VOICE in SL......Vital growth!!!

I simply have too many reasons to list as to why I know Voice is going to be a fantastic addition to our Second life experience. But for the sake of time here are just a few:

1) FREEDOM! Voice will enable you to be in motion while you interact with others. Gone will be the days where you have to stop what you are doing to TYPE a response. (I can go on about this but I think you can image the thousands of implications this will have on our day to day in SL.)
2) EXPRESSION! There is simply TOO MUCH lost in typing like emotions, verbal punctuations, the warmth of a friend’s laughter, or even accents.
3) SURVIVAL! If you truly love SL then we should want SL to succeed on ALL aspects of the Global Market. From Corporations holding conferences to the gathering of Market companies holding conventions, they will all require a Voice. With perhaps hundreds of new virtual worlds in the making, SL will simply have to provide everyone this VITAL ability.

In my opinion, those that don’t want this aren’t looking at the Global needs of the many!

This Voice feature is NO DIFFERENT then SL wanting their graphics to look better by adding even cooler effects or the daily maintenance of fixing Bugs in order to provide a better and more competitive service to its faithful citizens.

Voice WILL NOT change Second Life it will simply enhance it.

I have close friends that will and won’t use voice.

I for one will NOT judge anyone by the technology they use to communicate but the quality of their character…

Exactly! Voice is just like anything else in SL- You either use it or not.

Not every single person in SL builds. Or Scripts. Or uploads textures.

So I can't buy the arguement that "everyone must use voice" that the vocal non-voicers use.

Like everything else in SL, its there to use (or mis-use).

I'd seriously like to see how voice will effect the following chat line:


/me strokes the kitty making him purr

Vocal non voicer. I like that.

I agree it is a feature that will be needed to keep SL moving ahead. Big business is here unfortunately, so they will want it. I'm not interested in it, but will not "Look down on those who do"....

Big business is here, but it’s a good and necessary thing.

SL is a universe in which you will find what you seek.
If you seek a fantasy realm that uses text as a form of mystical expression, you will find it.
If you seek a poet that will audibly verbalize lyrical fantasies, there it will be.

You will find that no voice conversation goes without inserted funny antidotes handed within the group via text. (and emote triggers, obviously)

Just as long as they keep to their side of the playground.

provided the German press approves, naturally.

Hhahhaa JaVule!

And hope they aren't seeking YOU..............

An old Soviet Russian saying. "Here you can't find a Party, the Party finds You".

*OK, Yakov Smirnoff really said it.*

I doubt it'll have any effect at all. That'll still be in text, and the response will either be a gesture, or someone actually trying to purr. And then they'll go back to voice for actually talking. Like when I'm using voice, I don't actually say "be right back" I still type brb because it's not something I'd actually say irl.

Exactly!
Now here is another thought that comes to mind on VOICE in SL.

Before I came to SL, I owned arguably the most popular night club in THERE.com.
(Club Oasis, Duda Beach, There.com, staff of 20 fulltime and airbus services)
I left There.com because we kept crashing their servers. (long story, but check the forums and go visit the memorial, njk)

Peeking at 150 simultaneous avis in the same location and with about 75% on voice, I can honestly tell you from experience, voice was cool beyond words BUT was NOT a replacement of Text, but addition. You all will soon see what I mean. 

provided the German press approves, lol

Yes, Linden seems deeply concerned by the views of the German press, for some bizarre reason Is Linden still an American company, btw ?

Zee-Jerminz! lol!
(sorry, quote from Movie: Snatch)

*** Btw, how did this turn into something else?!

- Let’s keep the discussion about VOICE open!
So, does anyone else have something to Say? (no pun intended)

Well I downloaded first look for mac and couldnt even get voice to work last night ... so not impressed at the moment... might as well ask your friends to join you in skype to have a conversation in sl.

Elinah

I actually had this discussion with someone earlier today and a lot depends on how you usually communicate in SL.

I tend to have 2-3 IM conversations most of the time and possibly an "in person" conversation or I'll be busy with something. Adding voice to that is just too much of a distraction; I can read one conversation and write in another at the same time, but when I have to focus on speech I can't do much else (could be due to the fact that I'm a non-native English speaker and tend to have a lot of difficulty with "non-TV" accents) or I start unconsciously transcribing parts of what I'm hearing into the other conversation .

Most people I personally know tend to be like that and it's easy to just drop out of the conversation for a few minutes and focus on something else and just come back. Noone really makes a point of it if you suddenly don't say anything for a few minutes, but with voice you get "still there?" after just a few seconds so it can also provide a whole lot less freedom depending on your normal SL use.

Just what we need, a new way to get people all worked up and emotional, there isn't enough drama on SL already.

Add *rolls eyes* to that if the sarcasm wasn't strong enough to trigger for you .

It's nice to hear someone laugh, but at the same time, it's a lot easier to be affectionate in text. You don't say *hugs* and intermingling text with voice is just odd.

*& yes, I did practice purring *

Hmmmm..... just a thought:

For non-native English speakers, might this be a way to develop English Skills?

Same for English speakers trying to learn another language.

Besides, I love hearing all the various languages & accents out there.

Not in the general case I'd think. Most native speakers generally don't have the patience or control (not everyone can mask their own accent to speak "proper English" to step down to the skill of a non-native speaker if he or she isn't already somewhat fluent.

Things improve a little if you speak (or at least understand) the other person's native language so they can just switch if they don't know a word, instead of having to go the long way around to describe what they mean.

Introduce another native speaking person into the conversation and it's unlikely they'll cope very well because it'll really take conscious effort to speak slowly, articulate properly, be mindful of vocabulary, etc with another native speaker present.

In the case of friends it'll be much easier on the non-native speaker since the desire to make an effort will be there for the native speaker.

And language classes would work too obviously .

I have too much to type to reply to your post..
But tell ya what, Id love to express it all via Voice in SL, would only take a sec..

(get my point)



-Big

ps: Drama begets Drama..dont fuel it and it will not exhist..
Btw, cant wait to hear a purr over my headpones

PSS: Great point about language classes, Lets start a buisness!

Aye! Thats the problem I have with some stuff. Its kinda tough to have certain conversations when you're limited to a few lines of text. I "tried" to listen, or should I say 'read', someones poetry they wrote/typed, but lost interest due to chat lag & just tired of reading 30 lines of poetry. Would've been faster if he could've just said it.

I was replying to Kittys post a few back, Sorry about the mix up.
Im with ya man and did a repost.

-Big

VOICE is a flash in the pan.

I take it thats a good thing?

-Big

I find the Communication box…AKA Chatterbox…still quite cumbersome. In the regular viewer I like to keep my IMs up to the lefts side of my screen and the open Chat History in the bottom left. I’ve tried mixing IMs and Chat but that just makes my head hurt especially if I’m someplace like a welcome area where there is tons of chat going on. Group Voice works very well. But if you want to talk to someone Near you have to end the call in Group…crazy.
Anyway I’m in 100% agreement with the OP…just that the UI needs some work.

DK

Just to play Devil's Advocate Here, Opening Up SL to everyone was probably considered Vital Growth.

It was vital for me and my friends. We wouldn't be here otherwise. Not everyone that doesn't have a credit card is a greifer. Nor the other way around.