Voice Chat Can Really Kill the Mood on WoW

I wonder if foreigners are prepared for the things Southerner Americans will say to them the first time they presume to call them Yankees.

Or the things we Northerners say to Southeners.

Yeah, such cutting things as "where are you from?"!

BTW, Carlos and SqueezeOne, you seem to be the perfect unintentional anti-voice poster children.

Initially, I was only indifferent to voice, but after reading your venomous, obnoxious, immature, snarky and generally inflammatory posts, I'm actually genuinely concerned about it. Because now I can picture people just like you being just as rude as you are being to people who don't want to use voice.

Maybe this WILL be a problem.

Well if you're that easily influenced by someone else's opinion then thankyou for the extra bandwidth!

I usually hear "Damn your accent turns me on." or "How sexy, talk to me"

Sorry about that...I'll stop IMing you with those comments. I mean it this time.

It shoudlnt be hard to conceptualize that many of the people who will find it difficult to use voice are the same people that have trouble with confrontation.

...then v-chat just isn't for them and they can simply check the "I don't want to use v-chat." box on their personal opinion card. I'm okay with that.

Can you clarify that Colette? Are you saying with this that the poster to whom SqueezeOne is replying is disgusted with SqueezeOne's tone as a result of some aversion to confrontation? Or are you simply making a general observation?

The basic argument is: if you dont want to voice you can shut it off.

The response is: people will pressure me to voice.

Then the counter is: than tell them to go away the only reason you need is "i dont want to"

My point is that many people who are nervous about using voice chat are the same people who are nervous about confrontation. For them, facing intimidation to use voice is difficult.

It wont get LESS difficult when there are more people doing the asking.

Voice seems kinda "extra". I log in rarely now, but when I do it seems I always have a fun chat with somebody, in text. I can't see myself putting on the headphones to do voice, mainly because my little 2nd life episodes are late at night, the pc is in the bedroom and my significant other is right next to me-having our little conversations overhead and broadcast to everyone just seems unseemly. Now in the rare event I'm home alone and somebody wants to talk voice and Im not jamming to something nice on the home system, sure I'll don the headphones, but I don't log into 2nd life to "talk"....just to socialize.

Wow/AO all those games have people in the "vent/ts" groups, and I happily stay out of them, its ok, for raids they are fine, but talking to people isn't why I log into a game generally.

I am guessing if I was single, had a real quiet house, never had the cat or dog come jump in my lap, never had a phone ring, I'd be more comfortable with the voice aspect but as it is I'll keep my headphones behind the monitor where they usually lay.

Ahh. Yes I agree.

As an addendum to your "counter" above, I add my actual point which is that when people say the only reason non-voicers need is "I don't want to", but then they 'asterisk' people who give that answer in their own minds, their acceptance of that answer becomes suspect, and their true lack of acceptance will be felt when it bleeds into their everyday SL dealings. It is as inevitable as the sun setting in the West.

I have told my partner that I will try to use voice in my dealings with her if she really wants to, putting aside my own reservations and fears. It has not been easy for me to come to that decision, even with her, but I would rather give it a try than to lose her.

I mention this because some on this forum have indicated that they feel I am taking the stance I have because I am dead set against voice. It is not voice I am against, it is judgment born of laziness, or the tendency of people to assume what's convenient rather then having to try and understand others. It is also the insolent shoulder shrugging some posters here have displayed towards non voicers while playing up the 'voice makes SL a better community' angle out of the same mouth.

I personally lean towards Mark Twain whose words sum this up perfectly. There are some on here who quite clearly do not, and voice in SL may be a nightmare as a result. In case of unfamiliarity:

"It is better to say nothing and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt." - Mark Twain

I completely agree with you on this.

Who's fault is that, though? Does this mean that because some kids can't play nice with the beach ball in the pool that we should take all the beach balls out?

I think it's the "pressurer's" problem for not accepting the fact that the non-voicer doesn't want to use voice. It's also the non-voicer's problem for not being able to handle confrontation well. It's no different than resisting someone who wants to have fake SL sex with you and you're not interested. If even that level of confrontation is too difficult then you should re-think playing any online social computer games/platforms/whatever SL is.

Don't take away something just because some people might not know how to handle it. If that was the answer then SL would have been closed down alltogether after the child porn incident!

And yet so many with the "v-chat won't benefit the SL community" is doing the above as well. Instead of just letting it be a case of an option that you don't need to worry about if you don't want people are calling for no voice to protect people from what could possibly happen.

The problem is, based on my poll showing the different levels of usage just about NO ONE indicated that they'd use voice a majority of their time. From what I've seen so far on the beta grid and then on firstlook this is the case across the board.

The dark predictions of discrimination are not accurate and the socialist "protect the people from themselves by limiting their freedoms" approach is not the answer.

Would that it could be that clean cut. As I remember though, that is exactly what happens on the playground when a few troublemakers are irresponsible with the ball. The onus is put on the group by the teacher to police the individual. It becomes impossible to stick one's head in the sand about the shoddy behavior of others with whom you share your privilege.

The same system exists in the military, where the failure of one becomes the punishment of all. Also on sports teams, where players are benched for not holding to the standards set for the team at large. And in Corporate America, where the department at large must take responsibility for the failures of its members.

These are collaborative groups. Teams. People who work together. Like a community. Why is that common RL system of group behavior not expected understood, or applicable to a RL feature being applied to SL and responsibility for its use?

Can a text using SL resident count on the voice using segment at large to police the abusive behavior of the irresponsible? Maybe not, but I know that my willingness to accept these changes would increase geometrically if any one of them would suggest trying, rather than saying "It's not my problem". Voice as a feature is not a right. It is a privilege. Anyone who needs to see the difference has but to start using it to grief others. What is that privilege worth to the voice using community? Is it worth a little compassion and vigilance? A little taking of personal responsibility?

Tell me that and I can meet you half-way.

Well, based on what I've experienced in the Beta Grid when voice was new and people were first trying it out I think griefers will have a bit harder time.

Sure a griefer can just run by and yell, but everyone in the area can also say "hey jerk stop it" and otherwise tell them off and the griefer comes across as a chump and wanders off.

There was a situation where I was with a group of people and one guy kept making stupid child porn jokes in a german accent (this was right after the german inquisition). He was obviously doing it to annoy everyone. Eventually everyone told him to shut up (in so many words) and he did. He eventually started positively participating in the conversation as opposed to being a jerk.

I know this won't happen all the time and griefing will still occur, but I think there is a certain advantage to telling someone off over typing it.

The voice griefer tends to lose some anonymity...which is their best friend when griefing!

That is encouraging. I wish there were similar observations available concerning the voice group's response to individuals within who pressure or ridicule others whom they are trying to get to talk. But what you say is encouraging : )

glad to help!

the rest of the world refer to americans (all americans) as yanks.

Oh? And the majority of people choose not to use voice? In this case it's more like the majority approve and even if they didn't it wouldn't make any difference as they're adding it regardless.


Certain technologies don't need peoples approval such as voicing in games. Did the devs at EVE ask the gamers or the public if they wanted voice in that game? Did they ask the gamers in this one? Have they asked in upcoming games or games already out? Of course not! it's ridiculous to even think that.

Voice in games is something they're now adding and they don't need your approval so comparing this to 8 track tapes or anything similar dosen't make sense as those items were left behind because newer better and smaller ones came out. Voicing in games is something totally different.

You can't compare the two.

You know how it wouldn't go over well in Britain to call the British "rotten-toothed limeys"?

That's how it wouldn't go over well in the South to call people "Yankees."

You won't win any points back for saying, "That's what we do overseas," either. To put it bluntly, there are people who would actually hurt you, physically, for calling them that in person.

The Civil War left an impression that hasn't completely gone away.

You can use the headphone of the headset if that didn't get damaged in the bowl of soup, though holding a headset speaker close to your mouth kinda sucks and it doesn't pick up as well as the mic.

Something that is related to this post.

Mom tells kid no more WoW!

True. But here there is a difference, especially in the South between YANKEE, and YANK.

And I'm not even going to mention that despicable baseball team that plays in the Bronx.