Voice Chat Beta

lol - also its acting like voice is new

the telephone dates back to the 1870's

long enough for people to decide on the relative merits and potential problems I think.

=p

Man, folks like to dwell on the dark side of a new feature, dont they?

What about the NEW type of Clubs Voice will allow??

COMEDY CLUBS!!!

Maybe instead of a bunch of camping chairs, dance balls & gambling machines, we can "hear" some of the Residents 'comedic stylings', instead of relying on silly animations & sound clips?

A comedy club without voice just aint the same- humor requires inflection of voice which is kinda hard to do in chat.

PLUS- chat can be mis-interpreted:

Example: F**K You! F**k You. F**k You

WHich of those was said in jest?

Oh I'm sure some will say "Just put a smiley there", well some sims dont allow smileys in text chat. Some people dont use 'em period.
Or "You have to take it in context". Most just sound like excuses to me.

As long as voice is optional, I dont see a problem with it. I can already chose voice chat in TONS of other "games", some I use it, others I dont.

And before the "What about Hearing Impaired" arguements- MANY MANY online games WITH VOICE involve Deaf people. All they do is let us know & we do this thing called "TYPING" so they're included in the conversations.

"Voice Ruins the illusion!" Um, yea, SL IS an illusion to begin with. If your lil' "sex slave" doesnt want to voice chat, thats fine. Maybe he/she has a dorky sounding voice or no mic or just cant talk at 3 AM without waking people up?

New Features are bound to cause some initial hassles & getting used to at first. Flexi-Prims weren't the greatest for everyone at first. Now they're all over the place.

NOTE: Whoever starts a decent comedy club with voice, I'll be there wanting a gig

Funny, I hear comedy DJs streaming just fine already.

What if your not a DJ with an Audio Stream??
And would any DJ in his/her right mind allow any resident to take over their stream for "open mic night"??

Although that does bring up a question: What about DJ's? Will voice drown out their voices through their streams?

Hmm, interesting comment Thaumata, after you posted this, I started to think about the times someone might NOT want voice around... say, those times you have a million things to get done on on your sim - like build this, and script that etc - but you have a tonne of people coming up to you - asking questions etc...

In that case, it could be troublesome - I wonder if there is or is going to be a "naa naa naa naa naaa, not listening to you" button... or a Not Available button like Skype.

any thoughts?

you will be able to disable voice entirely - they have said that much at least

Non voicers will be marked.

Being able to have a DJ is pretty much the only difference between "being a club" and "rezzing a dance floor in a sandbox".
Why not?

Yea, I'm sure some would. But there's always a catch- just like when voice options is added in. Instead of your regular griefers, we can now have Vocal Griefers.

For all the merits & de-merits of voice, it'll end up like Flexi-Prims: Lots of it around at first till the novelty wears off. Then people & companies will find more serious uses for it.

Hearing that video made my mind up. You create this mental picture of how someone sounds in your head, what they look like, what mannerism's they have etc. with Text chat your imagination fills in the gap and for me it's much easier to loose myself in the environment around me. Voice chat on that video seemed reletivly dull, and completly took away my mental image of how they would sound. I don't think i would enjoy being in an environment i can't switch off RL in.

I will not be using voice chat for these reasons (and who wants to hear me talk after a hard days work, i usually sound slightly dull and depressed, lol). It will ruin the experience for me. If i am made to feel part of the non voice chat gheto then so be it, i will have to leave and persue other interests. but i would rather use my imagination and maintain my ability to loose myself in this environment and truely forget about RL.

I do agree with you on your major points here. Although the way you worded it, reminded me of how i used to picture musicians over the radio when i was younger. Before actually seeing a picture of a musician, i would try to picture what they might look like. I was usually dead wrong hehe. I've been one of the lucky ones to test out the voice chat. It does look promising, but has it's flaws that could cause residents to dislike it. Hopefully those flaws will be fixed. I do like the fact it's treated like normal sound bits so you can zoom your camera away from someone and not hear them.

personally i would change a few things. The green static that appears above your head for one... I would include that as part of the name tag (sorta like how chat bubbles have .... when your typing). I would also add Tag icons to indicate that someone has or doesn't have voice enabled. That way you don't get the fealing their ignoring you.

As someone who will always choose to avoid voice chat, I strenuously oppose being stuck with wearing any sort of visible label that says I don't use Voice. If those who think it is so great want to wear a tag that indicates other people can Voice them, that is up to them. But DON'T make me wear a label for a service I will NEVER use!

Hun then what would you propose? I specifically don't wish to keep people yelling my name because they think I'm ignoring them when i actually don't have voice enabled. I would like for them to know ahead of time so they don't waste their time. :/ But seeing how many newbish people their are in SL, they probably would yell it anyway.

Is there a policy described anywhere about the voice chat? For instance, what will be the default? Voice or type? Sounds to me from other comments that voice may be the default and non-voice users will be tagged as such.

Personally, I prefer to have typing as the default and voice as an option. More than that, I would like to see voice as an extra feature that will need consent. So similar to IM, someone may initiate a voice session with one or more people. However, each one of those contacted would have to accept and join the session. In any case, the voice session will be on top of type chat and IM chat. Preferably, it should also be hidden from those who are not in the voice session.

Are aspects like this up for discussion?

She told you what she proposes. Having some kind of icon floating above the people who DO have voice, rather than the ones who DON'T.

No - its all been decided.

Theres a description in the blog.

http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/02/27/bringing-voice-to-second-life/#more-804

dont worry if you werent asked for input - no one else was either.

That does make sense, but the way she worded it, it sounded like she wanted nobody to have the icons.

If you actively accept voice chat then you should see an icon over everyone else that is voice enabled, and they should see one over you. If they do NOT have an icon, then they are NOT voice enabled. Simple, right? (Personally, I think everyone who accepts using Voice should be forced to wear a dorky-looking prim headset...)

If you actively disable Voice chat and refuse to use it, you shouldn't have to see the icons on anyone. Because you have opted NOT to use that feature. I don't have to see a flag over every parcel, saying weather or not they have set up an audio stream. Why should I be forced to see one over every player?

And as far as I am concerned, the voice users can yell themselves hoarse. My speakers are most likely turned OFF.

Personally, I do hope that if I disable voice on my land and for me personally, that I will still be able to occasionally turn on my speakers and not be forced to listen to some yahoo screaming in the next sim or the voice-enabled parcel next to mine. I do occasionally like to hear birds, and waves, and my bamboo Japanese meditation fountain, and other ambient sounds, in quiet, peaceful areas. But somehow I doubt I'll have that option. I expect it will be that even if I disable Voice, I'll still hear all the other people chattering in the adjacent parcels, if I have sound on at all.

Yiffy? Can you get a picture for us of what the accursed symbol is over someone who does NOT use voice? Go into the beta, to a voice-enabled area, disable voice for yourself, and take a screenshot that shows the UI? Thanks.

I don't think it's currently implemented, I can't see any visible difference between voice-enabled and non voice-enabled either for myself, or someone else.

*gets to a safe distance from Ceera* One thing they did change in the current beta is that you get an extra "no voice" icon (next to "no push", "no script", etc) on a parcel where voice isn't enabled. In the first beta it was the other way around.

If you disable voice, you don't hear anyone talk either. Or that's the way it currently works anyway.

Thank you Kitty. And don't worry. I only sound rabid. I won't bite.

They clearly said the non-voice users would get individually tagged. I want to know what that tag looks like, or I want confirmation that they will NOT tag all non-voice users. I seriously doubt they have allowed anyone to access the voice chat beta who didn't state that they loved the idea and would connect to it with a headset active. Therefore it is likely that 100% of the pre-screened user base allowed to test it will be pro-voice users. Aren't rigged polls really great for making your work look good to the boss? Let's test the new product, and we'll pre-screen all the test subjects and allow only fans of the new idea to test it!

A single icon on the menu bar, along with no-push and damage, is fine for letting you know you're in a voice-enabled parcel. But I shouldn't have to see it on voice DISABLED parcels, or on any parcel if I, personally, have disabled voice. Once again, they are implementing it backwards, assuming virtually everyone will be scrambling to get headsets and talk with their real voices. Damned few of MY friends will! This is the same logic that they used with the no-push icon, and now, except for combat sims, what areas are push-enabled? Nowhere that I will do business, that is for sure. The menu bar should tag parcels where voice will WORK, not the other way around.

I hope you are right, that I can disable voice on my land or for myself and I won't have to hear people chattering in the parcel right next to mine. I really do. But we won't KNOW that until people who do NOT want voice are allowed to test it.

Aside from unplugging your headset and shutting off your speakers, what can you do to disable Voice as a personal option? Not as parcel settings, but as an individual?

If you connect with a laptop or other system that has a built-in microphone, does it assume that you're willing to chatter? Is there any way to tell it NO?

Here's a feature suggestion........

How about a voice synth, text to voice type interface for those who don't have headsets. you won't ruin the experience by hearing someone's actual voice, and it doesn't exclude teh vast majority of residents.

I remember using one on a 286 at school many years ago so it can't be that hard.....

Can someone who is in the beta please pass this on...

Edit...

Not as a replacement to the proposed features, but in addition. It will enable those of us who would rather not hear others RL voices to use the feature, or those who wish their rl identity to remain hidden. you would then also have the option of turning off the voice and reading the text if you wished

Personally i am against Voice Chat,

In the past with voice-chat, there has alway been the problem of people overlapping each other, and the conversations take a rather "false" feel to them.
I think that if voice chat was introduced (which is looks like it is) it would change the face of SL for the worse.
SL is a Second Life, where we imerse ourselves in our characters, thier clothes, looks and feature traits are to some people - a replica of themselves and to others a complete change of image, perhaps the person they would like to be..
with voice chat, instead of talking as our characters, we will be talking as US - Dinner, work etc etc, which is what some persons try to get away from.

I just hope if this is introduced, it wont be SL Wide, but only in selected area's

I understand this is a very widely discussed topic, but this is my opinion.

Bubbs Z

Hannah, I am quite certain that as soon as this is released, some entrepreneur will make a killing selling just the sort of program that you're suggesting - A typed text to voice synthesizer, with multiple male and female voices to choose from. Maybe that is why LL is pushing so hard for this - because some of their own people will profit on the side by selling text to speech synthesys gadgets?

Unfortunately, the best text to speech software I have ever heard still sounds like it has a bad speech impediment. You have to type in odd misspellings of some words to get it to pronounce the word even vaguely close to correctly. And forget about controlling tone or inflection. My Mac comes with over 20 "speaking voices" that can convert text to speech. I've used it in desperation before when I had to work over the phone and had a bad case of laryngitis. I was able to make myself understood, but it was a hideous experience. Most of them are absolutely laughable - not in the least useful for anything but a joke.

Bottom line - people will still know you're refusing to use your real voice. The voice still will not fit the character. It will be harder to understand.

I'll stick with typing, thanks.

Maybe someone has covered this, but what about Griefers and those who are politically incorrect, those with foul language, etc?

Will this new media give them a way to harrass even more? Will there be a history as in chat that can be used to be reported with?

Just thinking....

I for one would like a "Mute All" and unmute selectively even in typed chat. And I would like that even more so for voice chat.

I see voice chat being useful in some cases, but if I can have voice chat only ON or OFF and if by turning it ON I automatically will hear EVERYONE around me until I mute them one-by-one, then I will choose to have it OFF all the time and I will use skype separately if I ever want to have a voice chat.

I still hope that LL will listen to us and change their minds. Let us enable voice chat only selectively for the people we DO want to voice chat with.

Id be for them scrapping the whole idea of voice entirely =p

but no I dont think they are going to listen - they have a plan they are going to introduce that.

They already had the brainstorming session meeting - we werent invited.

The had the Project plan meeting to come up with timing - we werent invited.

Now they are coming up with the deliverables. If were lucky they may be interested in feedback after its all complete.

Somehow i doubt that too