Ultimate Gay Fighter and the curbing of free speech

So I just found out about that Ultimate Gay Fighting game that has likely caught the attention of all GameSpot users and visitors. Some find it funny, some find it weird and others find it disgusting if not blasphemous. Obviously that kind of game warrants some kind of discussion. But apparently it seems that GS was all too happy to block the ability to add comments on the Gay Fighter article for unknown reasons (Protection of someone else's interest/agenda? Fear of butthurt?). I find it offensive that We The People (i.e. Gamers) aren't allowed to voice our opinion on such a game. We have a right to express ourselves freely and we all know what happens when you remove that freedom ("cough" YouTube Content ID "cough"). So please GS, remove that restriction and let freedom of speech prevail. Respect the First Amendment and we'll respect you.

"Free speech" does not exist on privately owned servers on the internet. If they felt the article comments were out of control and needed to be locked down, that is well within their rights to do.

Exactly. GS can do as they please. If you don't like it, support a site that is more in line with your tastes instead of coming here and generating ad revenue for them while complaining uselessly about their methods.

This is not a free country. As the first responder said, it's a privately owned server. If Gamespot wanted to make it so we couldn't comment on anything, they could do that.

Gamespot is allowing comments on reviews only because they make them money, but even they know better than allowing any cretin to comment on a piece about homosexuality, especially after seeing how mature people were when addressing Carolyn Petit.

I'm surprised they blocked comments from an article, especially seeing how comments for any given article are usually a bunch of garbage and trolling. I think the reason for the blocking of comments on this article was due to insults on GameSpot's staff, namely Carolyn. The whole GTAV review mumbo jumbo with all the insulting comments clearly angered GameSpot, so I guess I can't blame them if that was their reasoning for this. Either way, I don't see this as suppressing free speech or anything, and every one else has pointed out that this site isn't America so there's no need for the patriotic spiel.

Freedom of Speech is one thing, Hate speech is a different matter.

And considering some of the comments given out at other reviews about matters that are less sensitive then Homosexuality, They're well within their right to take precautions.

If you want to say what you mean about the game, go right ahead. Right here and now.

I think the game is niche.

It may not be suppressive of free speech but it is cowardly. If you're going to post something you know - and yes, there's no way they expected anything else - is going to controversial, then you had better be ready to withstand the crap that follows. Silencing and hiding from those you disagree with is pathetic. It's like that Sarkeesian chick on youtube. People are going to disagree with you. My biggest gripe here is that you're also hurting everyone who wasn't being a jerk. Some of us kind of wanted to discuss the thing.

If you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. You have mods for a reason. Very disappointed in GS right now. I'm surprised that thing even got posted. It looks very exploitive and chock full of negative stereotypes.

Either its all ok or none of its ok.

See people like to use the phrase "hate speech" when someone isn't in line with them. Like how everyone called that duck dynasty guy a racist, homophobe, anti gay and so on just because his views weren't that of our politically correct society. If someone can be pro gay then it should be within someones rights to be anti gay. You cant preach tolerance and acceptance in this country if you aren't willing to be tolerant and accept people who don't agree with you, that's the fucking point of being tolerant and accepting.

I do not believe in what the KKK stands for, but I will NEVER EVER tell them they are wrong or that they shouldn't be able to say or think what they want because they have that right. I just simply chose to not pay attention to them and let them do what makes them happy while I do the same.

So no hate speech isn't a different matter when you get down to it. If you can give love speech then someone else should be able to give hate speech. Only the truly tolerant and truly accepting people can understand that.

All gamespot users? also GS is not a democracy, its a private owned site and therefore their site = their rules., if you disagree then you can take your opinion and free speech and post it on your own site, on youtube or pick a box and go down to the local town square and stand on that.

besides who honestly care about that game? i didn´t even know it was there until you posted here. And i bet most gamers wont even care for 1ms.

I assume the article's comments were closed due to an overwhelming amount of negativity being posted. In recent months, the team (or, more specifically, the admins) has taken to closing down more problematic comment threads when they're unable to be controlled through standard moderation rather than just leaving them open for us to continue hopelessly trying to maintain order. Saves us all a ton of time and energy.

As others have stated, free speech has no place here. It's a privately owned site, and as such, they are completely within their rights to control what can and cannot be said on GameSpot. The terms of use we all agreed to when making our accounts clearly states so. This has been the case with just about every single major message board on the Internet for ages. If you want true free speech on the Web, make your own forum and don't create any rules.

Well since this thread is still opened I'm gonna assume we're allowed to discuss the game here.

Why does the title have to include "gay" in it in the first place? Are there christian fighters out there, or shoe lover fighters? I don't understand why it's important to declare one's sexual orientation for a fighting game, or the need for a personal label for any genre.

So you think people should be more willing to tolerate intolerance?

People should be willing to tolerate any thoughts or opinions that doesn't involve violence against others. People don't have to like everything. If we're not allowed to express our free thoughts in society, it's not a free society. Websites are another matter entirely, as has already been pointed out.

@Bigboi500: I agree. Which is why I have a problem with being told to tolerate intolerance. If people want to believe being gay is a sin and will damn them to hell, I have no issue with that. What I have an issue with is when those people write that belief into the law and use it to oppress others. When I call them out on that I am labelled "intolerant", and it's really quite aggravating.

So one is to tolerate intolerance by those that are intolerant of other's views, choices, looks and opinions because if we don't then that's being intolerant?

This. It's a ridiculous double-standard that seriously needs to die.

If that happens we are going to see a lot of hateful comments on that game alone from religious people. So no thanks

Ok, but they shouldn't be making LBGT a standard on GS, either. Nothing against nobody of the GS crew, but I'd really be glad if there was also a woman to represent the female gamership here.

@Treflis: "Right here and now."

Wolf!

@Treflis: "Right here and now."

Wolf!

I'm a cis woman and don't mind to be "represented" by transwoman if that's what you mean.

The problem with video games is the political views of the majority.

ultimate gay fighter?! I might consider it if somebody can give me a blow by blow on the moves list.

I just watched the extended trailer and must say that this game does absoutely nothing good for the gay community. Is this really how gay people want to be represented in the gaming community? It looks more like something that would be used to make fun of gay people on South Park. Its like a very flamboyant version of street fighter.

It won't as long as ignorance and hate will roam

The game looks like crap anyways

Free speech doesn't mean that the Duck Dynasty moron can say stupid things without anyone calling out his idiocy. The 'local blacks love oppression' was the standard refrain of the South during slavery and became the standard refrain again after the Redemption during the reign of Jim Crow (at which point blacks became legal nonentities and thus vulnerable to the worst instincts of whoever).

For example, for a long time in the Deep South recreational rape of black woman was a common practice because for decades it wasn't prosecuted (a black person could not testify against a white person in court and hope to win). The famous Rosa Parks started off as the NAACP's lead investigator in such cases.

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http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2010/09/rosa_parks_had_a_radical_side_championing_the_rights_of_rape_victims.html

In 1944 Taylor, a 24-year-old mother and sharecropper, was walking home from an evening of singing and praying at the Rock Hill Holiness Church in Abbeville, Ala., when she was kidnapped by seven white men with shotguns and knives, raped and left for dead.

The Montgomery branch of the NAACP dispatched its best investigator and organizer, Rosa Parks -- yes, Rosa Parks -- to Abbeville. Despite a confession, corroborating testimony, affidavits from at least three eyewitnesses and overwhelming evidence, two all-white, all-male grand juries refused to issue any indictments. That result was not unusual across the South.

"They said they'd kill me if I told on them," Taylor said. But she spoke out anyway. When her life was threatened and the home she shared with her husband and toddler firebombed, she moved in with her father, who spent every night crouched in a tree, holding a shotgun that he was ready to use to protect his family. Decades before the women's movement, as McGuire writes, "Taylor's refusal to remain silent helped expose a ritual of rape in existence since slavery, inspired a nationwide campaign to defend black womanhood, and gave hope to thousands suffering through similar abuses."

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If one chooses to remain ignorant of history that is fine and good, but use common sense. Many people are only as good as they have to be, so people with no rights are targets for abuse. As conservatives love to point out in other contexts, what makes democracy and capitalism work better than the alternatives is that they recognize the imperfections of man and seek to channel them (by way of contrast, communism assumes that both the rulers and the ruled will ignore self interest and work hard for a nebulous greater good, which just isn't the way most people are wired).

Sadly, what some conservatives choose to do is ignore true conservatism in order to defend bigotry and evil.