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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."
going along with this, check out morphvox junior, it's a free voice thing that can make your voice for online games sound like woman. seriously, it's REALLY good... it also can turn your voice into a mans voice (if ur a woman, i guess) and it can turn ur voice into this really wierd voice... that alone is pretty cool, but just imagine all the other voice alts that they could add. homer simpsons, any family guy character, bush, clinton, ect... to me, this would be the perfect application for micro transactions. while this word is an 'evil thing' to most people, who really wants to buy a 40$ app that comes with 40 different voice alterations when really all you wanted was to sound like homer simpson? they should sell the app for like 20$ have it come with like 5 basic voice alterations and then micro sell additional voice packs for like 2~3$
Like TFA said, it's a widespread problem in virtual worlds, but it can become even worse when the world itself introduces voice support, without requiring 3rd party software. Then you get a presumption of voice availability, and not wishing to use voice can then get interpreted in various destructive ways.
This came to a head recently in Second Life, when they introduced voice chat functionality (actually still in beta). One of the most cogent discussions about it was made by a well-known SL commentator in her essay The End of Anonymity, Part II, which focussed mainly on the end of immersion in SL. Her conclusion, that it will force non-politically-correct roleplayers into "ghettos" and destroy mainstream immersion, does seem reasonable.
Avatars in SL can be anything you like, no limit, so not surprisingly roleplay is extremely popular. The main grid is expressly for adults only, and so of course there is much interest in gender roleplay, in both directions (the gender spread is almost exactly 50/50). Needless to say, the loss of immersion through voice immediately gave rise to a lot of concern among roleplayers. This still has to be played out on the main grid, but it's certain that the impact will be large.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
Actually you just did. I gave you a John Cleesian accent in my head. That made it funny... to me.
People who quote themselves bug the crap out of me -- Me.
The social norms of 30- and 11-year-olds are different, obviously.
Text is a very slow medium, so only the most information is conveyed. Little overhead. If you use text, you don't have time for chatter and socializing. The game is in focus. If someone knows how to play, he can be 5 or 50, it does not matter.
Speech is much faster, and allows for a great deal of nuances. Subtle jokes, puns and references. A different social context between the person will be extremely obvious. The way you normally talk to your friends doesn't connect with the other person. It doesn't really matter for the game, but your instincs will tell you that you're interacting with people ouside your "group".
In closing: Have anyone here ever met a group of roleplay'ers that coordinate internally using voice chat? everything you see will match their character, and be wonderfully synchronized. Voice chat improve the mood, too.
I lost my sig.
Wouldn't the logical expansion of the role playing game be to implement voice changing technology? That would make the game completely immersive and allow anyone to assume an identity completely different from themselves and project the image that they want to into the game not their own selves, which is probably a big draw of the game in the first place.
After some googling, it looks like something like that already exists:
http://www.screamingbee.com/product/MorphVOX.aspx
I haven't had a chance to try it myself yet, but it looks like it has add-ons for various fantasy voices like "Gruff Dwarf," "Warrior Princess," and "Lich Lord." They also seem to have a free version which does gender changes.
Richard Bartle, the father of MUDs (and by extension MMORPGs) tackled this issue four years ago: http://www.gamegirladvance.com/archives/2003/07/28 /not_yet_you_fools.html