January 16, 2001
FearTheClown

Is online voice chat really such a good idea?

Recently, MS in particular has begun announcing that most of its online games will include an online voice chat, mainly thanks to its broadband only online gaming that it will have. This means that you'll be able to chat with other gamers via a microphone peripheral while playing the game, hopefully lag free. My problem lies in the fact that there are just some people I don't want to actually "hear" bitch and whine.

I, personally, have had a bad experience with games you could talk in such as AFO. Not the whole way the voice chat in AFO sucks but just the fact that some people never stfu. Unfortunately, you'll hear various racial slurs thrown your way and at others. While this may be attractive to KKK members and other racist groups, my family and myself aren't so found of it. It's not the most pleasant experience to be playing a good game only to have your mom walk by and right at the same time some punk 3000 miles away decides to say "fuck" as loudly as he can.

Voice chat brings more problems than it's worth. The cost of the peripheral, the problem that you will probably only play lag free games if you're on broadband (sorry 56kers, that's why Xbox is the first to announce the voice chat since they pledge their loyalty to broadband users only), and hearing people with the most IRRITATING voices ever to grace the earth.

I propose a chatroom ONLY for the voice chat and leave the typing for games because voice chat is cool, especially on consoles, but many comments that are said on voice chat can make playing an online game un-fun. Oh, and like I said before, some people don't know how to STFU!

I reserve the right to only listen to the assholes sitting on my couch playing the game on my TV screen.

Fear The Clown