Microsoft Profanity Patent

Last week Microsoft filed for a real time profanity patent. The patent outlines a method of bleeping or silencing profane words and is done without any human intervention or need for a delay which many current systems use. While some people will cry out against the Orwellian ramifications of such a filter I can only surmise that Microsoft wants to add this to their Xbox Live offering as an option not as an always on filter to promote family friendly gaming on Live. This would be great for filtering out the racists and homophobes who feel it is their duty to assail my eardrums with their profane babble. As some people have also commented a filter which allows for differing levels of filtering based on whether a person is your “friend” or a random Live stranger would be a great addition to the filter and make this an amazing feature for Live. The point being that I love to trash talk with my friends and it is in good fun, well almost always in fun, but I hate hearing the latest learned slew of words from 12 year old children.

Make sure you check out the Frequency of Profanity in Microsoft’s Halo 2 for the Xbox study I finished earlier this year.

Read more about Microsoft’s profanity filter at Arstechnica

Featured in Electronic Gaming Monthly

The Halo 2 Profanity Study that I completed in January of 2006 was published in the May issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly on Page 24.

Check out a scan:

More on the Halo 2 Profanity Study

If you need anyone to rant about violence in videogames being the scapegoat for violence in society contact me smithj AT gmail.com

Hilarious Comic RE: Profanity Study

While checking out some incoming links from my Halo 2 Profanty Study I found Dimitri Tcaciuc’s weblog and comic drawings.

He has a great comic up for which the study was an inspiration.

GO check it out here

Hold up Profanity Update

Reading through various linking sites regarding my Halo 2 Profanity Study, coming in from Fark.com, joystiq.com amongst others, it seems many people think I am uptight or want the government to crack down on the gaming industry.

You couldn’t be more wrong

If you re read the article please notice I do not want the government to do anything about this. We are adults the game is meant for adults and adults curse, hell I do it. I don’t want you to stop cursing. Cursing does not bother me if it did I would simply stop playing Halo. The only people who may want to do somthing about this should be Parents. My thinking is that if parents will take more responsibility then fewer will complain to the government and cause shackles to be put on the gmaing industry.

I wanted to know what the amount was since I play Halo so much. So I decided to do something semi productive and record the results.

Some people have also pointed out the survey size was too small and not spread out enough, True it could have been done better, if you don’t have a 40 hr a week job or if your job is studying stuff like this please by all means do better.

To sum it up, I want the government to get involved in the gaming industry as much as Gamers love Jack Thompson, aka not at all.

Past rants about the government and gaming

BBC article Parents don’t care about game ratings: imjosh

Response to CNN blaming video games for Violence: imjosh

Have fun and remember “Damn the man, Save the empire” Empire Records

Frequency of Profanity in Halo 2

Thanks for visiting, please realize that I’m not writing this to advocate censoring or that I’m surprised by swearing or don’t like it, I was just curious to see what the frequency was.

When you logon to Xbox live more often then not you will be greeted by a 14 year old that learned a new word on the playground that day, or maybe it’s the drunken 24 year old who hates black people, gays and anyone who isn’t in his frat. individuals afflicted with IAS (Internet A-hole Syndrome). No matter who you are if you have played on live you have run into cursing and lewdness. If you look at the rating for the game you can see that it is intended for ages 17+ but parents don’t care/understand/listen so lots of underage kids have this game. Another important thing to note is that the rating includes a warning that the game experience changes with use of online features. Please do not confuse this with a plea for the government to crack down and tighten control on the gaming industry. If anything this information should be used by parents to educate themselves about what their child is involved with and then make an educated decision to let them play or not.

Last December I started recording the frequency of profanity that I was able to hear while playing Halo 2. The results of the study which lasted 33.9 hours were surprising.

Disclaimers:

1. The curse words were those which I could hear, more may have occurred and other players in a given game may not have heard the same number of curse words I did. The ability to hear other players depends on your proximity to them.

2. The times recorded are the times I was signed into Xbox live and either engaged in a game or in the process of joining a game or viewing the results and listening to the discourse of other players. The times do not reflect solely “in game” time. You can view my games at bungie.net with the gamertag Ca1vin. note the ONE in the gamertag.

3. Do not proceed if you do not want to view words which may offend some.

More after the Jump
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