Just about the only bad thing about being a hardcore gamer/entertainment freak and working at Xbox is the fact that you get exposed to TOTALLY AMAZING JAW DROPPING AWESOME SHIT that is top secret.

We’ve had the new Xbox UI, content deals, and progress on the top tier titles in the works for months now, and EVERY DAY has been TORTURE having to keep it secret.

I can’t stress this enough, you walk into a meeting, get shown something that you think is the coolest thing ever (like install to hard drive or the avatars or what have you) and then you can’t even tell your wife. For months.

It’s basically like you get to have sex with Angelina Jolie, however you want, as often as you want, but you can’t tell anyone. And if someone asks you have to look all blank and go "Really, I have no idea what you are talking about."

So today was totally cathartic for me. You guys are going to love what we’ve got cooking. The teams are all on notice: shit is public now. You guys are expecting every ounce of goodness we announced today.

This fall, for the first time in video game console history, the next generation takes place inside the present generation. No new console required. You guys are going to totally dig the changes to Xbox LIVE and the stuff we’re planning.

In regards to the gentleman whose legal name is "Richard Gaywood" who we FNC’d earlier. Each day people try to combine "Richard" ("Dick") with various words and phrases to create ToU violating content. In this case, the individual was not trying to do that, it was their real name.

It’s unfortunate that this just happens to be the individual’s name. However there’s no context to explain to someone who might see it in a leaderboard or on Xbox.com that no, they aren’t trying to be clever, that’s their real name. In addition, the Code of Conduct also forbids the use of full names as a Gamertag:

Don’t give out information that personally identifies you (such as your real name, address, phone number, credit card number, etc.) while you’re playing. This includes voice chat and the names you create for your gamertag or mottos. This information could be used by other players for illegal or harmful purposes. Also, don’t give out the personal information of other players.

Emphasis mine. We give you a “name” field if you wish to put your real name in, that field isn’t autopresented on things like leaderboards, etc. like the gamertags are.

And to answer one last point, there is no "Script" or automated process here. We receive complaints from the community, review them against the terms of use, and take action if needed. It’s an impartial process we apply equally across many forms of content.

And for those who inevitably inform me that there are far worse tags on LIVE, *REPORT THEM*. :>

[EDIT: I’ve gotten a surprising amount of email today accusing me or Microsoft of being homophobic. Allow me to clear that up real quickly.

The rights of Gay, Lesbian, or Transgendered individuals is a civil rights issue. I support the right of these individuals to marry and have those marriages recognized the same as anyone else’s, equally. (not civil unions, which insults me as much as "separate but equal" does as a racial strategy, but marriage as it exists for heterosexual couples)

I support their right to adopt under the exact same criteria heterosexual couples enjoy. I support legislation that protects their rights in the workplace and in society and am very proud that the Microsoft corporation is a leader in this area. I could say a lot more, but the very notion that I am a homophobe or that Microsoft is somehow homophobic is just taking the matter too far. Hopefully these public declarations will put that matter to rest.]

I’ve gotten some questions today regarding a recent name change my team issued against the gamertag "TheGayerGamer". As I have mentioned before, the community brings content that may potentially violate the terms of use to our attention via the complaint system.

For text and profile complaints we actually review every complaint against the Code of Conduct and Terms of Use to determine whether the complaint is accurate. We DO NOT take action based off the number of complaints, or how often people complain in a given day. All complaints we get into the system against a Gamertag or content are reduced to one so that our agents merely review the content against the terms of use. Whether it’s one complaint or 20, we will look at it the same way. That’s the metric we use and that we have publicly communicated that we use.

And the Terms of Use clearly disallow content of a sexual nature:

"[a member may not] Create a Gamertag or use text in other profile fields that may offend other members. This includes comments that look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate any of the following: profane words/phrases, sexually explicit language, sexual innuendo, hate speech (including but not limited to racial, ethnic, or religious slurs), illegal drugs/controlled substances, or illegal activities.

Emphasis mine.

We received a complaint on the Gamertag and determined that it did indeed contain sexual innuendo. Now granted, there could be an argument that the text is not pejorative to homosexuality and should therefore be allowed. But there is no context to explain that. Gamertags are visible to everyone and it would be hard for me to defend to a parent of a young child who saw it that the name did not contain content of a sexual nature.

We view these situations objectively during our review under the terms of use. To answer the question another way, yes "TheStraighterGamer" or "TheHeterosexualgamer" would have gotten the same treatment and would have been found to be in violation and forced to be changed. We’ve actually done that to tags like that before.

Racism, hate speech, bigotry, homophobia, all these things have no place on Xbox Live and are in violation of our Terms of Use and Code of Conduct. My team works hard reviewing the complaints every single day and taking action on them where appropriate. We also work very hard to be present in our LIVE community actively playing and looking for bad behavior so we can take action when we see it (for some proof of this you can check the Xbox Forums each morning for people complaining about their suspensions and that they were only ‘kidding around’!) The good news is that I have said before complaints as a % of our total users still remains a tiny tiny fraction. But be sure if you see bad behavior to let us know via the complaint system!

I just wanted to provide some transparency into the reasoning we put into the process. Hope that helps!