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Voice Communication & Gaming Etiquette
Goldberg's Pants writes "The BBC have an interesting article on XBox Live, regarding the voice communication used in the game. Some interesting insight into the culture, and politics of the players."
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I think voice chat will prove very successful with gaming. Not just for yelling insults, but for complex strategy games where teamwork is required to win. For instance multiplayer games like Castle Wolfenstien and CS can really use this type of technology. Now if only the game consoles can play against computers too.....
You can be kicked off a game for a variety of reasons, from sheer whim to acting as a punishment to cheaters.
"Kick him, kick him, kick him," is the tribal chant of those gamers tired of another's childish antics.
There's no "cheating" on Xbox live, which is why they banned modded boxes from the service.
You get 'kicked' when you win. The same thing happens on all the free services like xbtunnel. The online gaming community is chock full of kids with l337 names talking about 'm4d sk1llz0rz', but as soon as they start to lose, they either kick you, or if they cant, they quit.
It's pretty much why I dont bother with online gaming anymore, except for stuff where I'm playing peer to peer with a (real life) friend, or my kid brother, or something like that.
Too many idiots in the world, and it's just no fun. MSFT should have looked at human nature before they sank so much into Xbox live, because it's going to fail. I know 3 people who've bought it, and none played more than two weeks, and none plan on renewing the subscription, pretty much for the same reasons I've said.
It's really annoying to be accused of 'cheating' because you fragged someone in Unreal.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Although ther article seems to rable on with some nifty bits of data, there's very little analysis. Still it's fun to see how people can bend this new tool to their uses.
Is it any revelation that many easily accessable net games watch their chat channels turn into forums for trash-talk, profanity, or non-game purposes (like pointed questions about age/sex/location, net-dating, cyber-sex, political forums, etc.)? If the author isn't aware of this, it seems that the X-Box is his first foray into the world of online chat. Games chat channels only tend to have a bit more, umm... reference in determining how you will be derided.
Yes it's cool that now it's voice, and I'm sure that many others will be suprised and entrigued by the ongoings which previously was known to a smaller audience. Still, if anyone is suprised that younger gamers have foul mouths, or that veteran vs newbie tensions arise, I'd be flabbergasted.
A friend of mine, known as Jfragment on Xbox Live, started the GamerTag Database. It's a site where you can comment on the etiquette of other XbL players, and rate them accordingly.
:-)
The site has gotten a surprising amount of attention, considering that it's all done in Jay's spare time It's been featured in Penny Arcade, Forbes, and MSNBC.
So, if some 13-year-old from Prague has been talking trash, you can log in and kinda 'mod him down'
We use our Nextel cell phones for game chatting, since they usually have unlimited minutes on the weekends. Add a head set to it and you are good to go. The other nice thing with Nextels is the ability to do big conference calls. (more than three people) There is no lag and are very clear.