MUD Co-Creator Bartle On Voice Chat in MMOGs

Fusty writes "In 1979, Richard Bartle co-created a MUD, the first system for players to share adventures online. Aside from veteran game coding skills, Bartle has strong opinions about game design. He recently examined the idea of voice chat in massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). His opinion? Not Yet You Fools! - on Game Girl Advance."

Re: assume role while playing

[Gherald]

anyway, how many games has this guy designed since 1979?

Other than MUD2? Try his website [mud.co.uk]

Re:not for MMORPG, but it's perfect for co-op FPS

[unclethursday]

Because the co-operative FPS sub-genre, to a great extent anyway, strives for realism. If you have an entire team who can talk to each other, they can actually plan strategy while moving to position.

Unfortunately, this isn't always an option.

Unreal Championship on the Xbox has, quite possibly, the worst voice set up ever. In team based play there are 2 channels for each team, and only 4 out of the possible 8 players can be on any one chanel.

And even in the games where the entire team can talk to each other, actually getting the other players to follow a strategy or even just basic teamwork is near impossible.

You either need to play with people you know, or hope you have found good players.

In MMOGs, I can see the voice as actually being a hinderance, unless they limit how many voices from around you you can hear...imagine hearing hundreds of EverCrackers or Ultima Onliners in the center of town at all times....

Thursdae