[MUD-Dev] DESIGN: Role playing and Voice Chat

[Damion Schubert]

On 10/12/05, Michael Hartman <mlist at thresholdrpg.com> wrote:
> Damion Schubert wrote:

>> I was right there with you for years and years, but now that I've
>> actually had more experience with voice chat in an MMO, I can
>> safely say that it doesn't matter. Communicating via voice chat
>> is inherently better in many situations, especially small squad
>> situations and especially in games with reasonably complex
>> rulesets that require players to cooperate and adjust their
>> tactics on the fly (which should, in my opinion, be most of
>> them).

> I thought we were talking about role playing. You're talking about
> combat= .

Perhaps what I'm arguing is that roleplaying isn't as important as
immersion.

>> What really breaks immersion is dying a stupid death because you
>> couldn't type 'heal me!' fast enough or, worse, that message was
>> spammed out of the chat box.

> Again, that's not role playing you are talking about.

Correct. It's immersion. When people are deep enough in their game
experience that they don't notice stray aberrations that pull them
out, this is the pinnacle of immersive design. Bad UI is the worst
of immersion breakers, but in the realm of MMOs, the inability to
communicate in a fight fast enough to be effective is an immersion-
breaker in many ways.

This definition of immersion is counter to how many observers define
it. Most of them choose to define immersion purely in terms of how
the art, sound and mood 'capture' you - and to be fair, these are
the factors that create immersion. Interfaces don't create
immersion, they destroy them, and classic typing chat is certainly
one of those.

--d
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