Posted 07 March 2014 - 06:56 AM
Two Great Reasons Why In-Game Integrated VoIP Is a Miserable Idea:
1.) These Forums.
As has been stated: “in-game VoIP? With these knuckleheads? No thanks.”
People say “Just mute people you don’t like!” or “you don’t have to listen to trolls!” …and here I thought the purpose of the VoIP system was to listen to people? If the purpose is to listen to folks, but then I don’t have to listen to them…why, exactly, are we spending dev time and resources to integrate something that a significant number of players are going to instantly disable – permanently, by default, and with a smile on their face?
If the communications system can’t be relied on for communication – and it can’t, with the number of players who, like me, will immediately and without regret engage a global mute option indefinitely, because you guys are complete dungsacks who’re entirely and completely not worth listening to – then it’s a bad communications system. A good communications system, or at least the kernel of an idea for one, is introduced below.
2.) Discrete Commands vs. “The hell’d you just try and say? o_@”
I work in a call center for a living. I spend eight hours a day talking to people for my daily bread. I do so in, generally, one of two ways – via a text-based webchat client which works like AIM or MSN or whatever your text messenger service of choice is, or directly via phone conversations. Guess which one is clearer and easier to work with?
Voice communication is by default fugly, imprecise, and full of flaws. How am I supposed to know what the jerk calling himself the drop commander this time is saying when his bebe is screeching for a bottle behind him, or when he’s playing from his work camp in Siberia, or when he’s a twelve-year-old doing a heartfelt rendition of Seven Words You Can’t Say On TV in between his calls for a push. Furthermore, it is up to the listener to interpret what is said and mentally overlay it on the battlefield in order to make use of it, and sometimes you’re going to misfire, or spend too long translating when what you need is a quick, concrete directive or timely access to necessary information.
A V-command set or a command rose is a vastly cleaner interface which can also directly integrate with UI elements. Imagine, if you will, being a recon pilot. Now, imagine being a recon pilot who can push a single button – F5, let’s say – and in the doing generate an “Enemies Spotted!” message in chat, as well as highlighting the grid square currently under your crosshair on your team’s minimaps for the next ten seconds. Bam. With one button press, you’ve conveyed the information that you’ve found the Baddites, as well as displaying in a concrete manner where said Baddites were found. You could even build off of that! Why can’t a drop commander open up his battlegrid, click on the recon-highlighted square, and get a list of related orders he can issue?
Discrete, keyboard-issued commands/reports: cleaner, simpler, far less prone to abuse, faster, and with the ability to hook directly into UI elements in order to more powerfully convey the necessary information. Who the hell wants VoIP in this game over a system like this?
And before you tell me “Why not do both?!”…have you seen the pace of Piranha’s updates and features implementation? We have to be very careful what we ask these guys for, because if we get it, odds are pretty high that it’s the only thing we’re going to be getting beyond MC merchandise for the next year.
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Fooooo, on 06 March 2014 - 11:39 PM, said:
