What happened to voice chat?!

[BigTony]

TF2 - Nah it was mostly chat with a ton of memes and trolling

This is what I miss most I don't care about tactics or whatever I just wanna shoot the shit

 

[Lena CE]

Negative social interaction risks people not having as good of a time and leaving the game, so a lot of companies have spent a lot of time downscaling and removing social features from their games to keep people as isolated as possible. Plus everyone is just playing shit in the background now while talking to friends on discord or PSN Parties so people chatting are never in game to do so. People in general are also just more introverted than they've been in a long time. The decimation of "third spaces" and ubiquity of social media have eroded a lot of people's ability to engage with others outside of their specific social circle.

It's a whole mess of factors, and it makes me kinda sad.

 

[Deleted member 14682]

Please don't use the word you had typed at the end there. It's a slur, and highly offensive.

This is what happened to voice chat. Paired with sudden loss of service.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

I never used VC , i never owned a microphone



Until i did sorta? 2020? Used to chat with friends in discord that's all.......i don't feel like yelling at the microphone honestly



I do think this thread crosses paths with my "Toxicity in games" thread seeing the RGTians reactions , I'm not huge MP guy but if you play competitive with friends you surely will chat and have a good time!



The internet is a gamble remember that , one day i may get called a slur the other day i may get called something kind or nice , no need to dwell on it too much



Seriously if you can't handle the heat get out of the reactor it's as simple as that , protect yourself by not participating in behavior YOU KNOW tha t will hurt you

 

[PhaseJump]

CSGO casual used to be good when everybody was shit talking each other. Then they split it into teams only and ruined it. People were already in their own discord silos though.

 

[dr grim]

I'm kinda the opposite, i tend to mute voice chat back then..

you always have one dude with the mic on and all you can hear during your game is background music, some random yelling in the house and loud keyboard action.

 

[DayBreak_Illusion]

This is what happened to voice chat. Paired with sudden loss of service.

The first 3 posts in, I was already laughing since that proved the Original Posters point. Either comedic timing or irony

 

[Deleted member 14682]

The first 3 posts in, I was already laughing since that proved the Original Posters point. Either comedic timing or irony

When you have voice chat, and then tell people they can't use it. It goes away. Cause and effect. It's not rocket science.

 

[DayBreak_Illusion]

When you have voice chat, and then tell people they can't use it. It goes away. Cause and effect. It's not rocket science.

what does that have to do with my post?

 

[Deleted member 14682]

what does that have to do with my post?

Just continuing (completing?) my original thought.

 

[Aldia Aldia]

The real reason is probably Discord (and other vc platforms).

---

I still find people using vc in things like Counter Strike Source or Left 4 Dead 2, though.

There's also the matter of text chat being infinitely more accessible to a wider range of players (on PC, anyway). I've never owned a console so I can't confirm, but I imagine voice chatting would be more prevalent there due to a lack of easily-accessible typing.

 

[nathman]

I loved annoying people in Gran Turismo 5 public lobbies. Just crashing into people and saying on VC that my (nonexistent) cat did it.

 

[Deleted member 466]

I played a few hours of ARC Raiders yesterday and everyone had a microphone, it was very cool.

 

[JohnnyBushido]

It depends. I'm an adult so talking to screeching children slinging slurs or overly negative and toxic gamers sounds like an exhausting exercise. I'm hesitant to join voice chats with people I haven't formally spoken to via text for awhile nowadays because my tolerance for nasty behavior is much, much lower nowadays.

Though, I do miss discovering the people I DO vibe with.

Edit: Reading through the comments here is honestly disheartening to see from someone who just opted to take part in the community. I feel like it shouldn't need to be said, but free speech as an excuse to use slurs is the most child brained mentality.

It's incredibly easy to just....not suck as a person? Slurs aren't bringing creativity or enlightenment to your stories or conversations, if anything it's showing you lack a proper vocabulary to articulate yourself without using harmful commentary. "They're just words!" Yeah, sure but like just because you don't have an issue with it shouldn't be a blanket to put over the feelings of others. It costs zero dollars to just respect others and read the room.

Times change. Get with them.

 

[XenoGamezTV]

Personally it is an anxiety issue. I has ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) and does affect with how I feel when playing with others thou these days I do shut down on those who post EZ or diffs and just express there's no such thing, just a good game between players and figure out what difference I would do to make a change.

The major problem I see is the potential the toxicity that occurs while voice chatting, steaming from blaming for one's performance, belittling someone else, unable to take criticism, or taking abusive talk that does include racial, sexual, and homophobic slurs. I don't blame esports because these kind of stuff has happened for a long time, even I admit I have been toxic on voice chat during the Xbox 360 days with no knowledge or care about enjoying a game with others. But with understanding that gaming is really for everyone, I just rather improve and enjoy the game than just win like 5 or 10 in the row and have a big head of how good I am instead of knowing how important it was to work as a team or have better positioning. It is true that several games do have systems to report toxic players but when you include the likes of social media, and even players who would use cheat programs to get a one up and use vocal intimidation to keep others silent, it still raises an issue about it.

 

[Bzikos228]

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.

Because nowadays people afraid to talk alot and developers is trying to make "safe space" in your video game(

 

[NeonKnights]

Probably because some people are afraid of their voice being used to train AI voice models (terms of service) or worse, while trying to talk to their friends.

 

[here4outbreak]

a lot of the replies mention a fear of getting banned or others spamming racial slurs and to me that only really tells half the story. i think the biggest contributor to vc falling out of use is that it just isn't filled with the kinds of people that would use it like that anymore. gaming is a lot bigger than in the 2010s and as a result you get more "normal" people in your games so the encounters with the loud types gets rarer. funnily enough i think the games that the people here don't play get the larger share of the abrasive types (2k and the like) since trash talk is kind of expected there. so it's not like all the loud people disappeared or anything, they were just a minority the whole time and the passage of it was what "killed" the feature.

to add on to the slur discourse i guess, the people using it as a soapbox to talk about how only bad people use them or that censorship is evil are taking it far more serious than the guy who actually said it. we're larping the mid 2000s to talk about videogames, it's really not the time or place for discussions on the ethics of slang.

 

[4C374552A1CA2638]

Probably because some people are afraid of their voice being used to train AI voice models (terms of service) or worse, while trying to talk to their friends.

Yeah, that's definitely a worry now.

Personally, I don't use voice chat because... well, for one, I don't play anything that uses it, and even in chat programs, none of my friends use it either. But I'm hard to understand, so I'd rather type than speak!

 

[bratish]

i only use vc if there is a someone on our team clearly tilted so i can play up my stupidity and get yelled at, nothing makes me smile more. maybe im part of the problem

 

[bubbyrude]

blood pressure got too high
standards, too

 

[Psychonara]

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.

I think everyone just uses external apps like Discord now so they don't have to listen to 10 year olds from Wisconsin call them the N-word.

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

Never tried voice chat, simply i didn't liked to use my voice.

 

[BigTony]

I think everyone just uses external apps like Discord now so they don't have to listen to 10 year olds from Wisconsin call them the N-word.

Cowards

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Cowards

idk I was playing Mecca Chameleon and the slurs are on full effect, hilarious but the ones that just play music in the background should be beaten