Xbox Is 'Committed To Creating' A Safe LGBTQIA+ Community For Gamers

Can’t we just all live happily ever after.
It’s the person that counts not what gender or whatever they are.
Sometimes I think all this drama can sometimes make matters worse for certain LGBTQIA+ in certain communities.
Let’s all chill and just get along.

And then we have Netflix making Q-Force.

@dont_simp_for_them I had no idea what this was so just looked it up… I wish I hadn’t! 😳

Apparently killing a LGBT person in Halo Infinite multilayer will now be considered a hate crime. How about we just play games and enjoy them, regardless of who we are.

I have never heard more offensive language than I have on Xbox Live.

I would prefer people that are the most qualified get jobs. If the most qualified person is under represented that is a bonus.

@Flurbdurb Me too, it's so cringe, not to mention showing "representation" with more stereotypes!

@Buckster666 You joke about a false reality where LGBTQ people are the oppressors, then ask "How about we just play games and enjoy them, regardless of how we are".

The lack of self-awareness is astounding.

The videogaming community occasionally can be very toxic against queer people, women and people of color. Everyone should feel welcomed to play regardless of who they are. And for companies those statements of support just make business sense: the dollars queer people spend are just as good as my dollars or yours.

...Until July 1st and we move on to whatever other intersectional group month marketing campaign to do merch for and player skins...

I really loved what Microsoft did this month to support other communities. I donate all my reward points to the charities that Microsoft highlights and pledges to back my dollar. Did about ten bucks for legal funds and hotlines. Now I've donated for the special Olympics. All the extra profile pictures and banners in Gears 5 are nice features that I have supported as well. I have a lot of friends and family that are LGBTQ and I fully support any awareness and outreach.

You all made it very easy to who I should put on my ignore list.

Even if you have some weird psychological internalized issue with LGBTQ people, Microsoft trying to make their community more open and less toxic for -everyone-, that’s a win no matter who you are. We should all feel free to enjoy this hobby without being personally attacked or excluded. Be nice to people. We’re talking about video games. Why is that difficult?

@Dezzy70 I get where you are coming for, but silence has traditionally been deadly for us 🤷‍♀️

Can you rearrange the letters and make a cool acronym? GLIBTAQ+. Rolls off the tongue a bit easier or, forgive my naiveté, is it wrong to rearrange the order?
This is yet more hollow marketing talk as I can't see them cutting players when they make homophobic remarks amongst many others online. They should, but the narrow-minded dollar is more important.

@JaneBear
True it is a tough dilemma.
It’s like taking the knee in UK and Euro football.
At first most football supporters I know where ok I understand this and respect it.
But it’s been going on for so long to now, unfortunately you even get football supporters booing in the crowd now.
And even the nicest people I know are sort of ok we get the idea and acknowledge and respect this but it’s gone on a bit long now.
It’s finding the right balance of awareness but not over stating or over doing it.

Personally I haven’t witnessed much anti-LGBTQ+ stuffs, but have seen a lot of toxicity in online gaming over my many years. Anything to help clear that up is appreciated.

I think though we also have to accept sometimes it’s just human nature for some people to get angry and be a-holes.

I don’t think we can irradiate that toxicity totally unfortunately.

You only really need to take a passing glance at comment sections like this to understand why these statements are necessary.

@LordMonkfish @LordMonkfish jokes and insensitive comments are not exactly a sign of people who need to hear this message. In the West most people are tolerant and while some joke, most will defend the right of others to express themselves as they please. Not all are tolerant, but you can’t make everyone think the way you want them to.

It must be stressed though that most of the ‘Pride Month’ stuff is just Western corporations cashing in on the popularity of it all. It’s almost like Halloween or Christmas. An event during the summer lul to generate revenue.

They only seem to have this righteous approach in regions where they know it will help them financially. Look at Xbox, Bethesda and so many others. They changed their logos to rainbows everywhere except in the Middle East and Russia - places where there is not nearly as much tolerance and the real places that need to hear this message. It happens across the board with companies not just gaming ones.

Why?

Because promoting Pride Month in the West makes good business sense. Promoting it in other regions does not.

It’s all about money.

@Kienda I agree. And the challenge here is we live in a world where on voice is magnified by the internet. We could grow to a point where you could count the number of outwardly toxic people on one hand, but any comment they make gets blasted and promoted as if it represents the opinions of millions.

Perfect example was a few years ago when a Starbucks changed their cups from saying Merry Christmas to Happy Holidays. Afterwards there was supposedly “outrage” from a large number of people. Turns out it was one random low level blue check mark and like 3 who shared it, but everyone started sharing the tweet and pretending millions of people were extremely outraged by it so they could push a counter-anger message. Every article talked about “backlash” against Starbucks but shared the same 3 tweets then stated that the backlash was “large”. The problem is today’s messaging doesn’t represent the average or the vast majority of opinions, but rather the extreme. By that I mean that as long as there is one toxic person the internet will take that message and blast it to promote the idea that there are millions. It’s really hard to see if growth is happening as a result of this method. Without talking to people face to face, and see how people are in real life, we could be easily misled to develop perceptions either way.

Safe spaces are always good. You can’t really stamp out evil but a harbor in the storm is always good.

@xMightyMatt14x I agree completely.

There is an inability for people to understand that online outrage is a very niche thing and doesn’t represent popular opinion.

Take Twitter for example. It’s user base is around 1-2% of the global population and it is lopsided in terms of demographics. That user base has a much higher percentage of far left people than the general population. There are a lot more activists on Twitter etc.

People (politicians/corporations/media) need to understand that Twitter is not popular opinion. It is a very one-sided world view and often times an extreme one at that. The vast majority of the world are centrist - in all countries. Politicians who stick closer to the centre win elections. Companies that stay away from either extremes of politics or stay neutral usually get more customers because they don’t alienate one side or the other.

We need to let the crazies be crazy and stop listening to them.

Even if it's marketing, it's nice to hear. If they don't this in Russia may be because Xbox might be banned there (remember what some countries do with video games and the internet... and human rights!) but wherever it happens, it's a positive message in a globalised world 👍🏻.

@Xiovanni Tell me about it. As a simple, bi, dude, you'd think I was the Antichrist himself especially in any lgbtq circle.

And to top it all off, ads like this are pretty insulting. Pretty much saying "if you're not stereotypical then you're not legitimate".

Surely I'm not the only person that assumes any person or any character, could be of any persuasion, until explicitly told.