Ventrilo: Did it progress or destroy the MMORPG experience?

[SoulLeech]

I don't think there's any question that voice was a boon to online gaming in general.

That said, I have a love/hate relationship with it. Love the all-around utility and more personal nature. Hate what it can potentially reveal about the people you're playing with.

I don't know if it's that the players are simply socially inept or the relative anonymity makes them forget all the filters and social graces they would normally employ face to face?

[stormlord]

I can't vote because I don't like the options.

Here're some points, some of them repeated by others here:
1) A voice that's irritating or distracting or misplaced
2) People talking when they shouldn't or being a dumbsh**
3) Not being able to tell who said something (have to memorize the voices)
4) No record of what they've said like how a text window stores previous messages

Bah. I got to do something. But anyway, this is what I can think of.

Some things that would help would be .... I think that 3d-voice chat helps solve this problem somewhat. And maybe if they could show a symbol on the character that's speaking; both the 3d model and the name in the window(s). That would probably require it to be an in-game voice chat rather than a 3rd party. Things like this can help you to identify who is speaking. Another thing is to have a voice-to-text converter so that what people say in voice is stored in a chat window for future reference - in case you missed or didn't hear them right.

Ok, I have to go.

EDIT: void modulators can fix the distracting or irritating voice

[Snaggles]

Originally Posted by Mardur [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

By the way, I'm not sure what all the personal attacks are about when I did nothing but give my opinion on the original post.

Lol, personal attacks? You said everyone who hates voice chat is someone who dresses up and runs through a forest with a foam sword. Later mentioning we are nerd haters. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I will agree with you (finally): We all have our preferences. It's part of having those innate human rights. Personally I don't like voice chat and find it shocking that I'm not in the minority.

Fact is I'm not a piece of shit human being for not wanting to talk to someone over a mic while looking at a rudimentary 3D model. It's just strange to me, especially when we refer to the player as their real name on Vent. I spent half the time trying to figure out which damn voice goes to which toon. Yes, everyone has automatic biases and often we don't even know they exist; that doesn't make us bigots, it just makes us complicated humans.

I want to know people as their toon and how they play because I don't care about anything else. Sure I talk about personal and casual stuff but I don't need to hear their voice or meet them in person. Frankly I meet a ton of people in 'real life' so sometimes cranking the music and getting drunk on a raid was pretty fun. You can still get to know people by typing, you're just judging the CONTENT without any biases.

Yea I've had good vent conversations. No it's not necessary for a slow-paced MMORPG because the last damn 3 letters stand for "Role Playing Game". I'm not changing my voice while playing a different race or living out some strange fantasy world where players are not just normal people. Pretty sure you guys are all just kicking back on a video game after a long day of school, work, or the mundane chores of life.

As an aside, it's very obvious that many of us are quite stubborn. I sure am! I certainly had no intention of offending, judging, or hating anyone with different preferences. Apologies if anyone felt attacked as the poll was just for fun. My own experiences were great without Ventrilo and poor with it, if the group of people on the other side of my headset were different maybe I would be in the other camp.

[Tervvo]

I find it impossible to immerse myself in the game,it just becomes a chat room with Vent.

[kaev]

Poll fails, lacks good options and the two comedy options seem uninspired.

I came to this server looking for an experience vaguely similar to 1999-2001 casual EQ, voice chat simply isn't part of that.

OTOH, when I play EVE Online I expect voice chat to be (effectively) mandatory, it kinda goes with the PvP environment.

:shrug:

Also, I'm pretty sure there've been plenty of neckbeards (including mine :P) in every online game I've ever played.

[skulldudes]

i'll never forgive voice chat for killing good pvp in ultima online. well it, and the target closest macro.

i'd rather listen to music than a bunch of shitheads making 4chan references or inside jokes that nobody gives a shit about or something equally obnoxious, if these boards are any sort of indication of the type of people in big raiding guilds here.

[falkun]

For most classes in EQ, I'd prefer text chat. Being a visual person, I like the "INC", "assist", and "CCed" macros. I like typing my responses to people in an IM fashion. I just like the immersion of text chat. That is all true when I play my paladin (especially back on Live).

On my bard though, vent is a life saver. Its so much to do trying to type, select mobs for CC, change songs every 3 seconds, and move my character/camera for a better angle in case of adds. All those actions leave my poor bard very little time to type text.

Basically, for most of the classes in EQ, I prefer typing, but on a bard, which everyone admits is "one-way path to carpal tunnel", vent/VOIP is a life-saver.

[HawkMasterson1999]

Its not classic. you're all cheating.

[pickled_heretic]

Originally Posted by HawkMasterson1999 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Its not classic. you're all cheating.

roger wilco broheim

[Trelaboon]

I never liked Vent, not even a little bit. To me, the excitement of this game, was entering a world, full of people, who's biggest problem was finding research components. You never knew who you were talking to, everyone was always on the same playing field, it's an escape from reality, and vent gets rid of that. Even today I never use vent, if my guilds require it, i'll leave.