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

Hooo boy! Not read a forum for a month and a half and all sorts of things happen!

Let's see here.


1) Am I genuine?

Hah! If it's in question to anyone, skip all my posts. Pardon my incredible arrogance, but I don't *need* to be disingenous.


2) Would voice 'catching on fast' self-serve me?

Laughably, ridiculously, absolutely - not.

- The voice issue causes me nothing but turbulence and wasted hours.
- It will annoy some residents no matter *what* I decide, voice on or off.
- Unless I raise my prices *incredibly* a 295/mo tier in older sims will hurt me.

And just contemplate the following:

a) ripping out Caledon roads and infrastructure (old sims have WAY more) or,
b) charging residents *more* for a class 4 sim than their class 5 neighbours, or
c) eating the charges (full tier upgrade would mean I eat 13,200 USD a year), or
d) having new folks not rent because 'those sims are old 2007 voiceless ones', or
e) charging a bit more allowing voice, but angering old friends who stood by me

Eyah. Folks, please notice the downward pattern - I'm not exactly winning here am I? Self serving? Oh please.


3) With regard to Maklin:

My mistake entirely. Prior to rollout I never imagined in my wildest dreams that private main grid sims would be part of the voice beta test. Hence I thought voice wouldn't be on regardless. So I stated as much: 'voice won't be on.' Wrong-o!

Voice was activated (as we all now know) and I was faced with a choice I didn't ever expect to make:

a) deny it by decree for all people paying me for land
b) allowing the option to have it on or off by individual choice on parcels

Incidentally there is no "c) forcing it on for everyone" as I deed land to people's individual control in Caledon.

Faced with these choices, I chose to let people have the option to use voice on their land, and participate or no, depending upon their preference. It was a judgement call, not 100% popular by a long shot.

But I made a decision and stood by it.

In a way, it was to be expected - our service provider set things up such that 'taking away' a shiny new feature would be a rather iffy move. But there it was: I had to make a judgement call, and I made it.

Got to make the hard choices or you have no business running things.

* * * * *

And for the record, Maklin is 100% right - I do look at the economics, and if it comes down to keeping Caledon financially solid by allowing voice, I'll allow voice.

I'm not going to assume anything yet. For instance, from the Voice Beta FAQ, it doesn't explictly mention the possibility that we'll be *able* to keep our old 195/mo tier. I might have no decision to make - we'll just have to see.

Or perhaps we can stay text in 13 regions for now, and switch over should it become a pressing financial issue later.

* * * * *

So what of voice usage now?

I run around with it on so I can listen, but with my headphones set aside. It's not used that much in groups, unless they are intimate groups and all 3-4 people have voice and have generally known each other to use it in the past.

It *is* a problem when someone without voice walks up to a group of talking people. Many make the attempt to type, but the problem is real: it's an incredibly divisive situation if there are say, 7-8 people talking and one person without it.

That problem is less frequent now though, because people seem to be talking only in two's and threes in their homes and typing more in public.

Also in the community, people tend to learn quickly 'who types' and 'who talks' and so forth, and I've actually been impressed with the politeness so far (we *ARE* in proper Caledon for god's sake!).

The sound issues with voice chat 'helped' a bit of a text revival along, in my personal estimation. I tend to be a 'listener/typer' myself.

I'm largely in Caledon, but I also have land in Alice still and notice the same patterns there. Also with other people (friends) in private and mainland regions.


Just one resident's thoughts and views. I stand by all of it.

It has been a few months now since voice has been introduced. I have never used it, never will and I was strongly anti-voice. But surprisingly nothing has really changed for me after all. Maybe I am lucky but I don't notice ANY difference in my SL experience. Most people seem to go back to text or leave voice off most of the time anyway. Maybe voice was a gimick that is now yesterday's news. I don't notice any "rush" at all.

True, at first I was excited about voice too. I thought it would take me less time to explain things to customers. But in the end the threshold seems to be a lot higher to start a voice conversation than I expected. Maybe it's me, I don't know, but I just have trouble asking strangers if I can use voice with them. For me it seems I invade their privacy, although I know they have voice enabled too. Now I use voice only very rarely, maybe once a week or less. It's nice the voice option is there, but to be honest, I wouldn't miss it when it was gone again.