YES or NO - Should LL add this voice chat?

Ok, I voted Yes. I have mixed feelings about it, all of which have already been touched on by others in this discussion.

Oh, and Brenda - THANKS. I will now spend the weekend hopelessly trying to purge my head of Barry Manilow tunes.

*gets out his "Grease" soundtrack CD and blairs some shanana in your general direction*

I voted NO. But it's not like it matters - most companies are incapable of listening to their customers or making logical decisions. Not when money is involved.

Don't worry about being "ostracized" for not using it, or peer pressure or whatever. I predict that so few people will be willing or able to use voice in SL, for whatever reason (there are many valid reasons) that the people who do use it are going to be the minority. They won't really have any ability to pressure anyone.

I doubt that many sim owners are going to be willing to pay the $100/month for it, so it's not like you'll have much to worry about in a lot of sims.

Hopefully you won't need to individually mute people. There really had better be a on/off switch for it. Mine will be off, I can assure you that.

BTW....one word: vocoder. 'Nuff said.

My vote is definately NO, even though I use english as a second language every day for almost 15 years.

I know, voice is only an option, but the problem is, where will people use it? If an event is on a voice enabled parcel, and the host, teacher, etc is actually talking, people who can't use voice (there are a thousand different reasons) will be excluded. That's not good for anybody.

You can also use voice to talk to your friends in private, but hey, you can already do that with 3rd party software. We use 3rd party software for content creation, and we will soon use 3rd party software for building, too. So why would we need it at all?

Second, I don't know if LL will log all the voice chat. I don't think they will. They already have problems acting against harrasment, even if they have the chatlogs. Voice wiil make it impossible to act against verbal attacks.

And the most important reason: even this poll is in english, all debate about voice were in english, so people who already have a hard time chatting in english also had a hard time to share their concerns.

For example, my girlfriend is able to understand about 40-50% of anything written in english, but she obviously can't understand all the pros and cons, and she would never dare to post a reply in a thread like this, because of her poor english grammar. She can slowly chat in-world if she really wants to, and understand most of the conversations, but only with the help of chat history - she needs time to understand, she needs time to word her thoughts, and chat history gives her time.

Add the opinion of people like her to that poll, I'm pretty sure that most of them would say no. (Although 70-30 is already pretty convinving...)

I want them to fix SL before adding more shit to it.

I had to get to you some way, Zaph.


Actually ..Grease won't do it. If you were to play Celine Dion...I'd be screaming in agony.....

I say YES for the opportunities it will create. Some will use it, others wont.

Having already tried the voice beta, I'd say they got this one working well enough. Just a few tweaks needed.

Really, If I didnt want to socialize with other people, WHY would I even bother with SL??? Talking to other people is just another form of socializing.

I cant really understand the "I dont want to talk to you PERIOD" people. What are you hiding? Afraid of something?? Or are you that emotionally imbalanced that you cant handle the fact that other human beings are on here? I'm sure there'll be new ways of griefing, but you can cause hassles with text chat just as well.

We've all used Skype. It works. But its just more crap taking up hard drive space, eating bandwidth & resources. If voice is incorporated, its a bit easier. There doesnt seem to be any lag using the voice client. Saying there is, is either proof of A) you never tried it, or B) you really need to get an up-to-date computer- that 1998 E-Machine just aint cutting it, or C) You dont know diddly about computers.

Interesting thing- I tried the new voice client. The group that was there somehow pissed off some guys. I was thinking "Great! Another bunch of griefing buttheads." But as it turned out, we started talking about current events, etc, and HEY! We actually got along!! OMG!!! We acted as civil human beings!!! God forbid people online act like well mannered people!!!

Yea, voice is bad! I'd rather just assume yer all a bunch of animated cartoons & text. Makes it easier to deal with ya'll!!!! No humans. No feelings. No emotions. No nothing. Just pixels on a screen, able to be harassed & manipulated at a whim.

What I DO disagree with, is the ways its being implemented: sim owners paying for the privilege of "voice", etc. I say All Or None.

I think if people want to use it let them. I can think of situations where voice would be very handy and others where it would only confuse things. I also agree with the earlier post that there is no danger of being ostracised for NOT using it judging by how many people are against it. The only thing that bugs me is that some people assume not using voice means you are hiding something. Get over it eh? Why are people so paranoid? If you want to spend your time in SL looking for hidden motives and secrets behind every AV then go ahead but it seems like a big waste of time to me.

Okay as ive said - I think the vote would have been closer if the "No cuase it will be laggy and buggy" people had abstained from the vote, which my OP suggested.

Still some of your arguments I feel I should respond to.



This seems to ignore the whole chat room experience as its evolved in the internet. There are plenty of people who enjoy social interation at the comfort level Text enviroments provide who are less comfortable at RL parties , etc. Many Introverts find Text Environments freeing.

This is just a variation on the old argument why socialize online when you can in Real Life argument ---- to a lesser degree.



This is EXACTLY the attitude that will split people into Voicers and texters. In fact its absolutely what people who are against voice chat for social reasons are concerned about.

You are placing an onus of guilt on people just becuase they dont want to voice chat.

Thank you for being honest though - People have been claiming for months this attitude would not exist, when I knew it already did. People have been trying to claim no one would talk that way. That "pressure" to voice wouldnt take place.

Now I understand an annoyance when faced with a bunch of anti voicers that want there to be no voice for ANYONE - so that might be leading to more polarized reactions in this thread. But realisitically we already know that voice is coming.

I think this really misses the point. In fact, many us prefer (for a long laundry list of reasons) to communicate in SL via text. Speaking for myself, like many here, I grew up and remain a voracious reader. I find the written word a pleasant, relaxing way of communication that often conveys far more than the spoken word does.

To think that those out there who shudder at the vision of Second Life as one large conference call (I have watched the videos--ugh!) are nothing but an anti-social group who does not like to deal with people is absurd. I very much think of the people I meet here as people because, well, they are. I do not believe that VOIP will enhance that, in fact, I think it will diminish social interaction (at least the kind I treasure).

Stereotyping those who do not care for the same things you do is unfortunate. Would you care to be referred to as an "anti-literate babbler"?

It is called personal preference. No one is saying they do not want to talk to you.
People have different needs. My need is quiet, I ususaly keep the sound turned down or
off on my computer. I do this for privacy and the fact I do not like a alot of sound going on around me.


If you think voice will make a Secone Life a polite society. You are fooling yourself.
Voice will turn Second Life into the CB radio of the internet. I have a dear friend who is a truck driver and I have been in his truck. You would be amazed to hear what people say on the CB to each other and the griefing that goes on.

I have been on the internet for 25 years. I have made many friends chatting via text.
Here is a little clue for you. It's not the medium but the people behind it and what is said.

Voice will come no matter what the people say. I will continue to keep the sound turned down. IF SL comes to a point where I have to turn it back up to talk with people. Then that is a sign to knock the dust off my sandals and move on.


Not related to your post but food for thought.

If voice chat is such a great feature why does the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) continue to attract far more users than voice chat features on the internet?

I wish you well and if you see me, type hello and I will type back at you

Rox