In-game Voice Chat ?

Getting a voice chat in the game may be beneficial for the game. Organised pugging fractals and raids may be as easy as a click. No more "Do you have TeamSpeak or Discord ? If not download it...join this server, write this link, create a name, did you get in?" and so on and so on... Ingame voice chat also can be implemented in PvP or WvW. Being able to talk to you team right after joining the match, saying who goes where and not needing to write it down while your hands are busy fighting. Also in WvW it will be super helpful if everyone can listen to the commander, they can even add an option only for the commander to talk and others to be muted... have seen zerg with 30 players following the commander who was saying all the time for all to join TeamSpeak... 30 minutes he was talking only to me in the voice channel and he was pretending he is talking to the whole zerg and not only to me... he knew it was only me fyi. Any thoughts? Do you agree do you disagree ? Do you think this is important for the game communication ?

@"Gopaka.7839" said:"Do you have TeamSpeak or Discord ? If not download it...join this server, write this link, create a name, did you get in?"

Except that's not the case anymore. I'm pretty sure 95% of the online gamers have some kind of voice chat installed already, especially the ones who wanna do organized hardcore content. Even I do, despite the fact that I find voice chat unnecessary in general. I prefer quiet and text chat.

Would help,BUT there is more to discord when it comes to organisation. I hate feeling like a peasant and using the lfg system when i can jump on discord prior to loggin in and having a event (raid, pvp, wvw etc) group already organised and get straight into playing my desired content.

@Mea.5491 said:

@"Gopaka.7839" said:"Do you have TeamSpeak or Discord ? If not download it...join this server, write this link, create a name, did you get in?"

What you are saying is a fact. But voice chat in the game would help the new players who do not use it, giving them the chance to become hardcore one day. And hey... if quiet and text chat i your thing... there will be 100% an option to not listen to the voice chat if it gets implemented.

I can imagine ingame voicechat being pretty nice. Localized 3D sound for /say channel and full sound volume for /group, /squad, /guild and /whisper. Don't know about /team or /map, the voice clutter could be too much. Of course each channel would need to be mutable like the chat channels are.

The biggest argument against ingame voicechat for me is that there are always people who have no control over their mics or play music or other annoying sounds over it. A Ts server is usually moderated. A mod mutes the disruptive person and you don't even have to mute the person locally. An ingame voicechat would not be moderated 24/7 on every map. There is a lot of potential for abuse, insults, racist comments, etc.

In conclusion it would be too much work to implement and way too much work to moderate for a feature that is already covered sufficiently by Ts and Discord.

@grouchybhaal.4275 said:Would help,BUT there is more to discord when it comes to organisations. I hate feeling like a peasant and using the lfg system when i can jump on discord prior to loggin in and having a event (raid, pvp, wvw etc) group already organised and get straight into playing my desired content.

Feeling the same way...at this moment the lfg system is quite bad. Would love to see some improvement. Including some more menus and icons to navigate easily, adding more options like marking down favorite sections, maps, and of course is the group using voice chat or not. :D

tl;dr it's a feature that players can already obtain easily from non-GW2 resources, while providing it in game would cost big and distract the company's focus from its core competency: making games.

(1) discord doesn't require anything more than a URL. I don't use the client; it's only important for push-to-talk.

(2) ANet is not in the communication business; they are a game company. They aren't going to build their own voice system, they are going to have to contract to a third party to provide it. And it's clear that this isn't one of ANet's strengths. The forums and the TP are powered by 3rd party tools and they work, but they are super clunky.

(3) Most importantly, if ANet supports voice officially, then they become responsible for what people say. They can choose to be mostly hands off and there will still be tons of support tickets regarding player behavior and language. For text, ANet can take their time responding. For voice, people tend to expect results more rapidly, putting still more pressure.

I grant the OP that it would make things easier on lots of people. That doesn't mean it's important for ANet to provide the service. People who want voice now can do it, with little trouble.

@"Gopaka.7839" said:

@Mea.5491 said:

@"Gopaka.7839" said:"Do you have TeamSpeak or Discord ? If not download it...join this server, write this link, create a name, did you get in?"

I already have the option to not listen to it, that wasn't the point. The point was that even I have voice chat installed. They are popular, would people leave them for an in-game voice chat? What if the in-game one doesn't live up to people's expectations so it ends up as a waste of money?

@Mea.5491 said:

@"Gopaka.7839" said:

@Mea.5491 said:

@"Gopaka.7839" said:"Do you have TeamSpeak or Discord ? If not download it...join this server, write this link, create a name, did you get in?"

One of the main believes of Anet is something like "Do it right, don't ship it till it's right even if that means don't ship it at all" so I don't think this will be the case. I believe they will do it epicly right if they put their hearts and minds into it... templates hype !!! But I see your point of view and I never said people will stop using other voice chats or will be forced to use the in game one if it's implemented. All I'm saying it will be a good variant for new players to get on track about what this game can provide. Imagine seeing new player struggling to do something. You want to help him but just the idea of chatting explanations or using third party program and waiting for him to connect with you is a bit difficult. So the normal thing a veteran player does in this situation is just pass by or give his time explaining one time, two, three and after time he stops explaining to the newcomers. I see a big issue between the veterans and newcomers communication gap.

As someone who's very shy, anxious, paranoid and still in transition I think this is a bad idea. I rarely speak in any voice chat and then only if I know the people I talk to good enough. For example whenever doing guild missions I do talk because I know the people well and I know that they won't make fun of me or throw hateful transphobic comments towards me because of my voice still not being deep enough (even if people say that my voice is already deep I always doubt this as I always hated my voice). In WvW however I'm always on Teamspeak but I only listen because I don't know everyone on the server and I'm too afraid of risking to be ridiculed there because I might not be passing as a man to some of them. I know that this is the same case with a few others I know who'd abstain from such a feature.
Also it'd be wasted resources as I think they should continue on something more important in terms of game improvement like for example the support for DirectX 12 so the performance isn't that terrible anymore when compared to other games which use newer technology but run far better.

@Cynder.2509 said:I rarely speak in any voice chat and then only if I know the people I talk to good enough.That wouldn't change if the OP's proposal were implemented. Those who don't chat now wouldn't have to chat; it would still be your choice. There are already guilds that require voice. At worst, the peer pressure would be higher.

Why invest money in a service that Teamspeak and Discord already provide? I mean, People who don't have mic's or don't want to chat vocally still won't use voicechat.

That being said, I think it would vastly improve PvP hotjoins if people were willing and able to use it. I once joined a dedicated group of pvp players on voice chat, and it was surprisingly fun. Funner than 3 people running close because everyone has their stranger danger censor on.

Read this as huge, neon-colored, elephant-sized letters outside your bedroom window: NOPE.Bonus: Imagine curtains have not been invented yet.

Why: I don't want to peer pressured into something I don't want to do. Currently I can just avoid the people that REQUIRE a VOIP but I can talk to my guildies, etc, in Discord if I want to. Having a VOIP in game would dissolve that barrier, even if everything about it was optional, and I want that barrier there.

@"Westenev.5289" said:That being said, I think it would vastly improve PvP hotjoins if people were willing and able to use it.In theory, definitely. Also be great for PUG-oriented fractals & raids.

In practice, though, the same people who can't wait to be righteously indignant in /map are even more likely to spew in voice. (In fact, I'm sure we all know super nice people who feel they need to turn off their mic just to avoid people hearing their inner dialogue when someone does something ill-advised.)

Of course, we have (and would have) tools to deal with such nonsense. I just think we shouldn't forget that "free voice" includes people freely voicing toxic and hate speech, not just those who will offer useful tactics to come from behind to beat red.

While it doesn't affect me personally, the problem with in-built voice chat support is that ANet will be obliged to police it. That will require yet more staff dealing with yet more puerile behaviour, which would be much better handled by the relevant player communities who can do it in real time.

I'd be happy enough to use whatever, but I absolutely do not want to see ANet having to hire more support staff just to maintain a white elephant project like this, when we're more than capable of managing our own solutions.

There are few positive effects that come from allowing strangers to talk to each other online, for free, without some serious moderation. By moderation I mean anything other than simply muting the person. Banning them from the server, as an excellent example. Give someone the means to do something repulsive and they'll do everything in their power to do just that. External applications provide the necessary tools to deal with miscreants and the general public, especially when they feel safe and invulnerable. It is by far the best way to deal with anonymity on the internet.

In a way you can look at like this: why negatively impact the game by reinventing the wheel? Anything you want to have in a VoIP system in-game, you would already have in an external application -- and more.

@"Gopaka.7839" said:Ingame Voice Chat ?

Hard pass.

So, ArenaNet would have to record all voice chat 24/7? And then create/buy some kind of program that can find chat phrases within that mass of audio data? Is that where ArenaNet's resources should be spent? They aren't hiring right now (very little, anyway), so we should wait longer for CS actions/help because some of the Team Members are busy listening to voice chat to determine if a player should be actioned? And does this program have the ability to determine which account was speaking, after the fact?

Seems like a lot of trouble and resources for something already available.

It's not needed with discord and teamspeak present; Those two alone cover basically any voice needs one might have. I feel like its a waste of resources better used for other things, elsewhere. We don't need it and all it will do is make things more annoying "Hey get in discord so we can have voice for this thing." and getting the "No I want to use this, so I can sound like a charr." Nah Im good, I Really couldn't care less and probably will be the first one to turn it off and never look back.

Do you want me following you across maps playing Yakety Sax? Because that's how you get me following you across maps playing Yakety Sax.

The main question I have, regarding WvW, How will this be used for communicating with EBG, RBL, GBL, "and" BBL at the same time to see which BL needs some help and where said help?

Similar with PvE. You'll have so many people going on at once, that chat would be dead as soon as it got off the ground

PvP on the other hand, would probably be a whooooole lot less toxic with something like this.

I know of a game that does have it and it is actually quite handy. You can adjust individual players volumes and when it comes to joining a pug you are voice connected as soon as you join them. There is no asking what voip they are using, asking for password to it, nothing, just join group and you are in voice chat.

Discord is so flexible and easy I don't think there's any point having an in-game feature.

I miss the days of Vent/TeamSpeak/Mumble because if you hosted your own server, it was great with very little, if any, downtime. Still, though, this would not be recommended with the way this community can be. Constant cursing, toxic comments being flung, etc. I know Aion had that, in Korea, but they use it responsibly. Now, let's say they limited it to groups/squads, it could still be abused. Let's say there are people that can't speak because they don't have a mic, or they hear sound and it causes them headaches and choose to have the sound off. Someone in a group can vote to kick them, with others agreeing, that they should be kicked for not talking/knowing what do to because it was not mentioned in the group chat. It would be chaotic. If you really want this, use Discord, TeamSpeak, Vent or Mumble. Or heck, use Skype if you are so inclined. This would just be more resources wasted when they can be out to better use in developing actual content.

With discord, teamspeak and whatever else is out there, there is no need to waste resources on this.