And I thought Gaming was supposed to bring people together.

Why do subjects such as sexual orientation and religion have to be a part of gaming?  One of the reasons I love gaming is BECAUSE I don't have to deal with these two subjects.  Some people prefer not to have any arguments about it.  I would rather nobody come on N4G to tell his religious views or sexual orientation, especially because this young bunch of people often make rude subtle attacks against people of different beliefs and different orientations, and it's simply not right. There are people who come to these forums and post comments that attack religious people.  For example, "You believe in God? You're a delusional, narrow-minded fanatic."  That's rude, and hypocritical.  Especially when you make an assumption about someone based solely on their religious beliefs.  For all you know, one religious person might be smarter and more open-minded than a particular atheist.  It just goes to show that a human being cannot be judged because of what they believe.  And a man who calls another man narrow-minded based on a false generalization truly gives meaning to the words narrow-mindedness and hypocrisy.

Also, there are so many people here who are saying bad things about gay people and quite frankly I am astounded at these rude, inconsiderate comments.  Even though you have a right to believe whatever you want, you shouldn't come to these boards and make those kinds of homophobic comments, and please don't bring up your first amendment rights.  They give you the right to voice an opinion but you have to have the temperament and the intelligence to recognize when you must exercise that right.  The First Amendment does not give you the right to be an A-hole, or at least it shouldn't.  You can't just say something harsh and negative about homosexuality just because it pleases you to say it; your right of speech is designated for your own defense against the government's potential to become tyrannical and if you don't believe me go research it.  When you make homophobic or anti-religious or anti-atheist comments, you are not being constructive, you are being hurtful (for example, "telling an atheist he is going to hell" is not nice).  And believe me, even if you have heard the quote, "He's a big boy, he can take it," it's not true.   We live in a world where little boys and girls who made fun of each other in kindergarten and threw little pebbles at each other and smacked each other with stones have now gotten older and shoot each other with guns and throw stones at people they hate until they die and start wars with other countries with grenade launchers and M16s and tanks and bazookas and nuclear missiles and car bombs.  That's the kind of world we live in.  When we were kids it was all fun and games.  But now we're adults and we have more harmful weapons to "play" with.  And words are some of the most harmful of weapons.

What I'm saying is that gaming should not be concerned with subject matters such as this, and I've never felt that it was necessary to have it.  If a game happens to come out that allows the player to be a gay character or a Jewish character or whatever, then good for that game.  It promotes the idea of equality without being offensive.  We should always treat each other with respect, because in my opinion wars don't start because of religion or money or things like that.  In my opinion, wars start because we're all still just acting like a bunch of kids who got their feelings hurt.

[RockmanII7]

good read and thats rare for this site

[a_squirrel]

yes, yes it is

[okigive]

this is a very good read i may say

[tdogchristy90]

AMAZING!

[Anon1974]

I personally believe that society should be tolerate of other people, something that I didn't learn from my parents but taught myself.
I don't think any level of racism or homophobia should be accepted in the gaming community. I've had others argue many times regarding racism in online gaming - "If it bothers you, just don't play - or turn it off."
That's not an excuse. Racism and homophobia are tolerated in online gaming because we allow it to be tolerated. What if it's your kids targeted by racial slurs? We expect others to be respectful of people's differences in real life, why should the gaming community expect or settle for anything different.
There's reporting tools out there. Make sure we're all using them.

[micro_invader]

Couldn't agree more, excellent post.

[Nineball2112]

Good post, but as far as this goes "The First Amendment does not give you the right to be an A-hole, or at least it shouldn't."

Actually, it does give you the right to be an asshole. It doesn't preclude you from the repercussions of being an A-hole, but you can certainly be one.

Again..."You can't just say something harsh and negative about homosexuality just because it pleases you to say it."

Sorry, but the First Amendment DOES give you the right to say pretty much anything (certain things excluded like the classic "yelling Fire! in a crowded theater" scenario.)

Actually, many people have the mistaken belief that there is a right to NOT be offended. As nice as that sounds, it just doesn't work that way.

Anyways... you bring up great points and it would be nicer if everyone were a bit more open minded about things.

[kaveti6616]

I know, dude. I took a consitutional class and as I was writing these things I knew that I shouldn't be saying it this way. What I should have said was that since the law does not discourage people from being assholes, there should be some other way. Too bad I just can't think of any way of doing this. The only way to discourage a person from saying offensive things would be if the entire community shunned that kind of behavior and took a stand against it. But the only way that can happen is if the community has a whole is unbiased, and as I live in California, I really don't have much faith in the community doing the right thing. They voted for Prop 8 after all.

[Dannehkins]

Interesting.

I say interesting because it's interesting to see a member actually expressing very opened minded, logical, intellectual and mature opinions on a controversial subject which I would say is seldom for this site.

Great read and thanks for this actually. Shows that the world isn't made up of irrational and cruel people.

[bdawley]

I do agree with to an extent. I do think profanity and topics that you brought up are problems, but the statement made about the first amendment not giving you license to be an "A-Hole", that is exactly why the first amendment was given. The founding fathers wanted to protect speech that we would deem offensive or dissenting. I am well-read on history, and people today don't understand that fact about the 1st. I do think your article was overall good though. Good topic and well written.

[Kalowest]

I hate Psn and Xbl sometimes cause of rude comments. some say the N words, even after i say I'm black and laugh sometime. i'm not black power or anything, i don't use the word myself really.