in EVE we used voice-chat, because it has advantages in pvp. but we had rules. at least for group- or fleetchannel. nobody was allowed to talk, aside from the fleet-commander or his scouts. if you often break the rules, the fleetcommander will kick you out of the channel, which means in EVE, you will die sooner or later. some commanders are nice guys, they simply call you 1st target, which means you die immediately without any further pain.
whenever i was in a channel (out of combat) where people started to chat about everything, i simply changed the channel. our corp got lots of channels for different purposes on teamspeak.
my favourite channel was the AFK-channel. it was not allowed to chat in this channel. you could just come in and inform people, that a raid is starting elsewhere and hoping somebody hears you and moves to the combat-channel.
so my point is: its all about organisation and rules.
I totally agree. Like much else, the concept of communications discipline is lost on most people. In FPS team games, and other such I can see some reason for rapid tactical communication. But keep it short, and directly to the point at hand. Voice chat in most MMO's is one of the WORST ideas to come along for a long time. Especially given that some people have little control of their emotional out bursts.
As you say, at least in normal chat, the nit wits can be minimized, and not have to be dealt with directly. I'd not even want to add in the problems of being a female with many of these clowns. I'm always amazed that many of the woman gamers I know put up with it as well as they do(it must get really old FAST).
I can type fair but find it hard to type and run at the same time or heal. So I prefer talking on a vent server. I don't talk alot but I like to know what is going on and sadly I miss things in chat when raiding and the like.
For me it makes it easier . I am not the fastest reader and many times in raid I will miss something I need because of the other chat going on and things flying by. I suppose this is in part my eye site but when I am busy healing I don't read I heal. If in vent I can hear what is being said or answer when ask what I am healing or what have you.
I don't usually spend time on vent though as I don't like some of the conversation that goes on or don't wish to listen to group encounters I am not in. Many don't care if they are grouped with few guildies or someone else about commenting on their group in a general vent channel instead of moving to another and being considerate.
I've had to learn to mute people on vent. It was hard to get used to I felt like a huge jerk especially since some of the people I was muting were really good RL friends. But the game I was playing would cause people to get pretty upset/just start complaining very easilly. So in order for me to have fun I had to block them out.
If I'm ever doing an event that requires voice chat with random people I will usually have it muted until I know we actually need to concentrate or someone says somthing in game to me about listening on vent.
Over all I like voice chat, Some good friends and I have had a vent server for several years and since we all graduated from college and went separate way it's a nice place to keep us togeather.
------------------------------------------------- Achiever 20.00%, Explorer 86.67%, Killer 60.00%, Socializer 33.33%
Voice chat is superior, if it is controlled. I always type with aquaintances. But in our case, our guild as been together a long time, we're practically family. I talk to my family, not type to them.
Vack FF XIV - the single worse game to cross my hard drive, ever.
To me, voice chat is a pretty good indicator for what's wrong with the current games. Too action-y, too much arcade, no role-playing, no immersion, no downtime, too much e-sports, too many competitive people, go go go, kill kill kill. That's why so many seem to rely on voice chat.
We didn't need voice chat back in DAoC and had little problems to coordinate 30, 40 people on a keep raid or 200 people on a relic raid just with text, in fact I believe that coordinating that many people is practically impossible with voice chat anyway.
But nowadays they call it epic when they manage to squeeze 16 people into one of their instances ...
I maintain this List of Sandbox MMORPGs. Please post or send PM for corrections and suggestions.
For what it's worth, in my opinion VC is needed really if you want to be highly competitive in pvp as a group and as such is a must for serious pvp guilds. Personally I avoid running in pugs so having to listen to randoms over VC and all the issues associated with that are eliminated.
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
I'm with you on both scores: A) At times I keep VC off simply because I don't want want to burden my ears with the mindless, and sometimes vulgar, drivel some people simply can't keep from spilling out of their mouths, I never game without knowing how to activate Ventrillo or in-game voice if it's supported, because many activities simply require it, or are greatly enhanced by it.
I come from the old-school as well, having started gaming in MMOs before Teamspeak was out I believe. I'm a fast typer. I LIKED chat, and the barrier it kept up between me and people as well. I resisted having to install a separate application to talk via voice. Why bother? I've got chat.
Yet I converted very quickly. Whether PvP or Raiding, any gamer who goes into those situations without Vent up and running is doing themselves and their team-mates or allies a disservice. Just time / motion efficiency. Things WORK in a Raid when people can talk.
Unfortunately this all comes down to the QUALITY of the people populating Vent, and whether they are at least a reasonable representative of our species a visiting ship from Alpha Centauri wouldn't eject into deepspace 10 seconds after their mouths open. Unfortunately a large % of the people populating MMOs have the depth of character of a piece of toilet paper, as evidenced by the way they speak.
So, pick the poison to suit the situation: If it's trusted friends or a Raid, fire up Vent and have some good fellowship with good friends. If it's fools with mouths as loose as the screws in their heads, mute'em and go to chat if need be.
Voice chat for me is like the webcam craze back in the early 00s, everybody had em, and you had to have it too if you didn't want to become a cyberspace hermit. I never liked any of them though, from the one or two times i used my webcam i found out that i'd rather avoid my friends than have to appear on a webcam, same with voice chat, i can talk to my friends just fine when face to face but over voice chat i find myself clamming up feeling anxious.
I guess it's just the life for an introverted, socially handicapped guy like me, here's to hoping that the next generation of mmo gamers will return to the roots and type some more.
This is a good article because its true. I think people want entertainment outside of the game they are playing its funny. I do enjoy the old days of sitting in town and chatting it up (on the keyboard) when you were bored. I play Aion and sometimes I wish I could close the LFG but I'm looking for a group so I'm forced to watch! I like vent because sometimes typing and healing/tanking can be hard. I do feel for the females, you would think guys have never seen a girl before lol.
Any new game should ship with competent VC. It should be understood amongst gamers that not all groups will use it, and that's fine with me. I still want the option though.
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
I agree with some of what was said here,and when it come to voice chat for me i prefer to only talk with people i know, and from my xp with voice chat people tend to get a picture in there head of what you look like by your voice alone while text chat everything is based on the content of your words and not the sound of them
I also seem to recall in the early days of the original Everquest that team members could very easily type out instructions and commands to each other. This was largely due to the pace of the game. Battles went on long enough for a group leader to type out something like "Hey boinc could you mez that add for us" all without interferring with the battle. Now things happen way to fast for most people to type, so they have learned to depend on voice chat.
I also miss the conversation between friend while we were resting between pulls.
Well like the majority replying to this I too dislike voice chat and knowing how to both type and generally spell I prefer to use my keyboard. In EQ, EQ2 and WoW our guild never used voice and we were consistently one of the top raiding guilds on our servers so the need for voice communication was obviously not needed.
In addition to voice breaking the character mood it is just intrusive and I have found that the concentration required to read and type and interact draws you further into the game so I refuse and probably always will refuse to use it.
And finally like most players I tend to have a stable of characters and not all are male. In general my healers tend to be female as that just seems more right to me even if it is a bit sexist of me. I find that my play style and chatting style can be influenced somewhat by the gender and class I choose and having to speak just overrides all of that. Having a sweet young priestess heal you with the gravelly voice of an old man just doesn't work for me.
I dislike it also, i have to hear people yammering back and forth all day at work so when i get home and relax, i don't want to hear people yammering back and forth in the game, I want some peace and quite. I only do it when we have to, for raids, anc even then once we get the fights down, I don't use it anymore.
I am not a fan of built-in voice chat for one reason.
It worsens the performance of everyone. Given 1000 players existing in game X, 1000 incoming and Outgoing Streams can be open and if they are in a server tied to the same connection as the server you are playing on, that only raises everyone's ping which worsens response time and lowers performance.
However I am a fan of independent voice chat in a well, controlled team without all the shenanigans.
I am also a speed-demon typist...to the point I've broken triple digits in word count, however....A lot of games disable your controls while you are typing. Like in shooters or MMORPGs while you are typing, you are pretty much vulnerable.
I am not a fan of voice chat in my online RPGs... In an FPS sure, but in an RPG it kills what immersion is left for me, you know, with all the characters running around with Z's on the end of their names and all...
That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!
I absolutely HATE voice chat and I also remember my stepdad carrying around his "cellphone" in a shoulder bag back in the day. LOL! I can't stand listening to people talk about inane issues. For me, it really ruins the immersion.
I'M A DINOSAUR AND PROUD OF IT!
Hi! Let's talk about what we EVE players call "comms discipline"!
I wonder what the opinion of the author will be when voice-changing software is included in the picture. Nowadays it is not problem to sound like a male while you are not or the other way around. Ok, your accent will probably still be there, but when using voice chat you cannot be sure of what gender someone is.
I agree 100% there, prefer typing over voice chat. Plenty of good memories of chat discussions over the years in MMOs, not much about the voice chat discussions. Guess we're getting old!
Both texting and voice chat have part in games. Voice chat is very useful in certain places where you need to communicate something really fast. Like Arenas, guildbattles and raids.
On the other hand is texting great for guildspeak, regular grouping and general RPGing.
Discussions are generally better handled with texting, anything where you don't are in extreme hurry to get it through is better in voice chat since it is easier to read something than saying what someone say with lag, weird dialects and generally annoying background noice.
I can honestly say Im shocked and dismayed by the amount of negative feelings towards voice chat..please don't hold back the communication mediums.
The evolution of various technologies usually follows function. In some games, rapid tactical communication is useful. But adding it to games that do not require it is simply a fad, and like many such is ill conceived and is likely to be poorly received.
WAY too many people have no concept of communication discipline, nor the emotional control required to use voice effectively. That being the case, its gained a bad reputation with many people. Which is well deserved from my perspective.
Comments
in EVE we used voice-chat, because it has advantages in pvp. but we had rules. at least for group- or fleetchannel. nobody was allowed to talk, aside from the fleet-commander or his scouts. if you often break the rules, the fleetcommander will kick you out of the channel, which means in EVE, you will die sooner or later. some commanders are nice guys, they simply call you 1st target, which means you die immediately without any further pain.
whenever i was in a channel (out of combat) where people started to chat about everything, i simply changed the channel. our corp got lots of channels for different purposes on teamspeak.
my favourite channel was the AFK-channel. it was not allowed to chat in this channel. you could just come in and inform people, that a raid is starting elsewhere and hoping somebody hears you and moves to the combat-channel.
so my point is: its all about organisation and rules.
played: Everquest I (6 years), EVE (3 years)
months: EQII, Vanguard, Siedler Online, SWTOR, Guild Wars 2
weeks: WoW, Shaiya, Darkfall, Florensia, Entropia, Aion, Lotro, Fallen Earth, Uncharted Waters
days: DDO, RoM, FFXIV, STO, Atlantica, PotBS, Maestia, WAR, AoC, Gods&Heroes, Cultures, RIFT, Forsaken World, Allodds
I totally agree. Like much else, the concept of communications discipline is lost on most people. In FPS team games, and other such I can see some reason for rapid tactical communication. But keep it short, and directly to the point at hand. Voice chat in most MMO's is one of the WORST ideas to come along for a long time. Especially given that some people have little control of their emotional out bursts.
As you say, at least in normal chat, the nit wits can be minimized, and not have to be dealt with directly. I'd not even want to add in the problems of being a female with many of these clowns. I'm always amazed that many of the woman gamers I know put up with it as well as they do(it must get really old FAST).
I can type fair but find it hard to type and run at the same time or heal. So I prefer talking on a vent server. I don't talk alot but I like to know what is going on and sadly I miss things in chat when raiding and the like.
For me it makes it easier . I am not the fastest reader and many times in raid I will miss something I need because of the other chat going on and things flying by. I suppose this is in part my eye site but when I am busy healing I don't read I heal. If in vent I can hear what is being said or answer when ask what I am healing or what have you.
I don't usually spend time on vent though as I don't like some of the conversation that goes on or don't wish to listen to group encounters I am not in. Many don't care if they are grouped with few guildies or someone else about commenting on their group in a general vent channel instead of moving to another and being considerate.
Gikku
I've had to learn to mute people on vent. It was hard to get used to I felt like a huge jerk especially since some of the people I was muting were really good RL friends. But the game I was playing would cause people to get pretty upset/just start complaining very easilly. So in order for me to have fun I had to block them out.
If I'm ever doing an event that requires voice chat with random people I will usually have it muted until I know we actually need to concentrate or someone says somthing in game to me about listening on vent.
Over all I like voice chat, Some good friends and I have had a vent server for several years and since we all graduated from college and went separate way it's a nice place to keep us togeather.
-------------------------------------------------
Achiever 20.00%, Explorer 86.67%, Killer 60.00%, Socializer 33.33%
EKSA
-------------------------------------------------
Voice chat is superior, if it is controlled. I always type with aquaintances. But in our case, our guild as been together a long time, we're practically family. I talk to my family, not type to them.
Vack
FF XIV - the single worse game to cross my hard drive, ever.
Only voice chat I use is Vent as it's just superior to any in-game voice chat.
Though I will at times join voice chat for the group I'm in, I will never speak in it. That is what Vent is for.
Here's another voice chat hater.
To me, voice chat is a pretty good indicator for what's wrong with the current games. Too action-y, too much arcade, no role-playing, no immersion, no downtime, too much e-sports, too many competitive people, go go go, kill kill kill. That's why so many seem to rely on voice chat.
We didn't need voice chat back in DAoC and had little problems to coordinate 30, 40 people on a keep raid or 200 people on a relic raid just with text, in fact I believe that coordinating that many people is practically impossible with voice chat anyway.
But nowadays they call it epic when they manage to squeeze 16 people into one of their instances ...
I maintain this List of Sandbox MMORPGs. Please post or send PM for corrections and suggestions.
For what it's worth, in my opinion VC is needed really if you want to be highly competitive in pvp as a group and as such is a must for serious pvp guilds. Personally I avoid running in pugs so having to listen to randoms over VC and all the issues associated with that are eliminated.
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
I'm with you on both scores: A) At times I keep VC off simply because I don't want want to burden my ears with the mindless, and sometimes vulgar, drivel some people simply can't keep from spilling out of their mouths,
I never game without knowing how to activate Ventrillo or in-game voice if it's supported, because many activities simply require it, or are greatly enhanced by it.
I come from the old-school as well, having started gaming in MMOs before Teamspeak was out I believe. I'm a fast typer. I LIKED chat, and the barrier it kept up between me and people as well. I resisted having to install a separate application to talk via voice. Why bother? I've got chat.
Yet I converted very quickly. Whether PvP or Raiding, any gamer who goes into those situations without Vent up and running is doing themselves and their team-mates or allies a disservice. Just time / motion efficiency. Things WORK in a Raid when people can talk.
Unfortunately this all comes down to the QUALITY of the people populating Vent, and whether they are at least a reasonable representative of our species a visiting ship from Alpha Centauri wouldn't eject into deepspace 10 seconds after their mouths open. Unfortunately a large % of the people populating MMOs have the depth of character of a piece of toilet paper, as evidenced by the way they speak.
So, pick the poison to suit the situation: If it's trusted friends or a Raid, fire up Vent and have some good fellowship with good friends. If it's fools with mouths as loose as the screws in their heads, mute'em and go to chat if need be.
Pick the tool for the job.
Wherever you go, there you are.
I'm totally with you on this one. I hate voice chat. I purposely don't own the equipment to participate so I have an easy way to avoid it.
I talk to people I don't want to all day. I don't want to talk to people when I play (and most of them, I don't want to hear).
Voice chat for me is like the webcam craze back in the early 00s, everybody had em, and you had to have it too if you didn't want to become a cyberspace hermit. I never liked any of them though, from the one or two times i used my webcam i found out that i'd rather avoid my friends than have to appear on a webcam, same with voice chat, i can talk to my friends just fine when face to face but over voice chat i find myself clamming up feeling anxious.
I guess it's just the life for an introverted, socially handicapped guy like me, here's to hoping that the next generation of mmo gamers will return to the roots and type some more.
This is a good article because its true. I think people want entertainment outside of the game they are playing its funny. I do enjoy the old days of sitting in town and chatting it up (on the keyboard) when you were bored. I play Aion and sometimes I wish I could close the LFG but I'm looking for a group so I'm forced to watch! I like vent because sometimes typing and healing/tanking can be hard. I do feel for the females, you would think guys have never seen a girl before lol.
Any new game should ship with competent VC. It should be understood amongst gamers that not all groups will use it, and that's fine with me. I still want the option though.
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
I agree with some of what was said here,and when it come to voice chat for me i prefer to only talk with people i know, and from my xp with voice chat people tend to get a picture in there head of what you look like by your voice alone while text chat everything is based on the content of your words and not the sound of them
I also seem to recall in the early days of the original Everquest that team members could very easily type out instructions and commands to each other. This was largely due to the pace of the game. Battles went on long enough for a group leader to type out something like "Hey boinc could you mez that add for us" all without interferring with the battle. Now things happen way to fast for most people to type, so they have learned to depend on voice chat.
I also miss the conversation between friend while we were resting between pulls.
Well like the majority replying to this I too dislike voice chat and knowing how to both type and generally spell I prefer to use my keyboard. In EQ, EQ2 and WoW our guild never used voice and we were consistently one of the top raiding guilds on our servers so the need for voice communication was obviously not needed.
In addition to voice breaking the character mood it is just intrusive and I have found that the concentration required to read and type and interact draws you further into the game so I refuse and probably always will refuse to use it.
And finally like most players I tend to have a stable of characters and not all are male. In general my healers tend to be female as that just seems more right to me even if it is a bit sexist of me. I find that my play style and chatting style can be influenced somewhat by the gender and class I choose and having to speak just overrides all of that. Having a sweet young priestess heal you with the gravelly voice of an old man just doesn't work for me.
I dislike it also, i have to hear people yammering back and forth all day at work so when i get home and relax, i don't want to hear people yammering back and forth in the game, I want some peace and quite. I only do it when we have to, for raids, anc even then once we get the fights down, I don't use it anymore.
My Thoughts on Content Locust
I am not a fan of built-in voice chat for one reason.
It worsens the performance of everyone. Given 1000 players existing in game X, 1000 incoming and Outgoing Streams can be open and if they are in a server tied to the same connection as the server you are playing on, that only raises everyone's ping which worsens response time and lowers performance.
However I am a fan of independent voice chat in a well, controlled team without all the shenanigans.
I am also a speed-demon typist...to the point I've broken triple digits in word count, however....A lot of games disable your controls while you are typing. Like in shooters or MMORPGs while you are typing, you are pretty much vulnerable.
I am not a fan of voice chat in my online RPGs... In an FPS sure, but in an RPG it kills what immersion is left for me, you know, with all the characters running around with Z's on the end of their names and all...
That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!
Hi! Let's talk about what we EVE players call "comms discipline"!
Give me liberty or give me lasers
I'm not a fan of voice chat either. I think it only became needed as large raid style encounters became the norm.
I wonder what the opinion of the author will be when voice-changing software is included in the picture. Nowadays it is not problem to sound like a male while you are not or the other way around. Ok, your accent will probably still be there, but when using voice chat you cannot be sure of what gender someone is.
It takes one to know one.
I can honestly say Im shocked and dismayed by the amount of negative feelings towards voice chat..please don't hold back the communication mediums.
Both texting and voice chat have part in games. Voice chat is very useful in certain places where you need to communicate something really fast. Like Arenas, guildbattles and raids.
On the other hand is texting great for guildspeak, regular grouping and general RPGing.
Discussions are generally better handled with texting, anything where you don't are in extreme hurry to get it through is better in voice chat since it is easier to read something than saying what someone say with lag, weird dialects and generally annoying background noice.
The evolution of various technologies usually follows function. In some games, rapid tactical communication is useful. But adding it to games that do not require it is simply a fad, and like many such is ill conceived and is likely to be poorly received.
WAY too many people have no concept of communication discipline, nor the emotional control required to use voice effectively. That being the case, its gained a bad reputation with many people. Which is well deserved from my perspective.