Choosing Your Voice For Online Gaming 53
jayintune writes "An article from an editor at 2old2play.com looks at the diverse 'voices' that people use online for the different genres of games, and how they differ from each other. It is a nice guide of etiquette for people moving from one genre to another. What you might say in WoW often differs from what you would hear in CS: Source." From the article: "Many online racing gamers take things very seriously. You may find your XBL reputation drops like a squirrel shot with a horse tranquilizer if you speak as though you're playing an FPS. Racing gamers do such things as apologize, notify a racer when they're coming up for a pass (and usually give a direction), complement you on your racing prowess when you pull off a slight win over them, and typically end a game with "nice game guys." "
CS TeamSpeak (Score:3, Funny)
What I hear tends to be the voice of a pre-pubescent teenager, although thats on TS.
come to think of it.... (Score:1)
Re:CS TeamSpeak (Score:2)
Most of the people I hear on Team Speak in WoW are adults with a midwestern accent. Then again, my guildies are all 20-30 and live in Indiana. We tend to be fairly jocular with each other, but just because we know each other.
Now, as for people I don't know, I can be quite short when I'm typing, but on TS I tend to be a lot more diplomatic. This is because a lot of people don't pay attention to the chat frame at all and just kinda do their own thing, but if you're shouting in your ear, they pretty much hav
depends on the server you play on (Score:4, Interesting)
I found the same thing with battlefield 2 (which is my current addiction of choice) - if I find a server that has semi-polite players, I'll come back regularly and make it one of the few servers that I do play on.
Servers that are full of shit-talking idiots are usually also plagued by hackers and other issues, which destroys the game for everyone involved.
Just because it's CS, doesn't mean that everyone is a half-coherent idiot.
Re:depends on the server you play on (Score:2)
1) Everyone dies, so the log of the last few deaths goes away
2) Vehicles continue moving as they were, but take no damage from collisions, which can be amusing
3) Text chat ends immediately; voice soon after. So you can't type "GG" or whatnot.
In BF1942, you could type for a few seconds, anyway. I miss that.
Re:depends on the server you play on (Score:2)
i do definitely miss that from bf2...seems silly considering they have the whole multi-page 'stats' thing that no one really cares about...why not let us chat during it? sigh
Re:depends on the server you play on (Score:4, Insightful)
It's probably an American thing. I honestly hope that there's no other country that features a mob of people who believe that it's perfectly acceptable to play a game where you shoot people, so long as you don't swear in the slightest.
I remember that there was one guy who was going to ban me. But we started talking about that kind of thing, and we actually started to get along, as he agreed with me. He eventually agreed that I was right, and he wouldn't ban me, as I was just playing the game, punctuated with some swearing. It eventually got to the point where I had a whole list of servers hosted by like-minded clans. That it's ridiculous to play a game where the whole point of the game is to kill people with different ideology... but sugar-coat it by saying that you can't swear.
Re:depends on the server you play on (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:depends on the server you play on (Score:2)
Re:depends on the server you play on (Score:1)
I think for a lot of these sever admins, the swearing isnt the mortal sin.
It's that they want to discourage the stereotypical idiot 1337 12 year old from playing on their servers. Generally, these people probably prefer playing without having profane trash-talk thrown their way.
Basically, if someone is swearing a lot, it throws up some red flags that they swearer may not be the type of person they want to play with.
I play pretty much everything. (Score:3, Interesting)
I haven't read TFA, but I would assume that they are talking about really realistic racing games, such as a Formula-1 game. Now, my general gaming tastes are for very competitive multi-player games, and I would imagine that if it was such a case where I brush against another car at 200MPH, and we both die... I might be more inclined to cooperate with the other drivers. But that's exactly why I don't play those games. I would feel more gratified playing single player if you can't actually interact with the other drivers and actively go out of your way to screw them over.
Re:I play pretty much everything. (Score:3, Insightful)
The style of play is also different. In Mario Kart, eliminating other players is a way to win, and in a competitive environment, you'r expected to use whatever you can to your advantage. In more simulator type games, hitting another player generally hurts you both, so it's in your and their best interest not to h
Re:I play pretty much everything. (Score:2, Interesting)
Well, the article talks about Project: Gotham Racing 3 on the Xbox 360. It's certainly not a "simula
Re:I play pretty much everything. (Score:2)
You mean real Formula 1 has no red shells? Suxx0rz.
Politeness (Score:2, Funny)
That isn't what "pwned you, n00b" means?
Is this new? (Score:2)
I believe a lot of work like this has been done in sociology. This might be useful [wikipedia.org]. These game environmen
Halo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Halo (Score:2)
Lately I've been having a ton of fun with Marble Blast Ultra on Xbox Live Arcade. If you get in a good game with a bunch of other people just playing to have a good time, you can pretty much last an entire game laughing your ass off.
WastedEffort (Score:5, Funny)
I go news for you, you're wasting your time. Kids these days already know how to curse like sailors. Most of them have already moved on to cursing like marines..
Re:WastedEffort (Score:2)
Re:WastedEffort (Score:2)
Re:WastedEffort (Score:1)
Re:Halo (Score:1)
Voice (Score:1)
Racing is a different world (Score:2, Interesting)
Eh. Stoopid Reputation (Score:4, Interesting)
Otherwise, I don't see a reason why you shouldn't shout "ZOMG U Ar3 t3h Pwn3d!"
I guess it's a difference in what you're expecting from the game. Some people will ask if you're a "hack", because they'll play differently if they know you're gunning for them.
Anyways, TFA is hilarious. "Player 1: BOOM! Man if you had half the mad skills I have then I'd have used a bigger weapon. Pwned like a n00bzors bitch." That makes me laff.
Re:Eh. Stoopid Reputation (Score:1, Informative)
How about it makes you look like an idiot? I guess that's cool if you like playing with like-minded retards, but for the rest of us it's annoying at best. See also Sportsmanship [wikipedia.org].
Seriously though, a little razzing now and then is ok. There are limits though. Most people try to avoid pricks in real life, even moreso in their (often very limited) leisure time. Online reputation system is an excellent way to avoid pricks without ev
Funny. (Score:4, Insightful)
I've found that communication doesn't usually matter in public (read: non-clan) multiplayer games. You can be dead quiet in ET, CS, any deathmatch, SWBF2--any FPS, really, and things usually go fine. Talking leads to idiots replying; idiots replying leads to anger; anger leads to elevated blood pressure, which is something I don't need from a video game.
Re:Funny. (Score:2)
Don't worry though, they've got you covered in there
Re:Funny. (Score:2)
It's different with friends (Score:2)
Otherwise, I might as well be playing a bunch of strangers.
Obligatory (Score:1)
Re:Obligatory (Score:1)
Re:Obligatory (Score:2)
Re:Obligatory (Score:2)
The way he stood there for 10 mins when there were other ways to go. (in fact one of his team came by later??) They way he did not really appear angry, yet kept it up for a ridiculous amount of time.
Oh, and he was a VERY bad actor....
check, check (Score:1)
Check six, wolf! Breaking left. You're clear. He's on you now! Dragging two seven zero. I'm in
Gray Ninja: the article's talking about serious sim racing, not smash-em-up games.
Look, it IS important. (Score:2)
I remember a longer session of Shadow Warrior with friends over LAN. I killed one a few times in a row, despite being a weaker player, but that was enough that when the next time I showed up with a rocket launcher and he only had some machinegun, he just turned to run. Thing is I had some 4 rockets and that's all, I wasted them all really soon, missing him
Frag 'em all (Score:2)
Imagine just using your mic (Score:2)
There was one game that I really enjoyed with terrific teamplay. Natural Selection. Its a Half Life 1 mod. Havn't played it much since I got BF2, but I am anxiously awaiting the team to come out with their new offering. If you have HL installed, go to unknownworlds.com/ns and try this sucker. Its a FPS with a little bit of RTS in there. Good stuff
Audio Voicing vs. Literary/Textual Voicing (Score:3, Interesting)
Instead it's really more about voicing in a literary sense - picking what to say based on the social context - and to some extent about textual expression such as '1337-sp33k. That's ok, but for me it didn't seem to go that deep - MMORPGs are catching up with the MUD world in that aspect, or maybe have gone beyond it, and then there's a big fuzzy boundary between MUDs and LiveJournal/ilk.
I don't play the particular games used in the examples, but it's sort of obvious even to a socially inept introvert that there are some games where you should say things like "Eat Hot Flaming Death, Suckah! Bwahhahahah!" while fragging strangers or friends and other games where you don't do that, such as the racing-game example the author gave about apologizing for getting in another racer's way. There _are_ more interesting cases - more cooperative multiplayer games where you and other people are ganging up on the {bad guys / treasure / other groups of players}, and it might make sense for your character to be chatty or quiet or bossy or like Obi-Wan or Jay or Silent Bob. Do you tell the other player things that ought to be obvious, like the fact that the monster's running towards him from his left, distracting him with your blather when he's trying to figure out what to do about it, or do you only tell him when the monster's somewhere he probably can't see, or do you wait until afterwards to tell him he should have known better than to pick up a duck in a dungeon? Is it helpful to tell the other player "You bash the Balrog, and I'll climb the tree" or shout "Run Away! Run Away!" at every appropriate opportunity? (Normally, no it's not, that's why you're choosing a literary voice for your character, who might have other opinions or different wisdom/charisma/intelligence levels than your own.)
Beat by a girl (Score:2)
Good Game (Score:1)
FarCry (Score:1)
Accidents happen (Score:1)
J
limited (Score:1)