Just say NO to voice chat..
by Zelazadda | 21/06/2007 20:04:46 Recently, there's been talk of some new features to be added to WoW in the next content patch. Among them include a voice-chat feature.. This is a very, very bad idea. The beauty of text is the fact that, even if it's mispelled, you can usually still get the 'intent' of what that person was trying to say. You can also convey your meaning via emotes or similar methods in ways that you might not be able to vocally.. If I type *whispers* and then something after it, that's implying that my character is speaking in a lower voice. If I am on a microphone and actually whisper, not only might it not even be heard, prompting a repeat of the same sentence, wasting time, but it might also create confusion as to why I was whispering in the first place. This is a role-playing example, but, it applies to just about anything else one might feel like expressing to another player, or group of players, in the game. There's many, many other examples and reasons why voice chat is inferior in a game like WoW. This game is played by a large and diverse group of people, from many, possibly every, background there is. It can be difficult enough understanding someone with a heavy accent in person, now add in the static from their microphone and/or some background noise and it might become impossible. There's also privacy and age issues at stake here. If you're a female player.. and there are many out there.. do you really want all the annoying males to hit on or harrass you the moment they hear your voice? Especially if it's in a pickup group, with total strangers? And that Mage who's leading you through the Deadmines might know what he's doing, but when you hear that prepubescent's voice cracking every few words and him cursing twenty times a minute like he does in Halo... well.. not only does it kill the immersive factor, it makes one not want to communicate with others. At all. How are harrassment reports or other GM issues going to be handled with this too? "Oh, Joebob the rogue said the f word after he lost the roll on a sword to a Hunter. PLZ BAN HIM THX." .. so would voice chat have to be -recorded-, in order to prove or disprove such accussations? It's easy to record (and later delete) text-based logs, and typing is a more conscious action then speaking.. indeed, there's been times I, and others as well, have had vocal outbursts either to myself or on Ventrilo, that had absolutely no effect on my typing.. If you stub your toe on the edge of your desk and curse, and someone "hears you", do you really wanna get banned or reported for it, when you didn't even mean it.. or type it.. or even say it loud enough for anyone to hear, but they still did? And let's not even talk about the bandwidth issues. You're going to have to account for the idiots who decide they want to play music or something over the channels, or those who hold down the push-to-talk key (or alternately, activate the voice function constantly due to something like a fan being too close to the PC) for a long period of time, or the really creepy guys who are doing the sort of indescribeable acts found within AOL chat rooms.. With a Ventrilo or Teamspeak server, the moderation is in the hands of the players, not Blizzard or some other company. Thus, banning and allowing access can be controlled. A player with a bad reputation, can similarly be kept out of the servers of others. This kind of control wouldn't be possible in WoW proper, and if it was, it would definitely be abused. I loathe to think of getting recorded voice messages from spammers in addition to the text-based variety.. The language barrier between the Horde and the Alliance should be the ONLY languages that matter. Azeroth and Outland.. these are the worlds we pay to play in, and immerse ourselves in. Do not force us back into the 'real world' by forcing us to listen to or deal with the problems that come with it. Saying that voice chat would be totally optional is bunk. The lazy persons who don't want to bother typing will force those of us who actually are capable of composing complete sentences into complying, or being unable to acheive anything noteworthy. If you're having communication difficulties in raids.. even the smaller, much easier-to-manage 25 man raids in the Burning Crusader.. there's a little thing called custom chat channels. Use them. . . . In a virtual world, you and I are only different based on our choices and how we react. In reality, many of us are disabled, or have other issues which don't need to be brought up or referenced because they DO NOT MATTER in the setting of a game. Forcing voice chat as a game "feature" brings with it all sorts of negative repurcussions from the real world that.. well.. a lot of people play MMOs to get away from... |
by Nethaera | 21/06/2007 20:33:58 Use of the Voice Chat is strictly voluntary. You don't have to use it if you wish. It will have some pretty nice features though that people may just enjoy. Once we have more information on the system itself, we will be putting up information on it. The choice to use or not use this new feature falls strictly to each individual and what works best for them. If a group chooses to force you to join the Voice Chat, you can choose not to join them. I'm sure there will be others who will decide that they would rather forego the use of the system that would be happy to group with you. The system still needs to be tested before it's even implemented and while we understand the concerns people may have, it's a bit early for anyone to claim that this feature is a bad idea even in concept. |
by Nethaera | 21/06/2007 21:12:37
I wasn't saying it was about the concept. I'm stating that it still needs tested and any kinks worked out so that it's as effective and as useful as possible. In testing we can find the flaws in the system and work them out. Then once people see it in action, they can make their decision about whether it's a valuable asset or not. As many people have already pointed out, voice chat programs are already in use by many people so it's hard to judge the concept of it as bad when it's a personal choice that is already available by 3rd party programs. |
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