PlayStation 3's new problem: Censorship
Sony's PlayStation 3 has hit hard times. The company has slashed production costs by 35 percent, yet the console still sells at a loss--and those sales dropped 19 percent last month from a year earlier. But these are not the only problems Sony is facing: Now comes a free speech issue surrounding banned words from the PlayStation's "Home." Sony has run into trouble with its efforts to quell what some may consider offensive language.
Sony has banned the use of the words "gay," "lesbian," "bi-sexual" and "Jew" -- among others -- as club names, and is filtering them from text chats. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that this has left certain groups unable to express their solidarity. For instance, a gay allegiance could not give themselves any moniker containing the word "gay," for it would be filtered out.
While it is in Sony's best interests to quell hate speech, banning words that are only negative when used in certain contextual situations plays on wobbly ground. Xbox Live experienced a similar issue earlier this year when it banned the username "theGAYERgamer." This case of censorship became even more complicated when Richard Gaywood tried to use his surname as a username and was banned. Similar censorship controversies arose when Wikipedia banned an image in the UK and Facebook censored breastfeeding photos.
"Home" has also suffered conflicts with racism and sexism. An Ars Technica reader reports, "You can't walk far [in "Home"] without finding people yelling obscene crap back and forth. So maybe they're tweaking the default voice settings, because Sony is going to have a real problem selling this world to families."
Add to this list of problems the fact that the PS3 is no longer the cheapest Blu-ray disc player on the market and you're left with a fledging console bleeding money and struggling to maintain order in its social applications. While I do not believe this spells an immediate disaster for the PS3, these circumstances carry with them a weight that does not bode well for consumers. If these tiny earthquakes persist, we could be witnessing the beginning of the end.
» posted by ITworld staff
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Irony Thy Name is Media
There's a certain irony here. Sony publishes "adult" games like GTA, yet their Home Beta world censor's speech. What is the difference between these two products? Both of them simulate real life, which means that both are fictional. The difference would appear to be that people find offense when an human-driven avatar uses foul language, but not when a simulated, computer-driven avatar does the same thing. This is just plain silly. There is no difference as far as the player is concerned. If a parent want's to limit exposure of their child to offensive language, then he or she has the same option in either case.How many times do we have to go through this? Every time a new information technology arrives, the moralists are out in droves and, because it's new, it gets a lot of coverage in the media. Europe is laughing at us. When are we ever going to grow up?
Irony Thy Name is Hate
It is truely interesting that you think the moralists are playing race and hate cards in this Media frenzied focus group world. The Moralist Are not the ones Griping about hearing someone call another person homo or faggot. The homo's themselves are the ones screaming hate speach to the socialists and people like yourself whose loose fowl mouth speewing racism and hate are a walking contradiction not too mention hypocrisy. You are hating on moralisism for your own racism and hate. Europe is a time piece for the shelf. they are nothing more than inept spectators. You should concern yourself more with A Constitution that is being torn apart bit by bit every year by someone similar to your own inept mentality destroying the only version of Freedom this world has that is tangible. Just keep playing that card popa.your a smart person. these
your a smart person. these sheep cannot see that the joke is on them, this the greatest freeest country of them all, land of the free home of the brave , in god we trust ahahahah.history is remembered how it was written and not how it happened
Have you seen the triangle?