"Homophobia in Gaming" Panel discussion this weeke

Aethren Rhiadra in the XStreet SL General Discussion Forum wrote: "Electronic Arts and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) will host a panel discussion on homophobia in gaming this weekend with panelists from Maxis, Linden Labs, Microsoft and more."

The thread link is as follows:

https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=119680&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

An interesting thread developing. Does anyone here have personal experience with homophobia in Second Life? Or any other online gaming/social/networking community?

Keo do you think a panel discussion like this would be worthwile in world, sort of like a follow up? Homophobia on the grid?

As a matter of fact, yes . . . I was going to see if I could find out which Lindens were participating in this . . . my mind was already thinking about something like this for Festival week or as a pre-Festival kind of event . . . I just reread the initial post in that thread and unfortunately it doesn't even give the date of the discussion. I'll check into the GLADD site and see what I can find out. I'll also have to see if there is a GLADD chapter in SL . . .

I love realtime posting.

Almost as good as being there without the teacher getting upset about passing the notes in class.

Reaching out to committee members and ambassadors, does anyone have experience in this field that'd be willing to speak?

Notices the common misuse of the terms 'gay' and 'fag(got)' thrown around in videogames. Not in Second Life, but certainly in the whole scala of FPS (First Person Shooter) games that I have played, and trust me, it's not only the kids who use these terms, I recently got called a whole new encyclopedia of names by a man later claiming to be 53 years of age. I do ignore it though, taking such things personal is only going to drag you down, it's more 'Because I need to insult that person in some way, and gay/fag are only three letters away from Awesome.' than serious insulting IMO.

I am very much involved in online gaming apart from Second Life, and out of all the categories of games, FPS (First Person Shooters) players tend to be the most aggressive towards others, whereas MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) are (USUALLY) the more adult players.

I even have some of these events recorded on my computer and i'm able to upload it to youtube, They are however very much filled with extremely foul language, racism, and often sexism too.


Trust me, Second Life has seen no homophobia to such an extent you can find it on FPS.

This is because:
-1: 'Kids' want impulses, FPS directly delivers impulse.
-2: Second Life gets 'boring really quick for a newbie'
-3: Second Life is 'harder' to access than a regular videogame.
-4: Many game servers are often not controlled by admins, and/or the admins will allow their players to cuss around whatever they have to spew at eachother.

As addition to that, I have played for a team named "FRAGGOT Gaming"
Even though I had a blast playing with this team, I was more looking for making games a sport other than it being a community thing.
[FRGT] Fraggot Gaming GLBTS FPS Gaming Community (Click me)
Frag being a word equal to 'Kill' (Killing someone in a videogame often is referred to 'fragging')
The rest of the name is obvious, and meant as a heads up.

(Counter Strike: Source) *Warning: Bad trash talk*