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Why TeamSpeak, etc, don't really fit in here.

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Jun 20, 2007 Shaded link
why pretend to be someone else in a non roleplaying game?

good question, is it?

honestly i personally don't care, if someone thinks because of my voice my words are less suited or less whatever his/her problem, not mine (unlikely though), i lead raids in every mmo's i played, so i give a fuck if others consider my voice "raidleaderishly sounding stuff whatever". I like TS, i love well timed action and good strategy planing in short time and so TS is ideal for a fighting game. But one the other hand i have been messing with the internet for too long to get quiet just because a female is around in the channel and most of my Wow companions are like this as well, perhaps the reason why we had lost of female players in our guild (i don't play wow anymore). the article is true, there are side effects from knowing who the other person sounds like...

but i believe with growing age this all does matter less because i am not here to marry everybody. i am here to have fun with teammates, in a virtual environment, and i need to have faith in their skills as fighters. these skills ARE NOT related with their voice. accept this and you easily can get rid of any prejudices.
sure occatioanlly dissing a m8 in a funny because of his voice way is a occurance but mostly a welcome one also showing real fun via voice is a experience... guess what happens if a mob goes down, there was silence, everybody doing their job, and then the monster finally falls... 150 voices cheering, makes your ears real hurt, i promise. But great experience, feeling such joy, don't want to miss it/glad i did such experience.

well everything may hava it's drawback, question is, how to deal with it. not using it, is a stupid solution imho.
Jun 20, 2007 jexkerome link
Regardless of anyone's opinion, like or dislike of any particular voice chat client, they will remain largely unused until there's a reason to. They have seen and will continue to see sporadic use.

And this IS billed as a Role-Playing Game, in case you were wondering, AND people have a right to not use voice chat for whatever reason they want. And you DON'T have to play with those people. So get off the high horse already and respect other people's opinions; if they are missing out on something great it's no business of yours.
Jun 20, 2007 Cunjo link
For those with only speakers and an open mic...

This is like $9 at the store, and well worth it.
Jun 21, 2007 Shaded link
hmm maybe i wrote that a bit too straight, - i guess.
point is, if it helps coordinating, why hesitate to use it?
if someone was good at planing things out via chat and the people around like him/her, for me, there is no reason to change that, just because his/her voice sounds different than expected. He/she will still perform good at planing/coordinating just at faster speed.

the guy who was writing this article about his wow buddy being a kid and they never teamed up again. if the only reason for that was the voice of his new VIRTUAL buddy, i believe he did not notice that all that counts is an effective gameplay and if the leader of a group is a 12 year old kid and we are having fun i don't care. i am here to have fun right so it suits my need of diong stuff we could not do without the voicechat maybe...
so i want the fun so it suits me.

more clear now? hope so.

--edit--
i think there is a diffrence in how we are affected by a medium that transports emotion like voice regarding the individuals online experience overall.

you teamspeak the first time everything seems new and strange and the only compareable experience you have to this new situation is real life conversation (chating at a bar/coffee whatever).
So a pretty new voicechat user will much more react to emotions transported or other aspects like "hmm nice female voice" (i just picked this example because it was also mentioned in the article)

the longer you use it the more you become aware that most likely you will not meet this person in real life. good, it may be a nice female voice but it is not a conversation at a bar, so it is of no value or influence if you like her voice or not, no matter how much you flirt, this person may be thousand miles away from you, so no banging after your "conversation". just keep that in mind and things become pretty easy. it does not matter how other people sound, what matters, is their ability to work on the strategy someone planned, in order to achieve a virtual goal in virtual space. yes this may be a nice or horrible voice but the person it belongs to, also just steers a virtual character or spaceship in our case. it is a real voice true but this real voice is talking about the actions of a virtual person/spacecraft whatever.

so a good roleplayer, does not care if Orthuk the Dwarf who is a Assasine is steered by a 17 year old (blond sexy horny whatever) girl with lovely voice, the assasine does not perform his job well and the group wipes the assasine will be reminded of taking care of the traps "DAMN IT". depending on the costs of the wipe that "damn it" won't be much nicer, just because the player may be (MAY BE you did not see her yet right?!) cute or stuff. because the dwarf wiped us and not - "michelle"

Michelle = nice girl with nice voice.
Orthuk = damn bastard wiped us again.

for sure the experienced user also does not take such stuff like being sued for something in a virtual space as personal offense (luckily i just steer it, it is not me) because most people you meet are good at the stuff they do IRL otherwise they won't do the job very long so just excpect they know what tey are doing and keep in mind they play that game in their spare time - so in contrast to the character, the player did not train how to dualwield twohanded axes or fly a spacecraft his/her life long.
someone new may not be able to distinguish that as well and may feel offended.

so the longer people are using it the more simpler any funnier stuff gets. because nobody takes it serious if some virtual value gets trashed. it's just pixels.

that does not mean you are not willing to give all you can to fight good. but it is a game so you can't really loose something of real value. RL counts there you need to pay taxes have a place to stay and food to eat and stuff. VR in comparison to this is of no value at all. also something you need to learn sooner or later makes you much more relaxed at playing. let someone be better who cares some day you will kick his arse because you get the jump on him.

hmm nearly a novell now - hope point is clear now.
Jun 21, 2007 davejohn link
TGFT tried a TS server about 18 months ago , but I found it a bit unreliable with disconnections at the wrong moment , even though it was running on a separate machine .
I have used skype to talk with guild members , and I actually enjoy the variation in speech and accent : to me that is an indication that internet gaming is breaking down barriers between people rather than reinforcing them .

There have been other threads discussing changes in communication within vo as the game becomes busier , I tend to think that voice communication will become more significant as numbers grow.

Ecka
Jun 21, 2007 Cunjo link
Thank you, Shaded.
Jun 21, 2007 yodaofborg link
You do make a good point about hearing a voice for the first time, the first time I used Team Speak in VO (although it was not my first time using it), I could hardly understand one of the other players, and he couldn't understand me, also all the American players thought my voice was hilarious. I didn't use Team Speak again till recently with VO due to this.

I guess when I first heard Cunjo's voice though, I was a little surprised that he sounded uh, normal. (I don't know what I thought he would sound like, but I guessed it wouldn't be normal >.< ) I got over it fast and the rest of the group also got over my accent fast too. And although we got stomped, I feel we worked well.
Jun 21, 2007 Ghost link
IMHO, the main problem is having portions of groups on at a time. If only half of the group is on TS, you end up having to type anyway to convey orders to the rest of the group. If the entire group were plugged in with no exceptions, it would be a lot more helpful.
Jun 21, 2007 nimatek link
voice comms are a must for any kind of group ops. in other more populated games you just have to use them, if you don't you're out of the guild/corp whatever. and rightfully so.

concerning funny accents:
yoda mine is much more extreme, but again coming from bigger games where you have to play with people from all over the world, noone cares about your accent as long as its understandable :)
Jun 21, 2007 LeberMac link
A few folks won't come on teamspeak because their alts will be discovered. Or people will make fun of their whiny screechy voice.
Jun 21, 2007 Cunjo link
To be honest, I've used voice chat apps far longer than I've done online gaming with them... I have Skype contacts around the globe, and so I've gotten used to hearing different accents, although I do still have trouble understanding some of the thicker ones. Yoda surprised me somewhat, but mostly just because I was somehow expecting a good "Yarrrr!" to be the first thing out of his mouth. The accent didn't bother me in the least, and he was perfectly understandable.
Jun 22, 2007 Aleksey link
WHAT? He didn't say "Yarrr"?

Did he change the order of words in the sentence randomly?
Jun 22, 2007 moldyman link
rrrrrrrrray!
Jun 22, 2007 Roda Slane link
Some people won't use voice chat, because their alts will be discovered. Conversely, some guilds (in other games) will not accept any member until they log into voice chat, and not only "present" their voice for identification, but also demonstrate an ability to use the voice chat effectivly. The culture of voice chat is so ingrained in the guild as a whole, that "voice challenged" players are rejected out of hand. This may sound harsh, but I have personally witnessed the "unspoken rejection", where a player is accepted into a guild, but is constantly left out of guild events because of intolerance to that player's voice chat related limitations, and the suspicions that they may be a spy. Once a guild like this establishes itself in a game, and the guild itself becomes a major factor in the play of the game, the voice chat culture begins to pervade the entire player base of the game. It is a matter of time.
Jun 22, 2007 moldyman link
My view: Classic MMOFPS versus MMORPG argument.

If it is really just an MMOFPS, then voicechat is a must. I've tried coordinating with and without voice chat on FPS and RTS games and it is much easier (and more fun) if you have voice chat.

If it really is an MMORPG, in the purist sense, then it kind of breaks the "other world" one steps into.

Just as a personal note, I'd rather VO be the FPS kind of game and not worry about "content", but that's just me.
Jun 22, 2007 LeberMac link
Agreed with Roda. When/if VO gets larger and/or incorporates its own ingame voice system, it will be a determining factor in large engagements.

Largest engagement i've seen is about 20 on one side, and 2 groups. Could have used TS or voice or whatnot, but group leaders did OK with it. It really all depends on the group leader's ability.

To illustrate, I give you a recollection of my events during Border Patrol some months back, and the difference between Ghost's leadership style my leadership style:

***
Ghost's Style:
***

Ghost: All right, form up in two groups before warping into C-10. SolarFlare, take your group and go to C-9, wait for my mark to jump. My group will go to B-10 and jump in first.
SolarFlare: roger
Everyone Else: roger.
Ghost: Ready... We're jumping in.. SolarFlare hold position.
<jumps in and lures enemy into trap>
Ghost: OK jump NOW, group 2!
Solarflare: Jumping!
<second group jumps in, Ghost has scouted out the warp-in points and the new group comes screaming out of warp, headed directly at the Serco pilots, who are now completely outnumbered.>
Serco Admiral: It's a trap!
<Serco all die and Itani celebrate their awesome tactics>

***
Leebs' Style:
***

LeberMac: OK go shoot Serco!
Groupmember 1: Which one?
Groupmember 2: Yeah! Hey are we doing BP?
Groupmember 3: I'm all set here in B-12 and the Serco Teradons are kickin my ass, where ARE you guys?
Groupmember 4: Need help here
Groupmember 2: Where are you, 4?
Groupmember 4: I'm dead. Hey, invite Iry.
Iry: Leebs please invite me to group
Groupmember 1: I think he's AFK.
Groupmember 3: I'm dead. More serco coming through the wormhole. Are we doing BS or BP?
*LeberMac is having Issues *
Groupmember 2: Leebs just hit a roid
Groupmember 4: oops, storm on the way to C-10
Groupmember 1: 6 Serco here, I'm 1 v 6
LeberMac: Shit I'm homed in Latos.
* LeberMac has left the group *
LeberMac's group is now Groupmember 1's group.
Iry: Invite, please.
Groupmember 1: How do i invite ppl to group?
...
..
.

I dunno if some groups would really benefit from Teamspeak, now that I think about it.
Jun 22, 2007 Himo Amasacia link
Just thought I'd add this in.. Teamspeak in action from eve.. Oh yeah its when SirMollie of BoD lost his titan to goonswarm today, and this is teamspeak from right there..

(Yeah this is probabaly off topic material. If the guides want they can let me know and/or move this post to off topic)

http://jenovaswitnesses.org/titandead.mp3
Jun 22, 2007 ellipsys link
Wooo! My first post as a subscriber.

I've been playing MMORPGs for years and have always enjoyed playing in character. I play on the "roleplay" servers when possible, and try to steer clear of people talking about real life stuff. Voice coms are helpful on raids (For those who dont' know, raids are large group content of more than 5 people, up to 25-40 in WoW. Far more in EQ and other games), but are sort of begrudging on an RP server. Every person who speaks has the potential to go from a visually beautiful priestess to an audible 10-year-old boy or a 60 year old pantsless trucker. This can be kept to a minimum by having only the Raid Leaders speak over TS/Vent, and the rest just listen.

However, here on Vendetta I think voice coms fit in more easily for the sheer reason we're space pilots. Luke talked over the radio to his squadron. So did Apollo and Starbuck. Provided everyone is just talking about tactics and in game things, its very very easy to maintain in character conversation.

Voice coms can have great tactical benefits, but I think speaking should be optional for any case. If your guild lieutenants or commander wants you to be on TS to listen to their orders, I think that's fine. It keeps you on the same page and ensures that everyone hears the "important stuff" during scheduled events. However, for those that don't want to reveal your voice, have a mic, or the like... I think being on "listen only" is just fine.
Jun 22, 2007 Aleksey link
Himo, I didn't understand mostly what's happening in this "conversation", but I was happy for those guys in the end... :)
Jun 22, 2007 LeberMac link
I understand exactly what is happening.

The "Band of Brothers" alliance (Known to those of us who hate them as BoD, Band of Developers) is waaaaaay to close to the devs in EVE, and they get preferential treatment all the time, apparently. An Alliance in EVE is like a group of guilds working together in Vendetta. So Goonswarm is one of their chief rival alliances.

SirMolle is the commander of the primary corp in Band of Brothers, and a Titan is a ship that takes a character about 3 years to train for, and probably like 6 months or so to build and pay for, even with an entire alliance at your beck and call.

"Bubbling" is a tactic where you can prevent someone from warping away, that's what you're hearing the guy say "Bubble him!", meaning "Don't let him warp out!"

Their accomplishment would be like if [ITAN] spent 6 months saving for a ship that cost 10 Billion VO credits and was about 100 times more powerful than a current HAC, and about 20 times larger physically. Then [CLM] came along in cheap vultures and blew it up.

I applaud them. Hehe.