Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Are you using EVE Voice?

For many of us, voice chat in MMORPGs is a must. At Phoenix Labs we've been using TeamSpeak as the de facto software choice, despite the recent release of EVE Voice. We use it mainly for important operations such as mining and hauling. It's a simple and efficient way of working together as a team, and that's the main reason why we use it.

But there is also the ability to roleplay, and in turn this creates some interesting problems. Gents playing female characters and ladies playing male characters. Now, my corp doesn't roleplay, so in a way I don't have this problem, but if they did I would have an interesting delima.

As many of you know, my avatar in EVE is female; Treenara Mazouk is a Gallente, one of the for races in EVE. When I play games I create characters of both sexes with no particular preferences - sometimes males, sometimes females. This poses an interesting problem if I were to roleplay her "and" use a voice chat software like EVE Voice. Now I really do not sound like a Treenara and hearing a 35 year male speaking as a female gallente would surely kill the mood.

Which brings me to the following article over at Terra Nova , which referred to this article over at Wired. Go ahead, take the time to read both articles before continuing here. I'll wait for you.

So if I 'was' able to alter my voice while using a voice chat software would I do it? In terms of roleplaying this would surely provide a more immersive experience, but what would the consequence be? Would I need to tell every new player character I met that I was a man playing a female avatar? Would I wait a while before telling them, until, say we had developed a roleplaying relationship and I would feel weird continuing without "coming out". Which bring me to another recent post over at Random Battle, "Wait, you're a girl?" Cameron's article is very interesting and the tests he's done are very impressive. But what are the implications of using them. With these voice altering software the roleplaying capabilities have been expanded. I'd certainly will give it a try, though as a non-roleplay corp member, the opportunities won't abound. But if were doing more roleplaying as part of my EVE experience, I would seriously consider using such a tool with EVE Voice or whichever voice chat software I'd be using.

What about you?


The recent poll I ran on EVE Voice, showed that almost half of you use a voice chat software while playing EVE. Have any of you had a chance to use these voice altering add-ons? I'd love to know if you did. Are you still using it? How was it when you tried? Did it feel weird? What was the reaction from the other players? I'd love to know.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

My corp uses TS as well, and it's the first time I've ventured into voice for gaming. I knew from reading boards and blogs that a lot of Eve corps required some sort of voice chat for ops, and it played into my character choice. Knowing that I might someday be chatting with corp mates led to my decision to choose a male character to avoid confusion or explanations.

I play both male and female characters, although my mains tend to be male. Warcraft was the first game where I maybe had more female characters overall. I attribute that to the ridiculous male models in WoW and my seven year-old daughter's preference for characters that can get away with shopping for dresses.

I haven't had voice-moment confusion about the gender of the player behind the character, but I've certainly encountered overly familiar male characters assuming I was female in real life. That's awkward enough. I can't imagine encouraging it by altering my voice to sound female.

CrazyKinux said...

Last night I was chatting with a new corp mate and took the time to mention I was male. I do agree that this is something that one needs to mention early on or else it might cause some frustration with other players.

Still, with these voice altering software allowing (dare I say) "transgenderism", I wouldn't be surprise to see more and more of these conflicts to arise in the near future as more and more player start using voice chat.

Unknown said...

"For many of us, voice chat in MMORPGs is a must. At Phoenix Labs we've been using TeamSpeak as the de facto software choice, despite the recent release of EVE Voice."

Why aren't you using EVE Voice?

"This poses an interesting problem if I were to roleplay her "and" use a voice chat software like EVE Voice."

How is this any different than TS? At Fanfest 2006 Vivox said that could possibly in the future introduce voice fonts.

-Nate

CrazyKinux said...

Hey Nate! Know exactly what you mean, since I'm in Phoenix Labs too!

CrazyKinux aka Treenara Mazouk

Unknown said...

Wait... what? Naw man... I'm quoting you.

"For many of us, voice chat in MMORPGs is a must. At Phoenix Labs we've been using TeamSpeak as the de facto software choice, despite the recent release of EVE Voice."

Why aren't you using EVE Voice?

CrazyKinux said...

Sorry about that Nate! Let's blame Blogger's poor quoting capabilities!

We're not using EVE Voice, and instead TS mainly because everyone was on it, and our Alliance also uses it. Having everyone switch to EV would be very difficult.

Having said that, with PPL's membership being what it is, we could certainly start using EV instead - and use TS for FIX operations. I do recall us having this exact conversation!