I set up a TeamSpeak server for guild use a while back and it flopped bigtime, with few people using it more than 2 or 3 times. It's dead now and others have tried unsuccessfully as well. This article kind of explains why. I hate IRC, but at least it leaves something to your imagination.

http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/commentary/games/2007/06/games_frontiers_0617

Hmm, when [Itan]'s TS server was active there were 8 people on sometimes (that's the maximum number of people the server can hold). I guess you just need the right kind of guildmates to have an active TS server.

TS is good for events and organised gank squads, I have joined the SCAR ts server for the last 2 events, and although we lost, i found communication much better when people don't berate me for my accent ;)

The article makes a good point about the disconnect between the character and the player that voice chat can cause. I've noticed less of that effect (in the average case) in Vendetta only because your mind isn't trying to associate a face to the voice, as it would in a game like WoW. A 7-foot tall bipedal bull talking in a middle school student's voice would definitely cause all kinds of cognitive dissonance. But perhaps that squeaky-voiced Serco is simply a member in good standing of the local "Prom Scouts" chapter, working on his latest merit badge.

I was once told (by a secretary in Jacksonville, FL who I have never met in person) that I have a voice like "silk panties". Fear me.

I play another game (no.. really) that is billed as mmolrp, but unlike many other games, still has strong pvp action. I am a member of a guild that claims complete dominance over it's domain (with the truth not all that far removed from the claim). This guild has three primary out of game tools, of which one is vent (Ventrillo). If you do not log into the guild's vent, you are out of the loop. The guild is so dependent on it, that they will not hardly stop to communicate in any other way. The guild will field 50+ man armies, sometimes to combat 3 times there numbers, and coordinate everything almost exclusively through vent. There are many clear signs that large, well organized, pvp oriented guilds depend on voice chat of some type. When you are involved in large scale combat, that 11 year old named "Gandolf the White" (or w/e), is one of your top pvp'rs. You will listen to him squeak all day and all night, if he will just smash that next dwarf (or w/e) to smithereens.

vent, teamspeak, w/e, have no place in vo, because vo does not have large organized pvp oriented guilds. when it does, voice chat will be there in a heart beat.

so your voice gets in the way of the good stuff, Whistler?

lol! I was wondering which way the jokes would go.

I have avoided using voice chat in VO for this very reason (much to the dismay of my guild-mates). I dislike my perception of a character being altered by their voice, language, or speaking ability. I have used TeamSpeak a grand total of once in VO and am still trying to recover from the experience.

Great moments on Voice service 1 - WoW player scolded by parents over Ventrilo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwql6_RJ348&mode

Great moments on voice service 2 - WOW raider leader loses his mind - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU0AB6xAtMg

lol

I really don't think this article applies the same to VO as it does to WoW. In addition to what nerde said, voice comm is more vital to team play in VO than it is in other games such as WoW. Your combat performance takes a huge hit if you have to stop and type, and if you don't stop and type, your team strategy takes a big hit. All around, TS/Vent makes team play in VO much better, and it really adds to the game. I've used it on a few occasions to help teach new players the fundamentals of PvP, and it has proven an invaluable tool for that, accelerating the process enormously. I think they learn more when communication is more fluid, and we can talk while fighting.

Granted, we don't get as much use out of SCAR's server as we'd like, and it makes an impact on its effectiveness. If we could get everyone to use it, however, I really think we'd see a big difference in our performance as a group. I think the main hurdles we're faced with are getting people to download and install the client, acquire microphones, and get it to work on their systems. Of those who have used our guild server, half either didn't have mics, or couldn't get the mic to work properly. For those in the guild, most just haven't bothered to install the client.

Actually, the article does apply. It mentions intimacy, and privacy. I am rather unwilling, even positively opposed to let others know my voice. That is not because I'm a prepubescent 11-year-old (although you may call me that if it soothes your mind), but because I simply do not want others to know me that well over the net.

I can see the advantage for organization, orchestration and general feel-good time, but I'd rather have a better speech-to-text tool than voice chat.

My 2 cents (EUR).

Itan's TS went well because we all for the most part like each other, and talking was just fun. It was more like talking with a bunch of RL friends in a conference call than coordinating or anything.

"throw more dots, more dots!"

LOL, so what is 50dkp? I did play 10 days of WoW and I dont know.

M. Duncan

Personally, I enjoy TS. One NW the UIT hopped on it, and I really didn't think too poorly of everyone's voice. It actually made the game more exciting, and the NW itself better. It was like a team was together, rather than just a smash of 1 ship armies (though I guess that is the UIT anyway).

I used to play WoW... maybe that's why I like it. Here's how I relate WoW and VO...
When I played WoW, I was like a chain smoker killing 6 packs a day.
Now that I play VO, I'm chewing Nicorette. 6 packs a day.

In any case, TS makes things more interesting, gives better communication (with more than 3 ships being hard if not impossible over text chat), and I don't feel it kills the game by knowing someone's voice. Heck, if you are the squeaky kid, get some Arnold voice mod thingy or whatever. XD

And DKP is a measure of how much time one has spent raiding with the guild. Higher DKP means more phat epix (good items) from guild events/raids.

I've never actually been in the situation of Coordinating stuff, but if I did, I'd want everyone in to LISTEN at least.
Maybe there's some free one-way streaming server that would work well for that?

Let's the leader lead without anyone needing any extra software, as most already have some stream-tuner anyway.

I see both pros and cons in this situation but one thing I really didn't like when using TS (TeamSpeak)was the constant choppy sound with TS in the background being perfect but VO's sound b0rking itself over it.

Another aspect to consider.

Voice chat kills bandwidth and, especially, latency. In my Ultimate Quest for Decent Gaming, I need every bit/sec and ms rtt I can squeeze out of my DSL. Adding more traffic to the tube will seriously kill my experience - and as most pirates know, kill me straigth out! :)

I know about the extreme value of team coordination. When I was heavily playing MUDs (4+ hrs/day) and lived in Cali, right next to the servers, I enjoyed CUSeeMe (most of the kids don't even know about it), and our clan kicked everyone hard in the backside. But a MUD has not the same bandwidth/latency requirements of a graphical pvp twitch game.

Demonen: Teamspeak or Ventrillo still works better for that purpose (everyone not wanting to speak just mutes themselves).

Standard audio streaming, such as you would tune in with Winamp, iTunes or Windows Media Player etc, is "broadcasting" constantly, even if the host isn't sending anything. You can't stop the stream without also disconnecting your users (Unless you've got a slightly more complicated setup). Most normal streaming codecs are not very well suited to the intended purpose either. They will use far more bandwidth than needed, or the audio quality will be unbearably poor.

Ogg streaming may be able to use the Speex codec, which is well suited for the purpose (good voice quality at low bitrate), but your clients might not be able to listen in without checking that they can support it. WMA streaming has a voice-specific codec as well, but again, it may leave some users with work to do in order to connect and listen.

The fun part of TeamSpeak or Ventrillo comes when two people connected with TeamSpeak are both using speakers and an open mic, and have it set for voice activation. Even better if they are nearby in game, so that they can also hear each other's ship sounds. Think hall of mirrors with sound, then take a few aspirin.

Syylk: Unless you are saturating your connection (which can be easy to do on some DSL providers) or loading your CPU too much, it shouldn't affect your ping.