Forums » General Pantheon Discussion

Community Debate - Text Chat vs Voice Chat

    • 9115 posts
    November 5, 2018 3:03 AM PST

    Community Debate - Text Chat vs Voice Chat, which do you prefer and why? #PRF #MMORPG #MMO #communitymatters

    • 259 posts
    November 5, 2018 4:04 AM PST

    I'm old-school and prefer to be the little cat on the laptop. :)

    But I do use voice-chat when I need to.

    I lose a lot of the immersion factor of being in a fantasy world when I use voice-chat.

    • 793 posts
    November 5, 2018 4:09 AM PST

    I prefer text chat.

    It allows me freedom to listen to my own music, and voice chat often lowers itself to 1 person dominating downtime, and in my experience that person thinks they are much funnier than they really are.

    Voice chat has it's uses, but I avoid PUGs that make it mandatory.

     


    This post was edited by Fulton at November 5, 2018 4:10 AM PST
    • 228 posts
    November 5, 2018 4:12 AM PST

    I usually prefer text chat, in particular in PUGs. My reasons include:

    • Voices reveal too much about the person behind the character. I don't want to know if the tank is a 12-year-old schoolboy or his granny.
    • Likewise, my voice and my pronounciation reveal more about me than I prefer.
    • Ambient sounds like babies crying or tvs running reduce immersion.
    • With text it's much easier to see who said what, and you can go back and check.
    • I don't like to wear headphones for many hours.
    • English is not my first language, so I find it difficult to understand what some people are saying.

    Having said that, I admit that with voice it's easier and quicker to communicate during battle, e.g. when the CC says "mezzing the one on the right.... landed". And in a group of friends, where we know each others' voices and personalities well, voice chat provides a nice social "room" better suited for cracking jokes, etc.


    This post was edited by Jabir at November 5, 2018 4:15 AM PST
    • 178 posts
    November 5, 2018 5:00 AM PST

    text chat.

    voice chat is awkward... ( see DDO case...)

    if i want to use voice with my friends i will use 3rd party software for ourselves.

    • 2 posts
    November 5, 2018 5:11 AM PST

    Text chat. Part of the reason is that I usually play through the night, and I can't be speaking at any volume at all. I just accept that and don't bother with voice.

    • 1479 posts
    November 5, 2018 5:21 AM PST

    Text all the way. My work environment il loud enough for me to want calm at home, and as I play with my girlfriend we don't want to feel gimped or isolated from each other.

     

    Text is great, it allows to read and remember afterwards. For big coordination required I agree to use voice chat.

    • 239 posts
    November 5, 2018 5:51 AM PST
    Text chat here.
    Like others have posted I sometimes have too much going in the back ground for everyone to hear. Plus if i.was not paying 100% attention I can scroll up and see what was said.
    And since I didnt know about or use any 3rd party voice chat during EQ days my typing and WPM skill was maxed out, proper grammar not so much.
    • 438 posts
    November 5, 2018 6:57 AM PST
    Text chat. But I enjoy voice with close friends and my brother on the side. Random folks or PUGs all text chat.
    • 1921 posts
    November 5, 2018 6:58 AM PST

    Text because there's a time stamped log file.  In cases of abuse, that's gold.

    When doing large events that require more than one group, voice chat is a great convenience, especially when mentoring characters who have never consumed that content before.  However, it's only really useful when all the "compulsive talkers" can be muted so the raid leader or guild leader can talk without interruption.  I've found remarkably few guilds actually use the technology the way it can be used to auto-mute everyone else when one person needs to speak.  Those guilds that do, though, and those that will server-side-mute the annoyances, that's ten kinds of awesome.

    Ultimately, I can read faster than I can listen, so text is always better for me.

    Lastly, the things I have heard random on the spectrum multi-boxers say?  I don't need that in my head. 
    I don't care what some random PUG'er thinks about opinion debates (politics, religion, sports, music, artists, authors, lyrics, other games, social justice, conspiracies, etc) and I sure don't want to listen to that distraction when I'm trying to concentrate on playing my role in a role playing game.
    If Pantheon ends up with some kind of lame non-GSM (they're all non-GSM because of licensing fees) based 32k crap quality voice chat? (like LOTRO)  First thing I'll do is disable it.  If I'm "forced" to use it, I'll either mute everyone so I can hear the audio cues the game is giving, or disconnect my headphones and play in silence.  I've been "that guy" who is in a group where 5/6 of the group are in Discord, and I'm happily playing my role without the inane chatter of voice chat distracting me.

    • 88 posts
    November 5, 2018 6:59 AM PST

    External Voice Chat - One of the main draws for Pantheon is its emphasis on team.  Organized play with teammates/friends is the main reason I play MMOs.  There are times I might want to jam out to music while grinding.  When that happens I just hop in a seperate voice channel and update my profile to say listening to music.    


    This post was edited by Louden at November 5, 2018 7:01 AM PST
    • 2419 posts
    November 5, 2018 7:04 AM PST

    Kilsin said:

    Community Debate - Text Chat vs Voice Chat, which do you prefer and why? #PRF #MMORPG #MMO #communitymatters

    I prefer voice, especially in these times where classes need to be clicking a lot of buttons.  It is difficult to do both button clicking and chatting. I don't care if a woman is playing a male character or a male a female character so their voice doesn't sync with the gender of the character.  It is purely a matter of efficiency.


    This post was edited by Vandraad at November 5, 2018 8:28 AM PST
    • 45 posts
    November 5, 2018 7:41 AM PST

    Kilsin said:

    Community Debate - Text Chat vs Voice Chat, which do you prefer and why? #PRF #MMORPG #MMO #communitymatters

     

    Voice chat 100%. You communicate much quicker, you can do so while playing, and for team based play it is an absolute must.


    This post was edited by Piratess at November 5, 2018 7:41 AM PST
    • 1785 posts
    November 5, 2018 7:59 AM PST

    There's a lot of "it depends" here.

    In general, I like to stick with text chat.  Wearing a headset for hours can be uncomfortable, and I often want to turn the music up and just focus on the game and the world, not listen to my guildies talk about why the latest Call of Duty sucks or how they can't decide about Fallout 76 or get into pun wars (yes, they do that).  I mean, sometimes that's fun, but not all the time.

    I tend to try to use voice chat only when the situation really benefits from it - and even then, only when it's really necessary.  So for example if I'm in a complicated fight where our party's having to coordinate, then I'll use voice chat.  Or if I'm in a game where I truly don't have time to type because I'm too busy controlling my character, then voice chat makes sense and I'll use it.

    Finally, I think it's important to say this too:  I've played with my fair share of people who, because of various life situations, could NOT use voice chat effectively.  There's more of them than you might think.  So I think it's really important that everyone should be able to use text chat in game.  Otherwise people who (for example) have hearing impairments might be shut out from playing, and that's not really cool.  Thus, I'll always default to text chat first, and save voice for when it's really needed.

    • 287 posts
    November 5, 2018 8:27 AM PST

    Text chat, no question.  There are 3rd party tools available to provide voice chat.  Best to leave voice to the experts.  And where both are available messages get lost.

    • 3852 posts
    November 5, 2018 8:46 AM PST

    100% text.

    1. I like to listen to the game music - people spent a lot of time and effort on it and in most games they did a pretty good job.

    2. I like to listen to the speech and game sounds. Often the combat sounds help a lot in identifying enemies even before they can be seen.

    3. The overused term "immersion". How often does the small beautiful female character have a large, deep male voice. Pretty often.

    4. Overload. If four people are typing at once during a fight - no problem. If four people are talking at once (maybe two not even about the fight) chaos. And you get that in PUGs. This helps balance out the ability to communicate faster and while you are using your hands to fight.

    • 198 posts
    November 5, 2018 9:21 AM PST

    I prefer text usually, but voice is needed for larger scale team coordination (raiding).  Discord or some other 3rd party app for that.

    • 32 posts
    November 5, 2018 9:22 AM PST

    Text chat for the PUG, random player interaction.

    Text chat for global banter with close friends I am not currently grouped with.

    A quick google search shows average readers read 200 words per minute, but only understand about 60% of what is being said. The average human only types at 40 words a minute, with 'professional typists' typing 65 to 75 words per minute. I also see people speak in english at about 110-150 word per minute. The average person understands 400 words per minute. 

    So we can speak faster than we type, and we can hear and understand words at a much faster rate than we can read and understand.

    For grouping with friends, guild members, or raids, voice chat. This is simply more efficient. Part of raid design seems to be built around affective communication. Nothing gets the attention of someone messing up quicker than the healers telling them to step out of the fire. It is very helpul when teaching new players about an encounter, to be able to orally provide directions.

    If any sort of encounter, whether it be a group or raid encounter is designed around voice chat, then players are going to need to particpate in communication as designed, or they will handicap the rest of their party.

    If group and raid encounters are designed around text based chat, then those who use voice chat are going to have an easier time learning the encounters, and will likely have some down time during phases of encounters.


    This post was edited by hushed at November 5, 2018 9:26 AM PST
    • 71 posts
    November 5, 2018 9:29 AM PST

    Voice chat is for sure the way to go. One must be able to commuincate with ones teamates. If you perfer to grind by your self for a bit you can just hop channels and turn on some music or whatever your cup of tea maybe.

    • 793 posts
    November 5, 2018 9:31 AM PST

    I'd like to add other cons to voice chat...

    - microphone volume differences

    - personal accents and cultural grammar, can be difficult to understand in VC versus being able to read and re-read to comprehend in TC.

    - It can be difficult to guage how loud you are in regards to others in your house, when you have headphones on. (ever have that person yelling at you ina  quite room, because they have earbuds in and are listeing to loud music?)

    - I'm no saint, but some people think they are cooler if every other word is a cuss word, so they go overboard in VC, and it gets old fast.

     

    • 646 posts
    November 5, 2018 9:35 AM PST

    I will happily play with my friends in voice. I do not speak in voice with strangers, though if I join a raid PUG that requires voice, I will join their server. I just won't speak. I've had enough "Oh my god it's a girl!" and other far more derogatory comments to last me a lifetime.

    I prefer text chat for general situations.

    • 52 posts
    November 5, 2018 10:31 AM PST

    Pretty much what most folks have already stated.

    Playing with friends I'm down with being on voice coms and agree it's an absolute must for raiding. When PUG'ing and stuff I'm happy as with texting.

    That said, I really don't enjoy talking on coms whilst playing (usually 2 boxing at that) so I won't be the one blowing up the channel chin wagging with everyone.  =)

     

     

    • 10 posts
    November 5, 2018 10:48 AM PST

    I've always preferred text chat as I find it more relaxing and allows me to immerse myself in the game much more. However I don't mind using 3rd party voice chat with friends for some occasions, as it can be quite fun and relaxing as well :)

    • 3237 posts
    November 5, 2018 10:51 AM PST

    I tend to bounce back and forth between text and voice depending on what I'm doing.  That said, I prefer text if/when possible.  If I'm doing something that requires high levels of coordination then voice chat basically becomes necessary.  I have spent thousands of hours doing just that over the years so any time I get the chance to chill out and play the game, free of a headset, it feels peaceful in a lot of ways.  At the end of the day, I look forward to utilizing both options.

    • 200 posts
    November 5, 2018 11:01 AM PST
    Text chat. Voice chat only for raiding, or when pvp-ing with friends. I love being ‘in’ the game, hearing the music, ambient sounds, footsteps.. I find voice chat grating and exhausting. I don’t mind a bit of it here and there but preferably only a small portion of my time in game.