Stephen Toulouse, known to many as Stepto, is Microsoft's director of policy and enforcement for Xbox Live. That means he's the guy with the biggest, baddest banhammer on that service, making him a prime target for grudge-nursing hackers. Apparently one just seized control of his personal website, stepto.com
When banned 26-year-old Xbox Live gamer called Xbox support to explain that his town of Fort Gay, West Virginia, was a real place and not a homosexual reference, he was threatened with account cancellation.
A change to the Xbox Live code of conduct this morning now allows gamers to express their sexual orientation in Xbox Live profiles or Gamertags.
Two jackasses baiting an Xbox Live moderator and getting banned isn't worth much outrage. But when they doctor a video and expect everyone to believe it on the knee-jerk faith that mods are fascists, that just insults your intelligence.
You may have already seen this over the weekend, but if not, here's a clip that reportedly shows an Xbox Live moderator by the name of "The Pro" suffering from a bad case of ban fever.
Stephen Toulouse gave a presentation at PAX that, like most of his outreach, leavened the dirty work of running Xbox Live's banhammer ops with comedy. His sermon is about how the wicked "Poonhunter" came to be banned from Battlefield 1943.
Let's say, hypothetically speaking, you're French. And somehow, your local game store was selling copies of Halo: ODST weeks before it was meant to be out. Then Microsoft threatens action. You'd think "action" meant "XBL bans", right?
In the 70s there were just seven words you couldn't say on TV. Today there are thousands you can't say on Xbox Live.
Hideo Kojima can have his countdown clocks. Other publishers can have their surprise trailers. But the best tease of the day may be the tweet from one Stephen Toulouse.
For the civil, Xbox Live can be a wondrous place. Chatting with friends, gaming with loved ones over vast distances, the crossing of cultural and national borders, it's just great. Indeed, it's probably the strongest weapon in Microsoft's console wars arsenal. Thing is, a lot of people on Xbox Live aren't civil. They're Asshats. And I'll have you note that's with a capital "A". Bigotry, unfair play and general, well, asshattery amongst a lot of users mean that for every pleasant experience on Xbox Live you may well end up having one that's thoroughly unpleasant. Maybe even offensive.
Which is where Stephen "Stepto" Toulouse (pictured, above) and his Xbox Live Police step in. Employed to fight injustice wherever it is found, serve the law and protect the (gold subscription customers') public trust, Toulouse and his team are responsible for policing Xbox Live and enforcing its code of conduct policies across the globe. In other words, when you complain about someone over Xbox Live, the complaint goes to them. And if you get banned from Xbox Live, they're the ones who banned you.
