couldn’t buy the game.  Additionally, anyone that appeared to be a parent purchasing the game was to be advised of the rating.  This actually resulted in a few games being returned to the shelf, because the parents hadn’t actually looked for themselves (many didn’t even now that the boxes had ratings on them).  These games invariably have this additional warning on them:

Additionally, online games that include user-generated content (e.g., chat, maps, skins) carry the notice “Experience May Change During Online Play” to warn consumers that content created by players of the game has not been rated by the ESRB.

“Content created by players” is, unfortunately, a very vague term.  This could mean mods and maps, but in a very broad sense could be applied to any language that other players use (that is content they’ve created and added to the game, in a way).  If your child is emotionally mature enough to handle it, and you’re aware that people might be using bad language, then you know what your kid is getting into.  If you don’t know how the online portion might be handled or what that warning really means, then it’s probably best to watch over you kid’s shoulder and see what the experience is like and judge for yourself if you’d like them playing it.

This is actually user created content too

Such comments can be heard on all online video gaming systems, including PlayStation Network, Blizzard Entertainment (World of Warcraft) and others.

They can also likely be heard in many bars (before you jump on me for this, I see young kids in the local pub all the time with their parents), public streets, barbecues, and pretty much anywhere else the person(s) saying them either don’t care if they’re heard or everyone else doesn’t care what is said.

With 1 million to 2 million players online at any one time, most of the policing falls to other users who report hate speech to the company, [Stephen Toulouse, director of policy and enforcement Xbox Live] said.

This is true more with the consoles than the PC world.  PSN and XBL will both have to review such actions and determine proper punishments.  In the PC realm of dedicated servers, the policing tends to fall on the server admins.  As such, you’ll end up with some servers that either aren’t policed at all or that have absentee admins.  On any server with a fairly regular admin presence and that is associated with an even marginally reputable group or clan, kicks and bans are usually handed out for this sort of thing.  In addition, games like Bad Company 2 filter out much of the bad language automatically, at least when using text chat (personally, I think this should be a client-side option and not an always-on “feature”).  A game like MW2, which doesn’t have dedicated server support, must have one hell of a time policing this sort of issue.

I've spent hours upon hours staring at screens like this one, so that our servers DIDN'T become a refuge for the vulgar.

Joan Bertin, director of the National Coalition Against Censorship in New York City, said she is uncomfortable with game makers serving as “nannies.”

Honestly, I’m with Ms. Bertin.  They shouldn’t have to do this.  It’s not their responsibility to deal with people who say bad things.  This would be like expecting Sony to create technology that filters out hate speech that might be recorded on one of their camcorders.  If you find the language offensive, go to a server that doesn’t allow it and has an admin presence, or mute the players in question.

A simple solution would be having gamers use their real names, but that presents a host of problems involving privacy and the protection of children from predators.

Gee, ya think?  No way in hell are you going to get me to put my real name out there associated with my gamer tag.  It should be my choice to tell people my real name, not a requirement.  It’ll never happen.

[Founder of GayGamer.net Flynn] DeMarco said the best solution may just be continuing to educate people, especially parents of young gamers, about the problem.

“I’d like to see parents being aware of what their kids being exposed to,” he said.

Well, here’s the thing about educating parents of young gamers.  First off, young gamers probably shouldn’t be playing ultra-vi0lent games like MW2 or BC2 anyway.  Second, today’s parents should be familiar enough with the advantages and perils of internet use in general are for young children.  You don’t need to be playing a game to find offensive material on the interwebs.  The thing that makes it more disturbing, I think, is that the offensive garbage one runs into in a game is that it’s coming in real time from other people, and often through voice chat.  But it’s that last line that gets me.  I’d like to see parents aware of what their kids are doing, not just being exposed to.  I remember in COD4 that foul-mouthed 13 year olds were one of the biggest problem causing demographics in the game (that’s anecdotal, of course; I have no hard evidence for that).  But anyone who’s played an online FPS knows that pre-pubescent boys seem to be the ones that scream the most profanities.  My question is: how the fuck do their parents not know this?  Forget what they’re exposed to.  How can you not hear the high pitched voice of your 6th grader calling someone by the myriad of slurs that float around out there?  You wouldn’t let your kid just go around the internet and visit porn sites or sites that promote racism or homophobia, yet you don’t police your child at all when they’re shooting virtual people and yelling in a headset?  Get real, folks.  The problem starts with the parents.  It can only end with them too.