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

[Tess Snider]

In the groups where I've used Teamspeak, it was strictly used for
tactical purposes, in situations where action was taking place far
too quickly for everyone to communicate effectively by keyboard.
Really, when it comes down to it, it is hard to overcome the fact
that the keyboard is a hideously impractical tool for communication
during combat.  I type 75 wpm, and I still find it painfully
cumbersome.  I don't think it's wrong for people to want an
alternative.

I have used voice chat with a group of roleplayers before, and they
didn't seem to have any problems with it.  The convention was to
take advantage of the natural division between the two mediums,
maintaining OOC communication strictly in voice, and IC strictly in
text.  It was streamlined, clean, and everyone seemed to be
satisfied.

I have a pair of friends who used to play on an RP-MUSH,
back-to-back, in the same room.  They were as hardcore as hardcore
roleplayers get, but of course they *talked* while they were
playing.  Of course they shared their fun!  There is nothing
fiction-breaking about this.  The human brain does an excellent job
of filtering and classifying different channels of input.  When you
listen to the radio while reading a book, the radio does not
appreciably damage your immersion in the fiction of the book.  It
exists in a wholly different space, if that makes any sense.

Tess
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