What happened to voice chat?!

[Tonberry]

People are babies, that’s one reason.
Example: @quixotic_kimchi didn’t like what he was reading here and decided not to participate. What got to em’ that badly? Idk but that’s their problem

I feel like the only voice chats that still work, and actively get people engaged, are proximity voice chats but I could be wrong. I don’t play too many games with prox chat

Proximity voice chat is great fun, that’s true.

 

[Burzuru Burzuru]

Proximity voice chat is great fun, that’s true.

*angry swearing and comments about your mom gradually gets louder*

 

[Deleted member 257420]

Mf’s will dox you for playing a game lmao

 

[Deleted member 821138]

This discourse is replete with lamentations, presumably from children, decrying the justifiable curtailment of collective invective online. To sustain such a thread is madness. Intolerance must not be indulged, but extirpated with the swiftness and decisiveness of removing said tumor.

It is, frankly, a dereliction of duty, a stain upon their honor, that the arbiters of this forum permit such a thread with such obvious bad actors to persist.

Pigs in filth, chasing a social high.

 

[Sir Auriel of Lionel]

This discourse is replete with lamentations, presumably from children, decrying the justifiable curtailment of collective invective online. To sustain such a thread is madness. Intolerance must not be indulged, but extirpated with the swiftness and decisiveness of removing said tumor.

It is, frankly, a dereliction of duty, a stain upon their honor, that the arbiters of this forum permit such a thread with such obvious bad actors to persist.

Pigs in filth, chasing a social high.

I don't think there's much discourse here? I like this thread to continue to give me more insight of what history of why chat has died as one poster made a good point it became accessible and opened the flood gates as I don't remember early WoW videos on youtube having such CoDl lobby behavior. Any why should the mods or owner remove a civil discussion? Aside from the OP throwing in a slur in the original post (which I could assume was the f one) most have been respectful if not disgruntled at the heavy handedness of moderation that allows false reporting to go unpunished just as well as at the bad actors, who have hurt the main source of communication for cooperative gameplay. I was a solo player and remain as such so I like to stay in the know of the past and present trends of gaming even as a nonparticipant if only just to understand weird corporate decisions that later trickle down my gaming spheres.

 

[Deleted member 704644]

This topic has generated a lot of strong opinions, and is being closely monitored by the moderation team. Refrain from insulting one another, or from voicing intolerance. Failure to comply will result in warnings being issued.

 

[Tonberry]

For the record I was talking about this kind of proximity voice chat:

Just totally innocuous, spontaneous fun with someone you’ll never meet again but it makes for a great story, kinda like having a 10 minute conversation with a stranger at a bus stop, or chatting with a cashier at a specialty goods store because you’re both enthusiastic about the product.

Emergent gameplay can sure be magical sometimes.

 

[Clippy]

Also:

 

[KaiserMk7]

What ever happened to the old saying " Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me. "

Those sayings were said for a reason. When words can be criminalised, you have tyranny. Punishment is for violent crimes, sexual crimes, thievery & treason.

Words can cause very lasting harm that can make you wish you were physically scarred instead, although those words aren't typically in voice chat unless it's targeted harassment.
Violence is not purely physical, thievery and treason are often achieved through deception, sequences of words uttered in public spaces can be quite sexually explicit in a way that's meant to titilate or cause discomfort rather than educate, and defamation is a very legitimate legal concept.

On the other hand if we keep going this way we won't be able to call people stupid because that's going to be a 'slur' soon. Some people need to hear the hard truth. It is what it is and desperately trying to soften the blow or not even deal it in the first place is not the road to take.

Quite the opposite. Stupid is one of a number of clinical terms that are no longer slurs because people no longer recognize it as comparing someone, with great contempt, to a person with a disability. They only see that it sounds funny and is an insult to a person's intelligence or common sense. It's kinda like how jerk is a generally acceptable insult in children's shows.

 

[Deleted member 3099]

All I really have to add is that I've been annoyed that certain games have removed the option outright. I was frustrated that I couldn't banter with friends in-game in Street Fighter 6, something we did in Street Fighter 4 all the time.

 

[lytrid]

Voice chat is still alive and well on Team Fortress 2.

There is a noticeable difference between EU and NA servers, however. EU servers are usually dead quiet whereas on NA someone is always talking in voice chat. Might apply to other games too.

 

[DjQuick2008]

I havent used voice chat since i had a PS3 retail took my soul and now i dont want to talk after a certain time of day. 17 years of actual interactions with people im just fine playing with spotify on.

 

[JellyjamLu]

The simple answer is people.
anonymity of hiding behind a mic at home where you feel you can get away with trash talking a stranger online and be safe & get a weird satisfied kick by doing so.
Now everyone is purposefully avoiding it because 9 times out of 10 that's probably what's awaiting you unfortunately & most individuals with any sense will move on from it.

 

[sandogma sandogma]

The simple answer is people.
anonymity of hiding behind a mic at home where you feel you can get away with trash talking a stranger online and be safe & get a weird satisfied kick by doing so.
Now everyone is purposefully avoiding it because 9 times out of 10 that's probably what's awaiting you unfortunately & most individuals with any sense will move on from it.

I used to think this way as well. When PUBG and the first few Call of Duty's came that I played at the time, the open chat was rife with slurs and generally children, angsty teenages and unhappy young adults just spewing toxic shit.

But lately I"ve been playing Arc Raiders, and I was aprehensive of the proximity chat but overall I've been pleasantly surprised. People are nice and will talk to you. Sometimes some asshole will camp at the extract, kill me, and to no ones surprise, they are those who have those same toxic behavior. But overall my experience with that game has restored my faith in humanity being civil enough to chat online in games again.

 

[JellyjamLu]

I used to think this way as well. When PUBG and the first few Call of Duty's came that I played at the time, the open chat was rife with slurs and generally children, angsty teenages and unhappy young adults just spewing toxic shit.

But lately I"ve been playing Arc Raiders, and I was aprehensive of the proximity chat but overall I've been pleasantly surprised. People are nice and will talk to you. Sometimes some asshole will camp at the extract, kill me, and to no ones surprise, they are those who have those same toxic behavior. But overall my experience with that game has restored my faith in humanity being civil enough to chat online in games again.

Yes you have a very valid point with ARC Raiders, I have heard similar things about it, Guess I have been burned too many times giving fellow gamers the benefit of the doubt.

 

[medisinn]

I've had a mixed bag of experiences with voice chat, but I appreciate the option. I prefer it being opt-out instead of opt-in, but I also enjoy chaos. I had a lot of fun being a shithead with friends trolling people in the pre-game lobbies for PUBG back in the day, it was less enjoyable once they turned that off. I've also had experiences when I couldn't get to the mute button fast enough depending on what was being said in Call of Duty or GTA Online. Also, some people are just so LOUD, even if they're not bombing out slurs. I still prefer having it to not having it, but it should always be an option.

Proximity voice chat is interesting, and I think can add to the atmosphere of a game. We usually use it for R.E.P.O or Lethal Company, and it certainly adds to suspense when you can't hear your friends voices anymore. I don't like it for Abiotic Factor since the maps are pretty large. I think it could add to immersion in multiplayer shooters, but it does make it harder to coordinate, and I also don't think they really give a shit about immersion at this point anyway. If they did, you wouldn't be able to use Beavis and Butthead skins in "realistic" military shooters. Then again, immersion means less microtransactions.

As far as being offensive and whatnot, I do wonder if that has lessened because the stakes are higher now. When every game is tied to your PSN/Steam/Xbox/etc. account, why take the risk of getting banned from the game if it could potentially lead to your account getting banned? There goes all your game purchases, your achievements, friends list, etc. It shouldn't get to that level of escalation in most cases, but heavy-handed censorship and moderation will win out if companies think they'll make more money or lose less money that way. Personally, if someone is being a dick to me I'll just mute or block them if I don't end up insulting them back, but that's just me.

 

[Mr. SyS]

Over moderation in my opinion. Why do locker room talk in-game and risk getting banned when you can do the same on Discord with no consequence?

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

Personally I think one of the things of why people dont use it anymore is because there is no novelty to it anymore. Online chat, voice and multiplayer are a default, back then it was mind blowing to many of us. I still remember the first time I played online on Halo CE and I almost collapse from the emotion of playing multiplayer with people that wasnt sitting next to me.

I believe that between this and people that not only get hurts by words but also constantly search to get called like that so they can play the victim and farm internet points.

Man, internet was so much better when it was a nerd stuff that didnt follow you around. How far have we fallen

 

[kuroro]

I love shooting the shit with random people but it feels like no one wants to talk anymore it sucks. My go to is to blame eSports for making everyone a try hard looser but idk. the only game that have fun voice chat are even co-op and fistful of frags.

it got replaced by stupid discord

 

[PupinDaTurd]

I've never talked shit during a game to someone, just not that kinda guy. I usually only tended to turn the mic on when someone else was acting up and someone needed to tell them to shut it down.
Turning on voice makes you more authorative too. Like say someone's being a shithead to the support or tank on your team in text, if you turn on the mic and tell em to switch off the third DPS they tend to cow out like Daddy's getting onto them. You can't win an argument in text chat with someone on voice lol

Also never got bothered by anyone talking shit to me back in the day when I was playing a lot of online. I guess I got thick skin from real life and also the fact that basically any asshole I ran into in CoD, TF2, SF4 or whatever literally only existed in my life temporarily. As soon as I was done with that game, they stop existing in my reality.

As to what happened to it? Actually just Discord and games becoming nannies. Everyone's segregating into their own little bubbles and communication with people outside their comfort zones barely exists online anymore. Just echo chambers.

 

[Iraito]

Maybe it's just me being a PC gamer since the beginning but on PC voice chats have always been pretty much a private affair, teamspeak was there before discord and everyone was always busting my balls to force me to use it, i think what people are referring to is mostly the USA xbox360 days of voice chatting.

 

[BigTony]

Maybe it's just me being a PC gamer since the beginning but on PC voice chats have always been pretty much a private affair, teamspeak was there before discord and everyone was always busting my balls to force me to use it, i think what people are referring to is mostly the USA xbox360 days of voice chatting.

I think source games always had great vc

 

[Iraito]

I think source games always had great vc

Day of defeat - Uhm can't say i remember talking
Half life 2 death match - neither
Counter strike - Forced to use for tactics but in pubs SOMEHOW people also used chat but this is the only one with some activity
TF2 - Nah it was mostly chat with a ton of memes and trolling

Pretty much everyone was speaking on teamspeak

 

[PierceHolden]

Honestly, having grown up in peak MW2 days.

I think people have unlearned how to trashtalk, coupled with overprotective moderation.
There have been a few cases of japanese folk getting banned in Apex and other games for saying "逃げろ" (pronounced "Nigero") in voice chat because it sounded a little too close to a certain slur.

Some games like TF2 and older CS games to an extent still preserve some of the olden days in terms of trash talk and just general rawness of it all, but otherwise it's been sanatized too much so most people don't even bother. Hell, I've seen people get banned in League for saying "gg" at the end of a match because somebody got offended.

Whatever happened to "sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me"?

 

[Iraito]

Personally i wouldn't mind some good harsh banter from time to time