Microsoft to Start Discriminating Based on Your Weight
“An undesirable body weight could be reflected in an overweight or underweight appearance for the avatar,” said Slashdot. “Linking one's gaming avatar to one's physique, explains Microsoft, will produce healthy and virtuous behaviors in individuals.”
As if that was not creepy enough, Slashdot continues to explain Microsoft's opinion on the matter.
“Linking one's gaming avatar to one's physique, explains Microsoft, will produce healthy and virtuous behaviors in individuals,” said the article. “Microsoft also proposes shaping gaming experiences by using 'psychological and demographic information such as education level, geographic location, age, sex, intelligence quotient, socioeconomic class, occupation, marital/relationship status, religious belief, political affiliation, etc.”
Not only is Microsoft planning on discriminating based on whether or not we are fat. They are going to try to learn everything about us, presumably from your profile created for Xbox live, to determine what kind of avatar we are allowed to create.
Anonymity
I do not need to lecture any disabled gamers about anonymity but for those who do not know. Anonymity is the ultimate equalizer of the Internet. Several stories that you can read on AbleGamers include one theme: When on the Internet your disability does not matter as much, if at all, because video games are the ultimate enablers.
What does that mean? If you enjoy Madden NFL, it does not matter if can walk, run, or score a touchdown in real life; in the football game, you are equal to everyone else except for skill level. It does not matter what hand you were dealt in life; you can play any video game just as well as someone who is not disabled.
Not to mention, in an MMO situation, anonymity provides the ability to avoid the staring, gocking, and stereotyping that many disabled individuals are victimized by on a daily basis, just based on their physical appearance.
Microsoft aims to remove the anonymity and make you pay a price for your body type. In our opinion, that is not what video games are about; video games are created with the express intention of entertaining an audience.
To add such an avatar restriction would not only be insulting to disabled gamers but an actual step backwards for accessible gaming. We strive for equality, options, and opportunities. If this type of avatar creation is successful, the discrimination that many of us face in real life will continue to plague us in our recreation of choice.
As a disabled gamer, I do not want to be forced to display a wheelchair on my avatar but if something like this comes to fruition, could such an imposition be forced upon me in the future? I think it is highly possible. As we all know, video games tend to be a slippery slope; once an idea catches on, everyone will try to do it.
It should be the choice of each one of us, whether we want our avatars to look like ourselves as we really are or our fantasy version of ourselves.
Tell us what you think. Do you want to be forced to make an avatar that looks like you, based on your profile and what Microsoft knows about you?
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No, I don't necessarily want to be forced to build an avatar that looks exactly like me. But really, saying that that's what Microsoft is talking about strikes me as reductio ad absurdum. It strikes me as inconceivably unlikely that Microsoft would deploy a large-scale implementation of this sort of "real avatar" system across their titles. It doesn't matter if you are disabled or not, nobody is going to go along with that. We disabled people aren't the only self-conscious members of the gaming community, after all!
I am intrigued by this concept, though, and I'd be interested to see what type of application Microsoft really had in mind for it. First and foremost, it would likely need to be entirely voluntary if it was to be used in a variety of different games. If they're talking about exercise and fitness centric games, though, I don't necessarily see a problem with one's physique being tied into the game. Existing products of this sort already monitor the user's height, weight etc. as well as calories burned during play (heck, even Dance Dance Revolution does if I recall). Would it really be that much of an injustice to unlock additional areas/levels/whatever based on physical fitness? I mean, many traditional games already unlock new content as various achievements relevant to gameplay are reached. For games whose gameplay is built entirely around exercise and fitness, it's a logical extension that physical achievements could be used to open up new content.
Now, all that said, my above opinion is based entirely on relation between one's physical appearance and their avatar (and gameplay). Usage of "psychological and demographic" information is another matter entirely. I would be very, very, VERY uneasy about this coming to fruition depending on certain things. First and foremost of which: where this information would be gathered from. After all, when you get right down to it, your Live profile (either Windows or Xbox) doesn't really contain that much information about you. Certainly nothing psychological in nature. If one was allowed to voluntarily contribute this information (and I suppose technically lie if they so choose) I really don't see a problem with it. If Microsoft is thinking about reaching out to access information about us from the plethora of other sources available on the 'net -- e.g. medical records, shopping history, poll results, external profiles etc. -- then we're walking down a dangerous path.
In response to The3:
While I get the point with unlocking certain aspects of the game (when pertaining to fitness based games), but only a human doctor can determine someones healthy body physique. A "healthy body type" has a lot of key factors to que in here such as bone density, muscle density, any medical conditions, etc. (ie: forcing one to do cardio but has a pre-existing heart condition). Also, if they're attempting to promote physical fitness why would you want to keep the harder levels of fitness locked without any unlocking potential within a reasonable amount of time? It seems rather contradictory-- You're over weight so you cannot unlock a higher level, but a higher level gives you more of a workout which is what you bought the game for in the first place. This just doesn't make sense and seems as if they put their foot in their mouth on this one.
At article:
Now the question of the matter is this, was this just for "fit" games or all games? If it was for all games they would loose a large profit margins. Why would someone spend their hard earned money on games that they couldn't even play reasonably?
While I understand the want to be annonymous being a larger concern, another factor we need to weigh in here is identity theft. I can say I wont want all of that information available to anyone about me publicly.
While I value the desire to want to promote healthy lifestyles, they're basing this as if we're all on an even scale and we're not. We have different genetic codes which, at times, are incomparable. There are better ways of going about this, such as fit games tailoring a workout based on what it may think, with the ability for alteration.
As for the avatars and unlocking, none of the information they've listed should be necissary to play a video game. My religion will never dictate how I'm a team player, my gender will never dictate my level of strategy, and my weight does not determine my passion. If this is the case than why, above all, is it necissary to ask to play a game?
@The3
I would like to also point out that people thought it was inconceivable that the government would interfere with what we are supposed to eat. Or what restaurants are able to cook with.
Have you tried KFC lately? It's horrible, because the government said trans-fat is bad, now we get disgusting chicken.
Do I think they are going to make it where we could not play anything because our avatar is overweight? No, but I wouldn't put it past them to try to incentivize buying more gadgets under the guise of getting healthy.
You have to understand, America is insanely shallow, the health and fitness industry is the second largest right behind pornography. Yet, we are also the largest country waist size wise.
What that tells me is that we are easily told what to do to get healthier and we will buy tons of products to get healthier, but it's never going to happen as long as we keep eating Twinkies.
@Betti
Good questions, and I had not thought about identity theft. Perhaps the real answer is in my reply to The3. You see, the Wii fitness craze is something that Microsoft made a lot of money off of. They figured out how to increase their wallet size by giving us videogames that are supposed to reduce our waist size.
I originally wrote much of this article because, much like your questions, I believe this is a slippery slope.
Will there be more discrimination if we are forced to reveal everything about ourselves before playing a game with others? I'm sure of it. Humans are mostly discriminating creatures.
Some people won't want girls because they are not as good at killing other people, or maybe they will want only girls because that way they will be able to get lucky. And other such absurd stereotypical nonsense.
As you said, it may come down to your religion, weight, color, or disability.
I just think we don't need to give human beings anymore room to be discriminating than they already have. When I see a night elf that wants to join my party in World of Warcraft, I don't wonder if they are black or white, fat or skinny, Christian or an atheist; all I know is that I need help killing this monster and they can do it. Simple as that.
It scares me to think that Microsoft wants to make a game where I would be able to tell that that person is actually a Latino female from Jersey. That's just too much information.
And don't even get me started on how many females I know that play male characters because they think every other male character is a 15-year-old boy who absolutely must hit on them.
How disturbingly hard do you think it would be to be a female, 18-25, 5'8'', 125lbs, who is trying to play a game but the game gives the statistics freely to the public in her profile.
Not that big of a shock to me. It is kinda like facebook or myspace but trying to filter out more of the lies, with more of a focus on your fitness. It will never really work into they inplant a chip in our body that tracks and transmits information about the person. Which I hope that day never comes. I believe in privacy and for that I hope people are always given a option.
@Bearstion
"You see, the Wii fitness craze is something that Microsoft made a lot of money off of. They figured out how to increase their wallet size by giving us videogames that are supposed to reduce our waist size."
To be fair, I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. While Microsoft is undoubtably working hard to come up with their own exergaming system, they don't have one yet. You can place the blame for Wii Fit entirely on Nintendo 
The wait would be for a virtual gym you could send your avatar for a work out. or virtual diet pills, XXL size avatar clothes, slimming suits bla bla bla. If MS doesn't you can bet companies like EA will.
In the end Microsoft is a company, so the only time they really care about people working out is when natal can be linked to a tredmill etc.
Information is a nice thing, but not everyone has good intentions. Even if you take the con artists, blackmailers etc out of the picture. New employers check up on potential new employees, insurance companies love to not cover high risk people.
History is also full of examples where in certain times information can be twisted and used against people.
OT: I do not get the fun in xbox live anyway. I got bored with it during the free gold period. And now the system no longer has net access. Pehraps it is also that everything it can do I can do for free and better via the pc, and sometimes even the Wii.
