I came here because SL DID NOT have voice

Well, many residents also expect anyone to answer RL questions like "where do you live", "how old are you" and the like. They might expect as much as they want, I will still answer "I am 6 months old and live on Inochi Island". If anyone doesn't respect my right to privacy I have no intent to communicate with them. Same goes with voice.

Actually you and the dozens of others who have made this arguement ARE missing something.

Just becuase LL doesnt make voice compulsory - it does not mean there will not be frequent attempts by Residents to force other residents to voice through exclusion, pleading, insistance, tuanting, and bullying.

How much of an impact this will be remains to be seen, but to state simply voice is optional is ignoring this situation.


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The problem isnt LL adding voice -

The problem is Residents are not considerate of each other.

Which is not Linden Labs fault. But people who are dismissive dont really help the situation much.

They can plead, insist, beg, exclude, taunt and bully all they want. Give me money. Then we'll talk.

Did I miss the memo that explained why it makes sense to join a virtual world and then claim that everyone there is somehow "hiding" because they don't want to be more 'real'?

Are you really one of the '10' people in SL who make enough of a living at less than minimum wage through an SL business to be able to say you're only here for that? If so then congrats! Gives me hope that I can get my landscaping business off the ground and make it amount to something ;-D

Yes. Daniel Linden wrote it I believe.

Way to alienate the people putting food on his table

This is already happening. Some "Free view" client (?) is already out there that supports voice. I got some IMs from my friend list "hey download tis and tat then we can *talk*!" I replied that I'm not interested and don`t intend using it. They removed me from their list, prolly out of suspicion that I'm either a guy or have anything else to hide. (I'm neither BTW, im a woman with nothing to hide, and still, I only talk to people I know personally. The phone was invented 100 of years ago, I don't need SL to talk to anyone.)

Voice will ruin SL as we know it.

Nah- The Age Verification they plan on implementing will.

I dont care if you wanna "Voice" or not.

But I DO care about who I turn over some very personal information to, especially a 3rd party. Especially one that tends to sell/give out that information to Politicians and so on.

I'd say those people weren't worth having as friends anyway. Again I will say as someone who doesn't plan on using voice, it will ruin SL if you let it. Adjustments will have to be made, yes. But don't let othees dictate to you how to use the program. I agree with Todd that Age Verification has the potential to wreck SL, if handled in the usual Linden way than Voice will.

"First Look".

That's exactly why I'm trying to represent that "new users" areas should actively introduce new users to the benefits of text chat.

Using voice may seem obvious to someone who's only ever used it, but when they can switch their avatar from a fairy princess to a miniature fox to Superman without any embarassment, they might realise both can be valuable.

Why does that kind of thing (what your ex-friend did) make me want to get a "Go f*ck yourself" + laugh track audio clip to feed into my mic when someone asks me to voice?

LOL THis is a bit extreme but I would let my two cats meow and scream into the mic. YOu asked for a voice from a kitten? there you go!

Id get on Voice chat. And then hound them until they run screaming from SL, and slit their wrists.

I'd get the most horrible gameshow tunes, set them in a loop and press play.

Heya Bren.

Mandy C

I'd just play Barry Manilow.

Nice to see ya.

I'd like to just reply to the main topic header--I have not, however, read any of the [I'm sure] fascinating content within.

First let's talk about your header topic: I came here because SL DID NOT have voice. So, let me better understand this...you came to this massive virtual world specifically because you didn't have to use voice to communicate? I don't even know where to begin with that...to be honest, all I have to say about that is tough luck. If you don't want innovation and expansion, I suppose you should stick to ICQ.

VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) is the next evolution in 3D chat rooms. The world of Second Life is constantly evolving at a rate a gazillion times faster than our tactile reality. There are FAR too many things going on in Second Life to communicate efficiently by typing. **for all future comments about Skype, I’ll simply say this: third party applications eat up memory like Augustus Gloop, and are not a healthy alternative**

Verbal communication—although not necessary—is a much more efficient way to communicate. When holding meetings, or speaking with a client, I insist on using VOIP if they have it (via Freelook Viewer, or Skype if necessary). I can cut a meeting’s time in half by using voice—and let’s face it, time is money just as much in SL as in RL.

Common reasons why someone refuses and bashes VOIP: insecurity, shy, foreign, socially inept, no microphone, security, role play, *hearing impaired

*If you are hearing impaired, there isn't much to be done. You will have to let people know you are deaf, and if they are kind, they will use text chat. But just because there are deaf people playing SL, does not mean LL should design the game around that. Perhaps you could start a Hearing Impaired Group in SL...that would be fantastic, and I'm sure in time and with word of mouth, it would attract just the right people.

Now, you may think that I’m pinpointing mostly negative things…and I honestly do not mean to, these are simply the open and honest reasons I believe to be most accurate.

None of those reasons should turn you off to VOIP. You do not have to use it. You will not be banished or segregated because you choose not to speak. And just because the verbalizing citizens are zipping away at a speedy pace with one another, this does not mean we (the vocal) should suffer for your inability or disinterest to join in.


Many people will continue to just use their keyboards to communicate, so don’t feel like you will be left behind if you choose this option.

If you are SO worried about someone hearing your voice, or if you feel put “on the spot” when you talk…then just don’t. I have no tolerance for people that try to seed LL and its citizens with negative slander concerning VOIP. Voice technology in a streaming virtual world is a wonderful addition…perhaps you should ask yourself the REAL reasons you don’t want it...

And should "we the people" suffer for those reasons?


ps. never forget your ability to mute anyone at will.

....... nah, too obvious ;-p

His reasons for coming here make more sense than those of a voicer though don't they? Maybe if voicers didn't want text communication, they should have stuck to RL or There.com, huh? Or is that kind of advice just cruel?




Yet typing has effectively served as a communication medium since inception and still does. And there are those that would argue that reducing SL to a '3D chatroom' is exactly the reason that adding voice will thwart the entire SL goal.




Why don't you get it? The only people the game is being RE-designed for is people who want to talk. Voice has never been the majority or the rule, so why do you talk as though you have to accommodate text? It's the other way around.




This would be a smashingly good time to read the 'fascinating content within' that you ignored. Because if you had, you'd realize that the behavior you are assuring people will not appear has already done so. If you truly consider having the courtesy to slow your pace and be cognizant of text users as 'suffering' then how do you make these assurances anyway and expect to inspire optimism in anyone listening?




LOL. This is a Greek Tragedy. Didn't you just get through saying there would be no segregation or judgment based on refusal to use voice? And then before the echo of that statement dies you're already dropping snide comments implying that the poster is trying to cover up unstated reasons for not wanting to use it. If everyone turns on their mics for pro-voicers, will you promise to listen to yourself once in a while or are you just gonna keep on talking a lot and saying nothing?!

And speaking of tolerance, do you think that people who ignore what's already happening and then talk as if it doesn't exist are any more tolerable? That would be a negatory.

makes you use photoshop or other programs? Are you saying you think they should incorporate an image editor into the client as well??? 3D modeling in world isn't enough???


It would be impossible for LL to handle all the thousands of different streams. Audio is streamed from the source to the client so LL doesnt have to handle all that bandwidth and server load.

No they don't, I dont have a quicktime server, and video is not required.

big deal.. given enough time, they'll add inter-region communications... learn http

Some people use blender, and I've used Rokuro for lathing.. so again, no.



Voice is not (or will not) be a requirement ever. Chat boxes are going nowhere. To the deaf users, just because you cannot hear (and/or speak) doesnt mean you're being excluded from SL, and doesnt mean that speaking/hearing persons shouldn't be able to enjoy this feature. I cannot believe that just because a relatively small percentage of users do not have the ability to speak or hear, you think that the feature should not be added. That's like saying closed caption televison should not exist because some people cannot read... That just nuts. I think the issue here is that some deaf/mute users will have to explain their disability now, where before they could generally get by not mentioning it.

I agree with most everything you've said. Except:



I've heard this before. Do you really think the percentage of people who cannot use text in this system is greater than the percentage who cannot hear? For that matter, do you really believe that the reason voice is being implemented is to help out the non-typing portion of the population?

Television is a one way medium. You don't interact with it. There is no opportunity for polarization or discrimination from a TV. There is no awareness of one's use of closed captioning among one's peers, and no judgment to be made by them. A TV will not refuse to broadcast or accuse one of being less than honest upon indication that its viewer is unwilling or unable to participate via voice. The two situations could not be more disparate.



Yes, and of course what has been following that mentioning as well.

True. But why would they be embarassed about it? And you'd have to be quite an ass to stop chatting with them.

Absolutely not, I was just trying to put what he was saying to an analogy. He was complaining that voice was coming to SL, and being a deaf mute could not use it, and that he (and other deaf users) were being exluded from SL. I do not see that happening. Even when voice does get here, some people will likely continue to not use it for whatever reasons.. deafness, desire to continue to hide their true gender, etc. Use of voice will not be a requirement at all. I think the issue here is that there's a large percentage of people who use second life because it does give them the ability to hide behind a made up persona, which, if that's what they want to do, fine. Voice definately threatens people like this as it will change others perceptions of them, which is understandable. I dont think it's even always a gender issue either. Some males have paticiularly high voices, or a speach impediment, (male or female), and like the fact that voice was not integerated into SL.

To those who complain that it's just as easy to use Yahoo, Skype, etc... those programs are different in as much that voice in SL will be 3D. That is, the farther away you are from a speaking avatar, the quieter the volume will be, just like RL. So the comparison to "just use some existing program" is invalid here... IMHO.

Today's large percentage is next year's minority.

New residents will be confronted with voice from the moment they log on, so any of them that do come to 'hide' aren't as likely to stick around, while those who have no problem with voice won't see a problem.

Voice won't make much a difference when it rolls out in the main viewer, or a month or two months after that, but the shift will gradually happen with more and more discovering that you can up to a point choose who you voice with, but not using voice ever simply won't be an option.

Of course by then there's no one left to care about it.

Okay, so on the whole voice issue;

I've been known to frequent several Welcome Areas, specifically Violet and Wengen (Chalet Linden), mostly Violet.

Anyway, when Firstlook first dropped, and voice came to Chalet, everyone had it. Eventually it came to Violet, and everyone had it there too. And we all used it a lot. I had it mostly to speak to my girlfriend with, which I still do.

At first, everyone was using it almost exclusively. There was a point when my mic broke, and I tried to have a conversation with people who were on voice. I could hear them, but I had to type. They had the hardest time reading text and typing, and I even found myself facing that problem. So as a consequence, text got ignored, and I could not have a conversation with them, and these were my friends.

That was around when it first came out.

Now, no one even bothers with voice anymore in Violet. They are bored of it, uninterested in using it, and back to almost exclusively chatting with text again. And I've noticed this trend everywhere I go, be it other hubs, stores, clubs, wherever. Almost everyone has slipped back into just using text, or using voice very sparingly.

I think unlike a lot of games, maybe voice is just going to be something of a novelty to SL-goers. I love it, especially the private voice chat conference, I use that a lot with Mia, but other than that? Not too much. I, like most people I know, have slipped back into typing again.