Voice support in games - I'll never use it

The Mad Hatter · Post by **The Mad Hatter** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 6:07 am

This seems to be the rage these days. Not only do you get to read what the other guy's saying, you can hear him talk. To me this is a huge step in making gaming less appealing. The last thing I want is to hear all the kiddies and weirdos screaming and shouting obscenities as I'm playing. I can see the positives in coordinating a game like BF2, but the negatives hugely outweigh them. There's nothing less immersive for me than listening to some guy talking through the game sounds. Gah...count me out.

Kedohin · Post by **Kedohin** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 6:24 am

Ive found that the few times I was able to get a respectably mature crowd of people together and play together voice made the difference between night and day. When it worked it was the best FPS on the market, but it rarely happened.

95% of the time either I'm on a team with idiots or people just have voice turned off, making me type orders and hoping for some feedback. Thanks for killing my experience

Two Sheds · Post by **Two Sheds** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 10:31 am

I use it all the time. People always use the "kiddies and weirdos" argument. To be honest that has very rarely been a problem for me, and I've played countless games of Day of Defeat, Red Orchestra, Counterstrike, and Battlefield 2 with voice support. More often than not, if somebody IS annoying you, there's an option to mute them. It's really not a big deal.

I really don't see the negatives here, much less agree that they outweigh the positives. In a game like BF2, I'd say voice comm. is not just a good idea, it's essential. And even on the worst server there are usually at least one or two players that will join in and put the voice comm. to good use if you start talking.

ChrisGwinn · Post by **ChrisGwinn** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 10:34 am

The negative is that my wife looks at me funny when I do it.

baron calamity · Post by **baron calamity** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 10:45 am

Amen The Mad Hatter, amen!

I hate voice support in games. Tthe reason why I refuse to get xbox live. From my TFC and CS days I quickly realize that voice over ip in games makes everyone a virtual idiot. I found there were less comunicationing going on.

Cofcos · Post by **Cofcos** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 10:48 am

I'll never use voice communication for games because I hate the way I sound and am too lazy to retrain myself to speak differently-- Though I can sound okay if I think about it. Who wants to always be thinking about controlling the pitch and volume of their voice?

...I'm somewhat close to a certain stereotype. Not close enough for most to notice; it just bothers me.

The Mad Hatter · Post by **The Mad Hatter** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 10:48 am

Maybe I've just been gaming for too long. After 25 years the idea of sharing a game with a bunch of people by voice just destroys the experience for me. Especially since I'm usually at least ten years older than anyone else. I know intellectually they're all teens or younger, must I have it confirmed?

Freezer-TPF- · Post by **Freezer-TPF-** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 11:32 am

Playing organized matches of TFC with voice communication over Roger Wilco is the best gaming experience I have ever had.

If you are playing with random folks online, then certainly YMMV. And that's why I don't play with random folks online.

Zitterbacke · Post by **Zitterbacke** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:28 pm

I use skype with my friend in BF2 and thats it.

Eco-Logic · Post by **Eco-Logic** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:46 pm

The negative for me is that the computer is in the Living room and my wife normally watches TV while I play. I have headphones so she doesn't have to hear gunfire while watching Super Nanny, so me telling someone to cover my 6 would likely be just as annoying.

triggercut · Post by **triggercut** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:49 pm

I have no idea what sort of gaming you fellows are doing that doesn't allow you to run your voice-overs on a secure server with a password, but if you aren't doing that, you're in no position to pass judgment on it's merits.

1. When I voice-over for an mmo, it's a guild channel. I know all my guildies, and know them by voice. Not only does this help in pvp fights (it's a lot easier to say "Full group inc from the northwest, get that mez!" than type it) it's also help bond our community. Jokes are funnier, and the sarcastic ribbing that you do to each other is TONS easier to grasp and catch the context of when someone is saying it rather than typing. Typed chat is an imperfect medium for communicating--benign, silly comments can be read out of context too easily and can be taken offense to. That's so much less the case with voice chat.

2. Even in situations where we allow non-guildies into our voice chat, if they act like knuckleheads (and this is important) WE CAN BOOT THEM. What a concept! Like most adult gamers, we have a collective intolerance for knuckleheadedness, and vent and ts make it easy to dump a troublemaker.

3. Overwhelmingly on XBox Live, the people I game with are folks from here or work or Qt3 or other message boards. Again, people I know. And again, XBL makes it very simple to boot a knucklehead.

Making a broad general statement of the superiority of your luddite-ness generated by an obviously staged voice-chat clip (the DAOC one in the other forum) is kinda goofy. Stuff like that just doesn't happen. If that was real, the moron doing the screaming would've been booted before he got the second syllable of "Cloudsong" out.

SuperHiro · Post by **SuperHiro** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:55 pm

ChrisGwinn wrote:The negative is that my wife looks at me funny when I do it.

Word. At least with Battlefield I'm using normal vocab. God forbid I ever load up Guild Wars.

"Healing Breeze DAMN IT! Healing BREEEEEEZE! Alright, let's set up some Barbs and get some Hexes on."

Like Two Sheds, I haven't had any negative experience with VOIP. DoD was fine, CS was pretty bad a few times, UT2k4 was pretty good once the initial growing up period was over.

But I've never had a "You stole my CLOUDSONG" experience. Ever.

The Mad Hatter · Post by **The Mad Hatter** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 3:07 pm

triggercut wrote: Making a broad general statement of the superiority of your luddite-ness generated by an obviously staged voice-chat clip (the DAOC one in the other forum) is kinda goofy. Stuff like that just doesn't happen. If that was real, the moron doing the screaming would've been booted before he got the second syllable of "Cloudsong" out.

Luddite-ness? Heh, no smashing of the weaving machines here. Fact is, for me listening to other people talk kills the immersion. It's all I can do sometimes to handle the online chatting with people in WoW or something like it. Talking to them is much worse. I'm misanthropic that way, I guess. But hey, if it works for others that's great. As you say, the coordination benefits for PvP are no doubt useful.

cheeba · Post by **cheeba** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 3:33 pm

You're missing out. I'm often on voice when I play SWG, and have made some great friends that way. I would miss out on so much if I didn't talk to some of the people - I'm often on voice with a blonde-haired, blue-eyed swedish woman who I will hopefully be meeting soon, a goth norwegian dominatrix, a canadian dude with the stereotypical accent who is hilarious to make fun of, an australian who gets flustered everytime you say, "dingo got mah baby" and more.

But if you're happy being closed minded and not trying new things, more power to ya

.

gellar · Post by **gellar** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 3:54 pm

You have not gamed until you've gamed with #gg on Teamspeak.

gellar

Booner · Post by **Booner** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 3:59 pm

I used to it....as someone who's #1 favorite is co-op combat flight sims, VOIP is a must. Flying, fighting, and typing is just not feasible.

Cofcos · Post by **Cofcos** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 4:21 pm

Certainly I'm not the only one who avoids voice chat because they hate their voice. Am I?

Come to think of it, I probably am... Here, at least...

Two Sheds · Post by **Two Sheds** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 4:43 pm

gellar wrote:You have not gamed until you've gamed with #gg on Teamspeak.

gellar

werd.

Dhruin · Post by **Dhruin** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 5:35 pm

Cofcos wrote:Certainly I'm not the only one who avoids voice chat because they hate their voice. Am I?

Come to think of it, I probably am... Here, at least...

I'm not really into these team action games so it doesn't affect me -- but, yes - the idea of hearing own voice is mortifying.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 7:26 pm

Eco-Logic wrote:The negative for me is that the computer is in the Living room and my wife normally watches TV while I play. I have headphones so she doesn't have to hear gunfire while watching Super Nanny, so me telling someone to cover my 6 would likely be just as annoying.

Werd.

I've recently started playing BF2.

The computer is in the living room, with the TV. My only gaming time is relatively late (past 9 PM), at which time the 5 week old is asleep and the wife is watching TV.

Sitting at the computer with a headset, yelling "Attack their Flank!" or "Take out that Tank!" is just not possible.

I plan to go as "Mr Silent" or "MuteBoy" when I start playing BF2 more online, just so folks won't ask me to use teamspeak.

yossar · Post by **yossar** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 9:04 pm

If I lived alone I'd probably get into voice chat in gaming, but I think I'd feel way too geeky if someone caught me talking to my computer while playing a game. I don't mind just listening in, though.

ChrisGwinn · Post by **ChrisGwinn** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 10:28 pm

cheeba wrote:You're missing out. I'm often on voice when I play SWG, and have made some great friends that way. I would miss out on so much if I didn't talk to some of the people - I'm often on voice with a blonde-haired, blue-eyed swedish woman who I will hopefully be meeting soon...

Tell the 300 pound sweaty man we say hello.

cheeba · Post by **cheeba** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:54 am

ChrisGwinn wrote:
cheeba wrote:You're missing out. I'm often on voice when I play SWG, and have made some great friends that way. I would miss out on so much if I didn't talk to some of the people - I'm often on voice with a blonde-haired, blue-eyed swedish woman who I will hopefully be meeting soon...
Tell the 300 pound sweaty man we say hello.

Web cameras are very good for ensuring that's not the case

.

GungHo · Post by **GungHo** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:28 am

I run hot and cold on VOIP. It is great for MMOGs and stuff like BF2. OTOH, sometimes I find that in BF2 I get distracted by 3 or 4 ppl talking at once, and I miss something 'in game' that leads to me dying.

No way will I use it when playing on a random server....I just dont think it'd be useful, and teh few times Ive actually put on a headset and just listened, the 'conversations' were generally moronic. Course I imagine those guys all 'knew' each other and for them it worked. Guess Im too old school in feeling it's fine typing at/with complete strangers, but Id feel weird talking with em.

/shrug

i wish there was a way to limit just one person speaking at a time though; maybe have 2 binds for your 'talk' toggle; one that you use normally and the other that will only work when someone else is talking that would allow you to cut in over them(but wouldnt work when no one else was talking). Probalby not real feasible/possible, but I can hope.

Enough · Post by **Enough** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:14 pm

cheeba wrote:
ChrisGwinn wrote:
cheeba wrote:You're missing out. I'm often on voice when I play SWG, and have made some great friends that way. I would miss out on so much if I didn't talk to some of the people - I'm often on voice with a blonde-haired, blue-eyed swedish woman who I will hopefully be meeting soon...
Tell the 300 pound sweaty man we say hello.
Web cameras are very good for ensuring that's not the case .

TTIWWP

And are you sure that was a live web cam feed and not a pre-recorded video?

El-Producto · Post by **El-Producto** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 12:52 am

Hey booner, what flight sims do you play coop... I'd be up for some simming.

Here's what I have been known to play:

LB2
Jane's F/A-18
LOMAC
EECH
F4:AF

let me know if you are interested.

xfire is elproducto

Vidiot · Post by **Vidiot** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 1:52 am

Two Sheds wrote:
gellar wrote:You have not gamed until you've gamed with #gg on Teamspeak.

gellar
werd.

Double werd.

It is worth it for Ronin going apeshit alone.

JonathanStrange · Post by **JonathanStrange** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 9:58 am

I use voice support with mixed feelings on it - but it really depends on the players involved, same as it does for the other aspects of online gaming. I haven't had many negative experiences - yet. But I usually game with the same loose group of people and we have no desire to alienate each other.

I've found that insults/taunts are sometimes less offensive when I can hear them: I realize this is some 14-year-old wimp feeling boisterous 'cause he's nowhere near getting punched in the face.

One thing I notice with voice support is how I'm still out-of-place: most of the random games I play online are against teenagers; at 26 years I'm the "old man". Then I visit other forums and they're writing about a game they played in '84, and it's hard to reminisce when you can't remember anything.

And then there's this guy: http://www.big-boys.com/articles/numanuma.html who admittedly is exuberant but try asking him for covering fire

Booner · Post by **Booner** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:03 am

El-Producto wrote:Hey booner, what flight sims do you play coop... I'd be up for some simming.

Here's what I have been known to play:

LB2
Jane's F/A-18
LOMAC
EECH
F4:AF

let me know if you are interested.

xfire is elproducto

Hehe...pick 'em, though I'm much more of a prop-head than a zipper-suited, ran-bay wearing, sun god.

knob · Post by **knob** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:59 pm

Kedohin wrote:95% of the time either I'm on a team with idiots or people just have voice turned off, making me type orders and hoping for some feedback. Thanks for killing my experience

95% of the time, I have voice chat off so I don't have to list en to the idiots with voice chat on, screaming in my ear and just being plain dumb. Thanks for killing my experience.

Edit: I use 3rd party (Ventrilo) voice chat. The way I view it, people on public servers are a lower form of life not worth trying to talk to. They probably look at me the same way.