Value of voice?
Posted 10-07-2008 at 02:30 AM by Arilynn
This is a question that I have been wondering about for quite a while. I would post this in the General SL forum, but I am afraid my intentions will be misconstrued. So I would appreciate any feedback provided.
I don't understand the role of voice. All the time I have hearing people tell me they never use voice. They say this often in a manner that seems to indicate disdain or at least strong dislike for voice. Thus my first question: Why? I have had one person explain it to me, but I don't understand really. It seems to me that it would much easier and nuanced than text for most people. I do understand how one would want to avoid voice if it conflicts with your av. But aside from that, I can't understand it.
And part of the reason I can't is because of the a group of related comments lot of people tell me about voice. They say they only use voice with their SL partner as it provides greater intimacy. Or that voice is what allowed them to feel they really know the person behind the av. Or that the use of voice signifies a deeper relationship level than text.
Many individuals have expressed both of these two ideas - being against voice and have voice confer special meaning to a relationship - despite the apparent contradiction. And I wonder about the significance of voice in most SL relationships, even friendships. I have had strangers tell me that without voice, a SL relationship lacks a strong foundation. They say this, I can tell, without realizing I'm Deaf, and I doubt they would do so had they realized for fear of offense. I appreciate courtesy from friends in this regard, but I wonder if these strangers are stating a fundamental truth for most people.
I admit I don't know how much voice is used around me. And I tend to forget it exists, much like I do music, except when it is mentioned in local chat. But I wonder what the real role of voice is in SL and SL relationships.
I don't understand the role of voice. All the time I have hearing people tell me they never use voice. They say this often in a manner that seems to indicate disdain or at least strong dislike for voice. Thus my first question: Why? I have had one person explain it to me, but I don't understand really. It seems to me that it would much easier and nuanced than text for most people. I do understand how one would want to avoid voice if it conflicts with your av. But aside from that, I can't understand it.
And part of the reason I can't is because of the a group of related comments lot of people tell me about voice. They say they only use voice with their SL partner as it provides greater intimacy. Or that voice is what allowed them to feel they really know the person behind the av. Or that the use of voice signifies a deeper relationship level than text.
Many individuals have expressed both of these two ideas - being against voice and have voice confer special meaning to a relationship - despite the apparent contradiction. And I wonder about the significance of voice in most SL relationships, even friendships. I have had strangers tell me that without voice, a SL relationship lacks a strong foundation. They say this, I can tell, without realizing I'm Deaf, and I doubt they would do so had they realized for fear of offense. I appreciate courtesy from friends in this regard, but I wonder if these strangers are stating a fundamental truth for most people.
I admit I don't know how much voice is used around me. And I tend to forget it exists, much like I do music, except when it is mentioned in local chat. But I wonder what the real role of voice is in SL and SL relationships.
Total Comments 11
Comments
-
Voice in SL is useless when music is playing or there is more than 5 people in a room. It is useful if you know someone in SL very intimately, and you want to call them without having two applications open. That's my understanding.Posted 10-07-2008 at 11:33 AM by Charlemagne Allen
-
What Charlemange said and...
I was in SL perhaps 3 years prior to the advent of voice and found that there was just as much love, flirtation, drama, establishment of deep relations, and damage to real relationships as I can imagine with happening with voice.
Personally, I have always found IM style chat to be extremely limiting in expressiveness which of course applies to SL local chat. But I've never thought of SL as a place to make friends intentionally (though it does happen accidentally).
I've used voice once or twice in SL and only in dyads, it didn't do much for me partly because you have to follow "radio protocol" to keep from stomping over the other's words. I've used voice in WoW where it was mostly useful for one-to-many planning and I found cross-chatter extremely distracting.
Then again, I'm lousy at RL cocktail parties too.Posted 10-07-2008 at 02:14 PM by Malachi -
I have a dislike of phones that, at times, borders on the phobic. Voice is like a big ole multi-party phone line as far as I'm concerned, and using it would decrease my SL-enjoyment exponentially.Posted 10-07-2008 at 11:27 PM by Ann Launay -
When Voice first came out I was really excited about it and couldn't wait. I am a slow typist because I have only 1 hand and I thought that voice would mean I wouldn't have to type at all.
When I tried it, I found that the sound is not clear; if the volume is low then its just too quiet to hear but if you turn the volume up then it distorts, so all you hear is "garble-garble-garble". Its even worse in a group with more than one person talking at a time. I kept having to ask people to type what they just said because I couldn't understand what they'd said. Which sort of defeated the object of having voice at all really.
And then I find that 90% of the places I visit have voice turned off anyway, mainly because it doesn't work terribly well.
The other drawback to voice is if you don't live alone, and other people are around, well you don't necessarily want THEM to hear what you're saying to people inworld.Posted 10-08-2008 at 06:47 AM by Matty Luminos -
I am transgendered, in that the gender I feel I should be is not the gender I was born with. I have a male avatar because in all ways (except physical) I am male. Were I ever to use voice in SL, it would be plainly obvious that I'm not physically male. So I refuse, on the grounds that it will "break the reality" of myself as male.
I feel I should also stress that I am not a woman "roleplaying" a male avatar. There isn't one single thing about me that is psychologically female in any way. The phrase "a man trapped in a womans body" sounds cliche'd but that's exactly how it feels.For me to take a female avatar just feels completely wrong. (And I did do so, the first time I started SL, and was accused of being a man roleplaying a female avatar. That was funny).Posted 10-08-2008 at 07:05 AM by Lewis Luminos -
I dislike voice. A lot.
I also hate using phones so that ties in with it.
But the main reason I hate voice is that, one, sometimes I cannot understand what people are saying, two, I'm a multitasker, and I love reading websites while I chat in SL. I can't do that in voice, I feel like I have to have my attention solely on SL, which I'd rather work on side projects at the same time. One cannot listen to voice and read at the same time. I left a favorite sim of mine due to the fact they were obsessed with voice, and I'd wind up being stuck there in silence.
Worst idea LL ever had.Posted 10-08-2008 at 08:54 PM by Kira Zobel -
So many reasons, so little time....
* My computer is in the middle of my family room, so the background noise level is fairly high with TV news, dogs barking, my partner walking to and fro or her calling out questions when she's seated at her own computer. That noise would degrade the experience for people inworld.
* In order to block out the noise interference, I'd have to wear headphones, which effectively removes me from household interaction. This is enough of an issue already when I listen to music, which I try to do only when I'm alone so my partner doesn't get annoyed with me being MIA.
* For me, SL is not just a virtual Facebook in which to be social. It's an immersive fantasy -- a different world, if not a different universe. Voice breaks that immersive quality whether it's a matter of hearing an irridescent dragon speak with a Brooklyn accent or a female avatar with a baritone voice.
* You can't log voice the way you can Chat or IM. And I find the logs useful for getting caught up when my attention wanders or RL interrupts. A quick scan back up the chat window and I can see why people are laughing.
* I like words. I really, really like words. Focusing so much attention on the written word is like doing drugs.Posted 10-10-2008 at 01:18 PM by Beebo Brink 
-
I don't use voice, because it still doesn't work reliably (if at all) under the Linux client. So pfft to that. If I really want to talk to someone, I fire up Skype, but 99.9% of the time, text chat is just fine. And, like Beebo, I like words, and turning a phrase in written chat is ten times easier than when one is speaking.
I remember when they first came out with Voice, and the doomsayers were sure it would fracture Second Life FOREVER. Friends of long standing would turn on each other for refusing to use voice! Clubs would disappear as people became too enamored of their own voices to listen to the music! The sex industry would shrivel up and blow away like a tumbleweed as the scores of female escorts who were really men would be found out!! Obviously this has not happened, so I'm thinking voice isn't nearly as big a deal as everyone makes it out to be.Posted 10-10-2008 at 03:42 PM by Natalie P. -
Like Lewis, I'm Transgendered.. and my voice betrays me. While Lewis might be able to pass vocally for a 14 year old boy, and might have to suffer a lot of AR's for being underaged.. I have to suffer being called "a dude" which is completely emotionally destructive. (of course Lewis risks the same kind of invalidation should he not pass).
The problem, particularly for M2F transsexuals, is that once someone in SL "thinks you're a guy".. you have to completely out yourself as transgendered, JUST to get them to stop saying 'he" when referring to you.
And they'll NEVER think of you the same, or treat you the same again. And it forever becomes a weapon, in times of drama, to refer spitefully to the transgendered person as their birth gender. Truly "hitting below the belt".
That said, I have used voice before, in Mechwarrior leagues. And people DID treat me differently once they heard my voice. in MW, they never directly confronted me on it.. but once they chatted with me on comms, I was never treated the same.
The thing about voice, aside from all that, that I don't like.. is this. 3 years ago, before Second Life, Mechwarrior was my passion. The game was loud and racous, and I did a lot of talking, sitting in my room alone. There was a lot of adrenaline, and a lot of noise from explosions and music and all of that.
When I came to Second Life, there was something so much more peaceful about it.. The game was quieter, you could hear the wind blowing.. And over the years, I became a quieter person, in rl as well.
Second life, is in many respects, my quiet time, to explore my art, and over the years, the drama has dissipated, the fear has relaxed, and I cherish the quietness.
I always have the TV going, or music, and I love it that way.. and I don't want to hear people coughing and snoring and eating chips, or yelling at their kids. I get enough of that in RL.Posted 10-10-2008 at 04:10 PM by Winter Ventura
Updated 10-10-2008 at 04:16 PM by Winter Ventura -
Something that hasn't been mentioned is the disadvantage of voice for folks whose first language is not English.
Today I was on as Bea, getting ready for a Deadwood OOC party at Nerdagara. I decided to pop over to Venus Beach for a while.
A French girl was there who I hadn't seen in forever. She has almost no English - uses Babbler. A very sweet girl. She obviously can't use voice. The same with some of the German girls who used to hang out there. They have enough trouble with written English - I can't imagine them trying to speak.
And then, of course, just about everything Beebo said. I don't want folks to here my dogs, daughter, or other background noise - and I don't want to here theirs.Posted 10-10-2008 at 10:56 PM by Ned Easterwood -
I mostly like the quietness of it.
I like the time it takes to type. It allows me to think (sometimes).
I am shy and probably wouldn't say much on voice -- it's too fast for me.
There are a few other reasons. Overall, I can understand why voice can be a pleasing experience to some. It's just not my thing.Posted 10-11-2008 at 01:28 PM by Raindrop Drinkwater
