GIFT is the short form of John Gabriel’s Greater Internet Jerkward Theory, only replace “Jerk” with some other word. This theory proposes that the combination of anonymity and an audience turns normal people into total monsters. So far as evidence for this theory goes, one could scarcely do better than the Xbox LIVE community. This sprawling mass of hostile chaos must be managed, and managed it is, by the LIVE Code of Conduct Enforcement Team. Stephen Toulouse served as the head of this august bulwark against the corrosion of the internet for a full five years, which is a feat beyond the power of mortal man. Care to hear what he has to say about the good fight? Ars Technica has the story.
Microsoft has probably one of the best enforcement teams in gaming, but even then it’s often not enough. I’ve played games of Battlefield where people shot rainbows that made things explode into flames. Pretty sure that was a hack.
What can one team do against the entire force of the internet? More importantly, what dark force out there between the wires of our world is latching into the souls of gamers and turning them to the sort of corruption and madness that would have them destroy the very games they play?
I worry, sometimes, about who we gamers are in the dark.