WoW Imput Voice Chat System?

[Xanithon]

Hi guys,

Just a question:
Do you guys think that Blizzard input Voice-Chat systems into WoW for Party and Raid use?

Can you please Justify your choice too.

[tintingurl]

i picked yes would help greatly if they added that.

[Shirik]

Nope. Their servers are already struggling to meet the demand, and there is no way that they'll be able to beat out the quality of sound that is currently available via programs such as Ventrilo (if you think that this is low quality, you need to get a better server or use a better codec -- the currently available GSM and Speex codecs are almost indistinguishable from live chat). So, to do this, one of the following would have to happen:

1. They would have to upgrade all of their servers (hundreds?), which means a ton of cash.
2. The servers would lag unbearably as it tries to handle all of the voice requests.
3. They would have to use an extremely low-quality codec that would either be designed for high latency or would sound grainy.


None of these I want to see. I find Ventrilo to be perfectly suitable for the current situation, and Blizzard could better focus their time in other areas.

[tintingurl]

actually reading shirik's input its true it would make the game way more slower and all so even if i can not take back my vote i vote no now. vbmenu_register("postmenu_50080", true);

Shirik said it all. Bliz does games. Let someone else do Voip. Its not like Vent or TS costs you anything.

[ReverendD]

Originally Posted by Balsta Shirik said it all. Bliz does games. Let someone else do Voip. Its not like Vent or TS costs you anything.

As long as you have someone else paying for vent or ts, or someone with the bandwidth to run such a server, then no, it wont cost you. Many guilds all chip in to get paid servers so someone isnt stuck with running a server using their bandwidth, and not as prone to blackouts.

However, since Blizzard does do games like WoW, perhaps a referral type program for TS or Vent would be nice to see. One of those prove you have a WoW account or guild type of thing, get varying degrees of discounts based on how far in advance you pay.

Then of course some type of built in overlay program to show who is speaking while in game would be good, as opposed to running external third party apps.

Just thoughts.

[Shirik]

By the way, another interesting point is that some other game... I believe it's LOTRO... has implemented such a feature in their UI. On the same note, it's equally interesting to point out that my guild doesn't use it, and uses Ventrilo still, for the exact reasons I listed above. Latency seems ok with it, for now at least, but two things to remember is that LOTRO is (currently) a much smaller game than WoW, and the quality of VoIP on LOTRO (from what I hear; I haven't actually tried it myself) is terrible in-game.

EDIT: The referral program is definitely an interesting thing to think about. To be honest with you, I'm willing to bet that Blizzard could be paid by one of the hosting providers to provide such a system, because it would generate a ton of revenue, even at a discounted price.

[shadowhawx]

I think that it would be a large strain on the already painful servers. I do like the idea of them mabey offering a service outside of wow for voice chat that we might be able to pay for (discounts for wow users) that might have special capabilities with WoW.

[Rollak]

Originally Posted by Shirik Nope. Their servers are already struggling to meet the demand, and there is no way that they'll be able to beat out the quality of sound that is currently available via programs such as Ventrilo (if you think that this is low quality, you need to get a better server or use a better codec -- the currently available GSM and Speex codecs are almost indistinguishable from live chat). So, to do this, one of the following would have to happen: 1. They would have to upgrade all of their servers (hundreds?), which means a ton of cash. 2. The servers would lag unbearably as it tries to handle all of the voice requests. 3. They would have to use an extremely low-quality codec that would either be designed for high latency or would sound grainy. None of these I want to see. I find Ventrilo to be perfectly suitable for the current situation, and Blizzard could better focus their time in other areas.

Whats the say that Blizzard doesn't just throw up a new server, say one or 2 per Battlegroup or Cluster (Servers are linked in a cluster.)? Just have the game route all VoIP traffic to that server, and all game traffic to the current game server. Latency would be exactly the same for the game. And who knows, if done right blizz might be able to pull this off.

If implemented right, this could be a nifty idea. If you don't think outside the box and expect that they would stick it on the same server running the game, it would be a horrible idea.

[Shirik]

Originally Posted by Rollak Whats the say that Blizzard doesn't just throw up a new server, say one or 2 per Battlegroup or Cluster (Servers are linked in a cluster.)? Just have the game route all VoIP traffic to that server, and all game traffic to the current game server. Latency would be exactly the same for the game. And who knows, if done right blizz might be able to pull this off. If implemented right, this could be a nifty idea. If you don't think outside the box and expect that they would stick it on the same server running the game, it would be a horrible idea.

That would fall under option #1, shelling out money. Servers aren't cheap

[grizzlybear]

after reading what was sead i to wish i could take back my vote of yes and say no he is right and the coust to us as players would go up

[Shirik]

By the way, as flattering as it is to have people persuaded by my post, I can't say that I'm "right." It's merely an opinion; I just don't see the necessity for it. We've gotten along without it for two years, why now? Personally, I'd rather see new content/bug fixes before I see something that we have already via other means. But that's merely a personal opinion, nothing more. I don't intend to make people "change their votes."

[Beladona]

While the ability to automatically initiate voice communication in groups and raids would be very beneficial in many ways, there are things that need to be considered:

1) Players need a way to "Opt-out" of such a feature so they don't have to hear or use the system at all.
2) The quality of the system should be on-par with that of systems such as vent, teamspeak, etc...


1 can be met by simply having an option to disable voice comms, while 2 is a bit more difficult. Running a server for 30 people can be enough of a strain, but multiple that by thousands of players per server, with dynamic voice communication "channels" being created for each "group" or "raid". This alone would be way too taxing for the world servers, and would likely require a totally separate infrastructure and server dynamic much like how instancing works now.

While I think it would be very cool if Blizz put some time and effort into doing this, I really don't think it is a make or break it kind of thing for most people. Any of us that are serious about raiding and grouping for that matter have our own voice servers going anyway. Just install Teamspeak and Vent, and be ready to ask each raid or group if they have either/or going somewhere...

That or they could have some type of external interaction with ts and/or vent in which a simple slash command in-game will join, leave, and query the respective server. The only requirement would be for you to ahve either/or installed, and type something like /vent join servername:port <options>

[ReverendD]

Originally Posted by Beladona That or they could have some type of external interaction with ts and/or vent in which a simple slash command in-game will join, leave, and query the respective server. The only requirement would be for you to ahve either/or installed, and type something like /vent join servernameort <options>

This would be a nice feature to have for sure, since for some minimizing gives the risk of a game crash. I dont think however the game itself would need the external interaction, since it has been shown that media players can be controlled in game via addons. Question is, is there a way that an addon could send the appropriate command to something such as TS or Vent? The best bet would to have the voice software up before entering into game, then have the command pass to it to sign into a selected server:room combo once you know the info needed.

Kind of hope to see something like this develop.

[Dreadlorde]

yes, this would be awesome.

[Xanithon]

Wow!

What a response from the WoWI community.
I personally like Beladona's suggestion:

That or they could have some type of external interaction with ts and/or vent in which a simple slash command in-game will join, leave, and query the respective server. The only requirement would be for you to ahve either/or installed, and type something like /vent join servernameort <options>

Also, thanks to those who posted their opinions!

Keep them coming.

[Dridzt]

Voice comm is nice for socializing, is not essential for succesful raiding.
It's usefullness is -imo- inversely proportional to normal paying attention and gaining knowledge of the encounters.

It could be argued that it shortens the time of pre-engagement prep (in the form of tactics dispersal etc) but there are better ways to do that.
In-combat voicecomm is in 99% of situations just a distraction.
For heavily scripted repetitive encounters it's an excuse to be lazy (you should know what to do without having someone yell it at you).
For fast paced encounters with random elements, no one person (or persons) can have an overview of the changing situation and instruct on-the-fly.
On-Cue-type elements of the fight are handled much better by bossmods, than anyone "manually" cueing the raid members over voip.

I have raided with and without voicecomm for a couple of years and I can honestly say there is nothing special to be missed if you don't use it for the PvE aspects of the game.

Some of the early "clans" brought it along from Counterstrike and other shooters and it kinda became a "copy-paste" thing.

Several of the most succesfull PvE guilds (including Nihilum if not mistaken) do not use voicecomm for raiding.

Not seeing it as an in-line part of the game, I'd have to say that SkyPE, TS, Vent fit the bill nicely as an optional/parallel form of communication.

Edit:
Found the reference.
Second part of the thread pretty much sums up my experience (although I have not raided at the level these guys have)
http://www.nihilum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=7275

[fluxism]

No, not needed.

If you want voice comm, use teamspeak or ventrillo.

I'd rather blizzard used their time to fix bugs, add content, remove cheaters, than add a function which you can use (and invariably would be better due to developement time) via 3rd party software.

It'll add more load/bandwidth onto their networks.

As an older gamer I dont want to hear some squeaky kid shouting over comms. If it was a cient feature then using it would become the norm even for 5mans, and seriously, hearing some pseudo-castrated kid ranting and squeaking on comms is the last thing I want, if I did, I'd turn off wow and plugin to real life.

[Mordikaiin]

I say No, only because Blizz servers suck enough as it is!

Just imagine how much more laggy it would be running thru org with 90% of the server jumpping around and talking thru voice at the same time...

Lagg is the DEVIL Bobby Bouchet, we must stay away from it.

Not to mention with the new BG System I have noticed more lag than b4 it and yyou can get many Voice Chat Programs like TeamSpeak, Ventrilo, Skype and i used to have an even less Process using program a friend of mine made called buddy voice with didnt look fancy, didnt have all the extras like vent, and didnt even have specific rooms, you just load it and any1 with the program that had it loaded coudl talk freely. It was virtually flawless but try using something liek that in a raid once rofl, WHIPE CITY!

Anyway overall even as nice as it woudl be to have I say NO..

PS. Its also nice to know what guildies are actually about the game and the guild when they download the mandatory voice prog for raidng.

::EDIT::
As an Older Gamer Myself I AGREE With the Sqweeky Whining Kid comment above lol!

Just imagine the spoiled brat who cant get no1 to answer his calls for help! It will get UGLY REAL FAST!

[Xanithon]

Also, getting a reply from Andrew from The Instance podcast (great podcast), he told me that D&D also has this feature integrated and that it is a good thought, but, as many of you have said, Blizzard needs to concentrate more on content and the quality of their servers.

All of us already know how sh*tty the Blizzard WoW servers are already, so this would make them sh*ttier.

As someone has said earlier (whoever it is, im lazy to check ), if Blizzard implemented a referrance system to Ventrillo or Teamspeak (i.e. making the Vent and TS servers cheaper) it would make those guild who actually use these VoIP programs slightly happier.