Hearing voices in the World of Warcraft
by Mike Schramm 
Jun 21st 2007 at 2:06PM
Clive Thompson (who I've enjoyed reading for a while now) posted a piece on Wired the other day about how voice changed the way he saw fellow players in World of Warcraft. It's a really interesting read, not least of all because of the two academic studies mentioned: one study found that women were "treated differently" when using voice chat, and another found that gamers made more solid and trusting relationships with friends they knew by voice rather than those that knew by text.I don't know if Thompson has heard yet that voice is going to be builtin to WoW very soon now, but it's true: voice is about to play a much bigger part in our game. And it's also true that voice changes things a lot-- in my regular guild, I will often jump on our Teamspeak server just to chat with my fellow guildies and friends, even if I'm not in a group. In It came from the Blog (the official WoW Insider guild in which I occasionally can be seen saying crazy things), we haven't set up a Vent server (although it's coming, guys), and so I had the strange experience the other day of running an instance with only text chat to keep me company. Don't get me wrong, I like all the guys in IcftB, but I don't know if the reason I don't know them better is just because I haven't been with the guild as long, or if I just haven't actually heard their voices.
In the end, Thompson marks it down to a generational thing-- some people are willing to share their voices and hear others, he says, and some just aren't. I'm not sure if that's true necessarily (I am pretty conservative on, say, my Myspace page, and pretty free with my Ventrilo joining), but either way, the use of voice chat in videogames has only just started to make itself known.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Summy Jun 22nd 2007 3:33PM
I'd tap that mob.
Sylythn Jun 21st 2007 2:41PM
One of my raid leaders just recently was concerned people would get annoyed at his accent. There's something I'd never considered before.
I hate the sound of my voice, but I have to admit VOIP is far easier to use. With my push-to-talk on the side of my mouse, I can keep doing everything I want in-game while talking...rather than stopping and risking disaster to type.
TV Genius is a Dumb ass Jun 21st 2007 2:50PM
I think the VoIP in WoW will be huge, as long as they do not have a VoIP barrens chat. I can hear it now "Your mom's a slut", or "WooHoo GO CHUCK NORRIS." *sigh barrens chat ftw and ftl at the same time. :'(
Rich Jun 21st 2007 2:52PM
As long as we can turn off the VOIP channels, it will be all good.
Now I just need to convince my friends and guildmates again, that just cause I am on, doesn't mean I want to talk.
Sylythn Jun 21st 2007 5:16PM
Yeah, I'll be sticking to my guild's vent server...I don't want to deal with an XBoxLive experience when I'm playing WoW...
hoeding Jun 21st 2007 2:55PM
I like the idea....as long as I don't start getting voice gold spams.
*shudder*
ben1778 Jun 21st 2007 2:58PM
I was in a guild for about 3 months before I had touched their Vent. Mainly because it was a small guild and it wasn't too necessary in our lower levels. We levelled up, recruited, and started running endgame (ZG, MC, AQ20 etc) when we started with the heavy vent usage.
It drove me insane very fast. I was the ONLY person in the guild who didn't live in the deep south (USA). I got on vent for the first night and heard 15 other heavy, thick southern drawl accents. I couldn't understand most of them at all, and using all kinds of southern slang and nicknames I was lost even more. If someone's name happens to be "Ben" or "Dan" it's not actually pronounced Beeyaan or Deeyaaaan.
I just couldn't take it. These days I use Vent/TS sparingly - only in an instance/raid or an arena.
Frank Jun 21st 2007 3:12PM
"I just couldn't take it. These days I use Vent/TS sparingly - only in an instance/raid or an arena."
I completely agree and what's worse is when a guildy invites you on a run, specifically asks you to get on vent so he doesn't have to type instructions, then proceeds to use the vent channel to chat up a storm about anything but the instance we are running. I love the music in the game, and i also use the sound effect as audio cues to know when certain things happen. Listening to someone I barely know b*tch about his/her day at work is the last thing i want to hear when i play.
ZombieApocalypse Jun 21st 2007 3:14PM
I work a tech support job all day, and then I go home to a spousal unit and whelpling. By the time everyone is tucked away to sleep (whelpling) or watch PVRed TV shows (spousal unit) and I enter 'just for me' time, I am no longer interested in talking to other humans/lifeforms. I think this is why I don't raid or do many higher-level instances. I understand that voice chat is pretty much a necessity for those types of situations. This is unfortunate, but, c'est la vie. This article is not the first time that I've read/heard references to the closer online bonding that comes from online voice chat. Damn extroverts, I can't get away from them. :)
Coherent Jun 21st 2007 3:18PM
I disagree with his assessment that female gamers don't participate in voice chat. On our raids, generally female gamers DID regularly participate on Vent. Nobody singled them out, or to my knowledge harassed them in any way.
Female gamers are much the same as male gamers, some are real problems, some are real great. Some are shy, some are bold. Really it's a mix, but they respond similarly to everyone else.
lisacurl Jun 21st 2007 3:19PM
I play primarily on a role-playing server, and I know a lot of our guild members are reluctant to jump on Vent because they are playing cross-gender. Some use the voice-disguising software, but it can really change how you interact with a character.
People have a perception of who you are based on your toon, and when they hear your voice on Vent or whatever, a little of that mystique gets blown away.
Mike Schramm Jun 21st 2007 3:22PM
Yeah real thick southern accents drive me a little nuts on TS, but it's not like you can blame someone for that. Stop using your own voice!
ben1778 Jun 21st 2007 3:41PM
Maybe i'll just have to find some software that disguises my voice to sound like Optimus Prime.
Better yet, can I get some software to disguise/change OTHER people's voices? :-)
Chris Jun 21st 2007 3:45PM
Thick southern I can stand. Its the northern Boston or New York accents that drive me crazy. Baaaar, Caaaar. Its like reliving Good Will Hunting all over again!!!
annoula Jun 21st 2007 3:47PM
I finally broke down and bought a mic (at the pestering of several guildmates). The guild already knew I was a girl, but there was a bit of shock at hearing me for the first time. My charachter name is greek and relatively difficult to pronounce or write a pronunciation for so I finally got them saying it right.
I did a heroic shattered halls run where I realized the utility. Shouting "trap broke early, pick up the square" or "I've got the square" is a lot easier than pulling my attention away to type it. Saved at least one wipe (trap broke early and went right for the healer), maybe two.
annoula Jun 21st 2007 3:55PM
@11 - that would be awesome... for about 10 minutes.
Anon Jun 21st 2007 4:02PM
First off, girls get singled out in 99% of the community. Most girls quit our guild, this is in no way bias, because they can't take the critisim some of the more "hardcore" raiders have come to accept. We have had a few males also quit cause of this. But normally we have 0 females cause of this, we don't care if your a girl, you will get called out all the same. Heres an example of a old ymntd if anyones intrested, very funny imo :P. http://angrypopsicles.ytmnsfw.com/?9ec688624849b308e7fed0eb400a34be
warning not appropriate if anyone is around.
Coherent Jun 21st 2007 4:25PM
@15, maybe your guild has a naturally offensive culture. Personally I won't take being screamed at or randomly insulted and degraded, but maybe your guildmates are okay with it. Some people are okay with being abused, others say sayonara. I'm the latter.
We had a pretty mild guild culture, and girls didn't seem to have any problem with it.
Duerma Jun 21st 2007 6:09PM
Not terribly excited for this development. I hate using voicechat, and not because I'm a girl. I hate feeling disconnected from the real world. If I'm not on voice chat, I'm much better able to pay attention to what's going on in my house and stop the cat from breaking the flower vase or whatever.
Secondly, I play on an RP server, and voicechat ruins all sens of RP for me. Even if people tried to be in character (which I've never, ever heard), you're still going to have a deep baritone coming out of that little pigtailed gnome.
Finally, there are way too many kids who think it's "cool" to swear like a sailor when talking on TS/Vent, and they get all kinds of upset if you ask them to stop. If I don't allow it in my house from visitors, what makes you think I want to hear it over Vent? I prefer the silence we have right now, no matter how useful VOIP will be for raiding, etc.
Freehugz Jun 21st 2007 4:27PM
Honestly... who uses square for sheep