Why I’m not looking forward to SL voice integration
Call me old school.
Back when roleplaying was set only on MOOs and MUDs, it was all via text. Yet you could hide behind an online persona and fully immerse yourself in a world as a character. As online games evolved, you started to see some graphical representations in avatars, first in ascii text form, then in graphics. Eventually we got to where we are today, which is the 3D avatars moving around in 3D worlds.
Yet, even now, we’re still behind our own little online personas, being someone we aren’t in real life. We have tattoos, beards, are slimmer, fatter, different genders and everything in-between. But the voice integration changes all of that. I know that it’s voluntary, but it takes some of the fun out of being someone you’re not. Seriously, are you ready to hear the voice of some falsetto from some deep voiced guy that is roleplaying the supposed “love of your second life”? I’d rather keep it a mystery, if you know what I mean.
Truth be told, I suppose you could have virtual meetings and business interactions that are via voice. This would make it all the more personal I assume. But with a multitude of spoken language barriers, and English being the most used business language in the world, the voice feature will only be an extra feature and not a core utility unlike the thought process behind it. When it truly comes to usefulness, if I must use voice, then VoIP would suit me a lot better for work than a 3D environment.
All in all, it’s just another passing feature to me. What about you? Are you anxiously awaiting the integration? Or do you think that it’s just “another thing”?
May 23rd, 2007 • 
Darius Sartre • 
comment | May 23, 2007 at 12:35 | individual comment-link
Darius,
I couldn’t disagree more! I am looking forward to giving my fingers a rest in world. I really don’t play anything other than a younger more physically fit person with green eyes instead of my brown.
Personally I am looking forward to the voice feature…. Even though I have a southern country boy drawl… I want to hear my friends and hope it will encourage everyone to be more his/herself.
comment | May 23, 2007 at 13:11 | individual comment-link
You don’t… but many other people do. The key word here: “roleplay”.
comment | May 24, 2007 at 05:25 | individual comment-link
Darius - wrote about my experience with SL Voice back here: http://www.vtoreality.com/2007/trying-out-the-second-life-open-voice-chat-beta/803/
I probably won’t use it very often but I can see where voice will be handy for some business-related discussions as opposed to a bunch of typing.
Was kind of surprised that it didn’t suck as much as I expected it would. Will admit that those who are roleplaying probably won’t be that excited although there are voice changing boxes out there.
I saw an informal poll taken where a very small percentage of respondents said they would use the feature. My guess is less than 5% of the active residents will use this feature and maybe 1% or less will actively use it.
I’d much, much, much rather see web on a prim.