How often do you see yourself using v-chat? A more detailed Poll

That was based on the latest poll results as of the time I said that.

As of now, still slightly less than half say they will use voice at all.

Only 3.08% say they'll use it more than 50% of the time. And frankly, that last number constitutes the serious "voicers" -- the people who will be using voice as their primary method of SL communication.

Gonna, and have been. A lot more than I initially thought I would. I think I stood in Solange with my girlfriend for about four hours yesterday, and we were the only two in the entire store with voice enabled, lol. But It was awesome, I have to say, great fun. Now if I could get the one-on-one that they supposedly fixed with this new update working, I'd be quite happy with it.

EDIT: Text will still be my primary method of communication in Second Life. And at times I may find myself using a mixture of the two, but it's easier for me to chat than speak to random people. Only with friends will I find myself really using voicechat.

Interesting. It seems that LindenLab's assessment of voice being a widely-used feature is quite off.... everyone can draw his or her own conclusions when taking their quality of customer service into account.

I think it would even be too much to ask wether the 'Project Open Letter' had some tangible results after that Town Hall meeting?

Probably not, but the forum poll is representative of informed, commited SL citizens (as opposed to griefers, zombies, landbots and people who sign up, play for three days and then give it up as a bad job, and other such casual members of the overall SL community).

I dunno, voice is nice for some people but isn't needed that much and will there be a function to shut it off completely so i don't have to here banter in clubs and such? I think the real issue is why is this being implimented while there are huge bugs to work out? It's good to have different ways to communicate within sl but I would rather have those working on voice focus on the issues that been around way too long. Besides i tried talking oneday but i got all embaressed and said nothing and using a headset speaker as a mic kinda sucks.

I'm not against v-chat but i don't think i would use it that much, i don't even like wearing a headset. My speakers work fine and sound better. Then you got those men that want to confirm your sexual identity. More worried if you are who you say you are, and of course when you go to a club and they see that lil dot over your head they be all like wanting private im chats with you and that will be annoying also. Best to have it off while at the club. It has a plus if you do things like organized combat or gameplay. I use to use vent and ts while playing WoW and such and that helps when you need to blurt out things that would take longer to type out. Also for those big companies barging thier way into sl they can have v-chat meetings rather then typing it all out and that might keep things going faster for them.

Lol, I guess it can be used for phone sex too but without the high fees.

I wonder if we will be allowed to say "Casino" on voice chat. Or "Lolita". Or "Swastika".

You might find yourself sleeping with the fish!

I already make a lot of... uhm... I mean, just enough L$ to pay my tier naw, I'm a man (?) of the written word, ever since Ultima Online came out. Same with my mother tongue, I prefer to write it.

Not that I'd want to say such nasty and illegal things. Just wondering if LL will manage to automatically bleep them out Kinda like the classifieds cleansing mechanisms.

I'm betting about half of the time. When someone figures out how to grief with it I'll disable it or just turn down my volume while that person is doing his thing. When I'm with my friends I'll turn it back on and viciously mock any of them who would rather type than speak. That's just how I roll.

Well, voice IS a widley used feature (in reality as well as gaming) period. They're right that humans mostly communicate via voice and it seems entirely reasonable for the company to ignore the naysayers and advance their product. I see newer players, adaptive players, and entrepenours (sp?) taking advantage of and advancing this technology.

I have not voted. I cannot look into the future.
I don't want to use voice, but I may be forced to use it anyway.
I don't think it will be as optional as some people are shouting.

As optional? Isn't optional an either or thing?

Yes it is, if there is an OFF switch it is optional by definition.
But I foresee social pressure that will make using that OFF switch difficult.

I will use it just as often as anyone wants to talk with me. If they want to type, I'll type, if they want voice, I'll use voice - np.

People tend to stop seeing things as optional when there is a "price" with not using it.

A friend throws a party, and as the party progresses everyone else ends up using voice, leaving you to be the only non-voice enabled person.

"Awww, come on, turn it on, it'll be fun! You're really missing out!" is going to be directed at you a few times before people shrug and just keep talking without paying much heed to you anymore since you're not the party spoiler who doesn't want to join in and voice.

You obviously wanted to be at the party or you wouldn't have come, but now your choice is to start voicing as well (assuming you even can), or just leave since you're entirely left out of the conversation. Most wouldn't consider this an "optional" use of voice.

It also doesn't really matter here whether you don't ever want to voice, or whether it's just an inconvenient time for you to voice and you can't for practical reasons even though you otherwise do use voice.

i've voted for permanently disabled because:

a) I'd rather listen to our home iTunes shares or internet radio (when i go to a SL club I tend to switch the audio to winamp)

b) find i make more sense and appear more eloquent if I type what I say and have a chance to check it first (barring the tyops...i mean typos);

c) like History facility for checking what's been said if I've momentarily been distracted by a member of my household which isn't an option with audio not to mention getting people to repeat what they said because they didn't speak clearly enough;

d) a microphone would probably pick up my fella's swearing at whatever game he's usually playing (or at his Dark Age Of Camelot friends over Teamspeak mid-raid) as he's sitting right beside me!

I just want to point out...


So? What is this, grade school? Nobody can force me to do something I don't want in SL. And if they try (through whatever means of pressure) they're probably not people I'd want to socialize with anyway.

Don't like it? Don't use it. I don't think it has to be this difficult.

I can understand the desire for people to not want to use this feature - that's fine it's their choice. But to outright oppose it's inclusion? Isn't that unfair to those who do want this for legitimate reasons? What about their choice? You can't please everyone all the time but after all is said and done, voice chat is still just another option.

Kitty bring up a good point, and I don't doubt that situation will happen a lot. Which is sad, but again, I relate that back to my previous statement. If people can't accept that for whatever reason, I'm not using voice chat, then that's their problem.

That whole consideration to other's feelings and opinions should work both ways.

In my case, if my husband is the one using voice, me swearing at the console game my child rooked me into playing. Or if I'm *gasp* doing housework and step on the silly kitty-cat for the fifth time. Since silly kitty-cat has a bad habit of following right under my heels, this happens a great deal.

Yeah, voice is going to be on mute pretty much most of the time for me.

Although I have to wonder if I'll get hit on as much in voice?

Kitty says exactly the same as I do, only she uses more words to express it.

Mostly I picked that example because it just shows a social situation where noone is really trying to be a malicious or a pain. The person not wanting to voice isn't trying to bring the party down, and the people voicing aren't trying to exclude anyone, they're just caught up in the moment and it tends to just happen.

Hmm, okay, I see... Point taken. In that specific case however, wouldn't that be more of a coordination issue than anything else?

Either way, yeah that's an example if one inherent problem. I can't really suggest a remedy for that.. other than hope that people try to be more aware?

/me shrugs

The social fabric of SL will definitely be altered. Just to what extent is the question we can't know for sure until it happens. Personally, am not concerened by it, but I am not going to deny the concerns of others. Hopefully it will all work itself out.

Those who want to voice are already able to voice.

Excellent V-chat programs such as Skype, Ventrilo and Teamspeak are all free to download and are very user-friendly for anyone with the desire to voice. So that the choice to voice has already been taken into consideration.

There is a happy medium that currently exists in SL at the moment regarding the issue of voice. We are all aware that if we want to voice, particularly when meeting someone of particular interest, all we have to do is simply download one of these programs and v-chat away. Even I have the Skype program downloaded on my computer, and have had it for awhile, just in case my bf is away and we decide to v-chat. So I don't think the choice for those who want to v-chat is at all impacted by leaving things as they are.

The grid-wide implementation of voice, however, does vicariously impact those that do not desire to be influenced by all of the aforementioned negative externalities associated with voice. The mere fact that it is immediately and freely available grid wide sends out a clear message, however wrong, to those that want to v-chat that those who don't have something to hide. Sure we can ignore it and adamantly refuse every invitation to voice because after all we are all strong willed adults. It is nevertheless an unnecessary stress-inducing barrier hanging over every conversation. And it negatively impacts non-voicers, not voicers.

The distinction is clear to those who are able to view the matter from an objective point of view.

Although people argued with me for saying basicly the same thing - but its true.

A lot of the people who are going to want to voice, arent the same sorts of people who like spending time on the forums.

Voice will have its apeal, it will have an even stronger apeal for people who are slower readers, or who lack reading comprhension.

Many of us can read faster than people can speak. Quite a few others can type much faster than they can speak. Thus for some voice doesnt really hold the apeal for "ease of communication" that it will for others.