I think we can all agree that the population of Xbox live aren't the brightest people in the world, it's most vocal members often include racist 12 year olds, gangstas, racist 30 year olds, idiots, and people that play Xbox so much they've developed a aversion to sunlight, but is this really such a bad thing? personally I wouldn't have it any other way, I happen to rather quick on the draw when it come to comedic comebacks (i have caused friends to cry with laughter and stupid kids to... well just cry) and these people are a gold mine. Even just the interactions between these people are often hilarious, there's nothing like a dude yelling death threats at a ten year old for saying the n word. My point is if you approach Xbox live ready to laugh the collision of racism and stupidness is almost a work of art.

...anyway I created this thread because I keep hearing about how people hate Xbox live due to these people and some that never plug in there mic or even refuse to play online to avoid them, there have even been threads on this forum (I think) recently that proposed making the morons change there moronic names. Come-on it's not that bad, if you don't take it seriously the populates of Xbox live are awesome.

Stories of Live's stupidity:

I remember the last time my girlfriend played with me and some friends in a public match...She talked and a little squeaky-voiced kid that hasn't even grown his first set of face fuzz yelled out "OMG YOU'RE A GIRL!?!??! DO YOU HAVE A PICTURE OF YOURSELF NAKED THAT I CAN HAVE??!!? CAN WE MEET SO I CAN FUCK YOUR PUSSY UNTIL YOUR NIPPLES SHOOT MILK EVERYWHERE?!!??!"

Next thing I hear over the mic is one of my friends spraying out a mouthful of beer.

There was one guy who kept insulting the team every time we got behind, going on about how we suck and need to do this or that to win. I finally said "Shut the hell up dude, it is a game. Calm down before you have an heart attack." He then called me an Arab rag-head (????? I'm clearly American) and told me to "shut the fuck up and play so we can win."

Once I met someone with a one star for their Rep in Call of Duty 4. My first thought was "Jesus, this guy must be really bad for the Live community to hate him this much..." I was next to him and we turned a corner, running into an enemy. He kills him, but the guy has Last Stand on and kills him. As I was firing the guy yelled out "No! Don't kill him, I want the kill!" Too late. He then, and I'm not kidding, proceeded to yell out random strings of profanity at me for the rest of the match. They were just incoherent "sentences" of random swears like "Fuck you, you fuck shit fucker homo fuck shit dick cunt fuck homo shitty fuck cunt bitch whore fucking fuck shit cunt!!" Occasionally he would say a coherent sentence, like "I'm going to track you down, rape your mom and sister, and fucking kill you!" before once again verbally attacking me with random profanity. After the match was over, he started SENDING ME TEXT MESSAGES containing random strings of profanity that he typed until he couldn't fit any more in the text message.

I now know why he had one Rep.

I don't know if I'm just lucky or what, but I have only encountered these sorts of problems in a few games, not every match.

I've noticed something with the live headset.
I makes your voice deeper. My little brother can go on live and people think he's over 18 (as opposed to 16), and hearing messages from him, his voice does sound very much deeper.
Which makes me wonder exactly how young all the squeaky voiced little bastards are.

Turok has one of the worst communities of players I've come across. Lot's of angry children, who keep screaming at me for killing them with something other than the knife. On the occasion that you do find someone that can see the advantage in using guns, they turn out to be stuck up snobs.

For example (I have named the other party "Bastardpants", but they probably had one of those stupid gamertags using numbers and all that crap):

-Iron Ninja has been headshotted-

Iron Ninja: Hey wow, nice shot.
Bastardpants: Yeah... I wasn't really trying.
Iron Ninja: Okay then, but nice shot.
Bastardpants: Not really, it was a pretty easy shot.
Iron Ninja: Dude just take the fucking compliment.

Brothers in arms: Hell's Highway on the other hand, has one of the friendliest communities of players I've ever met on live. For example, among the players in my team (The Germans) I had a black guy, a gay guy, and a girl. There were no racist, homophobic or sexist jokes made for the entire round, and the single high voiced little guy we had was helpful, courteous and (for the most part) only spoke when it was absolutely necessary.
(Of course this was back when Fable 2 had just come out, so it's quite possible that all the bastardpants type people were off playing that.)

It's the nature of the beast, I'm afraid. Having to deal with the lowest common denominator is the price we have to pay if we want quality online gaming.

I agree with you, though. It's really not all that bad, if you take most of what you hear with a grain of salt. It can even be fun; as far as I'm concerned, yelling obscenities into the mike is basically code for "Grief me the entire match. My idea of fun is being killed two seconds after I spawn."

Shiuz91:
I agree laughing at these people is fun and beating them easily because they suck so much is the oh-so lovable cherry on top.

Especially when they are the, say, the "tough gangsta" type that talk about how they are "gunna bust sum caps in yo asses" before the match starts, and then proceed to make random excuses like "I had to get da phone" or "I wuz atein" or "I wuz fucking ma hoe during dat round" when they get utterly slaughtered.

Yes, I HAVE encountered someone who used excuses like that to tell us why he was getting 3 kills 28 deaths or something like that every round, despite previously telling us how "hardcore gangsta" they are.

luckily there is the "mute" option. I usually private chat with friends or turn the volume off on my mic anyway. A buddy of mine and I totally snuck around in COD4 on opposite teams and met up to try to get some of those challenge points without the hassle, it was awesome.

I agree its at times a hidden blessing. That said ive banned my lil brother from using a headset. Its not as funny when the profanities are coming from the kid sat next to u as opposed to the kid across the Atlantic :-D

i guess i'm just a jerk for not wanting to be around these people and well.. taking the opportunity to not.. be around those people... hm. Whatever. Anyway, i guess i just am a terrible person for using the mute option on individuals who can't understand the concept of sportsmanship ... or games-manship and have no desire to, nor the superiority complex, to enjoy watching them. Guess it's just me. I only play online console games occasionaly and w/ friends so the games where there is a jerk on... at least we can all agree they're a jerk. I prefer computer online play.. the people might not be much different, but at least they are quieter.. or at least type rather then talk and it's harder to type and play at the same time. So yeah.. have fun w/ the meat heads.. i'll be .. somewhere else.

You just have to accept those people who seems to think it makes them cool to scream profanities and other such irritating noises down their headsets. The best you can do is mute them, and try to bring some semblance of normality back.

They do ruin it, sometimes it seems it's not worth putting up with it, but most of the time just try to laugh at them.

There's mostly decent people on there, but i got to agree it is fun putting the more aggressive youths in their place. i actually don't mind playing younger players, even if its a game they shouldn't really have (my views on censorship and that are kinda relaxed). Most can be surprisingly decent. Its just the little fuckers who've just had their first shot of testoserone shoot out from somewhere in them that get on my piggin' nerves. If you're gonna play a game, at least try and act the age it says you should be on the box.

Yeah theres plenty of those people in live that your gonna meet. You just have to learn to ignore them.

If I were going to get an Xbox 360 (and I'm thinking about it), the community would be the least of my worries. Most of the Internet is just like XBL. This includes PSN, forums and everything. Not just XBL.

I'm playing Gears of War 2 horde on Live right now and it's an absolutely amazing experience. However, it is only amazing because I have muted microphone communications with everyone who isn't on my friends list. That is to say, I don't have to hear little Butters sing his lungs out or blast his shitty rap songs into my headset. It's nice to have human players, but not nice to have their racism and ignorance blasted into my ear. It's definitely the best online service of the three, but you have to be careful about how you use it.