Discussion: NCsoft and Vivox Voice Chat
By
Anarchist_Kitten,
Posted on: 2008-05-13 15:13 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
if done like in Tabula Rasa, it will mesh nicely....in groups/sg/private, etc.
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Dwarf Star; Angel-Night, Adoniel, angel of the 12th hour of the night; among the many
Freedom Factor
and now from Warhammer Online, Gorlok, Greenskin shaman
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Ah, how fickle is fandom.
...
One day we'll have orgasmic full-sensory virtual reality MMO gaming,
while you frolic in the virtual tropical waves with a bevy of six-breasted octuplets.
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LoL...there's already a fandom with a monopoly on those and they're pretty well established on SecondLife already. The LAST thing I want to hear is their high-fidelity Audio if that's the "Future" of MMO's
*Derail submitted for: ...most awkward tangent in a news article*
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Please dont use the money you so desperately need for actual ingame content and ingame stuff for this voice stuff.
I realllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly hope this isnt what you are using our money for. 
I have absolutely no desire to actually hear people cuss out every foe we come to, or go into graphic detail about their date last night.
ugh this sucks
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QFT of the day
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-r0y
(seriously, who isn't on vent, TS, skype, etc. by now?)
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I'm not, and I don't want to be. 
I know millions will raise their hands in praise and glory, but I'm just hoping it'll be easy to opt out of.
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Voice chat is a big step backwards. This announcement is a sad one.
I've already experienced CoH SG chat on Ventrilo, and the steadily ramping annoyance factor of being forced to listen to an endless stream of inane chatter in the background just to pick out one or two instructions that had anything to do with the mission that could just as easily have been typed...well, before long the Ventrilo program suffered an "accident" and peace and quiet was restored.
It's very true that most people hate "dead air" and must fill the void if the voicechat silence stretches beyond a few seconds, even if their comments are of limited merit.
This new service will be popular with the people who superglue their cellphones to the sides of their heads and walk down the street chattering away...
And keep off my lawn, dagnabbit!
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Other 50s: Power Beam, Rocky Mantle, STORMIE Agent, Matchless, Major Will, Knightmayor, Femstone, Space Maureen, Crimebuster Ako, Dr. Twilight, Doc Champion, American Gold Eagle
Thanks for the article links, Atomaster; some interesting info.
I don't like using voice chat personally. I usually have my volume down so I can keep a weather ear out for my wife or kids, and even when it's up I usually have trouble making out what most people are saying in voice chats.
However, I can see a couple interesting things from this. The less interesting aspect is the possibility of "voice fonts" becoming part of character creation. You could choose from a catalog of base voices, then have a couple sliders tweek it.
More interesting, however, are the possibilities inherent in text-to-speech and speech-to-text. This could make the in-game communication system into something of a black box; you choose how you input to it (voice or text) and how you receive output from it (voice or text). Add a few (ok, maybe more than "a few") years development and you start getting into the possibility of real-time language translation as well medium conversion. A lot of conjecture, but a lot of possibilities as well.
"Trust me, it worked in the Simpsons." - Calash
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And it's really a drag when I hook up with a team and suddenly they're off doing something and I'm typing away, "Wait, where'd everyone go?" and trying to figure out what they're doing. About 5 minutes later someone'll send back, "Oh, sorry, we're all on vent." 
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I wish that scenario wasn't as familiar to me as it is. Hate it.
The only real issue I have with this, is that "optional" is
sometimes less than so. When enough people pick something
up, optional has a nasty way of turning into "optional...but if you
want to actually play with other people, required."
I doubt CoX'll turn into that after all this time. People already
have their play habits ingrained. But never know what can
happen.
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-r0y
(seriously, who isn't on vent, TS, skype, etc. by now?)
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I'm not, and I don't want to be.
I know millions will raise their hands in praise and glory, but I'm just hoping it'll be easy to opt out of.
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Voice chat is a big step backwards. This announcement is a sad one.
I've already experienced CoH SG chat on Ventrilo, and the steadily ramping annoyance factor of being forced to listen to an endless stream of inane chatter in the background just to pick out one or two instructions that had anything to do with the mission that could just as easily have been typed...well, before long the Ventrilo program suffered an "accident" and peace and quiet was restored.
It's very true that most people hate "dead air" and must fill the void if the voicechat silence stretches beyond a few seconds, even if their comments are of limited merit.
This new service will be popular with the people who superglue their cellphones to the sides of their heads and walk down the street chattering away...
And keep off my lawn, dagnabbit!
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Translation: only otiose players with ADD will ever use voice chat. Therefor, the tool is worthless to the rest of the playerbase.
Definition: false dilemma.
I'm sorry about your personal experience with voice chat; mine's been a bit better. I'm sure there are others out there like you who will not require teammates to use it, or who won't use it themselves. But those who want it will at least have another option, possibly better integrated than a stand-alone voice server.
Either way, IMHO, more options > less options.
Agreed, Jasra. The possibilities seem to be the most interesting part.
If they can someday offer decent-sounding synthetic speech for chat purposes, won't that mean that NPC dialog and mission text can be voiced too? That'd make every mission from Outbreak/Breakout onward a lot more cinematic. And it'd make user-created missions that much cooler.
Incidentally, I think Vivox have changed their stand on the "voice font" thing. The meaning that Tahquitz was assigning to it above is the one that AT&T has been using for their speech synthesis voices, well before Vivox started using the term.
The links in my previous message are a few months old. Now that I've been reading up on PlayXpert (thanks, Plasma!), I see their CEO recently referred to Vivox's masking technology as "Voice Skins."
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This seems like yet another thing to divide our gaming community here at CoX.
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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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i hate hippies vs dirty smelly hippies
Dont we already have fires in the city?, just /boombox next to them.
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Either way, IMHO, more options > less options.
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Absolutely.
I trust the devs will remain aware of the needs of people who have hearing problems, social issues or preferences that make voice chat unusable or undesirable for them.
On the other hand, some of the opponents of voice are making harsh statements about how it's a waste of resources, a huge step backward, and so on.
Please be fair. For those of us who want it, this is a huge benefit that will make the game a lot more fun.
As with every other aspect of teaming, you may run into bad teams or annoying people. If it becomes a problem, move on. Speaking as a fan of voice, I expect to have to do that part of the time.
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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.
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If by "we" you mean about a dozen or so very vocal members of this community, sure.
But the bulk of folks seem pretty happy without it, myself included. I know there are a number of people I play with who use vent or whatever, but it's hardly a necessary component.
I was turned down for a supergroup even though I met all the requirements for a character (at random, they happened to show up under Atlas as I had logged onto my new character) and would have been more than happy to provide the SG with loads of prestige and whatever else I could do. The requirement: vent was *mandatory*.
I was pretty pissed off, and they lost a good chance to have a steady SG income.
Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
Repurposed
My response is a resounding "meh".
My SG doesn't really use it much, but we have a TS already, and we have used it before.
Also, as regards this supposed "alt+tab crash", I've only *ever* had that happen when alt+tabbing on a load screen, and it's usually just a D/C, not a full crash.
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Originally Posted by Back Alley Brawler
Did you just use "casual gamer" and "purpled-out warshade" in the same sentence?
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I'm not keen with the option of voice chat either.
It didn't take long in LOTRO once voice chat was introduced, to end up with a 'peer pressure' system to have voice chat enabled while teaming - there was an icon visible - so everyone could plainly see that you couldn't hear them, and start spamming text chat, going "turn on your voice-enabled option, please."
Then after you turned it on, immersion was quite ruined with player voices not matching their characters... not to mention, I personally can barely make out what some people mumble through their mics as instructions.
I generally play using speakers, and I don't want to have to adjust my sounds until some idiot's voice comes out loud and boomingly clear to disturb the rest of my household.
And it's a hellacious inconvenience to yank out earphones or a headset to switch. I don't like using voice to talk either, I type faster than I formulate words and convert them into speech. I find generally most players are fine with this non-speaking, but that they want you to be able to hear them (which is sometimes a pain.)
I'm encouraged by that the bulk of the reaction of the CoX community (going via forum response at least) seems to be "meh." That suggests there won't be a wholesale changeover to embrace voice chat off the cuff.
Still, there are fans of voice chat, and I can definitely predict another divisive line being drawn in the sand here. Voice-only vs non-voice-only.
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Like others, I'm also wondering what "voice font" is. Does that mean we can add distortion to make ourselves sound more like our characters? This would be interesting...
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Like others, I'm also wondering what "voice font" is. Does that mean we can add distortion to make ourselves sound more like our characters? This would be interesting...
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Microsoft Sam?
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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.
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Actually there is a solid group that every time this comes up steps up to say it isn't a good idea. Many of those same people are here posting in this thread. Basically I have never had a positive experience in an MMOG using voice with random strangers. My experiences have varied from Meh to downright fleeing and not looking back at the group.
But it's MY sadistic mechanical monster and I'm here to make sure it knows it. - Girl Genius
List of Invention Guides
Hearing everyone's voices sounds chaotic to me. Especially in the heat of the moment. Yikes! I don't think I'll try it. But a cool option for those interested. Personally, I find the chat feature part of the game's charm. I'm afraid that hearing people's real voices will mess with the illusion of their character. Right? You team up with some studly dude for a while and have this whole fantasy thing going, only to hook up your headphones to find a prepubescent voice on the other end. Ugh, no thanks! I'll stick to the role-playing. 
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Like others, I'm also wondering what "voice font" is. Does that mean we can add distortion to make ourselves sound more like our characters? This would be interesting...
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That's exactly what it is. i heard an interview about a year ago with someone from vivox as they were talking about the next edition of dungeons and dragons (the pen and paper game) would have a online component that would allow the game to be played through computers and would use vivox voice technology. He said that sound fonts would allow the dungeon master to make his voice sound anyway he wanted orc, woman, monster,etc thereby enhancing the immersion.
Using this technology that hot, scantily clad empathy defender won't sound like darth vader.
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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...
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Hehe good one 
then I would be the first one agianst anthing that tied into the 60's/70's.
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Like others, I'm also wondering what "voice font" is. Does that mean we can add distortion to make ourselves sound more like our characters? This would be interesting...
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That's exactly what it is. i heard an interview about a year ago with someone from vivox as they were talking about the next edition of dungeons and dragons (the pen and paper game) would have a online component that would allow the game to be played through computers and would use vivox voice technology. He said that sound fonts would allow the dungeon master to make his voice sound anyway he wanted orc, woman, monster,etc thereby enhancing the immersion.
Using this technology that hot, scantily clad empathy defender won't sound like darth vader.
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I haven't read many of the posts, but how does someone police profanity, racism or lewdness?
thats going to be the rub...unless there is a master recording of all channels....how do you prove the 12 year old with the microphone is dropping every F-bomb word combo he can think of over voice chat?
I'm mostly cool with this. Mostly. We use Teamspeak with our SG, and it'd be nice to have it so one of our members doesn't have to run the server, tying up one of his computers (thankfully he's got several, I've accused him of trying to create his own Google operation in his house, but...). And since I know we're guilty of being...awfully 'quiet' so to speak in text-chat with people we team up with who aren't on our TS server, just forgetting to type stuff instead of saying things into our microphones, well...
My big question is...will we be able to selectively mute people, set it so we can only hear people on our own team, and so forth? As well as just mute idiots who tick us off--I can only take so much 'hehhehehehe--b00bies!' and other nonsense. Something I doubt can be answered now, this early in the process, but it's still something that'd influence how I feel about the stuff. I'd wanna be able to hear my team but still slap a big ol' *IGNORE* on the moron yelling obscenities in Atlas Park.
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thats going to be the rub...unless there is a master recording of all channels....how do you prove the 12 year old with the microphone is dropping every F-bomb word combo he can think of over voice chat?
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Why would someone want to "police" voice chat? Treat it the same way you do text - if you don't like what someone's saying, slap them on Ignore.
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Too many other alts and servers to bother counting
Actually, if some of the stuff Vivox is working on pans out, their tech could make life easier for people who hate voice chat too.
They are working on ways to integrate text-to-speech and speech-to-text into MMOs, so that mixed groups of voice-only and text-only players can coexist easily.
The text input of one player could be synthesized into voice for the benefit of voice-chatters, and spoken words could be rendered back into the chat window for people who don't want to (or can't) hear them.
It's described in this article, starting in the sixth paragraph.
Somewhere earlier in this thread, someone said that "voice fonts" probably are speech synthesis voices, but Vivox is using the term to mean voice modification technology (male to female, vice versa, human to robot, etc.). It's covered in the article here.
In both cases, the interviewers were favorably impressed with how well Vivox can make an ordinary gamer sound like a Paladin. That'd be a nice feature to have in a superhero game.
Of course, all of this would need to be integrated into CoH/V itself, rather than in the launcher, to really be useful. Count me in as someone who hopes the Vivox implementation will end up going much further than the launcher.
So far as the existing solutions go...
My group uses Ventrilo currently, but we're not eager to give out our server info to strangers. Built-in voice chat would be a lot better for use in pick-up groups.