Years ago, as a reward to myself for complete a draft of a novel, I got my first Xbox which I eventually upgraded to an Xbox 360 and now I have an Xbox One because Microsoft doesn’t understand how numbers work.

I don’t do a ton of video game play. I rarely complete a full storyline for a game I play. I’d rather get my narrative fiction from novels, movies, and televisions and so the video games become short bursts of play on-line where the creativity of actual living opponents provides a much more interesting challenge that AI controlled bots.

However, the first thing I do when I log into a session of Call of Duty or some similar game is mute all of the other players. I have zero interest in trash talking and the vile personal insults that are casually hurled as part of ‘play.’ So, if you see me online, you’ll need to send a message if you want to interact and if that message is mere insults you will be blocked.