[MUD-Dev] online voice communication

[Corey Crawford]

From: Matt Mihaly

> I just thought I'd post a couple comments on the Xbox Live's voice
> communication, which has been much-ballyhooed by Microsoft. Been
> using it since Friday when it was released at retail.

Since I've recently started playing Natural Selection (Half-Life
mod) that supports Voice I thought I'd comment on this..

It looks to me like the XBox implementation just wasn't done
right. When using it in NS it can be a huge asset.

  - You can communicate quickly, while doing whatever it is you need
  to do (run away, fight back, etc).

  - If used effectively only very short informative communications
  is needed.

	"Enemy approaching sewer hive"
	"Setting up D, going gorge"
	"Need support at enemy headquarters"

  (I mostly play Aliens)

  - When playing as Marines the commander can quickly see who's
  asking for what. When you talk you get a little exclamation symbol
  over your head. (You also see the name of the player come up on
  your HUD). Otherwise the commander has to do a roll over for each
  person to see who requested the items. This works with aliens too,
  but since they don't have an overview map it isn't as helpful as
  it is for Marines.

Though I have encountered some youngin's, they generally behave
themselves.  If they cause problems you can always mute them.

I haven't encountered any cons with this implementation, even the
possibly higher bandwidth usage hasn't come into play. I think the
amount is small enough that even a player using 56k could
participate.

If implemented correctly voice comm can be a huge asset in team
play, even with complete strangers.

---
Corey Crawford
ccrawford at seventh.net

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