[SPAM] Re: [MUD-Dev] DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design

[Dana V. Baldwin]

On Behalf Of Mike Rozak

> The question for the designer becomes: Does the design fight the
> trend, embrace it, ignore it, or co-opt it? Or, in the case of
> macroing and E-bay, solve the problem that the 3rd party add-ons
> are attempting to solve... namely boring gameplay.

> An ideal solution for voice chat would be a realistically morphed
> voice with a realistic accent. However, any attempt to correct
> accents using speech recognition will result in characters
> occasionally speaking words they didn't intend to say, which
> although highly amusiing, is worse than the original accent. Only
> voice morphing is feasable, and it is of questionable quality,
> although better can be done than http://www.audio4fun.com/.

I think there is a more fundamental question, before decising on the
need to morph etc. That question is what do you want out of your
voice chat, public or private?

Privat voice chat is what we generally have now. A group uses this
communication tool for intrapersonal and group communications. It
exists solely for those invited to use it. Private voice chat dos
not generally, in my experience, hinder any sort of roleplay. As
noted by others it may hamper deception but that is not a requirment
of role play in any way. Case in point everyone in my voice group
knows that I am not a 6 foot walking carpet who can only
growl. However I tend to play that up as much as possible when in
game (voice chat as a private channel is out of game by nature)
typing in growls and snorts and geenerally acting what I think is in
character. Really no fdiffernt that when I play Gruk the 7 foot Half
Ogre Barbarian in our Friday night hackfest.

Public voice chat is all together a different animal, and one with
much deeper problems. Replacing in game area chat with voice comms
is the turning point for immersion and control. This type of chat is
being lauded here at my office as "the next big thing!". I'm scared
out of my wits. We don't have to worry too much about roleplay
though immersion is still important. I would certainly prefer a
solution that uses verbal emotes en masse with configurable
interfaces somewhat like the latest Tribes implementation to a full
on are voice chat. The arguments are endless but the simple fact
that all computers don't have built in mics and someone has to
moderate it seem to me to be large enough barries that worrying
about the implications to immersion are utterly secondary.

-Dana V. Baldwin
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