Bungie has built a clever system into Halo Reach which looks out for players who are constantly muted by fellow gamers and, eventually, mutes them automatically.
We hate the racial homophobic slurs that the prepubescent Xbox Live crowd has deservedly earned a reputation for as much as you, and often we simply resort to cutting off all voice comms completely. Silence is bliss. But you needn't be so extreme in Halo Reach.
A Bungie rep has told Ars Technica: "We (Bungie) have added an "Auto Mute" mechanism that notices, warns, and eventually defaults players to being Muted when they enter games if they are muted by enough people over a period of time."
Nifty, innit?
They continue: "There's some other stuff in there to prevent cabals of players from maliciously muting, but you get the basic idea. It's better than a straight up voice ban as you can always un-mute a punished
teammate if you don't mind opening Pandora's box."
There's another option in the game, too. Go to: Start > Audio Video > Matchmaking Voice, and set the voice option to 'Team And Party'. That will let you hear people on your team for essential communication, without having to put up with the gloating of opponents that hate losing when you slaughter them so ridiculously.
Get online and have fun. And while you're there, spare a thought for the poor sods with 4GB Xbox 360 Slims who are currently being denied access to half the game's multiplayer offerings.
Thank god hope this works so many annoying people out there.
