Wes Grogan

He actually didn't invent Pong, he invented TV Tennis as part of the Magnavox Odyssey and also the means of a video game interacting with a television to begin with. Al Alcorn invented Pong at Nolan Bushnell's request after witnessing a demonstration of the Magnavox Odyssey. Hate to be picky there. Of course, good ol' Ralph turned around and stole Simon from Nolan, which I still think is pretty funny. Had the good fortune of interviewing him a few years back when he first was putting out his book. Great guy, and definitely underappreciated. Good to see him getting the recognition he deserves. The sheer amount of inventions he's done is amazing.

@ Rawrmander - Who said anything about political correctness? That's something else altogether. I'm talking about tolerance and understanding and allowing viewpoints to be stated from all sides and not banning the one considered to be less popular or less pleasant.

Here's the thing. You don't HAVE to state a preference if you are heterosexual. Conversations about girls that guys want to get with, or guys that girls want to get with, are automatically okay and no one thinks twice about it. The second that a guy talks about another guy he is interested in, or a girl that a girl wants to be with, it's suddenly them trying to rub their sexuality into someone else's face. This is a bogus and entirely illogical argument brought up by those who have a vested interest in not seeing homosexuality become accepted.

Tolerance won't come about until LGBTs can be just as open with their interests as heterosexuals can be, and we're nowhere close to that yet, although society has come MUCH further in the past five years than I would have expected, as the arguments of the neo-conservative are losing out to the newer generation.

@ Saria, I heart you back for that one!

@chris.rackley - I still say better to take the time to have to make sure that it's being used properly and not in a negative connotation (applying the human ability for common sense that machines are still lacking) than to just ban the words altogether and lump them in with words that are almost exclusively used for hurtful purposes. For me, it is the expression of sexual orientation that is at issue. There will always be people to exploit and pervert a word, but once you hide the word away it becomes universally reviled. Far better to keep the words out there, remind people what the word stands for, and refuse to allow it to be turned into something dirty or wrong, if you ask me. Which you didn't. But if you did, that would totally be my response.

@Saria - thanks!

Who can tell what the fickle winds of Joystiq voting will bring? Thankfully, my opinion on this issue isn't changed by being down to one heart. =) Homosexuality has had a long, difficult fight over the last few decades and I've been thrilled to see their rights growing over the past few years. I'm truly hoping it is a trend that will continue. I firmly believe that all people have the right to be satisfied with their own lives as long as they don't harm others in the process.

That, to me, is why it makes sense to do it. By banning those words along with curse words, there is something offensive implied about sexual orientation. By instead allowing it for those who choose to use it, it really doesn't make a difference and becomes no different than a cultural reference or play on words.. or, heaven forbid, a pun.. in the username. It's not a matter of political correctness. It's a matter of letting people be who they choose to be. To me, there is a big difference.

I can understand taking all of that time to build up the story, characters, etc, but.. and this has become more of a problem with games lately.. who really wants to trudge through that same 15 hours in a replay? I'd certainly pass. I'm the type that buys a game and enjoys replaying it once in a while, but FF has often had a problem with that, and even more so since they were put onto optical disc. I dunno. Just my two cents.

I think it's good that we're running out of safe zones. Hiding away from conversations won't make them go away or offer any solutions. I'm not saying that every conversation needs to always be about controversial issues, but if you simply ban those controversial issues, such as "gay" or "lesbian", all you are doing is demonstrating that they are taboo and therefore stating your opinion, even if it is only in a roundabout way. Not saying anything often says a lot.

Good for Microsoft. The less that the terms "gay" or other such sexual-orientated terms are hidden away from plain sight, the better. People want to express their sexuality? They should be able to. I'm definitely glad to see them finally finding a way to change their policy while not entirely opening the floodgates for the immature to take advantage.

meepnight - To be honest, I agree that it's a double-edged sword and that kind of rampant Capitalism isn't always a good thing. We've seen some of where that can lead in the past five years with all of the "too big to fail" businesses failing. I won't pretend to have a solution to that, but it is hypocritical to cite pure capitalism and free market on one hand and then accuse a company of being unpatriotic because they are acting in a capitalist way. Just seems... disingenuous of them.