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

[Sean Kelly]

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004, Brett Bibby wrote:

> With all the posts recently on programs that allow out-of-game
> voice communications (e.g. Roger Wilco, etc.), it has got me
> wondering if this will severly limit the appeal of many games in
> the future.

> 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'm not sure if it was in the game industry or related to VR
(Lanier), but I know I've seen the assertion that low-detail
graphics often seem more "realistic" than high-detail graphics
because of the effect on human expectation.  Our imaginations are
quite good at filling in the gaps in a representaion, but the fewer
gaps there are the more critical we become of the representation
itself.  It's no wonder embedded digital video was such a
spectacular failure in single player games back in the early-mid
90s.

That said, I don't think anyone uses voice chat for RP purposes.  As
you've said, it obviously has problems, and to me, filters and other
realtime voice manipulation would be jarring, much like the digital
video in those old RPGs.  The real use for voice chat is for prompt
tactical information and team coordination.  And given the lack of
roleplaying in most MORPGs, I don't think the male voice coming from
a female avatar makes anyone even blink.  Also, avatar gender choice
doesn't necessarily imply roleplaying, as I've heard non RPing males
justify their choice of a female avatar by saying they'd rather look
at a female all day than at a male.  Similarly, racial choices are
typically governed by min-max decisions more than anything.

So I agree that voice chat doesn't have a tremendous amount of use
in RP gaming, but it certainly is useful for other purposes.  One
potential exception is the use of voice chat for GMs, but IMO this
falls under tactical discussion.

Sean
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