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

[Matt Mihaly]

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.

--matt
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