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."

Comments

Been there, still doing that...

[Wavicle]

The points the article raises are valid. However we've had voice comm enabled in PC games for a long time and have all this is old news. The biggest reason I'm reluctant to give up my Half-Life based games is not just because they are really cool, but the built in voice chat is far superior to any external voice chat program I've seen (Roger Wilco or BattleCom).

Its More Fun

[LordYUK]

Its more fun to actually "talk" to friends while playing, and at times I have used GameVoice (pretty good) and Roger Wilco (also, pretty good), but right now prefer MCI's The Neighborhood plan to speak with friends while playing online games. Circuit City (as well as other retailers) sell inexpensive headsets that work really well (I use the Jensen model, 19.99 very nice).

Still, the voice communication software is better than typing, especially with RTS games or FPS games.

Re:Its More Fun

[ELCarlsson]

I've always had more fun playing games like Perfect Dark and Bond on the N64. With the 64 you can actually talk with your friends as you plan. Not to mention that you can also throw stuff at them, pummel them, unplug their controllers, duct tape them and lock them in the closet(oh like you haven't done it before). Voice communication will never compair to actually sitting in the same room.

Banter and Insults...

[Shant3030]

Have always been apart of competition. Whether its on the football field, basketball court or even the battlefield, their will be some people who are more vocal than others. And yes, some will have a complete disregard for the other person's feelings.

I keep mine turned off.

[RatBastard]

Unless I'm playing an invite-only game with friends, I keep my headset unplugged. I have no desire to listen to a bunch of foul-mouthed kids yelling obscenities at each other.

Re:insults

[Moloch666]

There have been numerous times a good player, will start issuing 'orders'. Especially when the team is losing, since we are desperate to start winning most people listen to him. It's quite impresive how one person can change the outcome with pretty much 1-way communication, other than text here and there, or a radio command. Other half of the time people are just chatting. Then you get those people that are just annoying, making stupid sounds. I quickly and easily mute those people.

I don't like online games

[krelian]

There are just not fun enough. I much prefer playing a good enjoying single player game with a rich plot against listening (or reading) to a bunch of retards repeat the same old "GG". I am not saying that every multiplayer game sucks but to many game developers are now turning to the mmorpg market. I guess they just can't pass on the option to sell the game at full price and get another 10$ each month. I mean, come on ! You really think that the industry can support dozens of mmorpg's ? This also leads to the fact that alot of developers just can't ship a game with out a multiplayer option even for games that don't really need it, which leads to the fact that the single player game get's less attention than it needs. I believe that the game industry that is now thriving is on the full momentum of quantity against quality. Alot of people are trying to jump on the bandwagon and get some money. It is true that we get some great games with great production values because of the success of the industry but we also of to find our ways through alot of crap.

My rant about the gaming industry.

Re:From the article

[prozac79]

but as soon as they start to lose, they either kick you, or if they cant, they quit.

This is my largest pet peeve when I play NHL 2K3 using Live. I once had a night were someone quit 2 seconds before the game was about to end just because I was winning. And I swear people unplug their ethernet cables so the game goes into a "dropped" category instead of it being an official loss. I hate the pettiness of the players online that I never came across playing online on the PC. Sure there are taunts and flames going back and forth, but I think people had a better concept of it "BEING JUST A GAME!"

My second pet peeve in online gaming are those who will change the game settings during the game. To use NHL 2K3 as an example again... I create a game that has offsides, icing, and a game speed of 5. Then the first thing the punk I play against does is change the game speed to 10, and turn off the offsides rule. IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE SETTINGS, DON'T JOIN THE GAME!

Sorry, I had to get those two things off my chest since my XBOX Live experiences have been rapidly going downhill.

Re:From the article

[LoudMusic]

There should be much more focus on "System Link" games, in my opinion.

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.

That's pretty much how I feel as well. I'd rather take the time to round up 8+ friends to play networked Halo rather than jump online with a bunch of punk kids for a few rounds of Unreal.

Additionally, Internet gameplay has never been very fun for me because my cable provider pretty much sucks. StarCraft is about the only game I can play over the Internet with acceptable performance. Ghost Recon (XBox Live) has been ok, but I get quite a few drops there as well.

The biggest benefit for "online consoles" would be patches and upgrades. But the people making XBox games are wanting to charge quite a bit for addition add-ons to their games - screw that.

Telephone

[RoloDMonkey]

There are also reports of friends and families living in different countries using Xbox Live as an alternative to telephoning.

I think this might be the most important part of the article. Traditional phone companies might not be happy to find Microsoft honing in on their market.
Pre-configured hardware, talk all you want for a flat monthly rate. All MS has to do is put out an "MS Telephony" disc for X-Box. I know the quality is not the same, yet. But, they are a big company. They could give the others a run for their money.