The Voice Rush - it has caught on amazingly quickly hasn't it?

I must confess, I've been a bit stunned.

Personally I'm not much of a 'voice' kinda guy. I'll listen, and talk on rare occasion.

But - WOW is voice getting used, by a lot of people, almost overnight!

I'm guessing it will only grow from here. Has anyone else noticed this? I was expecting that it would creep up on us a bit more slowly.

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As for typing - the comm center is really too clunky for both business communication on the grid and 3d interaction simultaneously - perhaps that's not a focal area for designers, but it's a fact of life for me.

Specifically, the 'checkboxes' for what rights friends have on me - they eat up a huge amount of vertical space - if there was ANY other way to specify those functions, I'd be much happier. I use those functions... almost never, while I *always* use the vertical space!

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If there was one thing that would be nice, it would be this. A voiceless client, such that I didn't have to suffer with the voice comm center, yet still knew when people were talking, and could 'see' all the relevant functions. That way I'd still have a clue what was going on.

none of the places i go use voice, or if they do i havent noticed,,then again i dont plan on using it except with a few close friends.

I've not noticed that many Voice users. Once in a while someone will ask me if Voice is disabled at my bar, I tell 'em yes, it's disabled, and that's that. More often I get residents noticing that Voice is disabled at my bar and they will IM me a thank you for making it a Voice-Free area.

I agree, the Communicate window is a disaster for anyone who has to deal with large numbers of people. We can't avoid being IMed, we can't avoid being chatted at, and we can't avoid being spoken to, but if all three are happening at once *which we can't avoid,* and we're still trying to function in world, the design of the Communicate window makes it impossible to keep up.

There are jira proposals to fix it and I ask everyone to please go vote for them. A good starting point is http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-1076.

Was this thread planted? LOL

OMG I'm kidding!!!

Planted only by me, based on my experiences.

Reason it surprised me is that I have a very 'vocal' typing-only population, and I fully expected close to zero voice chat usage a week after voice was introduced.

Quite the contrary, it's been so active I've had complaints when a stray sim did *not* have voice turned on. Yep, people asking: where's the voice feature??? ... and I go to turn it on, then they thank me.

The number of people using it, and the requests for it were sort of unexpected. I thought I'd have nothing but backlash for giving people the voice option in an 'immersionist' area like my themed sims.

I haven't yet downloaded the voice client, figuring that i would let the bugs get ironed out first, as i do with all 'upgrades'. In the time since it came online I haven't been in any place where voice was active (as far as i know) or had anyone ask me if i had voice, or felt the need to use it.

Hearing about the difficulties of the voice communications box has also put me off.

I did try it out on beta one day, way back, and had a great time talking with the people around me. Voice holds no fears for me, and i would like to use it if i come across a group of friends using it too.. as yet, i haven't.

Your post, Desmond, frankly surprised me, as i didn't realise that it was becoming popular.

However, i have had a lot of pc problems in the last two weeks (another reason for avoiding the download) and i really don't want to put my shaky system under yet more strain.

imogen

I see it and then believe it.

As someone stated earlier, I also am surprised by your thread, Desmond. I don't see voice as a big deal whatsoever.

I have concerns about how voice will separate many due to language barriers, but I'm not anti-voice. I didn't want to download voice until the next viewer came out. I'd rather let others iron out the bugs. Finally, however, someone talked me into downloading it. I really haven't found the controls as difficult as others have stated. Mostly just a matter of getting use to.

So what's my voice experience? Tried it one day. Yeah yeah. Haven't turned it back on since. Am I missing anything? Not that I'm aware of. No one really has mentioned it at all since then. I know with time people will become more use to it and it will become more common but I'm certainly not experiencing a wave of any sort.

Has anyone tried using voice in say a crowded club yet, with the music turnned on as well? Guess it's too much like RL LOL..

I too was a little surprised at Desmond's observations. Only this morning we were discussing how very few people seem to be using Voice.

I have not seen any upsurge in usage, quite the contray in fact and have yet to visit a location where voice has been enabled and voice users outnumber (or even equal) traditional users. I have been in a situation where a lone voice user was wondering why he was being "ignored" but in fact he was the only person amongst the 10 of us there using voice, and so had to resort back to typing.

Am sure this may change over time, but for the time being, my observation is that voice uptake has been slow.

That's why I use the Nicholaz Edition.
The voice client:

http://nicholaz-beresford.blogspot.com/2007/08/bleeding-edge-new-version-18xe.html

The non-voice client:

http://nicholaz-beresford.blogspot.com/2007/08/release-old-school-version-18h.html

I've been using his client since I heard of it, back in SL version 1.17.something.

This thread so sounds like a plant lol..
I haven't dl'd the new client, and from the problems i have heard I'm glad I haven't ..
Anyways the freinds of mine who have, and found out how bad it works, were switching back to the old client and using skype.. So just my observations... *shrugs*

Not quite a crowded club, but Robin said she would have her next office hour (today at 11am) in voice.

There's generally a big-ish crowd and even in chat it ends up being a mess with everyone talking at once about different topics so it will be interesting to see how well that'll work .

More like you are being blitz'd by a few "voice fans" who are systematically going round the grid demanding that it be turned on. My experience is that I haven't encountered a single person using it or been asked if I'm using it, or had anyone asking for it to be turned on, since it went live. Less than 300 people wanted this feature, and no matter how much positive "spin" is put on it, it won't change the fact that the majority didn't want it and probably won't use it "ever".

I haven't sen any indication of Voice popularity at all, but since I keep it firmly turned off, I wouldn't know if the rest of the sim was chattereing on madly. To my knowledge, only one couple in my home sim are willing to use Voice, and then only between themeselves.

I agree with some earlier posters. It sounds more like some pro-voice people are going around and trying to make Voice *seem* more popular. Desmond? Do you recognize the names of these Vocal people as being among your regular tenants?

Voice Mentors make he laugh........Really now.........how screwy is it to understand how to use the client? Its not hard. If the client was stable enough to have it on i would not say a thing.But sad facts are its not stable for most and just a pile of badly coded .............never mind.

I've only ever used voice to talk to the fiance in SL, and haven't actually met anyone yet who insisted to talk via voice to me either....it's nice with someone you know, but I wouldn't want to have complete strangers listening to my real voice

I've not been using voice much and most of the people I know have either fallen into the category of either only talking voice now, or the novelty wore off and back to typing, with some variation depending where they are.

One of the nicer features of voice is the conference call (which I didn't really know how to use until recently). If you highlight several friends in the communicator, then click call, it opens a voice chat between all of you and then you can prattle on in voice to your closer friends ONLY. I favor this, it is more like what I've traditionally done with teamspeak in gaming environments.

I do leave voice on for 'nearby area' when exploring or just hanging out in public areas though unless it becomes a problem in which case I turn it off or mute offenders.

I'm sorry, but I find this extremely bias, and most likely completely fibbed. Give me a break...yes, some people (like you) don't like voice, but I highly doubt people are going to IM you and thank you for disabling it.

Yes, thank you for NOT giving us the option if we wanted.

Sheesh.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Desmond Shang
Quite the contrary, it's been so active I've had complaints when a stray sim did *not* have voice turned on. Yep, people asking: where's the voice feature??? ... and I go to turn it on, then they thank me.



Oh, so someone LIKES voice and they are "blitzing"...and are "voice fans?" You guys are so hypocritical, I can't even begin to explain. You have no ears for it.

problem: I know some people who hate voice, but are using it so they aren't ostracized from the community they're in. Frankly, i don't care how many conversations i miss -- i'm not using voice. Ever.

My experience supports Desmond's. I have never understood the fear that the voice option generates. We use both chat and voice when it fits (and when voice works!). Its like not flying in RP sims, not that hard to adjust to..just another choice.

But since I have learned that people's reasons are often surprisingly good for opinions that differ from mine, all I can say is that some people like voice alot, some people hate it alot and most like me go meh, whatever..use what works in the situation.

Thanks Desmond for sharing your experience. I would have thought too that your sims would be slow to voice but it may be that people are so comfy with each other that adding voice is just an example of how safe they feel with each other cause they've known each other for so long.

I must admit to not liking voice with strangers and will only chat in response to voice with people I don't know. I do like IMing in voice though (when it works) with my sweetie when we are exploring different things and the conference call ability is very cool.

My two Lindens worth..

I came here for fun and to have a 'second life', not an extended real life.
The thought of someone i would not want to recognize my real life voice in sl being able to do so.....well.....might as well use my real name and post my real address and phone# along with it.
Nope, i got nothing to hide. I just don't want my real life asshole neighbor to know my sl indentiy.

And nevermind the resident splits due to language barriers and ethnic backgrounds...

Ditto. And that includes running 4+ accounts 24/7. I get more people asking me to voluntarily vacate my camping chairs. I even get more "hey, how can I get money?" I get more remote and unasked for Friend requests.



THANK YOU FOR DISABLING VOICE! At least the entire grid isn't enabled.