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

[Douglas Goodall]

Ola Fosheim Gr=F8stad wrote:

> Yes, but the final comment also got things completely wrong
> regarding social versus MMOs and how voice chat fits in. Voice
> chat is of course excellent for socializing!! It hurts
> roleplaying, but the majority doesn't care about roleplaying
> anyway. So voice chat is also for virtual worlds in the long run
> when bandwidth costs get lower. Let's not pretend that
> social=roleplay or that immersion is an either/or thing. People
> get used to stuff. Keyboards are immersion breaking too, but you
> learn to live with them.

> Fortunately that leaves a new marketspace aiming for roleplaying
> gamers. I don't think the roleplayers are the ones to loose out on
> anything. The loosers are the systems that no longer get event
> staging roleplayers.

I think it's more likely that roleplayers and social players will
continue to patronize the same games. While not all socializers are
roleplayers or vice-versa, we can't pretend the sets don't
intersect. I also doubt whether pure roleplaying games can ever
escape a niche market. I believe there are enough roleplayers, but
we seem to have a smaller "Dunbar number" than other player
types. Even pure roleplaying guilds tend to be small and easily
broken into even smaller groups due to personality conflicts,
etc. All the "roleplaying" guilds I've been in had more social chat
than actual roleplaying.

Instead, I believe social chat will move more towards Teamspeak et
al. while roleplay chat will remain on the keyboard. This isn't
necessarily a bad thing for any of the parties involved. Games may
end up with broader appeal, socializers can be free of the RP
police, and roleplayers may find it easier to recognize each other.
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