No VoiceYet?

I got all excited for nothing. My friends tell me no voice yet. Even after the Lindens posted the Voice Map. Drop the dead donkey already. When is voice ACTUALLY coming to the grid?

Voice was never going to be in the official client.

It's in the First Look client I believe, which works on the main grid.

blady goes into noob fog. I will go search for this 'First Look'.

They said multiple times voice would NOT be on the main grid with this update. And as far as I know it's only in the beta viewer not the first look one.

May it never arrive on the main grid.

wow a complaint about something not add'ed that was blogged about not being add'ed and it was not add'ed as it was told it would not be add'ed



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Joe Linden was on the beta grid on Monday. I was fortunate enough to hear some of the ensuing discussion.

According to him, the next Firstlook viewer will be enabled for Voice (the current Windlight viewer will be retired). Note that this is Voice only and NOT Windlight + Voice.

I understood that they would offer the Voice enabled Firstlook viewer today. I believe the intention was that Voice would be turned on in 300 private sims and 300 mainland sims to allow testing. Of course it maybe that they had to delay it...


I am awaiting main grid voice with some trepidation. I have had some interesting voice discussions with people on the Beta grid. I have also had to endure listening to a group of people in the Beta welcome area, spam the voice channel with inanane chatter, swearing and/or whatever background music they had playing when their microphone was open.

Voice is here according to the latest blog, well if you download the right client. It's not in with the main client yet but can be used on the live grid.

"We plan to run the Voice First Look Viewer on the Live Grid for a month or two, and will incorporate your feedback and develop iteratively during that time. We expect voice to be a standard feature of the Second Life Viewer at the end of this process..." -the Blog

Looks like the two private sims I have land on are all voice-enabled.

I thought they weren't going to enable voice on $195/month sims or did that quietly change?

The standard will be 'off' for me.

Will the voice-enabling option be given only to the island/estate owner, or also to the person who owns a parcel on said estate? I really *really* hope individual parcel owners get control too, because I'd probably want it off.

Voice is alive and working pretty well in the first look viewer. I had a very pleasant conversation with someone I met in a sandbox and made a new friend.

Seconded!

Thirded!

Mandy C

Fourthed.. My lousy connection can barely handle SL as it is, the last hing I need is 10 people VOIPing at once

How can you tell Kitty?

I thought so too. If the voice controls are visible in estate options even though voice is not available on the MG, could it be that they'll be greyed out for < class 4 sims when it finally arrives?

Interesting quote from this week's Economist Technology Quarterly review:

"Another finding is that despite the plunging cost of voice calls, and the rise of free internet-calling services such as Skype, people seem to prefer typing. “The most fascinating discovery I've made this year is a flattening in voice communication and an increase in written channels,” says Ms Broadbent. Her research in Switzerland and France found that even when people are given unlimited cheap or free calls, the number and length of calls does not increase significantly. This may be because there is only so much time you can spend talking; and when you are on the phone it is harder to do other things. Written channels such as e-mail, text-messaging and IM, by contrast, are discreet and allow contact to be continuous during the day. “Users are showing a growing preference for semi-synchronous writing over synchronous voice,”

Stefana Broadbent, anthropologist at Swisscom's User Adoption Lab.

Yay! way to go LL.........

Could this be that the French have gotten so rude, they won't even speak to each other?



*Yes. That was a Joke, people*

I'd read the same article

(The full article can be found at http://www.economist.com/printedition/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9249302 )

I tend to agree with the premise that voice, while useful is not always the best form of communication for those of us who are time challenged.

Plus text allows one the opportunity to engage ones brain before issuing forth. As I mentioned in my prior post, I've had some interesting voice conversations, but I've also been subjected to the verbal equivalent of spam replete with indiscriminate swearing.


On the plus side Voice seems to be working as advertised on the main grid. I tried it last night with fairly good success.

I'm really getting sick of the whole "voice will be a failure everyone wants to type" thing.

IT'S A F#$KING OPTION!!! One more thing you can do and that's it.

Typing will never go away because of that thing in front of all you people that we in the industry like to call a "keyboard".

I swear with all the LL doomsayers and haters it will soon become hip to LIKE and RESPECT LL!!

Voice is awesome but the "communicate" button still sucks...I think I'll be able to get used to it if needed, though.

I think it's working well and doesn't cause me any extra lag on my 5 year old computer!

Who said it was going to be a failure ?

The article merely pointed out that given the choice people use both.

IMO both tools have their place in SL (and I will use both tools).

Prepare to get flamed by 2000 people!

I'm still waiting for voice to come to my home sim to try it out....too embarrassed to talk to people anywhere else!

Voice is alive and ...... (well it's alive) on FirstLook. I found it great for some things and a real pain for others on the beta grid. One of the things that came up was I could technically be carrying on a voice conversation with one group and a text conversation with another group but I soooo can't multitask in that fashion !!!!

And Shadow: an individual parcel owner is able to disable voice on their parcel, although at the moment it is enabled by default.

No, the plan they stated was to initially roll it out for the whole grid, because LL is just certain that this is a wonderful thing and that everyone who tries it will want to use it. Then after a while they plan to start billing the class 4 sim owners for an extra fee if it is enabled in theis sim that month, while the mainland and private class 5 sims get it for free. They are hoping that by the time they start billing for it, the class 4 sim owners will be hooked on their "free candy". Just like a drug dealer giving out "free samples".

Personally, I want to know why even when I disable Voice on my parcel, people will still be allowed to use Voice Chat via IM to other individuals or to groups. I don't want voice-zombies on my land, staring off into space while they chatter to friends 20 sims away, at the same time ignoring the non-voice players standing next to them. I see it as no different than a theatre owner banning the use of cell phones in their theatre.