Let me get it out in the open first that I am not a fan of voice chat, but I will try to keep this opinion out of this topic as much as I can.

Voice chat has been used for 10 years or so now in online games? Not entirely sure when it got popular since the first time I found it used a lot around me was pretty far into vanilla wow, so late 2005, early 2006 or so.

When I hear voice chat in youtube video's, the only place for me to hear it since I stay clear from using it myself, I usually hear young people and hardly ever "older" gamers. The voices mainly sound as if they are in their teens or early twenties. When I talk to others in mmo's about reasons I am not a fan of it myself more often than not the people agreeing with me are also over 30.

Ofcourse this can just be coincidence since I have not done any research on the topic and have not found any research on the net either. It does make me wonder though if those that dislike it are on average of the age that they played 10+ years before voice chat even existed. Closing in on 40 myself the first videogame I ever played was Pong on an Atari gameconsole back in the late 70's and been playing videogames ever since. So most of my gaming experience came from before the internet was widely accepted.

When I started playing online nobody used voice chat, connections simply weren't fast enough for it to be viable. So we got used to playing together and communicating with eachother purely by typing it out. I have gotten used to playing without voice chat because of that and when it started to become popular it felt as if only the younger generation used it.

The current younger generation grew up with voice chat in their videogames. When I look at my nephews who play online a lot, I doubt they ever used typed out chat for anything. They are used to console gaming and hardly touch a pc. I can't blame people that grew up like that to not understand that there are people out there that hate voice chat. They don't know any different and not using it is for them like going to a pub and only talking to eachother by writing things on paper. I can understand that in their eyes it makes no sense at all.

So I wonder, on average ofcourse, is there a clear generation gap between those who like voice chat and those that don't? I added the "on average" because there are obviously plenty gamers much older than me that enjoy using it.

What do you think?

Typing FTW !!

I never used ingame voicechat, it's just game breaking for me, remove the immertion and looks silly.

I think the popularity of voice chat is a console thing on top of an age thing. People used to use Teamspeak on PC but that was strictly an E-Sport FPS thing, normal players didn't use it. But with the Xbox 360...oh brother...every 5-year-old is shouting through their mic.

In our guild no one does voice chat, it's not something that's needed if you type at a reasonable speed.

I'm indifferent about it but:

1.I can see merit in it.
2.Sometimes i just wana listen to some slayer while i do stuff.

Oh yeah, I like to type stuff :)

Originally posted by CalmOceans

I think the popularity of voice chat is a console thing on top of an age thing. People used to use Teamspeak on PC but that was strictly an E-Sport FPS thing, normal players didn't use it. But with the Xbox 360...oh brother...every 5-year-old is shouting through their mic.

In our guild no one does voice chat, it's not something that's needed if you type at a reasonable speed.

You could be absolutely right about that. Everyone I know around my age that do like voice chat are besides pc gamers, mainly console gamers.

Originally posted by Mellkor

I'm indifferent about it but:

1.I can see merit in it.
2.Sometimes i just wana listen to some slayer while i do stuff.

Oh yeah, I like to type stuff :)

I don't mean this topic to be about liking or disliking voice chat and the pro's and con's of it, but questioning how much of an impact age has in regards to liking it.

Thanks for the reply though. :)

I don't think it's anything to do with age. I've used the same vent for around 7 years and the vast majority of us, and there have been hundreds over that time, have been between their 30s and 60's. We've some in their 20's but most of us are older. We've never recuited by age either it was always just 18+ but would  take in younger as long as they were mature...ish.

I think it just comes down to the age of the main people on a long term vent, people will gravitate to and be more likely stick around on voice chat with people of a similar age. You've probably just been unlucky with the guilds/communities you've joined.

I enjoy it for MMOs being that I'm a progression minded person and it's required for raids.  I'm in my mid twenties, but we have lots of people in their thirties or older who use it too.  BTW, if you are wondering the age of voice chat software in video games I believe it's about 12 to 13 years old considering we were using Roger Wilco back in the old EQ days before WoW.

As for Xbox Live and console gaming I avoid it.  Nothing but hate spewed over those microphones and yes, the majority of users I found are pretty childish.  I keep it both off on my end and theirs so I don't have to here them.  Rarely do I see good sportsmanship when I play online (typically only Fighting Games) anyway.

I don't really think age has anything to do with it, it's really based on the community you are with.  If you find yourself in situations where the majority of people on voice chat are children (and worst yet hateful little *expletive* that spew racist bile and homophobia in every sentence) then you'll probably more inclined to write off voice chat altogether, but when you are talking on TS, Vent, Mumble, or Skype with others your age and maturity (or lack there of) level then it's not so bad, especially if you want to play any sort of game that benefits from it.

I can see the utility of it in games where tactics are involved, and I guess this would include MMO raids. Since I'm not a raider, however, I tend to stay away. I play MMORPGS more for their RPG aspects of it, so immersion is everything. If you're 13 years old and want to roleplay some mighty orc warrior, then more power to you! I want to believe, for the purposes of immersion that you are just that-- big, tough, mighty, epic, etc. Hearing a squeaky voice that hasn't cracked completely kills it.

Now if you're that same 13 year old kid and can snipe like nobody's business and need voice coms for a tactical shooter, I'm right there with you.

I got a similar gaming history as you OP. Over 30 - my love for videogames started with Pong and grabbing my grandfather's C64 whenever I could.

And yes I don't like voicechat. It's partly cause my accent is quite strong.

Strange enough - I realized that girls from NY and Canada drool all over my accent while girls from California find it awful.

But yeah old school typing ftw. Although I could imagine using voicechat in gw2 to give out orders for my team a little faster.

I'm 22, and I hate voice chat.  It's fine in raids where you always have that one guy barking out orders mid fight,, but using it while soloing or while engaging in most games' group-based PvE, it reeks of laziness.  I can't stand joining guilds in MMORPGs where the guild feels absolutely dead because everyone is chatting away in voice chat.  I don't enjoy spending my gaming session listening to random people's annoying voices all evening, and I can't stand how pushy other guild members are when trying to get you to join vent.  You log in and are told to join vent on the guild MoTD.  Guild members get annoyed with you when they have to type out responses to your questions and tell you to get in vent.  You miss out on group invites because you were not in vent.  You can't understand  guild chat conversations because half of it is from a guy in vent.

I joined a guild in the TERA closed beta, and not long afterwards, I joined them for an SB dungeon run.  The guild leader asked me if I had vent.  I said no, and he said, "Well we require vent for all guild runs."  I was like "..."  He says, "It helps us get to know each other better."  Right then I literally dropped the group, quit the guild, and put the guy on my ignore list.

I love voicechat, but hate guild that force you to be on there TS2 server whenever you play the game like you there slave. I mean I understand they want people there once there zones are under attack or if your doing raids, but if I am just running around smelling the flowers or trying to understand and read the storyline then I really do not need some guys yelling in my ear or bugging me.

There are a few exeption I played face of mankind and being attacked could happen any moment, but there was no real solo-content in that game though. So it was better to be online and call in backup if you where attacked.

EDIT: BTW 25 years myself have started using voicechat in 2005-2006 when I started to play Face of mankind. Also I do love getting to know people I play with and from around the world and using voicechat just makes that easier.

I'n not sure age has any bearing on it at all. I'm 49 this year and I've been using voice comms since Roger Wilco came out something like 14 years ago, when I was playing TFC in a clan. I still use voice comms today.

I have friends I've been playing games with for 15 years and the first thing we do is join TS so we can chat in game. If I'm playing a game alone I tend not to bother.

Voice chat is ok in dungeons or pvp.

Outside of that it is tiring and for normal talk , text is superior. 

Does not have to listen to some shit monologue , or whining or someone blabbing about some random totally uninteresting thing.

Not to mention people who make some annoying sounds while talking or using voice activation instead of key activation - so every now and then you hear their keyboard , or music they listen ,etc 

For guild talk , voice chat is ANNOYING AS HELL and I refuse to be in such guild where it is expected to be on TS / Mubmle / Vent at all times.

Originally posted by SuperXero89

I joined a guild in the TERA closed beta, and not long afterwards, I joined them for an SB dungeon run.  The guild leader asked me if I had vent.  I said no, and he said, "Well we require vent for all guild runs."  I was like "..."  He says, "It helps us get to know each other better."  Right then I literally dropped the group, quit the guild, and put the guy on my ignore list.

lol, the "get to know you" part would freak me out

There is a barrier to how far I will go, and voice chat is right over that barrier. I can't get around just talking to people I don't know at all. I have talked to people in guilds who I knew after years of playing, but just talking to strangers..no..that is way too creepy for me. Maybe it's because of my accent or just not into it, but I don't like it.

Its just the norm now.  People are more connected then ever.  8 years ago I used teamspeak for the first time and I was extremely nervous and anxious about it, despite being 16 and a somewhat confident person.  12 years ago, I used instant messaging for the first time and my parents (who were extremely nervous and anxious at the time) told me never to give out my personal information or get in close contact with strangers online.

Now, kids are using facebook, streaming, using webcams, and more - all at a young age.  People are getting more comfortable with this type of technology and because its useful to them, they continue to use it.

Additionally, I've chatted with many people online over 30.  Infact, the first person to suggest I use voice chat was a woman in her 30s.

Edit: To answer the question: I do believe age does have a somewhat significant impact on liking/disliking voicechat because the older generations probably aren't as use to voicechatting as much as younger generations.  But I do believe in time, this will phase out as voicechatting becomes more and more a mainstay for online gaming.  I'll probably be talking shit to 12 year olds when playing Diablo 8 at the age of 90.

I'm almost 37 and I'm certainly not a fan of voice chat.

I've often landed in a PUG, been encouraged to enable voice chat, then had some youngling attempt to sing, tell me how awesome they are, and other such nonsensities. Of course, this isn't limited to the young, but experience has taught me that is generally the case. Another type are the drunken older people that are feeling lonely and simply want to talk bollocks about how different they wish their life were. That sort of thing.

I do, however, use TS to waffle on with people I know. I don't like talking to strangers, and I certainly don't want to hear them eating crisps or sneezing because they're too lazy to use push-to-talk.

If I'm grouped with people I don't know and they request that I join voice chat, then I quite often them that I'm deaf; just to prevent any further discussion on the matter.