I was going through some older posts of Rahdo, and I stumbled upon something that seems to solve the whole voip on/off problem, and how you won’t need to entice anyone to use it:
First of all, a little more about the ‘default’ voip setting. This is effectively a server setting in our ‘standard’ match, which is what the game puts you in if you simply say “I’d like to play the next mission in my storyline online, please.” Same as no FF. so players who just want to jump in and play online with no hassles, they choose the “next mission” option, and boom, they don’t hear anyone calling them f******, they don’t have **** shooting them in the back, and they have a good time. Are they missing some of what makes multiplayer great? Yes, but they’re having a good time.
for pretty much every single one of you guys on this board, I suspect that simple “take me to the next mission” option will not be good enough, and you’ll all instead opt for the “take me to a server browser” choice. once there, you can find missions where voip is on by default (for everyone), FF is on, player ranks are restricted or open, high level abilities are allowed or disallowed, etc.
I expect the majority of console players will opt for the former (the standard ‘friendly’ matches), and the majority of PC players will opt for the later (the let me play the game without restrictions, I’m a big boy, I can handle it matches). So hopefully everyone will be satisfied…
Regarding voip, I feel this is a better way to go, because doing the other thing (allowing individuals to selectively turn voip on or off) works at a disadvantage to everyone, including the players who want to speak. What good does it do you to talk into your mike and give strategy/tips, if, for all you know, half your team has manually decided to turn voip off. you might think a player is a complete asshat by ignoring your repeated requests for ammo, but in fact, it’s just that they’ve turned voip off because someone called them a n***** in the past, so they don’t take chances anymore. and they have no idea you’re asking for ammo.
a weird system where “maybe” sometimes people talk, and “maybe” sometimes other people can hear them, but no one is every sure about either, doesn’t help anyone. a more strict system where everyone knows that either a) no one is talking or hearing, or b) everyone can talk and everyone can hear, and letting players gravitate to the choice they prefer, strikes me as a bit clearer all around.
and if you opt for the “I’d prefer not to be called a m*********** again, thanks” server option, you can still team play because our auto-chatter system automatically says 90% of the common stuff players say to each other anyway. and for the 10% that it can’t cover, you can either a) step up to the ‘non-standard’ servers, or b) open up local voice channels with just the people you want to talk to.
It will be a server setting, not just an individual player setting. If you want to use it, just play games with “voip on” server settings. You won’t need to “entice” anyone, since everyone you’re playing with has it enabled.
