General Discussion

I was talking with some friends and we realized we had differing opinions on the play experience that voice chat creates. Now I'm 29 and have been playing MMO's for a long time (I won't bore you with a litany of games I've played but I was playing online back when they were MUDD's).

My friend however is 24 and began playing MMO's not too long ago, starting with World of Warcraft. When we talked about our play experience he described the qualities he liked and viewed the game as a video game, talking about the MMO as if it's a console game. He loves voice chat, can't see himself typing and although he agrees that bad mic's, soft talkers, loud rooms, and poor connections irritate him about voice chat, he just expects chatter to be part of the multiplayer experience.

Now from my perspective voice chatter is noise, I prefer typing because I can ignore the chat box if the group is prattling about sports or the color to paint the baby-room, anything I'm not really interested in. I can focus on the game play, what’s going on, and remain immersed in the game world. If that same conversation is blasting in my ear I can't ignore it, sure I can mute the people but then they’re offended when they're conversation is done and they tell me something game related and find out they're muted. I am not anti-social, quote the opposite I love MMO's for the guild banter, group chat and social dynamics. I just value the ability to ignore conversations I have no interest in by not looking at the chat box. With voice that's not really an option.

Ok that being said, I want to get to the point. My friend views MMO's like he views FPS's, the smack talk; random conversation and blather are part of the Halo 3 online play experience he's accustomed to. He doesn’t view MMO's as immersion, he loves Oblivion a and Morrowind and really gets into those games, sometimes lamenting that he wishes that MMO's were more immersive. When we spoke about how his expectations on what a MMO feels like were affected by the presence of voice chat, while mine began with typing we realized that we ultimately wanted the same thing out of the game. Socialization, immersion and banter, but our initial exposures to the games were so different due to the presence of voice chat and its immersion breaking presence that he was never able to really stop and notice things.

For a while I tried to play with voice chat and he with text, we both had some interesting results. I found my irritation with people went up fast, the chat tends to convey mockery and sarcasm well, and even some glee, but it's not the same as hearing the inflections in people's voices. I found that allot of people were a bit crueler when they can say it, rather then type it.

My friend found that without the constant sound of talking in his ear he payed more attention to the world the game was set in. He didn't have to watch chat like a hawk, but was able to pick out the phrases quickly he had interest in and ignore the others.

I can't say either of us has changed our preference in game play but it was an interesting experiment and we both agree that the presence of immersion breaking elements have a strong factor in conditioning players and establishing their expectations for how a game should "feel". Almost like a child under the age of 5 who rely heavily on the opinions of his parents to mold his own values and opinions.

Just interesting, thought I'd post to get other people's views. This is not an anti-VoIP post, nor an anti-chat post, just an interesting little experiment we did.

I do a lot of pvp in mmorpgs, or raiding. I used to be all about role playing and immersion.

For immersion you cant really beat typing. All their voices in your head.. its just like how books are on a different level than movies. Your imagination does half the work.

Now for objective gameplay. You cant beat voice, and I think for getting a feeling of friendship and bonding you cant beat voice chat. Atleast with voice if you meet them eventually outside of the game, you know how they talk, and more about them generally.

For example I have one friend Ive gamed with for about 3 years now. In the first year we just played WoW together. I didnt even know about ventrilo, all my fps clans had used teamspeak.

In the first year I played with him almost every day.

Into the second year we started raiding more and PvP was introduced to WoW so ventrilo started getting more popular and out guild would always be on vent. Once I started actually talking to people, sure it was a lot harder to ignore the pains in the asses, but it started to feel like I was playing with real people.

I would consider him a friend. I would consider quite a few people from my guild, my friends.

To this day, if they just type.. they might as well just be an npc. But for me, when people talk on vent I see them more as real people and less like a little digital avatar.  Thats the big thing for me...

That and it helps you compete better.

Most of the time typing is just fine.  There is more left to the imagination, and it is easier to RP. 

But for raiding and doing complicated group quests, voice is better.  It's just more practical to say, "Viper needs a heal," as opposed to being in the middle of battle, typing it, and then hoping someone is reading text.  Most of the time when the poo hits the fan, people want to be focused on the on screen action and what they are doing not on the text window.

On a side note, my guild leader sounds like Jack Baur, which is cool. 

Personally I prefer typing instead of voice chatting. I only use Ventrilo or other chat software if absolutely necessary. I don't know why but probably because I'm a shy person and I don't like talking to strangers on the internet.

Time once again for the deaf person to speak up .... Statements that say things Like "might as well be a NPC" bother me to no end ....MMo's opened a whole new world of talking to people i would have NEVER gotten to speak to in even the most remote ways ...

its theese previous statement that make me want to cry as well when all theese games go to voice chat only i will again be left in a world with only a few voives to be seen

So when you debate theese points of view please realize that the effect are more then more efficient raiding and that personal relanship are built with a keyboard all the time

It seems that every voice chat orientated game that I have ever played, turns into nothing more than a racist chatroom.. Where some kid yells "nigger" then someone gets offended and strikes back or more kids start yelling it and before long the chat becomes an instant forum of hatred. And when I say EVERY voice chat, i mean EVERY one of em..

So to avoid ignorance, I turn voice chat off and prefer to make them type out there ignorance... at least they are at least inconvienced by having to type it all out....

But as far as voice chat in mmo's go, ONLY if I have been with the guild for a little while would I ever use their TS or ventrillo servers...

I personally am no big fan of voice-chatting. I been typing for 10 years in mmorpgs n done just fine. I am married with 5 kids. It is not so simple just to plop down in front of my pc, put on the headset n ignore everybody for a few hours. At least with text I can look away from they screen for a min, answer the phone n just scroll back to see what chat I missed. In Voice I don't have this option. So I miss something much easier.

Both serves their purposes, and there is no reason why one option must supplant the other.

Voice chats have their good uses.  First in big raids, you need reaction fast, and you need real time coordination, say "everyone move off the platform NOW, the dragon is taking off".  You need to be sure everyone knows, not everyone reads the chat every second during a big fight with a dragon.  We healers never read the chat box, we have 24 hp bars to watch.  To make chat useful, everyone must obey the rule, listen but not talk unless you are the leader/subleader, and no nonsense talk until the fight is over where everyone can cheer while we rez the dead and refresh buffs.

Small groups with good friends are good ways to link up a voice chat.  Jokes and intimate talks are ok, b/c we know each other, and we are not going to insult each other.  I won't insult my guild mates, they live next door and they have mean wives :-).

Voice is also good when I solo, I can talk to friends on and off, and no need to read the chat box.  After all I am soloing, I only want to kill some time.  I would most likely turn off the chat dialogue display and focus on game mechanics.

Typing is still the common platform for normal PUGs.  Guess it will be so for a long time.

Originally posted by liddokun

Personally I prefer typing instead of voice chatting. I only use Ventrilo or other chat software if absolutely necessary. I don't know why but probably because I'm a shy person and I don't like talking to strangers on the internet.

During rolls, I would just type this line: /random 100.

Outside raids I talked a lot though and with friends.  With them there is no shyness.