The recently released video game Earth Defense Force 2025 has a language problem. Specifically, the game bans any username that contains the word “gay.” What makes this ironic is that the Playstation Network (through which the game enables online multiplayer access) allows for user profiles to have the word “gay” in their PSN profile name. So Earth Defense Force 2025 added a secondary layer of screening on top of this. The developers at D3 were less than helpful, responding to one complaint with the solution of “just take out the gay and youre [sic] good to go.”
As Christian Walters at Gay Gamer.net put it:
The generous attitude to take is that actions like these are well-intentioned but poorly-executed attempts at preventing online abuse. A less generous attitude is that they’re lazy attempts at the same as setting up a filter is so much simpler than examining each instance on a case-by-case basis. The problem is that banning an orientation identity doesn’t do anything to curtail harassment. The tweens and socially maladapted will still throw out slurs to insult other players and will attack anyone they perceive as gay regardless of their screenname. By banning the screennames, all that happens is a legitimate subculture is hidden and silenced, which is precisely what allows harassment and abuse to flourish.