Microsoft wants you to police Xbox Live

Microsoft has announced how it plans to enforce the rules on Xbox Live in the future: by using community members like you. This will be a volunteer scheme, but those that join up will have the potential to earn rewards for their hard work, including new avatar clothing, forum badges and even potentially some XBLA games too.

Joining up, will make you part of the Xbox Enforcement United, which sounds either (as Eurogamer points out) like a prison football team, or some sort of Power Rangers spin-off, but either way, members will be part of an elite group of moderators, with powers to help weed out toxic players.
“The Enforcement United program puts part of the enforcement process in the hands of our valued Xbox Live Gold subscribers,” said a Microsoft spokesperson. “It's our way of directly involving the Xbox Live community in our efforts to foster and maintain a safe and enjoyable environment for all our members.

“Eligible volunteers are given the ability to judge whether certain types of content violate our Code of Conduct. If there is sufficient agreement within the community that the content breaks the rules, we'll take enforcement action on behalf of the community!”

Community ambassadors, as part of Enforcement United, will be given tiered rewards for their services, letting you unlock new “loot” as you level up.

To begin with, the only powers these members will have, is the ability to force a gamertag change on those using inappropriate names, but Microsoft is promising to add the ability to report players for illegal activity, hate speech, profanity and insensitive treatment of controversial or sensitive topics.

For a full rundown of this new digital goon squad, check out the FAQ here.

KitGuru Says: I'd like to learn more about how people are chosen for this scheme, as it seems likely the kind of people that want this policing power, are probably exactly the types of people that you don't want influencing the community from the top.

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