Gen 3 MMO Suggestion: Dynamic Voice Communication

Gen 3 MMO Suggestion: Dynamic Voice Communication

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Posted by: Baalzebul.2960

Baalzebul.2960

I think that one of the best features of GW2 is dynamic events. They are implemented really well in GW2, (IMO).

Dynamic events allow you to just show up at the scene and get into the fight (or other mission). No parties or joining necessary. You see something happening, you jump in and hopefully everyone walks away with some rewards for their effort.

Unfortunately, this system comes with a downside that directly affects the MMO experience: Namely you don’t talk to a lot of people when you are going around the game world! In fact, I played for a couple of WEEKS without talking to almost anyone outside of town. This gave an otherwise fun MMO more of the feeling of a single player game than an MMO.

Personally, I like the interaction with other people, but if I have to stop and type in the middle of a dynamic event, that takes away from the experience of dynamic events. Once an event is over, everyone usually just jets and goes on to their next event. This makes for an efficient combat system at the expense of real interaction with other players.

One of the social strengths of previous MMOs is that people HAD to communicate with each other to get the job done. (Especially in raid environments). Not only was it necessary, but it was fun getting to know the other players. Even casual conversation with your buddies was a leap ahead of solo questing. You could yell at them “Hey! get behind him! Get behind him!” “Guardian, can you throw down X spell?” “I need help with an event to the NW, want to come with?”

This was actually a great thing about World of Warcraft until they killed it with random dungeon matching across servers.

What I am talking about is the social aspect of the game. I mean, this is an MMO, right?

Well, the next big thing could be to take the dynamic events system and add to it dynamic audio communication. It would work like this:

- Each player would have their own audio channel in the game.
- To reduce server load, a players audio channel would only be activated when within a certain range of other players.
- This channel would only be connected to other players who have “voice” activated in their sound preferences.
- When you get in a certain range of other players, you enter their “audio sphere” and they enter yours. From that point, you can hear them on their audio channel and they can now hear you.
- The volume would be adjusted dynamically, up to a maximum specified by your audio preferences. If you are far away, you sound far away. The closer you get, the louder the conversation.
- Each player with an audio channel activated would be clearly labeled with a small icon next to their name. If someone doesn’t have the icon, they are “silent”.
- Anyone in your audio range would have a different color audio icon to let you know they are in your range, in addition to just having their audio channel on. A quick visual scan would immediately let you know who you can talk with.

The effect would be, you could say, “Hey! Drakefin! Like your colors” and Drakefin could turn around and see you and say “Who said that?” and you could say “Doctor Death”. Drakefin could then say “Thanks Doc!”

You could walk up to the trading post and say “Man, copper bars are just too expensive right now”, and the player next to you could say “You need copper? I have some I can dump”.

There would be an immediate connection with other players, and would VERY closely model real life conversations.

Dynamic audio would add a whole new dimension to the game and make it a much richer online experience.

The effect would be drastic, and REALLY bring the environment to life.

So far, I haven’t really see anyone do this, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

Any true generation 3 MMORPG would have this as a feature, and the company that does it first will set the standard for everyone else.

Thoughts?

(edited by Moderator)

Gen 3 MMO Suggestion: Dynamic Voice Communication

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Posted by: Erin.7521

Erin.7521

Yeahy voice spam and profanity while trying to play. Great idea horrid in practice.

Rocking on Piken Square – the un-official EU roleplay server.

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Posted by: Illiander.8049

Illiander.8049

First off, I don’t get how you’re counting generations. Is this something like “web2.0”?

Second, this would be brilliant for casuals, except that they won’t have headsets. And everyone with a headset is already on their Guild/World Mumble/Vent/TS, so would have issues with channel switching, so wouldn’t bother.

Third, have you ever been on a public VoIP server? Read the map chat sometime. This would be even worse, as instead of having a message pop up on your log every five minutes asking about the dragon time, you’d have it in your ears.

The best thing I could see coming out of this would be to have it as a broadcast-only option for commanders, with a range of “Map” in WvW, with player opt-out.

Playing on Gentoo.

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Posted by: Baalzebul.2960

Baalzebul.2960

There are always jerks. You can always run silent, or implement some type of mute function. I think most players are OK.

If you get in line with 300 other people at a movie theater, you have to hear everyone around you. Even worse at a bar. People are… well people.

I hear your point though. Taken!

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Posted by: Ronah.2869

Ronah.2869

So far, I haven’t really see anyone do this, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

It has been done. There are shooter games with that feature. I have seen it and heard it in APB. It is a very good feature and you could hear the others even if you dont have your VoIP open. There was a sort of volume icon next to the player – similar to the volume icon in youtube and it was fill up with 3 bars according to the distance between you and that player.

It will be easier to talk to random people and there wont be a need to type.
But, because there is always one… it can’t monitor the bad language. Some people may get annoyed by people who talk bad words. So, an option to turn on/of can be appreciated too.

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Posted by: Baalzebul.2960

Baalzebul.2960

I’d loosely classify everything pre WOW as gen 1, everything after WOW as gen 2. Anything innovating the MMO model currently as Gen 3. It’s up for debate though.

Yeah, channel switching would be a pain if you are using 2 audio systems, which is why you would also want party and guild options within the game, as well as some way to be in those channels. If you are playing accross multiple games at the same time… well, you are in a class of your own.

As far as the map chat, yeah, that’s why only people in your vicinity would be in audio range. More like real life.

You want to address the entire map? Type it.

For every problem there is some form of solution, but that’s what this thread is about!

Thanks for the input! =)

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Posted by: Baalzebul.2960

Baalzebul.2960

Ronah, yes, of course their would be an option to turn it off. That would be a must.

As far as bad language, that happens pretty much anywhere there are groups of people. Restaurants, bars, sports events, etc. It’s hard to get away from really.

If you really wanted to think “advanced” there is voice recognition software already on telephone support lines that allow you to speak real sentences to get help, and voice recognition software is able to discern words from many different types of voices. In television they use a similar technology to censor profanity. In other words there is software that can cut swearing out.

Illiander brings up a good point that this would be great for casual players. However, I know a ton of casual console players that all have gaming headsets because voice communication is core in a lot of games, like the FPS you mentioned. I have lots of kids that work at my work, and if they game and most of them have audio headsets.

This would be a major “feature” so would be prominently stated, if done.