Letting my Xbox Live sub lapse after 19 years

A couple of weeks ago I let my Xbox Live Gold expire for the first time since launch of the service. I have been a loyal customer for a long time and now I have kids of my own that will be using Sony rather than Microsoft. My resentment for Microsoft began last year when I was insta-suspended for using a curse word in a message to a hostile user. This was my first suspension in 18 years. I was suspended a couple of months later for the same offense. So it became clear that Microsoft had changed something. No problem. I actually support the effort to make online gaming a more positive and clean experience.

While I appreciate Microsoft's attempt to keep the comms free of foul language, it is really irritating as a user to be banned for words, when I must endure griefers and people who intentionally ruin the actual gaming experience for me on a nightly basis.

If I had to choose which part of online gaming that ruins my experience the most, I would not choose words (foul language). They didn't ask me though, so I am not sure where the heavy handedness for language comes from. Maybe it's just because it's easier to implement than a decent system for dealing with bad actors online?

The only tool we have for dealing with players who intentionally ruin the gaming experience is a sloppy reputation system that doesn't appear to have any impact on the players that receive a lot of bad feedback from other players, I still get matched with players that I have blocked, and still get matched with players that I have reported. It feels like a giant waste of time. Nobody cares if you file a report against them because they all understand that nothing will ever happen except a small banner on their profile that is only useful if you take the time to look. The end result is that we just have a lot of clean conversations with players who connect to Xbox Live for the purpose of carrying out their passive-aggressive frustrations on other players.

My main game is EA Sports NHL, and every night I have to play with goalies that intentionally skate out of their nets so that the opposing team can score at will, skaters that intentionally make the largest player possible so that they can skate around and pound opposing players with body checks causing penalties for their teammates to deal with, and puck raggers who will skate around the ice with the puck and prevent you from being able to mount a comeback. Some of this could be handled through game design, some could be handled by Microsoft. But no, the most effective and immediate tool we have improving the community experience is based solely on language flagging. I am in full support of the language flagging IF we also had a better system for dealing with players that intentionally ruin the actual gameplay experience. Unfortunately we don't.

I find the heavy-handedness with foul language in the absence of a decent reputation system for dealing with griefers as a miss for Microsoft and not worthy of my financial support. I hope they improve in the future. If so, I will be back. Thank you.

:)