Gamer suspended over name of W.Va. town: Fort Gay Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Gamer suspended over name of W.Va. town: Fort Gay Posted by XanTium | September 8 17:26 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From seattlepi.com: [QUOTE] Microsoft Corp. and the chief rules enforcer for Xbox Live are apologizing to a small West Virginia town and a 26-year-old gamer accused of violating the online gaming service's code of conduct by publicly declaring he's from Fort Gay - a name the company considered offensive. The town's name is real. But when Moore tried to tell Seattle-based Microsoft and the enforcement team at Xbox Live, they wouldn't take his word for it. Or Google it. Or check the U.S. Postal Service website for a ZIP code. Instead, they suspended his gaming privileges for a few days until Moore could convince them the location in his profile, "fort gay WV," wasn't a joke or a slur: It's an actual community of about 800 in Wayne County, along West Virginia's western border with Kentucky. Stephen Toulouse, director of policy and enforcement for Xbox Live said that was a miscommunication. "Someone took the phrase 'fort gay WV' and believed that the individual who had that was trying to offend, or trying to use it in a pejorative manner," Toulouse said. "Unfortunately, one of my people agreed with that. ... When it was brought to my attention, we did revoke the suspension." [/QUOTE] Full Story: seattlepi.com

[DMAddict]

Let the jokes commence. I wonder if he lives in a Gay Fort. MS is so paranoid.

[echto]

Let the jokes commence. I wonder if he lives in a Gay Fort. MS is so paranoid.

I wonder if he'll eat at A Dong Restaurant if he ever goes to Iowa.

http://www.insiderpages.com/b/3713694696/a...rant-des-moines

[njmbb8]

wow ms needs to chill out with trying to be so politically correct also i think its funny that banning one guy constitutes an apology to an entire town

[bucko]

not to worry I bet that is a happy community over there

[Syn201]

so they allow gamertags like babies make me cum and block this awesome world we live in ..

[Martinchris23]

How apt for this story to appear, right after this one: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=720684

"Stephen Toulouse, director of policy and enforcement for Xbox Live said that was a miscommunication."

Wait up - didn't you just quote the following at PAX 2010:

"The more convoluted, overwrought and lengthy the protest of innocence, the probability of it being bullshit approaches one."

So, he protests and no-one thinks to actually look the place up? No, of course not Mr Toulouse - it's obviously bullshit, eh? I mean, you and your team couldn't POSSIBLY be wrong on something.

Here's MY rule: "The more of an ass you make of yourself, the larger the hole you dig"

Mr Toulouse, you might as well have just used a digger and had done with it.

[Ranger72]

Wow thats gay.

[Jordan23]

"It's really where I live!" must be to convoluted, overwrought and lengthy to be the truth.

[Jumpy_Beans]

he should have gotten more of a compensation for their mess up.

[barman1176]

Didn't even bother to check it out with a Bing search before banning.

http://www.bing.com/search?q=fort+gay&...;sk=&sc=2-8

What. a bunch. of morons. Also, of course they apologized to the whole town. It's an easy way to smooth things over with all the other current or potential LIVE gamers who might live there.

[majik655]

How apt for this story to appear, right after this one: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=720684

"Stephen Toulouse, director of policy and enforcement for Xbox Live said that was a miscommunication."

Wait up - didn't you just quote the following at PAX 2010:

"The more convoluted, overwrought and lengthy the protest of innocence, the probability of it being bullshit approaches one."

So, he protests and no-one thinks to actually look the place up? No, of course not Mr Toulouse - it's obviously bullshit, eh? I mean, you and your team couldn't POSSIBLY be wrong on something.

Here's MY rule: "The more of an ass you make of yourself, the larger the hole you dig"

Mr Toulouse, you might as well have just used a digger and had done with it.

Exactly what I wanted to say.

M$ needs to learn about customer SERVICE, not customer bullying.

The person or people that actually pressed the button to ban, should be released for NO BRAINS.
If I made the same type of dumb decision at my work, I would have been fired, no question.

::edit::
Am I reading this right? Was it his gamertag that had fort gay in it? Or his profile ONLY? If it was just his profile, that is even worse (imo). Morons.

This post has been edited by majik655: Sep 9 2010, 01:35 AM

[Moonkeeper]

We should figure out a way to change the name of a town to "Linux Fan."

[bill16504]

They should have given each person in town 2 copies of Halo.

[majik655]

They should have given each person in town 2 copies of Halo.

Yep so when the one gets scratch rings, they have their other one so they do not have to call for replacement and get laughed at or told they are full of sh*t when they say the town they need to ship to.