Choosing Your Voice For Online Gaming

jayintune writes "An article from an editor at 2old2play.com looks at the diverse 'voices' that people use online for the different genres of games, and how they differ from each other. It is a nice guide of etiquette for people moving from one genre to another. What you might say in WoW often differs from what you would hear in CS: Source." From the article: "Many online racing gamers take things very seriously. You may find your XBL reputation drops like a squirrel shot with a horse tranquilizer if you speak as though you're playing an FPS. Racing gamers do such things as apologize, notify a racer when they're coming up for a pass (and usually give a direction), complement you on your racing prowess when you pull off a slight win over them, and typically end a game with "nice game guys." "

Comments

CS TeamSpeak

[brokencomputer]

What you might say in WoW often differs from what you would hear in CS: Source

What I hear tends to be the voice of a pre-pubescent teenager, although thats on TS.

depends on the server you play on

[abandonment]

it entirely depends on what server you play on - we started our own CS servers specifically for this reason and once you start enforcing a style of behavior, it will be contagious.

I found the same thing with battlefield 2 (which is my current addiction of choice) - if I find a server that has semi-polite players, I'll come back regularly and make it one of the few servers that I do play on.

Servers that are full of shit-talking idiots are usually also plagued by hackers and other issues, which destroys the game for everyone involved.

Just because it's CS, doesn't mean that everyone is a half-coherent idiot.

Re:depends on the server you play on

[Grey Ninja]

I used to play a lot of America's Army. When BF2 came out, I pretty much stopped cold. Something that drives me absolutely mad about both games is that some servers decide to put in language filters. I've been banned from a few AA servers because the admins wanted me to stop swearing. Something so simple as "I fucked up, sorry", or "FUCK!" when I die will trigger some asshole admin to tell me to watch my language. My normal response is to tell them to "fuck off", which usually results in an insta-ban.

It's probably an American thing. I honestly hope that there's no other country that features a mob of people who believe that it's perfectly acceptable to play a game where you shoot people, so long as you don't swear in the slightest.

I remember that there was one guy who was going to ban me. But we started talking about that kind of thing, and we actually started to get along, as he agreed with me. He eventually agreed that I was right, and he wouldn't ban me, as I was just playing the game, punctuated with some swearing. It eventually got to the point where I had a whole list of servers hosted by like-minded clans. That it's ridiculous to play a game where the whole point of the game is to kill people with different ideology... but sugar-coat it by saying that you can't swear.

Re:depends on the server you play on

[ptlis]

It seems to me that you're looking at the issue from only a single perspective - I used to be the admin for a fairly popular DoD server a few years back; we had a minimal swearing policy - the occasional 'oh fuck' and such over the comms was generally given the blind eye but we were not as leniant in the text chat as that involves a little more thought to type. The reason for this is that we found that by keeping the language in check we achieved two goals - firstly the annoying 14 year olds were quickly weeded out and secondly it was a more family friendly environment - we had several teenage kids and their parents who would play together. In all the games that i've played online before and after this i've never encountered such a situation where two generations of a family can play together and frankly I miss it - it was the most friendly gaming environment i've been a part of and was so without being at the expense of competition (father versus son battles were always hard fought).

I play pretty much everything.

[Grey Ninja]

I have my friends over for some Burnout, Mario Kart, or F-Zero, believe you me, I am NOT going to be telling them that I'm coming up behind them for a pass. I am going to be doing my absolute best to slam them into oncoming traffic, or at least give them a good knock on my way by. I've lost races over that, sure. But that's half the fun of playing competitively. Trying to screw the other guy over, and getting into a good grudge match is half the fun.

I haven't read TFA, but I would assume that they are talking about really realistic racing games, such as a Formula-1 game. Now, my general gaming tastes are for very competitive multi-player games, and I would imagine that if it was such a case where I brush against another car at 200MPH, and we both die... I might be more inclined to cooperate with the other drivers. But that's exactly why I don't play those games. I would feel more gratified playing single player if you can't actually interact with the other drivers and actively go out of your way to screw them over.

Re:I play pretty much everything.

[Tyger]

I think the difference is a racing game vs a racing simulator. Contrast Mario Kart/F-Zero with very game like mechanics to Gran Turismo/PGR with with more realistic racing simulator environments.

The style of play is also different. In Mario Kart, eliminating other players is a way to win, and in a competitive environment, you'r expected to use whatever you can to your advantage. In more simulator type games, hitting another player generally hurts you both, so it's in your and their best interest not to hit someone. (This assumes more than 1 on 1. In 1 on 1, more aggressive play can help.)

Re:I play pretty much everything.

[Osty]

I have my friends over for some Burnout, Mario Kart, or F-Zero, believe you me, I am NOT going to be telling them that I'm coming up behind them for a pass. I am going to be doing my absolute best to slam them into oncoming traffic, or at least give them a good knock on my way by.

I haven't read TFA, but I would assume that they are talking about really realistic racing games, such as a Formula-1 game.

Well, the article talks about Project: Gotham Racing 3 on the Xbox 360. It's certainly not a "simulation" racer at the level of Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsports, or FIA GT-R, but it's much less arcadey than Burnout or Mario Kart. The whole goal in PGR3 is to race "with style", which generally implies cleanliness (hitting walls stop your Kudos build-up, for example). Thus it's considered bad to use other people as brakes online, or to intentionally spin them out. Maybe it's going a little overboard to broadcast each pass you want to take, but that is the general "feel". Personally, I'll apologize if I accidentally knock you out (a little rubbin' is fine, but if you spin out or hit a wall because of something I accidentally did, I'll throw a quick, "Sorry d00d"). If I'm so much faster than you that the only way I'm not going to pass is if you're an ass and keep blocking, I'll throw out a, "I'm coming up on your left/right" as a bit of a warning. Then if you do block (once is fine, more than once is not), you're fair game for a hit.

I would feel more gratified playing single player if you can't actually interact with the other drivers and actively go out of your way to screw them over.

You're not really the target audience of a multiplayer simulation racing game, then. The people who like those games (myself included) tend to be racing enthusiasts. We watch ALMS or SCCA Speed World Challenge races on TV. We may even race in amateur leagues like the SCCA, or at least get out for some lapping at the local track ocassionally. As real racing has rules, we want our online racing to have rules, too. Unfortunately there's no way to black flag a player, or penalize him with a stop-and-go, so you're really getting into a gentleman's agreement to race cleanly or suffer the feedback. I know, you're thinking, "Bad feedback, ooo! I'm scared!" When that's all you can do, however, you do what you can. And the more bad feedback you get, the more likely you're only going to be matched with other bad feedback players. Maybe that's good for you, as if you enjoy slamming into people you'd probably much rather play with other people who feel the same. ("you" being the all-inclusive generic "you" and not you in particular, though your stated preferences make you fit this category)

Politeness

[Anonymous Coward]

complement you on your prowess when you pull off a slight win over them, and typically end a game with "nice game guys.

That isn't what "pwned you, n00b" means?

Halo

[100lbHand]

Some of the most fun i have had is drunk Halo over xb-live. Nothing like coming home from the bar and taking out that drunk frustration on some punks up past their bed time. I've got to the point where i dont even hold the controler, i just sit back with the mike and a beer and do my best to teach the kids to curse like saliors.

Racing is a different world

[caffeination]

Anyone who's played a lot of split-screen or LAN games with friends knows this. With my friends, I used to play a lot of FPS and racers. Something primal about hunting each other down makes everyone tense, and I think maybe the attitude that surfaces as a result is some kind of self-defense. Racing games are much more focused on technique - in an FPS, not being able to fire straight doesn't preclude participation, but poor racing technique makes a race a very lonely ordeal. That, and there's something poetic about a beautiful racing line. Even at +200km/h, it's almost soothing. For the sake of fun competition, the faster driver (usually the owner of the game) used to stop and wait every so often so as "proper racing" could continue. That being said, long before any of us got into FPS, a lot of our races used to eventually degenerate into ramming and spinning matches.
Bizarrely, there was always this divide that during races we used to just talk about the race in hand, whereas in deathmatches, conversation consisted mostly of shouts, moans and orders. It makes sense: an FPS is much more twitchy, and takes up a lot of your brain's system resources. Also, it's an environment we happen to have specific hardcoded instructions for - war.

The real surprise is that the good behaviour survives the transition to internet gaming, where I was given to believing that there was no honour whatsoever.

Eh. Stoopid Reputation

[TubeSteak]

On XBL many gamers have been hit with a little "culture shock" playing Project Gotham Racing 3 (PGR3) because they've been talking to folks as if it's an FPS. Here is a good example of an FPS voice that doesn't work so well in PGR3:

Player 1 has just caused Player 2 to go into a tailspin and move from place car two to place car eight instantaneously.

Wrong response...

Player 1: "Wow, I pwned you like a n00b. How does 8th place feel?"
Player 2: ...silence...

Correct response...

Player 1: "Oh man, sorry about that. I thought I had the inside corner nailed, but I tipped a wall."
Player 2: "No problem man, it happens."

The only reason you'd have to kiss ass is so you don't get neg repped.

Otherwise, I don't see a reason why you shouldn't shout "ZOMG U Ar3 t3h Pwn3d!"

I guess it's a difference in what you're expecting from the game. Some people will ask if you're a "hack", because they'll play differently if they know you're gunning for them.

Anyways, TFA is hilarious. "Player 1: BOOM! Man if you had half the mad skills I have then I'd have used a bigger weapon. Pwned like a n00bzors bitch." That makes me laff.

Funny.

[Wilson_6500]

I've never actually used voice chat in an (Internet-play) video game. I mean, I've _heard_ it, but I don't talk. I also don't type. I'm not there to chat. Even in team games, I just type (if I bother with communication at all on the pubs). Practically this entire article was meaningless to me.

I've found that communication doesn't usually matter in public (read: non-clan) multiplayer games. You can be dead quiet in ET, CS, any deathmatch, SWBF2--any FPS, really, and things usually go fine. Talking leads to idiots replying; idiots replying leads to anger; anger leads to elevated blood pressure, which is something I don't need from a video game.

WastedEffort

[TiggertheMad]

i just sit back with the mike and a beer and do my best to teach the kids to curse like saliors.

I go news for you, you're wasting your time. Kids these days already know how to curse like sailors. Most of them have already moved on to cursing like marines..

Audio Voicing vs. Literary/Textual Voicing

[billstewart]

When I saw the article title, I was expecting it to be about audio voicing - using voice chat systems, or picking what text-to-speech voice to use, or (for game designers) picking what kind of voices to have the characters speaking in.

Instead it's really more about voicing in a literary sense - picking what to say based on the social context - and to some extent about textual expression such as '1337-sp33k. That's ok, but for me it didn't seem to go that deep - MMORPGs are catching up with the MUD world in that aspect, or maybe have gone beyond it, and then there's a big fuzzy boundary between MUDs and LiveJournal/ilk.

I don't play the particular games used in the examples, but it's sort of obvious even to a socially inept introvert that there are some games where you should say things like "Eat Hot Flaming Death, Suckah! Bwahhahahah!" while fragging strangers or friends and other games where you don't do that, such as the racing-game example the author gave about apologizing for getting in another racer's way. There _are_ more interesting cases - more cooperative multiplayer games where you and other people are ganging up on the {bad guys / treasure / other groups of players}, and it might make sense for your character to be chatty or quiet or bossy or like Obi-Wan or Jay or Silent Bob. Do you tell the other player things that ought to be obvious, like the fact that the monster's running towards him from his left, distracting him with your blather when he's trying to figure out what to do about it, or do you only tell him when the monster's somewhere he probably can't see, or do you wait until afterwards to tell him he should have known better than to pick up a duck in a dungeon? Is it helpful to tell the other player "You bash the Balrog, and I'll climb the tree" or shout "Run Away! Run Away!" at every appropriate opportunity? (Normally, no it's not, that's why you're choosing a literary voice for your character, who might have other opinions or different wisdom/charisma/intelligence levels than your own.)