I don’t want to get dragged into a discussion on whether you should or shouldn’t have global/team voip on. What I’ve always said is that by defaulting it to off you weight the majority of players to be excluded, it devalues the function to the point that there probably is no point in using it.
Simpler perhaps would be to just ask the player when they first run the game and then display their preferences to others on the server in the scoreboard.
I could care less about global voip, but team voip is brilliant. It lets you discuss or as a leader request team strategies rather than one person knowing what they want to do and the rest of the players following blindly without knowing what the other person’s intentions are. Why do you think comp guys use voip?
I can deal with it not being for the whole team, but auto enabling for the fireteam is brilliant and a perfect middle ground for me. I have a tight group of friends who are always in my fireteam and we like to be able to communicate efficiently (read as: not taking 2 mins to type a strat on the keyboard whilst also being a sitting duck) before running off blindly.
Also when you press the button to allow you to start typing it also takes away your movement keys WASD. The number of times I’ve seen people die and then “Hey can weAAASSSSDDDDWWWWDDDDAAAAAA” pops up in the chat window… I must admit it always makes me LOL though.
I don’t want to get dragged into a discussion on whether you should or shouldn’t have global/team voip on. What I’ve always said is that by defaulting it to off you weight the majority of players to be excluded, it devalues the function to the point that there probably is no point in using it.
I said it back then and I’ll say it here - this is all speculative and a bit of an overreaction.
Players that use voip, are either going to A) enable it or B) use TS or vent. It doesn’t matter what the default setting is.
Players that don’t use it, aren’t going to. And since voip tends to be more for “serious” or competitive gamers, (players that tend to know their way around game/menu settings better) and not casuals, having it set to off by default makes sense.
You make it seem that not only is it off by default, but in order to enable it you need to hack into the back end of the game and bypass 3 firewalls.
That’s all very easy to say when a) you don’t give a **** and b) you feel smug hiding being SD’s petty coat.
Again the issue is always why is it so hard for you to switch it off. You not only need to be protected from naughty people but also have to have the developer press the button for you? Rhetorical question btw.
BTW - Nobody has EVER suggested its hard to switch it on once you have decided to do so, that’s you just being stupid to muddy the waters. The point is the barrier to turn it on is larger than one to turn it off.
I don’t see the problem here either. There are thousands if not millions of people out there that I don’t want to listen to, and just a handful or two of people I do. So muting all random people by default sounds perfect to me.
Having a toggle between [ON] and [FRIENDS ONLY] seems much easier and more convenient than having to manually mute everyone you don’t want to hear.
Again the issue is always why is it so hard for you to switch it off.
Why is it so hard to switch it on?
BTW - Nobody has EVER suggested its hard to switch it on once you have decided to do so, that’s you just being stupid to muddy the waters. The point is the barrier to turn it on is larger than one to turn it off.
What’s this “barrier” you speak of?
[quote=H0RSE;270502]Why is it so hard to switch it on?
What’s this “barrier” you speak of?[/quote]
Why feign interest when it’s clear you have no intention of reaching some accord or understanding.
That’s true of almost every thread in this place. Very rarely does anyone ever have their mind changed over the internet. The yays will stay yays and the nays will stay nays. Why am I so talkative today? Hm…
The people that want it on will turn it on. I don’t understand what the big deal is.
Because it’s easy to turn something OFF when you know there is something to turn off. It’s not easy to turn something ON when there’s nothing there prompting to turn it on. How is this so freaking hard to understand! Take your own prejudice out for a second and realise this is a TEAM game.
I know and there’s a billion prompts to help you with that. For buffs and heals and all kinds of things. So you think that people won’t realize there’s a possibility that they can turn on voice chat? Seriously? Anyone with half a brain can probably figure it out. People who are more social will do it first thing when they log in.
No that’s a misconception stubborn jerks hide behind. Many people on this forum can have a mature and even heated discussion and still modify their opinions accordingly.
I have little concern about those who want to turn it on. It’s the others who may be indifferent, ignorant or undecided who already have the decision made for them because of a segment of gamers who need to both be protected and have someone enable the protection.
[QUOTE=SockDog;270514]
I have little concern about those who want to turn it on. It’s the others who may be indifferent, ignorant or undecided who already have the decision made for them because of a segment of gamers who need to both be protected and have someone enable the protection.[/QUOTE]
Who are you to say that a decision is being made for anyone? If your TV’s default when you get it and plug it in is OFF can you not turn it on? Just because my front door is closed and locked doesn’t mean I’m trapped in my house. Who’s to say that new players won’t get comfortable playing the game with the auto-chatter and later might want the option to communicate more with their team and they will start enabling voip? The people who are already comfortable with voip will turn it on. the other three you mentioned probably need time to settle into the nuances of play before discussing tactics with people. You probably want them to know how to play the game before you start talking to them anyway. Maybe Splash Damage can have something that pops up after a certain amount of time between matches that says something like “You’ve been playing this amount of time” and then explains fireteams to them. And there you go.
If your TV has a 3D surround mode but it’s in a menu of a menu and you’re not told this in the store when you buy it, in the manual or when you turn it on. Then, you’ll be a bit closer to the situation. Then someone looking to enable 3D surround may look for it and switch it on, others may stick with Stereo thinking that’s all on offer.
And yes, if there are popups educating people to Fireteam, Team and Global VOIP option then I have much less reason to be concerned. Again, all I’ve said is why is it difficult to just ask someone the that question when they first start the game rather than make the choice for them in the background.
[QUOTE=H0RSE;270502]Why is it so hard to switch it on?
What’s this “barrier” you speak of?[/QUOTE]
The defaults matter. A very large chunk of the population will not know there is a setting, and will not bother to change it unless they have a reason to change it. Therefore, whatever the default setting is will reflect a major chunk of the population.
If it is defaulted to On: I will know that my warning/messages will be heard and thus will be able to use VOIP with confidence.
If it is defaulted to Off/friends only: I will know that a good chunk of my team (probably 3-4 people most of the time) will NOT be able to hear me, and so I will have to type everything instead. VOIP becomes almost useless if I have to type to talk to my whole team.
So if we agree that the setting is easy to change, it seems clear to me that defaulting to VOIP: ON is going to result in everyone getting what they want. The people who hear something they don’t want to hear will search and turn it off, and everyone else will leave it on.
VOIP: OFF has no impetus to get people looking for the VOIP settings. They probably won’t realize wha they are missing unless they stumble across it or if they already know they want VOIP. This can result in people missing out on a very useful communications feature (and thus, miss out on important warnings/strategy discussion that they have no idea is taking place).
But none of this matters because it’s a SERVER SETTING from what I read in that other thread. I’ll only join the servers with VOIP = ON.
Edit: The 3D surround mode on the TV is a good analogy. With VOIP defaulted off, people will not necessary know what they are missing (if there is anything happening, and do I want to take part in it?). With VOIP Defaulted on they can listen and then decide to keep it or not.
I would think that the vast majority of gamers have played games prior to Brink and thus know whether they want to hear everyone or just their friends. I would also think that unlike complicated television menus (accursed things) the toggle switch for the VOIP option will be easy to find, right there in the options.
I know that the first menu I go to when I start up a new game is the options menu, but I always felt that I was in the minority. Either way, I’m sticking with my prediction. If VOIP was to default to off (friends only) for everyone, I would be talking to half my team at best in most of the games I play.
But again, it’s a moot point since it seems like it’s a server variable, so I am going to stop posting about it 
[QUOTE=Bridger;270528]I know that the first menu I go to when I start up a new game is the options menu, but I always felt that I was in the minority. Either way, I’m sticking with my prediction. If VOIP was to default to off (friends only) for everyone, I would be talking to half my team at best in most of the games I play.
But again, it’s a moot point since it seems like it’s a server variable, so I am going to stop posting about it :P[/QUOTE]
Most of the concerns people are having are going to be a non-issue except on console… but console people in general don’t have too much of an issue with a lot of the things PC people have issues with.
I don’t really care either way. If it was on by default I would likely turn if to friends only, since I usually end up muting people in most games anyway. And because when I play it is almost always with my friends. shrugs
