Can voice chat kill the mood of online games? |
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Whether you're a hardcore competitive gamer or someone just looking for people to hang out with, MMORPGs is often the way to go. No matter what you're looking for, playing with a group in online games is pretty much inevitable. With the growing popularity of voice chat, socializing online is getting easier than beating a game or reaching the level limit.There's this 38-year old World of Warcraft player who experienced what it's like to be with and without voice chat. Clive Thompson made a commentary titled 'Voice Chat Can Really Kill the Mood on WoW'. His experiences, similar to many who simply can't play their best without using TeamSpeak or Vent, lead him to believe that being able to talk with microphones instead of text-chat can effectively ruin Blizzard's WoW's mood.
Here and there, we'll hear stories of players adventuring with what seems to be a group of mature and knowledgeable people only to find out that there are nine year olds in the pack. Realizing that the female character you've been flirting with is actually a 40-year old man is even worse. For girls, proving their gender would send lonely guys and pervs alike running over.
A game world with six million subscribers is bound to have all sorts of citizens. Even without voice chat, it's no secret that your much respected guild leader can be half your age, or the chick you've been giving freebies to is actually a man.
It's true that the experience greatly differs between hiding anonymously behind the screen, and giving out a glimpse of your identity by letting online friends hear your voice. To solve this dilemma, making a firm decision seems to be the best solution.
Do you want to indulge yourself in a world of roleplaying, where everyone is the orc or gnome character they play? Do you want to treat the game as just that - a game that real people play, in which players that lack maturity can get annoying? Making a choice should improve the experience a lot.
If you pick the first one, then the real world holds no value. Unless your friends would talk like uncivilized barbarians or the wise mages that they are (or at least their characters), there is no reason to use voice chat. Picking the second would mean that the kind of people you play with is important. Having an age restriction should help if you're aiming for a guild with no kids that find excessive swearing cool. If meeting friends in all shapes and sizes is your thing, feel free to pick anyone up.
Via Wired
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Comments
But how good would gears of war be if we couldn't talk ***** to the other team? NO FUN IMO
All these worlds (games and Second Life alike) are virtual and hence voice chatting will need solid voice morphing technology to go along with it. Just give it some time...
Aside from role-playing consideration, there is also real-time aspect, where players need to coordinate their activities in the fast-paced setting to solve complex challenges more efficiently as a group. This is obviously more important in the combat environment of the game.
IMHO voice chatting will take off first where role-playing is less important and where the benefits of real-time collaboration outweigh the downside of breaking virtual world immersion.
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