1. I'm hoping that it'll be more of an opt-in thing...right now, Danielle and I are routinely linked via Skype while in-world, and it makes for MUCH more efficient coordination of our building and other activities. We sometimes conference other people in, too, when we need to resolve something, or just enjoy a few good laughs. Having this capability built into the client would certainly be useful.

Posted at 8:37PM on Feb 23rd 2007 by Erbo Evans

2. Poor Venus butterfly wriggletoes.....

Posted at 8:55PM on Feb 23rd 2007 by Baba

3. I'd hate this.

Back when Yahoo first integrated voice chat, it wound up essentially ruining about half the conversation you could have in the rooms I frequented. Part of the reason I like SL is because I'm fairly hard of hearing, so having text chat makes life easier for me (and many others who are h.o.h.).

It may be useful for some people, but it would be impossible for many.

Posted at 9:40PM on Feb 23rd 2007 by Coyote Momiji

4. If Linden Lab have thought this through properly it could work.

What's needed is a range of options, similar to the presence options where you can indicate your availability for voice chat. Also indicators that show if you are chatting or not would be good.

Ideally everyone should be able to still engage in SL using whichever medium they prefer, without prejudice or disadvantage.

Beyond the technological solutions an etiquette will hopefully develop, similar to the current one of when it's appropriate to use open chat and when it's appropriate to IM.

Posted at 10:09PM on Feb 23rd 2007 by Sean McDunnough

5. It's a good point, Sean, about the indicators. Currently, there isn't even an indicator icon for when someone is in an IM session, which, as I think I covered before, would also be very helpful. Otherwise you're standing there waiting for someone to speak, unaware that they're already talking to someone else.

I'm willing to be cautiously hopeful about this.

Posted at 1:28AM on Feb 24th 2007 by Akela Talamasca

6. Over the years I've known a number of people in SL who are deaf, mute or similar, as well as the hard of hearing, as those, like me, that just hate using telephones.

There are those that will love it as well no doubt, but quite a few of the people who won't be able to use it were refugees from There.com who, when There added voice became just as excluded as they were IRL. Here's hoping SL doesn't go the same way.

Posted at 3:04AM on Feb 24th 2007 by Eloise Pasteur

7. As a member of SL, I'm amazed at the opposition the other members voice about "voice chat." I've played other games with the "voice" option and cannot wait for it to be available in SL. I believe that voice allows people to have deeper conversations. A person can speak many more words a minute than they can type. Also, for some of my friends with a disablities that are unable to type well, voice could allow them to participate in conversations easier. In the years that I've been in SL, very few times have I been in game and other players have actually said anything to me beyond, "Hey, what's up?" With voice, strangers will be more likely to interact, and the the SL experience will grow from that interaction.

Posted at 7:19PM on Feb 24th 2007 by Kali

8. i have very contraditory feelings about this. while i think it would make things better (i recently taught a friend of mine how to go about in-world over the phone, and it was great), i think many people's voice wouldn't match their AVs appearance. not even going into the situation described above, i personally would not be as confortable saying some of the stuff that i write. what about voice-masking ? maybe we'll have that option ?

Posted at 6:14PM on Feb 25th 2007 by patou dumont

9. If I want to be heard, I'll do a radio show. Other than that I'll opt out of voice chat, TYVM.

Posted at 6:15PM on Feb 25th 2007 by Trinity Serpentine

10. I have played some MMO's with voice and text chatting that have seemed to integrate them well. Aces High 2 for example, has some people that use voice, but for the most part they use text, and it works just fine. you would think that taking the tme to wrie "Lancs IB NE @15000" (Lancaster bombers inbound from the northeast at 15000 feet), and just saying it would make all the difference in the world, but it works fairly smoothly.

as another point, in the same game when someone uses text chat it shows up at the bottom of the screen with the persons name before what they say, much like SL. but when they use voice, and it is often a small burst of voice, a very small neon green tag of their name breifly flashes in the upper right of your hud. which brings up this point; When you are so used to looking in one place to see whos typing what, how are you going to be bale to tell whos actually saying what? for a short voice like "hey trinity" id have to look around and type (since i dont have a mic) "who said that?" it would detract alot.
i also agree with the people that bring up the point of AV's piloted by other-gender in RL. Some female's i know chose male AV's because they were planning on stating a business and felt that they would be taken more seriously that way. i know some guys who make their AVs into their version of the perfect woman.
How far away can someone hear a conversation? 20 meters like text? farther if the "shout" is enabled? will it be like text, or more like ims? if it was like text, imagine the confusion in an area that is vc enabled, like a mall. Imagine the lag that comes from a thousand av's at once anyway, and add to it the voice. Chat lag is already a problem sometimes.
also. for those people using laptops and cheerily burning away batteries, its already hard enough to use a laptop for the game ("well then get a pc or mac" i dont wanna hear it lol) what about the processing power of adding voice? i know a good many people who use laptops to play, i use one as well, and i can tell you this game is hell on the batteries ^_^.
now, all the adverisemnets and griefers... oh i dont know where to begin. they are already annoying enough with text. if someone ads voice to the griefers... its a bad omen.
i dont see where any good can come of this. maybe as an option in im. maybe a voice synthesizer would alleviate the concerns of RL/SL trans genderness. i dont know, we will have to see.

Trinity

Posted at 3:38PM on Mar 17th 2007 by Trinity Heckroth