I came here because SL DID NOT have voice

I am not much of a forum participant, but I saw this thread. I happened to start a group called "Muteants Unite!" to represent the rights of those who can not speak (or hear). It may have a humorous tone, or may be dead serious. I would like SL to work for those who only type, as well as for those who want to speak. Key word is: balance.

If anyone wants to buy the group from me for the cost of what I spent to start the group (L$100?), and has a good purpose in mind, let me know.

Has anyone noticed that the song "Fascination" by Human League is perfect for this situation?

/me sings

"If it seems a little time is needed
Decisions to be made
The good advice of friends unheeded
The best of plans mislaid
Just looking for a new direction
In an old familiar way
The forming of a new connection
To study or to play


And so the conversation turned
Until the sun went down
And many fantasies were learned
On that day"

It also covers the current situation with LL and its lack of disclosure about the recent system borkiness:

/me sings:

"Well the truth may need some
Re-arranging
Stories to be told
And plain to see the facts are changing
No meaning left to hold


And so the conversation turned
Until the sun went down
And many fantasies were learned
On that day"

Human League. Nostradamus spelled backwards?! Messengers of the Gods?

/me cues In Search Of theme music

DAMN YOU WOMAN!!! Now I have that song stuck in my head!!!!

I strike again! C'mon Tod baby sing the break!


Or if you prefer, sing Rosedale's theme song with me! More prophetic Human League!

/me sings

"I'm only hu-man

Of flesh and blood I'm made

I'm only hu-man

Born to make mistakes!!!!"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! *bangs head off keyboard*

LOL! Good choice on the 2nd one!

I always thought "Too Much Time On My Hands" by Styx is the ultimate SL song...

I think they have something on their hands out there, but it isn't time......

@Sarrah - ROTFLMAO!

@Brenda - EWWWWWWW!!!

I think you're overestimating how lazy people can be versus how much some of us like to type. With typing, you have more time to think about how you're going to phrase something - particularly handy in roleplay sims (which is where I spend most of my time). You don't have to worry about background noise, stammering, and other irritating interruptions that come with any kind of voice.

I live with 5 people. Even with a headset, there's no way I could drown out the noise of them and their various technological sound-making devices. Between the noise and the fact that the computer is right in the center of the family room where everyone wanders by and wants to chat... Voice is not an option for me. It'd drive other people crazy listening to me and I'd miss too much. I often have my chat history window open because I have to look away a lot.

I've been on SL for years and am not planning to drop off any time soon. I'll be typing till the Ruths come home.

Ditto.

P2

Well after a year (and I was surprised this thread is still alive), and having talked to several other deaf players; voice has definitely had a tremendous impact on me (our) enjoyment of the game. Of course were a very tiny minority.

One thing about some dissabilities. You can be just about anything you want to be in SL, however, if your deaf your deaf in the game also.

Based on what I've experienced since the introduction of voice, many people come across better in text. I've heard people on the voice channel who came across like total dweebs even though their written words were often damned eloquent. I keep it turned off, its a detriment as far as I am concerned. Thumbs down to voice.

After beeing offline a year myself I would like to ask how far did it develop in the meantime?

Well, my situation is that I'm a german and I always like to chat with people around the world but I can't really -talk- in english, neither good nor fast enough. My terrible "nazi-ss-gestapo" accent combined with tons of "uuuhm"'s and "eeeeerrrrrh"'s would just sound horrible, and probably it wouldn't make any sense at all what I "say", hehe. Not to forget you would still hear me typing because I'm using dict.leo.org here and there.
Like roleplayers I just need a bit of time to get the words right (at least as good as I'm able to), therefore I'm pretty fast on the keyboard and try to think ahead while in a conversation.

On the other hand, to be honest, I did VC myself in the past (with other germans) and it kept me away from chatting with international people (yeah, laziness got me too at last ...). Besides I actually didn't like it very much. VC felt strange, like beeing in some kind of a small 'noise dampening chamber' with others, fairly unnatural. The voices have no origin, no direction, are sometimes to loud or to quiet. But this is just my general view.

Personally, in my circles, voice didnt take off as much as people expected. I am *rarely* in voice in sl, just because I prefer typing to be honest. I don't feel I've missed out on anything by not turning it on. I don't care if others use it or not, and no one has "forced" me to turn it on.

I've had been 'forced' to go on the mic twice so far. Neither time was for positive reasons. One time was because my behavior was suspect and a rather harsh rumor went around for a couple days. If I didn't do something to kill that rumor, I would have had to start over again on half my friends list. Maybe I'm still too noob to worry about that, but I really like the people I hang out with and I'm not sure how many more people will tolerate my type of personality around here.

It was a horrifying experience in anxiety for me both times and I find I'm still under pressure to get back on weekly. The few people that have heard me know that it takes up to four times as long for me to stutter through a sentence that I can type in seconds. Plus they have had to tolerate me, mid panic attack, shuddering and heaving a bit. It was not pleasant for anyone around to hear that crud. The people around that haven't heard me yet just think I'm full of excuses and afraid to reveal myself. All I can do now is say "ask *** and you just might understand."

I haven't lost any friends over it, and it doesn't look like that will ever happen anyway. Most of the people I know are truly nice and accepting people. My SL social life is going the direction I want it to which is WAY better than I can say about my RL social life. I still get along with most everyone that knows me, no matter how much I creep them out. I'm able to be a million times more outgoing here than I could ever be out in the real world.

One other thing that I noticed now that I'm listening to voice, I find myself getting in one-sided chats with other people in voice, me typing, and other people around me wondering who I'm responding to. It just adds another layer of discomfort to the group around me. (T_T)

I feel for those with audio or visual disabilities when it comes to 'games' in general. But please understand that a 'game' can and will not design their platform around a small demographic like the hearing impaired. Heck, the majority of products out there don't take the disabled into consideration. This isn't a downfall, this is business. If every product took the deaf, blind, and mute into consideration, things would look, smell, taste, and feel completely different.

And let me just say, that in the entire time voice has been in SL, I've not personally noticed one problem. There are constantly a mix of those who talk and type. If someone IS hearing impaired, then perhaps they should let those around them know, so everyone can type. If the people you are hanging out with won't type for that person, then they aren't worth hanging out with.

I just don't think products should always take the disabled into consideration. Next thing you know, the blind will be here complaining about the platform...saying, 'the deaf complained, had voice shut down, and now I can't hear what anyone is saying!'

Until you hit the web, where to be disabilities compliant a text-to-speach reader has to be able to read the captions on any imbedded video on your site. You know...where the captions are in place of the audio...

Yeah, that's right. To be compliant with ADA standards a website's imbedded video has to have captions for the people who can't hear, yet all that text has to be readable by a text-to-speach program for the people who can hear, but not see.

I don't have a link, but I remember reading about one guy's attempts at being compliant. He ignored that bit above, but it's only because someone wasn't thinking when they went to make sure things were hunkey dorey.

Well voice here seems pretty rarely used, but I'm glad we have it, I've attended a few good lectures that used voice. Many don't and I really feel for those who have hearing /vocal restrictions but in general SL is 90% text still and looks like staying that way, voice is just an extra option like building menus or water reflections, not using it doesn't kick you out of the world or turn you into a social outcast
I'll sometimes have to use voice and MorphVox to convince people I really am a Roo.............................

That's not totally true. (T_T)

What's a roo sound like?

I'm pretty amazed how all these recent posters are responding to her fears of the Original post which was made *NEARLY A YEAR AGO* before voice ever came out.

Rather than her update on how things are going now.

Like a drobbear but less aggro

...drobbear?

Sorry, *dropbear*, I just can;'t type for sh*t

Ya, after the fact, when I was home, I thought about that. Still, how are we to know sometimes whether something is a new post, or an old one--I really don't make it a habit to read the dates on posts. But I guess that's just me.

I thought it was a new post, that took off. So I replied.

I didn't see an update...usually, I don't scan a few pages back before replying to the OP...