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

[Lachek Butalek]

On 10/15/05, Michael Hartman <mlist at thresholdrpg.com> wrote:
> Dana V. Baldwin wrote:

> I get the distinct impression that you think role play is a solely
> social engagement. I would ask you to consider that you can play
> the role of a fighter or healer even when you are in comabt. How I
> give those orders and what they are can be very much a part of the
> role that my character plays.

> I agree with what you have said here. But I disagree that in a
> role playing game, having effective borging/power levelling tools
> (like voice chat) adds to the role play aspect of the game. It is
> still best done via text.

This seems to imply that in a RP-heavy virtual world, one would be
better off implementing a turn-based combat system that would give
the players ample time to express themselves via a text-based
interface, rather than spending time and energy implementing a voice
chat system. After all, this is the reason combat can still retain
RP in PnP games; the DM is unlikely to interrupt a player's
description of how "the slice of his rapier makes a swooshing sound
in the air " to announce "the bugbear just cut your head off as you
stood there babbling". Most PnP rules I have read have a section for
how to deal with different flows of time, but this useful tool has
yet to be implemented well in any virtual world or
computer-moderated game system I have seen.

To add my two cents to the immediate issue at hand, I would have to
agree that I can't picture voice chat improving immersiveness in any
avatar-based online game that currently uses text. I can definitely
see it improving completely Out-Of-Character combat interactions
with party members (a la Counterstrike, etc) but if you're looking
to add it as a tool for RP I would probably think twice. I would
definitely like to see proposals for (true) turn-based combat in
otherwise real-time online games, though.
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