FFXIV Devs please reconsider voice chat

The game has been out a short time and has several more pressing issues I know, but towards end-game it seems more and more helpful (almost essential) to communicate via voice chat. This shouldn't be done by a program outside of Final Fantasy XIV. Why? Here's an example why: "Hey do you have raidcall so we can talk?" "Hey can you download mumble so we can talk?" "Hey you got skype?" "Hey hop on vent so we can discuss this place" etc etc.

Games like Call of Duty would still be played but wouldn't be a 10th as popular as they are if voice chat didn't exist in them. A buddy of mine was going to quit playing and I finally convinced him to download raidcall so we could talk and he said he had a lot of fun that day.

Skype, Mumble, etc.
They really are not so difficult to use that you can use it as an excuse instead of an option.

Other MMOs have tried making their own ingame voice chat (biggest one being WoW). Nobody ever uses it because the 3rd party alternatives are so much better. It would almost certainly be a waste of development time and money in FFXIV as well.

To be fair with WoW, by the time they brought around their built in voice chat, EVERYONE already had a TS or Vent.

I have to agree though that the time and money would be better spent elsewhere, because, as said, everyone is already using 3rd Party stuff. If it's that much of an issue (because you play on PS3, I'm guessing), get an inexpensive laptop or (if they can use the 3rd party software) tablet and use that.

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Originally Posted by Commander

To be fair with WoW, by the time they brought around their built in voice chat, EVERYONE already had a TS or Vent.

I have to agree though that the time and money would be better spent elsewhere. If it's that much of an issue (because you play on PS3, I'm guessing), get an inexpensive laptop or (if they can use the 3rd party software) tablet and use that.

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Andriod / iPhone works too

I do play on PS3 but that has nothing to do with it at all because I have a laptop sitting inches from me. I also use a keyboard for the PS3 and I type roughly 80-100 WPM. The issue is just how I posted it. End-game requires communication and there isn't enough hands on the human body to type, move, and utilize skills during split second transitions the monsters/bosses make. Everybody has a different voice chat program and in order to speak with everyone we come across, are we really supposed to download all 5 of the popular ones?

It cannot cost that much money to develop or add an existing chat system to the game. How do I know? I know because I'm a gamer and I've seen so many games in the past that have built in voice chat that runs very good and the budget for the entire game isn't that much at all (as far as games go).

Also, I guess I need to be clear on what >I< use since I'm on PS3 and automatically people think that I'm sitting here without a keyboard or laptop to voice chat...I have raidcall, skype, and mumble already. I don't keep all three programs up at the same time and I don't have any desire to download another 2 or 3 programs and constantly switch between them so that I can speak with everybody I come across. You all don't understand that you are paying $11-$15 a month to not have a built in voice chat! Have you all only played MMOs and just assume that this is the norm an what is to be accepted? If we are paying a monthly fee then we should be getting things like voice chat. This is not some futuristic hover-board request, it's the ability to speak to someone via a built-in system in the game. There are free to play games that have voice chat, why not in one that costs us every single month?

With the servers as strained as they are you want to add something that hardly works in other MMOs because of server stress? Mmmm sorry disagree.

i think cod is the worst example of in game voice chat you could use 90% of people use it to harass and trash talk other players, if the game got rid of it, it would do nothing but benefit the game.

I can't stand voice chat programs in general anyway.

The problem with the WoW voice chat was that it had a delay on it, which made it not a good choice for raiding. An MMO that could pull off a lag-free voice network on top of an awesome game would go a long ways, though.

Why people seems so against it?

Even though Voice Chat doesn't play the vital part of the game (And currently there's lot of other stuffs that SE better to work on), it's nice to have a built in-game voice chat, just my opinion.

Harrasment? Trash Talk? Blacklist the person, or just disable Voice chat via settings, and re enable when you play it with friends.

Quote:

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Me: hey let's do voice chat.
Friend A: Sure hop on my TS

Me: hey let's do voice chat.
Friend B: Sure add my skype

Me: hey let's do voice chat.
Friend C: Sure hop on my Mumble

Me: hey let's do voice chat.
Friend D: Sure hop on my Vent

etc

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Call of Duty is a great example of a game that became as popular as it did due to having a good (above average, honestly) voice chat system. The game >IS< all about PVP and so trash talk seems to come about anytime pvp happens. On "Zombies" there is a cooperative aspect and much less trash talking aside from the "elitist" players who can't handle things not going perfectly. You'll always have trolls and elite players and like someone else mentioned... blacklist, mute, squelch, etc is perfect for those people.

I just paid $41 for another 3 months of this game and so I could get that flying mount... I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot more of those flying mounts this whole week...Imagine if a small portion of everyone's $41 was put into a good chat system.

This Game has no Language Server's for a Reason... (only Region Suggestion)
This Game has Auto Translate for a Reason.
If your Playing with your own Group ok use a third Party Program.
Don't even think Dev Team should waste time on this.
Thats my opinion anyway, and my guess is im not alone with it.

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Originally Posted by Commander

To be fair with WoW, by the time they brought around their built in voice chat, EVERYONE already had a TS or Vent.

I have to agree though that the time and money would be better spent elsewhere, because, as said, everyone is already using 3rd Party stuff. If it's that much of an issue (because you play on PS3, I'm guessing), get an inexpensive laptop or (if they can use the 3rd party software) tablet and use that.

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And to be fair, majority of the people playing this game have played WoW at one point or another and are familiar with Vent/Mumble

I like it when companies focus on what they do well, and pass deals with other companies to complement their products.

For instance, I don't ask a car maker to actually build the nav screen or music player that they just implement in the car. It's great when a car maker has good deals with electronics companies however, makes for better connectivity and simplified setups/usability.

So, seeing as how SE for instance is having a hard making an ergonomic interface (who said "way too many clicks"? ah yeah, the same guy who said "who the hell chose to put this option into that menu" xD), I just don't expect them to actually be able to put money and manpower into developing a custom voice chat software. Might I even say I'd be very worried that this custom voice chat would be laggy, you know, considering even Blizzard couldn't do it properly.

We all know how "custom software" turns into (who said "built-in 300ms lag"? ah yeah that guy again... xD). The best they could do, as any video game company, is to license an existing one, and that means a cost ─so it would have to be optional, and cost a fee, or else everyone would pay for a service that only a few use─ and also a probable mess in terms of network architecture ─client with multiple connections to different servers and so on.

Overall, I'm not really sure it would even be cheaper for players ($5 a month for 100 slots is kinda cheap already if you wish to rent a voice chat host server); nor am I convinced it would really be better, performance-wise (different applications with a single purpose are much more suited to working well in such environments, not to mention one acts as a fail safe for the other in terms of communication).

Therefore... I'm just not seeing this happening soon. Even though the feature, in itself, would surely be appreciable. The best of both worlds would probably be an in-game addon from which you could actually control most voice chat clients ─much as we have addons for Logitech keyboards and stuff.

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Originally Posted by AccountBanned

Call of Duty is a great example of a game that became as popular as it did due to having a good (above average, honestly) voice chat system. The game >IS< all about PVP and so trash talk seems to come about anytime pvp happens. On "Zombies" there is a cooperative aspect and much less trash talking aside from the "elitist" players who can't handle things not going perfectly. You'll always have trolls and elite players and like someone else mentioned... blacklist, mute, squelch, etc is perfect for those people.

I just paid $41 for another 3 months of this game and so I could get that flying mount... I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot more of those flying mounts this whole week...Imagine if a small portion of everyone's $41 was put into a good chat system.

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And the voice chat in Call of Duty is the exact reason I do not play the game. Aside from it being a pile of console trash that is. So at least with me two points against using CoD as a shining example of in-game chat.

Borderlands 2 has built in voice chat. Me and my friends never touched it because it was just a bag of fail. Skype was easier to use and much clearer.

The only game I use in-game chat for I think would be L4D and L4D2. And hell I think Valve games are using Skype's CODEC now anyhow so clarity is fantastic.

And as a last point FFXIV has bigger fish to fry then enabling a system, that people are going to demand you use to do ANYTHING in game, that will be nothing more than childish ranting and body noises. Because everyone knows they will only use it for trash talking and no one EVER sets their mic to PTT.

This has "Nope" written all over it. If you're doing some serious end-game content then you're better off doing it with a LS/FC, which would likely mean you have some form of voice chat program anyway. Having voice chat in the game by default would cause a bigger segregation; those who have microphones and those who don't. There's enough discrimination as it is.

An issue I can find your request of a voice chat system is language barriers. I speak mainly for pre-end game. With all the Duty Finder random parties, you might get a player from France, Japan, etc. Whats the point of the system if the language barrier is still there. Also, most FCs that I've seen advertising already have their own mumble or the like.

Just what we need, another thing for people to complain/abuse/harass/ragequit/demandyoutouseorIcry. If it was part of the game everyone and their mother would start asking you to use it because it's already there (and even say "see? devs implemented it because they think that everyone should use it"), even if you don't want to talk/listen to online strangers, or simply can't do it because of physical disabilities or even language barriers.

There's enough drama as it is, and money would be better spent elsewhere.

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Originally Posted by AccountBanned

You all don't understand that you are paying $11-$15 a month to not have a built in voice chat!

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To me, that's a feature, not a problem. I want to enjoy the game, not have to listen to people running their mouths/singing drunkenly/making other noises (which occurs far more often than actual strategy instructions). The more a voice chat option is available, the more people expect you to be on it all the time. No thank you.

Also, with this being an international game, you also then have to deal with trying to understand people who may have heavy accents. I guarantee you it would be faster to just type what you have to say rather than repeat yourself because others cannot understand you.

Call of duty was a bad example the best example would be for me DCUO where you had all types of chat channels League,Group,Instance,Proximity,and you could even make custom chat channels all in a free to play game. The chat did not even lag on ps3. I believe SE should at least look into it seeing as how some of my favorite moments on DC were running raids with random people joking and carrying on while also meeting very cool people and making friendships that carried over to real life.

Right now this game feels very anti social as if I don't use the same program as someone else its very quiet and the only people I can talk to are people I already know.

People just start typing without thinking...

The duty finder is set up to find people that have the same language setting that you do... If a Japanese(J) person has English(E) set and they don't really know English, then that's just one person who is "doing it wrong"

Also, I love the person who says that they don't utilize the voice chat on call of duty and that it's a trash game. You're like my brother who said that the only people who are buying Grand Theft Auto V are "Drug dealers and thugs"....I guess that people throwing in those record first day sales are just the worlds drug dealers an thugs and I guess a HUGE portion of those who play shooters also find that their copy of Call of Duty that they've been basically playing for 7 years is just a trash console game..

We shouldn't have voice chat because people think that another game or another voice chat wasn't good and so this one couldn't possibly be. Thank you for your time.:confused::confused::confused::confused:

Chat is bad enough don't want to even imagine what it would be like with voice.

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Originally Posted by AccountBanned

People just start typing without thinking...

The duty finder is set up to find people that have the same language setting that you do... If a Japanese(J) person has English(E) set and they don't really know English, then that's just one person who is "doing it wrong"

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Actually, the vast majority of people that fall under the "E" tag of the duty finder don't have english as their first language. That means that, while they might be able to write properly and understand and be understood in written english, they might not be so if they spoke or had lo listen it. Heck, as someone said even native speakers can't understand themselves easily when they have different accents, so imagine the chaos if they can't even spell correctly.

I agree with the OP, it sucks not having voice chat

I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to queue up in Duty Finder and then listen to toxic players tell me how much I suck on mic. That is like trying to tell Riot to give LoL voice chat LOL! No. Please SE don't implement a voice chat.

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Originally Posted by Eripha

I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to queue up in Duty Finder and then listen to toxic players tell me how much I suck on mic. That is like trying to tell Riot to give LoL voice chat LOL! No. Please SE don't implement a voice chat.

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Its not that hard to mute people, its just like CoD or any of the online shooters. You mute the people you dont want to hear from.

Use a 3rd party programme, seriously don't waste development time on a feature that only idiots who can't figure out how to work skype/mumble/teamspeak/vent will use.

When I see the people complain all day on the forums or sometimes rude people in the DF. While living in Europe , there is a big chance for having screaming French people on my headset :P. I will pass on a Voice chat function in FFXIV.

WoW put in voicechat. Nobody used it.
LotRO put in voicechat. Nobody used it.

There's no reason in this day and age to have voicechat in an MMO. Nobody is going to reinvent the wheel to come out with a better version of something that already exists outside of the game(vent, mumble, skype, etc).

There are companies like Skype that do this since years (and still have issues from time to time) and you want a game to put together an half assed system? And even if they required money for it to make it decent why should I pay something that is already available for free and better?

No. No. No. Keep it out of the game. Use it, absolutely, but don't integrate it. I chat with friends that aren't playing FFXIV while I do play. Third party options are better and more versatile.

Sorry, but I also see voice chat as being a vehicle for more player abuse and harassment, which far outstrips any actual benefit to FFXIV having an integrated voice chat system. Especially when third-party software already does an adequate job. Sure, you can easily say that "you can easily mute a person", but then, it's extremely easy to fire off a gil-selling report and make a blacklist add, but how many people do you see complaining on the forums about gil-selling spam?

If you're in an LS or a FC focused on end-game raiding, then you should probably already have a preferred program to handle this issue. If you don't, then it's time you communicate that problem with the other members of the group.