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Voice Chat Can Really Kill the Mood

Raver32 writes with Wired article about the strange juxtaposition of real life identities intruding on virtual world bliss. Voice chat is becoming a very common component of online games, from MMOGs to FPS titles. Many even bundle a voice chat service into the game client now. That's useful, tactically, but socially it can be downright frustrating, confusing, or awkward. "Recently I logged into World of Warcraft and I wound up questing alongside a mage and two dwarf warriors. I was the lowest-level newbie in the group, and the mage was the de-facto leader. He coached me on the details of each new quest, took the point position in dangerous fights and suggested tactics. He seemed like your classic virtual-world group leader: Confident, bold and streetsmart. But after a few hours he said he was getting tired of using text chat — and asked me to switch over to Ventrilo, an app that lets gamers chat using microphones and voice. I downloaded Ventrilo, logged in, dialed him up and ... realized he was an 11-year-old boy."

35 of 539 comments (clear)

  1. Pedophilia jokes in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... by Rhodey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Go! Seriously, though. "Kill The mood"? "Virtual world bliss"? "Confident, bold and streetsmart"? "Dwarf warriors"? This is too easy.

    1. Re:Pedophilia jokes in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Hi, I'm Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC. Getting ready for a night of level grinding huh?"

    2. Re:Pedophilia jokes in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... by sohare · · Score: 5, Funny

      Blizzard, makers of World of Warcraft, a.k.a NAMBLA, have recently announced a voice chat client that you can customize to make everyone sound like 11-year old boys.

    3. Re:Pedophilia jokes in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... by Thangodin · · Score: 4, Funny

      Was his name Ender Wiggin, by any chance? Maybe he was a natural game leader...

    4. Re:Pedophilia jokes in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... by vuffi_raa · · Score: 2, Funny

      okay this can go a number of ways but I will go with..... was he upset that it was a boy?

    5. Re:Pedophilia jokes in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... by Yaotzin · · Score: 4, Funny

      What? Why would the National Association of Marlon Brando Look Alikes do that? That makes no sense.

      --
      Error: No error occurred
  2. Lucky you by ajenteks · · Score: 5, Funny

    I downloaded Ventrilo, logged in, dialed him up and ... realized he was an 11-year-old boy. Hey, at least it wasn't feds or NBC reporters right?
  3. Voice Chat Sucks, Precious by Puff+of+Logic · · Score: 4, Funny

    We hates the squeakers, Precious, we hates them!

    --
    P.P.S. I'm doing Science and I'm still alive.
  4. identity by Hemogoblin · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...realized he was an 11-year-old boy. Thats silly. Everyone knows that anyone claiming to be between the ages of 10 and 14 is an FBI agent.
    1. Re:identity by BumBiscuit · · Score: 2, Funny

      Thats silly. Everyone knows that anyone claiming to be between the ages of 10 and 14 is an FBI agent.
      Either that, or Dateline NBC's Chris Hansen.
      --
      Ceci n'est pas une sig.
  5. Re:If you think thats bad... by FiloEleven · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think you a key word in that sentence...

  6. hotness by WetBeaverSRU · · Score: 5, Funny

    I am a 27 year old male that plays a female rogue bloodelf. I was first invited into a guild because they must've thought I was a chick only later to find out that I was a dood when I first spoke in vent during a Gruul run. It was soooo funny because I always just thought the gm was just being a nice guy all those times he told me he'd definately save me a spot!

  7. Yeah Like... by Greyfox · · Score: 5, Funny
    My, um... friend was like totally cybering this night elf chick when some other guys said "Dude! That chick is a dude!" Well I... I mean my friend didn't want to believe that so he asked her to get on vent and and what do you know, she was a dude! Total mood killer!

    Moral of this story: Watch out for the hostess, she may have a twinkie...

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  8. Re:So? by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 3, Funny

    I agree. Or as some wag put it: "The internet has done wonders to eliminate the barriers to human interaction posed by age, gender, and distance. First question people ask online: a/s/l?"

  9. The upsides: Chocolate Milk! by Demon-Xanth · · Score: 5, Funny
    --
    If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
  10. Re:I smell a new market by spun · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hehe, I'm imagining a content filter, l33tsp34k to faux-olde-english. "n00b, I totally pwned joo!" becomes "Forsooth! Mighty foe, thou art vanquished!"

    Seriously though, I've been thinking about a MMORPG collective for serious gamers. A few thousand true role players could easily afford to go in on an adequate server and you could give people memberships for content contribution. It could work, but it would be a lot of effort and there would be no profit in it, so I don't see it happening. I would join something like that. It's hard coming from a pencil and paper RPG world where everyone really gets into the role playing aspect, to an MMORPG world where paladins have names like hotchixxor69. Ugh.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  11. Re:Voice Changing Technology by Drachemorder · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unfortunately, there hasn't been a device yet invented that is capable of disguising my severe redneck accent.

  12. Re:Menacing?? by Altus · · Score: 3, Funny


    Im totaly hearing that whinny pimply guy from the simpsons.

    --

    "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

  13. Re:I smell a new market by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Heh. Now if only we could find a way to filter the virtual tea-bagging...

    Pure role playing would be nice; lot of companies have role playing servers, but it's never really given serious support, so you still end up with the annoying l33t sp33kers showing up every now and then breaking up the mood.

    --
    ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
  14. Re:Voices not what you expect by rkanodia · · Score: 5, Funny

    One of the guys in my guild sounds exactly like Homestar Runner and doesn't know it. We've been trying to trick him into saying 'fishsticks' for weeks now; we can only hope...

  15. Re:So? by digitalchinky · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm guessing the difference between 'then' and 'than' never took hold, looks like the whole 'not listening' part went both ways.

  16. Re:So? by zero_offset · · Score: 3, Funny

    Suspension of disbelief.

    Although you can figure out a way to dispense disbelief, I can think of a whole bunch of fun ways to cause all sorts of trouble.

    --

    Slashdot quality declines as the number of hot grits posts decreases. - Provolt's Law, Apr-09-2005

  17. Re:Cue Ender's Game comments! by Amouth · · Score: 3, Funny

    wait.. you had to look up Ender's Game and you are on slashdot?????????

    something is not right in the world......

    --
    '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
  18. Kills the mood by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I initially thought of posting something about questing with a sexy female night elf and then finding out through voice chat that she is really a big hairy guy...

    But they are all played by guys. The real surprise is when it turns out to be an actual female.

    1. Re:Kills the mood by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      You can hear hairy?

    2. Re:Kills the mood by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sometimes, yes, you can.

  19. Re:What about the Sex factor? by charlieo88 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm sorry, what was her number again?

  20. You could use it to enhance the experience by Centurix · · Score: 2, Funny

    All you need is to purchase a big cylinder of helium, play some kind of dwarf and inhale some before speaking. And to creep someone out, you can just giggle, because giggling while on helium would really creep out anyone during gameplay...

    --
    Task Mangler
  21. Re:Voices not what you expect by StikyPad · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, the 45 year-old chain smoker voice really kills the illusion of the young dainty wood-elf as well. Especially when it's a man.

  22. Like in Filesystems by zdude255 · · Score: 2, Funny

    You just can't tell if someone could be a murderer if they publish a file system... Or something like that.

    1. Re:Like in Filesystems by Frank+T.+Lofaro+Jr. · · Score: 2, Funny

      Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "killer app", doesn't it?

      --
      Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
  23. Re:Ogre image vs reality by geminidomino · · Score: 2, Funny

    In other words, "very few."

    If you're looking for roleplay, stay the hell away from WoW. /Former Feathermoon RPer.

  24. Re:So? by Adult+film+producer · · Score: 2, Funny

    In my last guild, we had an age minimum of 18. But the rule was that we never asked someone their age directly, and we ignored little slips like applicants mentioning high school. Or grade school for that matter

    I tried that same strategy for the production of my last movie.. not really a good move on my part I guess, ended up in jail for 18 months. Life goes on.. But hey, it sold 80k copies at least.

  25. Chicks/Kids/Random Household Pets in Online RPG by Magdalene · · Score: 3, Funny

    What, is this 1990 all over again? I can understand being a bit weirded the first time you realize that most of the online gaming community:

    1.) Is Better than you.
    2.) Has already beaten you to all the unique items and has proceeded to sell them for real money on Ebay.
    3.) Is not in your Age group, Tax bracket, Generation Gap, Location or Species.

    But I think the thing that the original poster has not realized is that he is the *odd man out*
    An "*ageing hipster* who participates in Online RPG" translates into "weird OG" to most of the kids online which, for the uninitiated masses of my generation does not stand for "original gangster" but "*Old Guy*". We aren't in charge anymore. These kids grew using computers, and didn't learn how to role play with those weird dice you had to colour in with the crayons that came in the box with the first books.

    The mean age of online gamers is 13. some may even be cats. you can never trust cats. They sneak online when their owners aren't home and download huge videos of tuna fishing. Thats where all the bandwidth they can't understand they have used is coming from.. their cats. Some cats even post to /.

    Then they sit smugly on top of their monitors and laugh at them.

    anyway, I digress.

    -m

    --
    -Magdalene --"there are 10 types of people in the world, those who read binary, and those who don't"
  26. Tell me about it by JFMulder · · Score: 3, Funny

    I was having sex with this girl last night and she was always talking "give it to me, oh yeah, big brute, I love it, yeah, harder, bad boy"

    So I stopped. Too much talking is like too little.

    Oh wait, we're talking internet chat...