Voice chat...I refuse to use it...am I a terrible person?

I don't think you are a bad person for not using it, I say to each his own. I am glad it's out there for those who want to, to use it.

As for RP sims (of which I am a part). I don't think it ought to be banned. While I don't talk voice (I am just self conscious about my voice) I stream in music for my RP dancing on the voice channel quite frequently while I type the actual RP- the music I want is not neccisarily available in SL and even when it is it's delivery is choppy and ruins the mood I am trying to create. Those who don't want to hear it can just disable it and not hear the others, I have listened to others (yeah it IS weird to hear some of these people you imagined voices for actually use their own voice) actually RP on voice. I say to each their own and that is just fine with me.

I am a non-voicer for various reasons myself, and most if not all of my friends rarely voice, and those that do, completely accepted my decision not to use the feature. If anyone harasses you for not giving out personal information of any kind (voice is the strongest and most private information of them all) ignore them and make new friends!



I think it should be kept out and some sims handle it this way. Other sims force voice on their users, like the star trek sim, which is very sad, because now I will probably never even try to RP there.

How ironic, given ST's legacy of multi culturalism and acceptance of all different types of people. Too bad, I was looking forward to possible RP ing there myself.

Well Second Life is supposed to be just that. Be someone you want to be other than who you are in RL. If you don't want to be someone else other than you are and play your character as your RL self all good also (of course I am biased there as my RL and SL character are pretty much the same).


However many choose not to be there RL selfs and voice compromises that significantly in many cases. So if someone is bashing you for not using voice then they bash the very concept of what SL is supposed to be (or originally supposed to be ).

I have no problems with non voice users and actually prefer to talk with them. I have yet to hear a very well functioning voice conversation anyway. Also I have been muting a lot of people lately flat out abusing it. People putting their mics up to music, porn, TV or any other thing that is annoying as hell. Some people have a lot of traffic around then in RL and people yelling and screaming and kids running around and what not.

To each their own. If they don't like your choice and try to force theirs on you then they are not worth hanging around IMO.

My take on this is somewhat funny... as I have DJ'd in SL before, hundreds of people have heard my voice. But I will not use voice chat. I would much rather chat via text than use a voice feature, and its addition to SL is somewhat pointless to me given all of the voice options already available to those who want them. It's a waste of development resources in my mind.

I agree alot with these points. One day I had been playing Second LIfe. I idled my character out while I took an important RL phone call. As I was doing the phone call, I was looking at my idled avatar and I realized that the composition of my voice to my caller and the way my avatar looks....my voice definitely does not match this character I created. I already do not wish for my character to start resembling a RL me. Voice chat (aside from the wrong voice for my character) just doesnt seem good for me. Maybe if I had one of those cool voice changers (and compatible with *nix), than I could see myself considering voice chat.



As for #1, I dont object to those who use voice chat at all. I think that its people's personal preference about if they want to broadcast their voice across cyberspace. As I stated above, many SL residents have avatars that are not meant to represent their real life self and so using voice would go against that. What I DO have a problem with is the voice chatters (I have come across a few of these "cliques" that expect YOU to use voice chat.

Often times, these voice chat cliques seem to favor voice chat so much that those who oppose it are automatically "not cool enough" or something. Peer pressure much? Its one thing to ignore the non-voice resident (its the equilivant of the real life people that speak in their own foriegn language because they are more comfortable with that. I can understand it and respect that personally.), but it is another to purposely look down on them for not wanting to have the leet new technology.

Regarding #2, I could see how voice would interfere with a non-OOC roleplay environment. Having a rule of "no voice chat" for an RPG on SL is a reasonable rule. Again, the voice takes away from the individual IC environmet since a player's voice is rather an OOC element.