Second Life Voice – You either love it or hate it.

I know plenty of people who will tell you that Second Life voice is demonic, that it is single handedly responsible for every bad thing in the world and that it should be banned. Forever. But… most people I know who choose not to use voice (either to listen or to talk)  accept that it is their choice to switch it off and therefore the world is good.

Me? I love Second Life voice. Absolutely love it. I think it makes Second Life so much more convenient, it enables you to get to know people on a more “realistic” level (insofar as you can hear intonation and their reactions to things you have said) and it makes relationships and friendships a whole lot more personal, in my opinion. As well as that, I’m a lazy bastard and if I don’t have to type then I won’t. But anyway….

There is this whole other third group of people… these are the people who choose to leave voice activated and on, thus they can hear people. But then they complain about being able to hear them! What is wrong with you people?! Don’t like it? Turn it off!!!!!

Now I agree that it can be annoying listening to a random and somewhat personal conversation in a store or something just because two people are not capable of going into private voice call. In fact, I personally prefer private call. But in social settings like parties and so on, a group of people might want to…. shock, horror…SPEAK! And there is nothing quite as annoying as people having the audacity to scream at people about using voice.

“I CAN’T HEAR THE DJ BECAUSE YOU ARE ALL ON VOICE!”

Then turn voice off. When you walk into a nightclub in real life, do you demand that people stop talking? Do you bollocks. Some of us are actually capable of listening to music and having a conversation at the same time. Remarkable what evolution can achieve, isn’t it?

Nobody is saying that everyone has to use Second Life voice. Absolutely not. And I’ve heard all sorts of reasons for people preferring not to and that is fine. But while the option is there for people to deactivate it if they do not wish to use it, why bitch? It’s like sims and venues where voice is turned off…I can never fathom why. Surely it should be the user’s choice primarily. Someone once told me that they turn voice off at their club because they don’t want people distracted by voice chats, thus excluding those who have to type. I pointed out that if people wanted to continue voice chats, they would do so in a private call anyway, therefore leaving them still ‘distracted’. “No,” she insisted, “If voice is off at a venue, you cannot use private call either.” That’s bullshit. Private call works anywhere regardless of the voice status of that sim. So if people want to talk, they will anyway. That does not mean you have to listen. But make your mind up. Either turn it off and don’t listen, or leave it on and do listen. But having Second Life voice switched on and then complaining that people are using it is akin to handing out free money and complaining that people are spending it.

Urgh.

Tags: second life voice, second life voice chat, sl voice
Categories: Second Life

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 6:49 pm and is filed under Second Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.