Voice chat has been a staple of online gaming since its inception; as soon as multiplayer games began to allow for players to connect over the internet, people have been using some manner of voice chat to communicate while they played together. From telephone calls to Skype to modern voice chat platforms like Discord, Mumble, and Teamspeak, the field of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) communication has advanced rapidly. But while these programs and services have evolved and expanded to meet an ever-growing demand with new features and more streamlined performance, they have inadvertently caused certain individuals to have a harder time communicating with others.
The Rise of In-Game Voice Chat
Before the advent of major third-party voice chat services, voice chat was primarily done over in-game channels. With the rise of online gaming, especially on PC, the use of VoIP communication was quickly integrated into many games, although it would not come to consoles until the Sega Dreamcast introduced its SegaNet service. But this new ability for people to chat voice to voice brought a whole new level of depth to online interactions between players. Sure, in-game text chat had been implemented long before, but players would have to stop whatever they were doing to type out their messages, which made it much harder to casually chat with others while playing a fast-paced game like Quake or Halo. With voice chat, teammates could shoot the breeze even as they shot their opponents.
Pros and Cons
This new freedom of communications was not always a good thing. Gamers are human, after all, and in a high-excitement setting like gaming, that could lead to negative trash talk and toxicity, especially given the emboldening effects of online anonymity. The Xbox Live community in particular is known for its often-toxic community, with threats and racial slurs being common. But for all its pitfalls, voice chat provided an avenue of communication for those gamers who were otherwise isolated. Unlike today’s world of mainstream gaming and popular acceptance, in those early days gaming was often the hobby of the lonely and awkward, those without the social skills or bravery to socialize in real life. Gaming was their escape, but with the advent of voice chat, it also became a way for them to talk to others and form new relationships from the safety of their computers. These relationships can be as real and meaningful as any in-person connection; indeed, there are numerous examples of people today who first met their spouses in online games.
Third-Party Takeover
However, this era of free in-game interaction seems to be coming to an end. With the increasing popularity of dedicated voice chat services like Discord, fewer and fewer people are using in-game voice chat at all. Part of this is simply a matter of quality; in-game communication is becoming less and less of a focus for game creators, in part because they assume most players will be using Discord instead. This difference in quality, with Discord constantly improving while native voice chat falls by the wayside, causes many players to ignore in-game chat even when playing without their Discord friends. This has led to a largely silent playerbase, with most players now being uncomfortable being the first one to turn on their mic. Where before, coming into a lobby in Overwatch would see greetings and banter, now even those games with ungrouped members will see communication only with in-game callouts and occasionally text chat.
High School Never Ends
This lack of voice chat with strangers is a crippling blow to those who already have trouble making friends. Whereas before, even players who played with their friends would be open to a stranger on their team joining their conversation, now those conversations cannot even be heard by others playing with them. This barrier between those already in Discord together and those who are not solidly divides the friends and the friendless, meaning that online games, once the social oasis of the socially-awkward gamer, are now just one more place where they can feel left out. This system of isolated cliques and cut-off loners also causes a lack of empathy for other players in general- very often people will only play with their friends, completely shunning the randomly-grouped players, or “randos”, that they do not already know.
My Own Experience
I can attest to all of these changes personally; as one of the aforementioned socially-awkward gamers, I’ve experienced this shift firsthand. Before these dedicated chat apps came to prominence, entering a conversation with new teammates was as simple as just speaking up or responding to a comment; now, in order to even begin to talk, you have to get past the wall of silence that surrounds a group of friends, or try to get access to their chat server, which few people will offer to strangers. To put it in perspective, it’s the difference between entering a conversation between people sitting next to you on a bus versus getting the people in a car next to you to roll down their windows and have a chat. So next time you and your friends play Halo or Counterstrike, maybe skip Discord and try talking in the game itself. You never know who you might meet.
Web Portal by Stephen Lefkowitz
Project 2, NMD 200 with Jon Ippolito
References:
- https://sourcegaming.info/2017/08/05/video-game-history-voice-chat/
- https://filmora.wondershare.com/audio/best-game-voice-chat-apps.html
Images:
- https://www.fossmint.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Best-Voice-Chat-Apps-Gaming.png
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- https://366gamestoplay.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/alien-front-online.jpg?w=1349&h=1350&crop=1&resize=1000,1001
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- https://global-uploads.webflow.com/5e157548d6f7910beea4e2d6/62a07b53139aec4c1fd07771_discord-logo.png
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