Halo 4 folks say down with sexism
Female gamers experience an ungodly amount of sexist verbal abuse, even threats, at the hands of male gamers—which, of course, bothers the male gamers who are decent as well as female gamers. To stop this horrible reaction, the creators of Halo 4 announced that they will enact permanent bans to any players making sexist comments during play. The same applies to any discriminatory comments made.
Head developer Bonnie Ross denounced this behavior as unacceptable and offensive, while executive producer Kiki Wolfkill said that Xbox Live can be dangerous to give to adolescents especially. Yes, I did insert this point to particularly stress that women create these games and that gaming culture most definitely includes many women.
So if players want to respond to a female player with instant comments about her breasts or other sexist statements, they can expect to be shown the door. In turn, gamers who fear playing because of sexism may be able to feel safer while enjoying their favorite pastime.
I wholly applaud this decision and hope that such behavior will set a bottom line for other companies to follow. Sexism and violence against women go hand in hand, and enforcing such respect in any company is a positive step in the right direction.