Discussion: NCsoft and Vivox Voice Chat
By
Anarchist_Kitten,
Posted on: 2008-05-13 15:13 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
Since it's for all the NCSoft games, not just CoH, I doubt it's changing the CoH/NCNC budget very much, if at all. I suppose NCSoft could not buy it and give a portion of that money to the CoH budget, but things don't usually work that way in a corporation.
Also, we have no clue what it's actually costing NCSoft. All depends on how the contract is setup. Which I'm sure they have no plans of telling us about. 
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Voice chat is quickly becoming a requirement for any MMO. It is just far too convenient to just talk rather than typing everything out. It is just a fact of life we'll have to accept. The days of being able to type out instructions over ooc chat like we did when raiding Fear and Hate in Everquest are long gone. It is just nice to see PlayNC also capitalizing on integrated voice chat for their launcher.
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I swear, I will kick any and every person that still uses stupid abbreviations (LOL, OOC, and anything that remotely sounds like 1337 speak)...
Its bad enough having to read that, but tolerable because I understand some people aren't brilliant with a keyboard and need shortcuts. But I have no patience for people that, given the option to speak, still fall back on inane abbreviations. I will kick people and the only explanation I will give is "blame NCSoft and voice chat." followed by /ignore.
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LLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
kick me plz?
Has NCSoft considered working with PlayXPert's stuff? It's still beta, but I heard about it on a podcast. Apparently it does an overlay over an existing game's GUI, and provides a bunch of control widgets like itunes controls, cross-game friends lists, voice chat controls, etc, all without blocking the view of your game.
This post about vivox reminds me of it, because vivox is a partner of theirs and is providing a vivox widget to their overlay system.
QR
Why are people assuming that our (City of..) sub fees and extra-goodie purchases are the only ones funding the voice chat that NCSoft wants to get into? Are we the only profitable game NCSoft has currently? If that thought irks you, just pretend that your particular dollars are going to game content, and think of the ones that want to use the chat feature as the ones funding it with their extra dollars.
And our devs may or may not be on board with voice chat, but it's not their decision to make. They work for NCSoft, and if the big company says they want it, NCNC has to make sure it works for their game.
Loose --> not tight.
Lose --> Did not win, misplace, cannot find, subtract.
One extra 'o' makes a big difference.
Do we really need voice chat in the game? I disable all sounds anyway, and while I won't say that I'm discriminated in my favourite SG for not being in a position to use TeamSpeak already - its pretty obvious I'm unintentionally left out of some fun stuff sometimes because of it.
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The launcher is a separate program that opens a window to gives you access to all NC soft games on your system (CoH/CoV, CoH/CoV eu, Auto Assault....wait, what?). Kind of like a highlight that program and launch. The window would also have update information along side your applicable programs.
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Ahhhhh...that thing.
I had it while I was in Tabula Rasa beta, but when I un-installed that, I lost the launcher also.
If we want the launcher, where do we go to get it?
Sometimes, I impress my boss. Sometimes, I impress myself. The rest of the time, I scare people. I can live with that.
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The launcher is a separate program that opens a window to gives you access to all NC soft games on your system (CoH/CoV, CoH/CoV eu, Auto Assault....wait, what?). Kind of like a highlight that program and launch. The window would also have update information along side your applicable programs.
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The only place I've ever been able to find the Launcher by itself was here: ftp://ftp.dungeonrunners.com/ It typically installs with games that require it such as Dungeon Runners, Tabula Rasa and Exteel but it is very hard to find just the launcher itself. That link does provide you with just the PlayNC Launcher executable installer though.
Ahhhhh...that thing.
I had it while I was in Tabula Rasa beta, but when I un-installed that, I lost the launcher also.
If we want the launcher, where do we go to get it?
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If we want the launcher, where do we go to get it?
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Try here:
ftp://ftp.plaync.com/Launcher/
* link was found in support section, so I think that it is safe to use .....
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Why are people assuming that our (City of..) sub fees and extra-goodie purchases are the only ones funding the voice chat that NCSoft wants to get into?
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This is true, there is a very good chance that voice is being added due to the fact that NCSoft is developing games for consoles now, and it will REQUIRE a voice technology for those games. Configuring it so the voice support is made available to all of their games in one swift stroke seems like a value add business move to me.
Personally, I'm kind of torn because of the horror that XBOX Live can be, and the fact that I suck sooo badly at typing 
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The comforting thought is that CoH has a generally older demographic than say Halo3 does, plus the voice is completely voluntary not even being an actual part of the game.
So all-in-all I feel positive about having the option to use a free voice chat if I like.
~MM
"Vivox" sounds like something you take to treat E.D.
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"Vivox" sounds like something you take to treat E.D.
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ahahahaha that or herpes.
Voice chat? Do not want!
-Bux
"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." -- Dr. Seuss
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My hubby doesn't like it when I chat with teenage boys. Go figger.
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Odd. My wife feels the same way... 
"OK, first of all... Shut Up." - My 13-Year-Old Daughter
29973 "The Running of the Bulls" [SFMA] - WINNER of the Mighty Big Story Arc Contest !
- The Stellar Wind Orbital Space Platform
This seems like yet another thing to divide our gaming community here at CoX.
It was bad enough when it was
RPers v Everyone else.
Then came
IOers versus SOers
Then came
Micro Transaction'ers versus "Say No to Micro Transactions"
Then we get
+Ads people versus -Ads people
Now we are getting
Voice Chatters versus STHU ALREADY I DONT CARE THAT YOUR MOM CAUGHT YOU DOING WHATEVER IN YOUR BASEMENT AND NOW YOUR GROUNDED AND CANT WATCH CSI MIAMI...SHE SHOULD HAVE GROUNDED YOU FROM YOUR DAMN PC.
Divided about Farming, Divided about paying for extra goodies, slots etc..
We need to that brings us together more..
Suggestion: World Event "The 60's/70's Hippie Movement"
Camp fires, tye dyed clothing, kumbaya, smily faces, etc
Good Music implemented into the game..
General Happiness minus all the war and stuff...
I really dont foresee a problem if there is an opt out option. Having said that, the group of people I game with uses vent, and we have used TS in the past. Most of the people I game with I have known for years and we all tend to follow each other from game to game. Heck a few of them I have gamed with since 1998 back in the old mechwarrior days....yes I'm old.
I find a voice comm system works well for teamed game. It is darn near required for (at least for us) in games like GR, RvS, ArmA, Graw, Graw2 and the like to keep the mental picture of the tactical environment. Also in games like IL2 and Falcon4 fast paced team (or wingman) comms is vital. CoX lends it self well to a voice comm system......if you know the people your team with. I'm old enough to know that I really dont need to hear some bubbly pre-teen blathering in my ear about how her teacher hates her etc...besides the people I game with are adults and well we use colorful adult words and barbs and downright insults to each other (all in good fun btw...) that would not do well with young ears....
I could see a huge problem with colorful language getting people in trouble in a voice comm situation....
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We need to that brings us together more..
Suggestion: World Event "The 60's/70's Hippie Movement"
Camp fires, tye dyed clothing, kumbaya, smily faces, etc
Good Music implemented into the game..
General Happiness minus all the war and stuff...
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Hippies suck.
"OK, first of all... Shut Up." - My 13-Year-Old Daughter
29973 "The Running of the Bulls" [SFMA] - WINNER of the Mighty Big Story Arc Contest !
- The Stellar Wind Orbital Space Platform
I doubt that most Vent or TS users will change to NCSoft's implementation. Especially in cross-game guilds, "serious internet gaming groups," or close-knit groups of friends - who are the people most likely to be using voice to start with. The game-neutrality and higher degree of server-level control they offer is going to keep them as the better option for these groups.
I doubt that people who don't already have Vent or TS will adopt NCSoft's implementation in great numbers for a variety of reasons. Frankly, for the most part more than basic coordination is not that important in this game, and further my past experience with 'casual use' of voice chat has been that it decreases coordination and focus in a group, as people talk out of turn and over one another when excited/in trouble and otherwise chat casually rather than paying attention to the game.
In other words, the conversation often goes like, "Yeah and then she..." - "HEAL HEAL!" - "said that..." - "Heal WHO?!" - "I was too much of a nerd..."
People are a lot more likely to "un adopt" voice chat than they are to make the effort of learning "radio discipline" for using it effectively in combat.
"Experience is the mother of good judgement. Bad judgement is the father of experience."
Well it really depends on how it's implemented.
I've used Vent and TS with my "regular team-mates" and even set up a TS server with one of my spare machines for our SG use.
So I guess we'll see.
What kind of worries me is this line from the press release:
"voice mail and in-and-out of game communication via regular phones and text messages"
Just what we need, voice-mail versions of RMT spammers.
And what the heck do they mean "REGULAR PHONES", if using integrated voice chat means that suddenly I'm getting phone calls or text messages from {wherever}, that's going to cause an issue.
6000+ levels gained and 8 level 50's
Hello, my name is Soulwind and I have Alt-Itis.
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Voicemail from RMT spammers... people who speak english horribly to boot.
They certainly wouldn't try 'active' use of the voice chat... where players can reply live back to them as angry as they want to be... what RMT solicitor would put up with that willfully?
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I'm hoping there are various levels of the new functionality to opt-out of. I don't want voicemail from other players, nor do I want anything going to my phone. I'm perfectly happy to voice chat with my friends and SG mates, but I'm also happy with text. Sending voicemail or messages to my phone would just be intrusive, and that's not what I want out of any video game.
If I really like someone enough to be friends with, they'll get my phone number, but in 4+ years of gaming that's only been 2 people.
Lvl 50 fire/rad troller Wantonya - Infinity
Too many other alts and servers to bother counting
I dont really get why people have such a problem with a built in voice server. I saw the same remarks i'm seeing here from wow forums when they launched there in game. Personally I have used both vent and TS on many occations and while they are both really good and easy to use. they just don't compair to something thats built into the game. I can't wait for the tech to launch! gone will be the days of having to put in I.Ps user names accessing channels outside of the game state. I really dont see a down side vent and ts will still be there for people to use. but why deprive youself of other options that a larger player base can get into.
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I dont really get why people have such a problem with a built in voice server. I saw the same remarks i'm seeing here from wow forums when they launched there in game. Personally I have used both vent and TS on many occations and while they are both really good and easy to use. they just don't compair to something thats built into the game. I can't wait for the tech to launch! gone will be the days of having to put in I.Ps user names accessing channels outside of the game state. I really dont see a down side vent and ts will still be there for people to use. but why deprive youself of other options that a larger player base can get into.
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I agree with you 100%! Cant wait for this new tech, I hope it will be out for i12!
Global @ Arekusu
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Do we really need voice chat in the game? I disable all sounds anyway, and while I won't say that I'm discriminated in my favourite SG for not being in a position to use TeamSpeak already - its pretty obvious I'm unintentionally left out of some fun stuff sometimes because of it.
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That's unfortunate to hear... In my SG and Coalition, we try to keep text chat players on as even of a keel as we are. We get them in on our joking around, give out team instructions and use private tells just like anywhere else. We like Ventrilo, we have a lot of OOC chat on it, but we don't require it, and we try not to make chat-only players feel unwelcome because we're on it.
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QFT!
Ah, how fickle is fandom.
For years we have taken comments like, "Gosh, you know what would make this game better? Voice! Just like that Other Game has." Now that it's coming, we get complaints of doom and assertions that voice is unnecessary and threats to quit.
Kinda reminds me of all the requests for Brute weapons over the years. Now that we're getting them, Brutes say, "Unfair! Nobody wants those! What we really wanted was Ice Armor!"
It is the nature of gamers and people to crave that which they lack. One day we'll have orgasmic full-sensory virtual reality MMO gaming, where you can spend 14 hours a day having fun while a computer induces your body into doing all those things in your absence that you hate, such as work, exercise, eating properly, etc., while you frolic in the virtual tropical waves with a bevy of six-breasted octuplets. On that day, all the gamers will be saying, "You know, I really miss Pong."
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Do we really need voice chat in the game? I disable all sounds anyway, and while I won't say that I'm discriminated in my favourite SG for not being in a position to use TeamSpeak already - its pretty obvious I'm unintentionally left out of some fun stuff sometimes because of it.
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That's unfortunate to hear... In my SG and Coalition, we try to keep text chat players on as even of a keel as we are. We get them in on our joking around, give out team instructions and use private tells just like anywhere else. We like Ventrilo, we have a lot of OOC chat on it, but we don't require it, and we try not to make chat-only players feel unwelcome because we're on it.
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QFT!
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Like I was saying, I know it's unintentional. I'm in an SG with easily 12+ active people in TS, so if one of them wants to do something like a TF or Trial it's broadcast over TS first and typically full before the message even gets to text.
The SG rocks though, the Bay Area members (of which I am) meet up fairly often for movies and restaurantage.
I was a player of AutoAssault, though, and there was kinda often 'you have to voicechat before we let you in our guild. specially if you are girl'. That was definitely uncool.
Time for an Unofficial Mute Server?
Or will that just be Virtue?
Story Arcs I created:
Every Rose: (#17702) Villainous vs Legacy Chain. Forget Arachnos, join the CoT!
Cosplay Madness!: (#3643) Neutral vs Custom Foes. Heroes at a pop culture convention!
Kiss Hello Goodbye: (#156389) Heroic vs Custom Foes. Film Noir/Hardboiled detective adventure!