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

[Ted L. Chen]

Matt Mihaly writes:
> Russ Whiteman wrote:
>> Brett Bibby wrote:

>>> For example, if I want to roleplay a female as a RL male, I
>>> wouldn't be able to join any guilds that require voice if I
>>> wanted to maintain my roleplaying.  And what about immersion in
>>> the world? If I'm supposed to be an old battle-hardened Orc, or
>>> someone with a known accent, and I'm a young female, it would be
>>> impossible to actually roleplay.

>> I find it odd that people keep bringing up this argument...when
>> it's a complete red herring.  For the last ~30 years or so, we've
>> managed to roleplay sitting around a table, where not only could
>> you hear a mismatched voice, but you could SEE that young female
>> who was playing the orc.  It never stopped us from roleplaying,
>> nor did it detract -nearly- as much from the game as having to
>> stop playing in order to talk does.  IMO, voice comm built
>> directly into the game would be the single biggest improvement we
>> could make for improving playability.

> Preach on, Russ! I think you are dead-on here. The objection to
> voice has little to do with roleplaying, as you rightfully point
> out. Instead, it has to do with deception (and I use that term
> without any loaded negative connotations, lest someone object). I
> don't think Brett is actually complaining about finding it
> impossible to roleplay. I think he's complaining about voice
> making it hard to disguise who he, the player, is, as roleplaying
> a female certainly doesn't require that you have a female's voice
> (ever talked to deep-voiced women who were, pre-surgery,
> men?). That's a totally different issue and certainly a valid
> complaint, but it doesn't have much to do with roleplaying.

Ah, but the PnP (and to some extent text-mud) roleplaying analogy
only holds up as long as the surrounding world-context itself
already takes a fair amount of imagination.

Ted
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev