Guild Wars 2

Could you make in game voice chat for squads? This will be very useful when doing anything that involves creating big squads.

Ryudnard.2587:

Could you make in game voice chat for squads? This will be very useful when doing anything that involves creating big squads.

Why would you want ANet to work on something in which they have no expertise, when there are already several VoIP solutions out there, several of which are free to players. In particular, you can create discord channels on the fly.

Further, given how hard it is to get WvW regulars to join VoIP, what makes you think that PUG mobs would be inclined to make use of an in-game chat for the particular scenario you envision?

There’s no question in-game voice chat would get a lot of use. The issue is whether it’s a good use of ANet’s time to work on it.

While I agree with the OP, as there are several occasions in which it would be very useful to be able to just push-to-talk instead of type (during which you can’t fight nor glide or do anything), I would imagine this being problematic in an MMO.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Why would you want ANet to work on something in which they have no expertise,

Oh… was there something in which Anet has expertise? Are they expert at programming web browsers? Because they have that integrated in the game.

when there are already several VoIP solutions out there, several of which are free to players. In particular, you can create discord channels on the fly.

Yes, there are many voip solutions out there, including middleware that requires only programming the interface, as most other games with integrated voice do. Do you think all those other games were designed by speech codec experts?

Further, given how hard it is to get WvW regulars to join VoIP, what makes you think that PUG mobs would be inclined to make use of an in-game chat for the particular scenario you envision?

Because they won’t have to go out of their way to use a third party program. Which is the whole point.

There’s no question in-game voice chat would get a lot of use. The issue is whether it’s a good use of ANet’s time to work on it.

As opposed to the time spent programming home instance cats that do nothing, I think integrated voice would be extremely good use of Anet’s time.

Leablo.2651:

Oh… was there something in which Anet has expertise?

DX9, probably.

But yes, they’d use a 3rd party solution if they wanted to do it, and no, those developing content for the game couldn’t, as it’d be a job for the actual programmers.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Why would you want ANet to work on something in which they have no expertise,

Leablo.2651:

Oh… was there something in which Anet has expertise?

In fact, several things, including the no-downtime-for-maintenance|patches upgrade system, megaservers, dynamic event system, combat system, etc.

Leablo.2651:

Are they expert at programming web browsers? Because they have that integrated in the game.

The web interface is nearly required for UI, especially the parts integrated with the API. And, they aren’t that good at it. It shows in the original version of the TP and the fact that it’s hard for them to upgrade the TP and other interfaces, that they aren’t able to cross-post between twitter|facebook|reddit|forums.

So yes, I’d prefer that ANet not add to the list of things in the game that they don’t do well, since there are already 3rd party tools that do the job.

when there are already several VoIP solutions out there, several of which are free to players. In particular, you can create discord channels on the fly.

Leablo.2651:

Yes, there are many voip solutions out there, including middleware that requires only programming the interface, as most other games with integrated voice do. Do you think all those other games were designed by speech codec experts?

No, but I think the way they interface with the game did require people familiar with the codecs and the APIs.

Further, given how hard it is to get WvW regulars to join VoIP, what makes you think that PUG mobs would be inclined to make use of an in-game chat for the particular scenario you envision?

Leablo.2651:

Because they won’t have to go out of their way to use a third party program. Which is the whole point.

Except that even people who have the tools, who are already authenticated — they don’t always join.

There’s no question in-game voice chat would get a lot of use. The issue is whether it’s a good use of ANet’s time to work on it.

Leablo.2651:

As opposed to the time spent programming home instance cats that do nothing, I think integrated voice would be extremely good use of Anet’s time.

If you think it’s equally easy to add VoIP as it is to add a few NPCs that re-use existing animations, then sure, that would be a better use of their time. On the other hand, if you realize that adding cats to the home instance is something that can be done in the spare time of a few devs and adding VoIP is an entirely new enterprise, you might agree that they aren’t comparable.

Ryudnard.2587:

Could you make in game voice chat for squads? This will be very useful when doing anything that involves creating big squads.

Ever heard of Ventrillo or TS?

AncientYs.8613:

Ryudnard.2587:

Could you make in game voice chat for squads? This will be very useful when doing anything that involves creating big squads.

Ever heard of Ventrillo or TS?

Don’t forget discord

Discord is all I need.

Historically, adding VOIP to PC games has seldom shown to be worth the cost. Unlike consoles, in which its a natural fit due to the limited stock controller interface and built by default in to the user’s expections at this point, the PC platform has a pretty long history of extremely low user adoption of voice chat features. In fact, in most cases, the users prefer to use their own voice chat rooms even when they are made avaliable due to the larger degree of control and greater reliability afforded by a separate process. (e.g. your VOIP works even when you’re in a loading screen, or if your game crashes)

Combine that with the fact that VOIP is free technology for PC users, and you see why it is uncommon for PC games to implement this functionality. It’s not worth the effort required to implement and update a feature which doesn’t add anything compelling to your core gameplay experience, and which most users who want it already have a superior third party implementation of.

TLDR: in the PC market, integrating voice chat is a waste of developer time and money in the modern age.

PopeUrban.2578:

TLDR: in the PC market, integrating voice chat is a waste of developer time and money in the modern age.

Nah, integrating it is probably great. Developing it is a money pit.

Smart money is gonna just work with discord to embed, I’ll bet.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Why would you want ANet to work on something in which they have no expertise, when there are already several VoIP solutions out there, several of which are free to players. In particular, you can create discord channels on the fly.

The first rule of security is never run an application at higher privilege than it needs. But, we must run GW2 as an administrator, which is the worst possible security posture for any application.

3rd-party voice software must also be run as admin in order to be used with GW2.

Thus, now I have to have two apps running as admin, versus the ideal: never run ANY applications as admin. It’s a very bad idea to do that, so it follows that it’s twice as bad when you have to run two apps as admin.

I don’t think it would be a good idea to incorporate voice chat into the game. Expletives galore would be sounded, and I really don’t want to hear that. Besides, Discord, Mumble, etc is sufficient imo.

If Anet does go along with this feature, at least have an opt out feature so some of us won’t hear everything being said.

PopeUrban.2578:

TLDR: in the PC market, integrating voice chat is a waste of developer time and money in the modern age.

Not to mention it would cause additional lag to the game.

Daddicus.6128:

The first rule of security is never run an application at higher privilege than it needs. But, we must run GW2 as an administrator, which is the worst possible security posture for any application.

3rd-party voice software must also be run as admin in order to be used with GW2.

Neither of those statements are even remotely true. Both GW2 and five different third party VoIP clients run perfectly happily and successfully without administrator privileges on my system, and I assure you I have done absolutely nothing to make that happen.

My client does not require Administrator privileges. Maybe you need to repair yours, or some odd setting in Windows? Nor do I need Administrator privileges for the VOIP application I use. Again, something with your Windows?

Good luck.

Daddicus.6128:

But, we must run GW2 as an administrator, which is the worst possible security posture for any application.

3rd-party voice software must also be run as admin in order to be used with GW2.

That’s odd. I don’t have to run GW2 as an admin, and I’ve never had to run TS3 or anything else as an admin while playing GW2.

SlippyCheeze.5483:

Daddicus.6128:

The first rule of security is never run an application at higher privilege than it needs. But, we must run GW2 as an administrator, which is the worst possible security posture for any application.

3rd-party voice software must also be run as admin in order to be used with GW2.

Neither of those statements are even remotely true. Both GW2 and five different third party VoIP clients run perfectly happily and successfully without administrator privileges on my system, and I assure you I have done absolutely nothing to make that happen.

You’re right! That’s very new, but I like it. They finally listened.

Scratch my previous post, folks.

Daddicus.6128:

SlippyCheeze.5483:

Daddicus.6128:

The first rule of security is never run an application at higher privilege than it needs. But, we must run GW2 as an administrator, which is the worst possible security posture for any application.

3rd-party voice software must also be run as admin in order to be used with GW2.

Neither of those statements are even remotely true. Both GW2 and five different third party VoIP clients run perfectly happily and successfully without administrator privileges on my system, and I assure you I have done absolutely nothing to make that happen.

You’re right! That’s very new, but I like it. They finally listened.

Scratch my previous post, folks.

Not to harp on about it, but it’s not very new, either. Like, I was able to run both without running as admin at least two years ago.

I’ve been here since launch, and I don’t remember ever having to run as Administrator the game or my preferred VOIP (and I’ve used several).

I’ve certainly never seen any posts about it; from Devs or players. I have, however, since some posts about running as Administrator when certain players were having an odd issue with the game, as a possible work-around. But, only for those with an issue specific to them.

Edit: brain freeze on a word, evidently.

I dunno, I played EQ2 and WoW for a while and their voice channels were way underutilized by the general population in my experience. Most people tended to use Teamspeak or Raidcall and, more recently, Discord, since their tools were more fleshed out and you could more easily control who could and couldn’t talk.

I already hate voice chat in Overwatch, I’ll be kitten ed if I have to deal with it here too.

It also goes against Anet’s general design principle of inclusiveness and keeping the bar as low as possible. If you integrate VOIP you create a situation where players that can’t or won’t use VOIP might get excluded.