Wielding the Xbox 'banhammer'
In his role heading policy and enforcement for Xbox live, Stephen Toulouse is widely known for wielding the "banhammer"--that is being the guy who comes down on cheaters and those who harass people over the online service.
Toulouse said he is starting to shy away from the banhammer moniker, given that he and his team employ a range of punishments, from the temporary suspension of a feature all the way up to permanent ban of all users of a particular console. But, he said, as an avid gamer, he is enjoying his role trying to keep Xbox Live as a fun and safe space.
Toulouse
(Credit: Stephen Toulouse)"It's nice to get to protect people in a new way," Toulouse said in an interview. Before taking over as top Xbox cop, Toulouse worked in Microsoft's Security Response Center and trustworthy computing unit, handling the flaws in Microsoft's products and the resulting security outbreaks they caused.
In some ways, life has changed little for Toulouse since he switched to the Xbox role in August 2007. He's just fighting different kinds of bad guys.
Whereas Microsoft has a large team of people scouring the Internet for reports of security holes, it also has a team of five or six dozen people that are playing Xbox Live at any given time, looking for any type of problems.
"There's always a segment of the population that is going to be miscreant," he said. Still, he said, at any given time just one-twentieth of one percent of all those using the online service have a complaint registered against them. "It's a tiny fraction of the overall interactions."
Toulouse said he relies on the lessons he learned while trying to protect Microsoft customers from bugs that exploited its flaws.
"I carry with me from the MSRC (Microsoft Security Response Center) days that concept of how can this feature be misused or how can this capability be misused," he said.
Cheating is one of the issues that he deals with, though Toulouse said that is somewhat limited given the closed nature of the Xbox as compared with, say, the PC. Most of the issues come around exploiting a flaw in game's map, say a place that one can go where they can shoot other characters but not be hit themselves.
Probably the area he spends the most time policing isn't in any game at all. It's overseeing the regulation of what people put in their gamer tags and profiles.
"They have 255 characters," Toulouse said. "They can say a lot of things."
The company not only responds to complaints but is also constantly working on expanding its lexicon to include new slang for the terms and subjects that it bans. Urban Dictionary, Wikipedia, and other places help the company keep up to date.
"We spend a lot of time researching those terms," Toulouse said. "It's a huge and fast-moving world in terms of how slang develops."
One of the specific issues that has cropped up under Toulouse's watch is the issue of whether and how users can identify their gender identity and sexual orientation. The issue gained some measure of attention starting last summer after several users were prohibited from referencing a gay identity in their gamer tags.
Microsoft's current practice is to ban any discussion of sexuality in either tags or profiles--a move that makes it impossible for those gamers who want to identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender to do so.
In part, Toulouse said, that's because 98 percent of those who have tried to use the term gay have done so not as a means of self-identification but by using the word as a put down.
But for someone who wants to be more than a "banhammer," Toulouse acknowledges just prohibiting all reference to sexuality isn't much of a solution.
"I think what we have today is inelegant," he said, adding that he is working on an improvement, but he still doesn't have a timetable for when a better option will be in place. That's basically the same position he took when the company addressed the issue in February.
"I haven't made a change to date but I am committed to making a change," Toulouse said. "We hear very clearly that customers wish to express this."
Toulouse said that part of the reason it has taken so long is that the company is looking at changing not just the policy but also the profile technology, perhaps adding check boxes where people could include their gender identity or sexual orientation and perhaps other characteristics as well.
"That's the thinking we are leaning toward," he said, adding that no final decision has been made.
This past weekend, Toulouse was in San Francisco for a panel discussion on the role of homophobia in virtual worlds--an issue that more than just Microsoft is trying to grapple with. More than 100 people turned out for the discussion, which was sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and also included representatives of Electronic Arts, Linden Labs, the Entertainment Software Association, and Flynn DeMarco, founder of gaygamer.net.
GLAAD's Justin Cole said that it is not surprising that it is taking Microsoft time to come up with a workable solution to what is clearly a big problem.
"For a system as big as Xbox Live to be able to change something isn't as simple as just a flip of the switch," Cole said.
Another issue for Toulouse and team is educating parents about the need to set controls for their children's use of the Xbox. With other game consoles, the biggest issues are often deciding which games a child can play and for how long.
Many parents aren't aware of a potentially bigger decision that comes with the Xbox. Because it runs online and has chatting capabilities, parents also need to decide with whom their child can communicate online. With Xbox Live, users can get text and audio messages, as well as pictures.
"Those capabilities, like any capabilities, can be misused," Toulouse said. By default, accounts set up for under-18 users turn off the chat capabilities, but many teens set up their own consoles and decide to make create adult accounts, which allow all such messages by default.
Parents often think about these issues when it comes to their children's computer use, but don't always think about having similar rules for things like the Xbox. To try to make parents aware, Microsoft has launched a "Get Game Smart" Web site as well as recruiting a number of online parents and teens to serve as "ambassadors" to their less savvy counterparts.
It's a lot more complicated than when he was young and his parents could just take away the power cord if he wasn't allowed to use his Atari home computer. However, he got an early taste of how to cheat the system--saving up his money and buying an extra power cord from a local electronics store.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
Part of it is also that I just don't have the same amount of time to sit around and play games all day. I long remember the days of the original Street Fighter II hitting the arcades. We all worked to learn the moves. Now, they're all published 6 months before the game comes out and the kids have plenty of time in class to memorize all the moves before the game is even out. Sigh. Progress?
For the next console, I'd LOVE to see someone develop an AI CPU so we can have near human like bots in our games that can detect cheaters within the game itself and employ tactics to mitigate that player. Now that could be a more fun world to play in. Oh, and the 1 vs CPU would finally be more appealing.
That's actually an interesting idea. Why bother with cumbersome language filters when you could have a team of AI snipers relentlessly hunt-down someone who uses unpleasant language? They'd learn quick... :D
'course, back then mostly adults played, so it was drop-easy to rally a server full of players to focus their collective energies into humiliating a lamer. Especially in team-based play, the best joy of all was to win a round, and taunt the lamer while doing it - they wound up getting angry while everyone else laughed. :)
Nowadays, there's no way I could spend the time, and most of the punks are merely kids anyway. Foul language was taken as a constant, and even back then you could completely ignore a player with a simple console command... can't be too hard to do that today, can it?
IIRC, long ago, there was a bot that could be easily detected (you simply typed in "ratbot" into the console, and any player on the server using it would immediately and involuntarily broadcast back that they were using it). There was also a set of server scripts (at least for Quake 2) that would detect one of a collection of bots being used, then immediately mod the server-side game so that the bot user died in a bloody explosion every time he pushed the fire button... he would have to disconnect, wait five minutes, then reconnect minus the bot to shake the results.
1 service regulated for those underage and who want to be CHEAT FREE
2nd service for ANYTHING GOES including cheating.
This is not such much as for those who love bots but for freedom of choice and have a parental
control panel to keep kids safe and or not allowed per account info setup that is saved on server side.
I myself love bots and to have a crybaby go complain to shut me down....Grrrrr
Dummies like that is why I stopped using XboX live and just use regular pc games now.
People like you mess things up for the rest of us playing a game for what it's meant to be. If you don't have what it takes or just too dumb to play threw the right way just go read a book or something.
You can never justify cheating; not on a woman, or on your taxes, or even in gaming. Only possible justification to cheating is being an idiot. Are you and idiot?
still stands for any other cheater out there.
I hate cheaters as when a famous server is visited often then that attracts cheaters.
I have been a victim of cheater way too often and that is why I prefer to use bots on a local server and no longer go online against other players.
As for sexual based names, as long as they aren't lewd I don't have a problem with them. Perhaps Microsoft Live should re examine their policy.
If people want to advertise their sexuality, do it in a place where adults congregate, not where there are children.
I don't want to have to explain sex to a 6 year old just because some people can't separate sex from everything else.
You may not believe this...or maybe you do, because you sound like you would be one of them, but, there is a LOT of sexual harrassment that happens on XBL...if someone even sounds gay, they can be ripped to shreds by the boobs of the community. So, instead of dealing with those morons, some gay gamers would like to avoid that crap and game together.
has nothing to do with sex and has everything to do with avoiding abuse and wanting to game with friendlies.
I knew right away he was cheating then I was PWNED. He uploaded his videos which are now known as SPEED QUAKE. It is amazing what people can do in a game without cheating.
I am against any type of name that is suggestive of sexuality. I see enough of that at Iron Forge people trying to profess themsevles in a virtual world and for what???? Why make everything in life about sexual desire? Are you that addicted to sex that it must be in the very air you breathe?
Sounds like some people need to reflect on their own psychology.
It's funny how they worry about what the kids are exposed to when it's the kids themselves that are the biggest offender by spewing sexist and racial jokes online be it CoD, WoW, or even LBP.
You can do whatever you want in the privacy of your own home, by why bring it to Live as well?
XBOX Live is about gaming, not about sex or sexual orientations. There are web sites/places for that kind of thing. Keep 'em there.
I was making reference to this part of the comment: "Are you that addicted to sex that it must be in the very air you breathe?" hence the "I think I'm addicted" part of my comment. and did i mention anywhere that I brought anything sexual to Live? and FYI xbl is not just about gaming, its a social meeting place where a lot of people connect. my friends list is huge and we play all the time together.
@roachbrain
I was making reference to you "pissing blood for the next half hour".....did you go see a doctor man? because it really sounds like something was wrong it. I never said anything bad about your girl, I was just surprised that you pissed blood........also, it's nice that you've been with your girl for 7 years but let me say this, if you really were doing it right then you wouldn't have been having arguments about you getting some in the first place. plain and simple. plus, when I think about what you said, it sound like she did put the hurt on you purposly (are you sure you really want to marry someone like that? a person who will hurt you in that way just to make a point? it sounds like she would cut your jewels off it if comes down to it). well in any case, let me say congratulations and hope you don't lose your manhood.
They have something like TEAM-VRS then their name would be like PWN-VRS
So I emulate them and put -VRS at the end of my nick. Then I go about team killing the team killers.
This was back when the awsome tool -PING OF DEATH was still valid and unpatched and I kicked a bunch of cheaters off game servers when they were unregulated on Quake1 servers....... Oh the joy and satisfaction I got from giving them a BSOD was timeless.
This is a joke right. How many people have actually complained about this? talk about trying to hard to be pc.
- - wow - - what an awesome idea, way to think outside the XBOX.
We could call them guardians, perhaps an on the fly system would allow current opponents or in some cases, teammates to make the accusation. The AI would benchmark the accused stats against an online library to determine if there's an inordinate ratio such as 40 kills vs 2 deaths, or 4 solo captures vs 1 for the next best player, distance traveled (help ID those who use standby) whatever the case may be. One day maybe speech recognition could accurately identify racial, homophobic slurs and swear word variants too.
If the AI cannot make a firm determination then the 'guardian' would issue a warning to that player that he or she has been accuesed of cheating. If the AI determined that cheating was likely, a game controlled character(s) would appear and drag them away (just like the demons in GHOST) removing them and their stats from the gaem. First time is a warning, 2nd offense is a 1 week ban, 3rd offense is a 1 month ban, after that, lifetime ban on that game. Two lifetime bans for one gamer tag and that tag is banned from all XBL. Two lifetime gamertag bans earned on one XBOX, lifetime XBL ban for that console.
Idiotic BEEP holes make XBL so unpleasant that my online experience is almost 100% restricted to friendly matches only. The achievements and rankings just are not worth it to me for having to deal with either cussing 13 year olds and the one shot kills while you're hiding behind a steel door, in a cave, protected by a force field - cheaters suck!
and for your information multiple times I've gotten 43 kills vs 1 death in COD4 and I don't cheat....so by that criteria I would be targeted by the "guardians" because I'm playing good? that's ridiculous.
On rubbish!
Why on earth should gay, lesbian, bisexisual or whatever, be given special treatment than anyone else?
No sexual orientation is allowed in Live profiles. Period!
The trouble with all these gays/lesbians and what have you is, they are not just demanding equal rights as everyone else(which seems reasonable enough), they are demanding special treament, and special rules for themselves, and extra rights than everybody else, and that just can't be allowed to happen.
o the good old, "a girl can slap u in the face or stab u, but u as a man can not and will not ever exert any force under any circumstance" after that lecture i got beaten and threatened and screamed at by girls for a entire month, good thing that was just elementry school... btw i still don't "exert force" on girls, but i do defend myself by running away now =.= so much for equality
But there is a line drawn between, not hitting a woman(which I never do), and giving special previleges to gays and what have you's on a games community, which has nothing to do whatsoever with sex.
XBOX Live is not a sex dating site. Its for games, and Netflix, and games downloads and movies etc. One's sexual orirentatuon, has absolutely nothing do do with multiplayer play on Gears of War or Halo.
These lesbian mafia are out to blackmail and browbeat big corpratiions in America like Microsoft, to grant them special previleges, which are way and above what any other persons gets. Let's nor forget that XBOX Live has aome underage kids playing their downloaded kiddie games from Arcade too. What about their rights not to have bisexuals or whatever thrust into ther faces?
These people can keep their sexuality AWAY from XBOX Live, just like everybody else does.
- by PhaseDMA July 26, 2009 6:00 AM PDT
- I have no idea why but the PS3 (from my limited PS3 online play) just seems to be a lot better. There isn't cursing. You don't get "teabagged". Random people have a much larger desire to work as a team.
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- by C0mmanderB0nd July 30, 2009 6:38 AM PDT
- Less idiots with mics makes a huge difference, most people who are smart enought to have a bluetooth headset to use seem to be more mature. Where as the Xbox 360 includes one in every premium/pro/elite box so the idiots can strap it on and verbally assualt anyone the come across in game.
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(47 Comments)Sure the network is smaller, but I play Killzone 2 and the teams are 4x larger then anything you experience in Halo. The service is free, but maybe the expensive console price keeps the jerks off the service. Maybe it's because less people have mics. I don't know but the experience is better.